Listen closely to bands such as Radiohead, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Primal Scream and it's not long before you can hear the sounds of guitars elongated with a distort and delay from a guitar pedal. An effect added on the fly through a quality guitar pedal can convey all sorts of emotion and take a song and the listener to different places. Like an artist painting a picture, the best guitar pedals are used to colour a guitar's sound, from a very slight seasoning to a total transformation. Guitarists are artists, their instruments are their brushes and a real good guitar pedal can really broaden a guitarist's palette.

Read more on What Guitar Pedals do the Pros use? We list the best guitar pedals around…