GT Rack Effect Module Types

Rack Effect Categories

Truth be told, we're a bit loose with how we group our modules into effect categories.  Sometimes we group them by how similar the circuits are, regardless of how dissimilar they may sound.  Other times it is more a matter of how something is used.  It may be a boost part of the time, or a slight adjustment of a knob may make it an overdrive or distortion.  The result is that you might need to look in different categories to find a particular effect.  This is mostly true for Amp Sim, Boost, Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz effects.  Other categories such as Phaser, Routing, and Flanger are more predictable.  A few modules are listed in more than one category because they provide more than one type of effect.  We even made up some categories.  Anyway, it's a little quirky and you might need to look around a bit, but that's how it is.

Many Effects Have Very Similar Circuits

The variations on Big Muff Pi, Bluesbreaker, Tube Screamer, Fuzzface, Tonebender, and a couple of other circuits probably account for nearly half the effects ever released.  Most players probably don't dig deeply enough into the technical details to know that.  While some of those variants may sound very similar, others may sound quite different.  In those cases it may be surprising to find out that two effects that sound quite different have nearly identical circuits.  We believe this is potentially useful information, though.  If you are "almost happy" with some effect but there is something about it you don't quite like and you're thinking of replacing it, you might want to look at other effects that are very similar and see if one of those variants addresses what you don't like.  That's one of the main reasons there are so many variants and similar effects.  Builders will take generally good designs and tweak them to address problems or preferences that players might have, yielding an updated effect that works better for some players.  Or worse for others!

Our Rack Effect Modules Have Different Configurations for Technically Similar Effects

At GT, if we can build two different effects on the same board, they are handled as different configurations of the same module.  That's why you won't see many modules listed in some categories.  You may instead see numerous configurations of those few modules.  Each module may have 6 to 12 to 20 or more different configurations that correspond to particular effects you may know.  If you are looking for a specific effect, if may be easier to use Search, or go to the Compares To page.  There you will find a mapping of well-known effect pedal names to our module names and configurations.  The pages for the individual modules have details about all the configurations available for the module and which effect pedal(s) those configurations compare to.