Saturday, September 08, 2018

Distortion, echo, reverb: all available with a little metal box. The Fond du Lac Public Library has added guitar effect pedals to its long list of equipment available for borrowing.

Guitar effect pedals rose to popularity in the 1960s. They attach to an electric guitar and alter the guitar’s sound in specific ways. There are thousands of pedals on the market providing thousands of different effects. The 10 different pedals available at the Fond du Lac Library, including Overdrive, Distortion and Chorus, include several “loopers,” which allow the musician to record a section of music and then play along with it. There are plans to add additional types of pedals to the library’s collection, over time.

Musicians can try any of the 10 pedals at the library’s Idea Studio recording studio. Anyone with a valid library account can check out a pedal for 21 days at the Main Desk at the downtown library.

The library’s list of equipment available for checkout continues to grow. Along with computer projectors, video recorders and e-readers, the library has fun tech toys such as Squishy Circuits, Arduino kits and 3Doodler pens. To review the list, go to fdlpl.org/equipment.