Elite Tone focuses on re-creating classic or vintage effects that are no longer available at the most affordable price possible. This style effect unit is refered to as an "Effect Unit"

Boutique pedals like the Fillmore Thunder are typically handmade, and are mainly distributed online, however they can also be found through a small number of music stores in the Twin Cities Area.

Effects units are electronic devices that affect the sound of an electric or electronic instrument or other audio source. Effects can be used in "real time", during a live performance (typically used with an electric guitar, electronic keyboard, or electric bass), or in post-production, with recorded vocals and instruments. To use an effect in a live performance, the effect is plugged in to the electrical signal path of the instrument. In a post-production setting, the source's auxiliary output is patched into the effect.

Effects can also be used on other instruments or sound sources, like the Rhodes electric piano, acoustic instruments, or drums. While some effect units "color" the sound in a subtle way, others transform the sound in a dramatic fashion.

An effects unit consists of analog or digital circuitry which processes audio signals. In some cases, effects processing circuitry is similar to that found in music synthesizers, as it may include active and passive filters, envelope followers or envelope modifiers, wave-shaping circuits, voltage-controlled oscillators, or digital delays.

Effects units come in several formats, the most common of which are the stomp-box and the rack-mount unit. A "stomp box" (or "pedal") is a small metal or plastic box containing the circuitry which is placed on the floor in front of the musician and connected in line with the patch cord connected to the instrument. The box is typically controlled by one or more foot-pedal on-off switches and it typically contains only one or two effects.

Clean boost or any other "booster"

Amplifies some aspect of the instrument's signal output. Generally used for preventing signal loss through long chains of effects units (pedals) and boosting volume for solos. On stage, guitarists who are switching between rhythm guitar and lead guitar may use a clean boost device to boost the volume of their guitar solos. Most clean boost pedals have an on-off switch that can be operated with the foot and a potentiometer to set the gain level. In cases where guitarists use a booster to get overdrive tones out of a tube amp, the booster can be considered to have a tone-modifying function.

  

Overdrive and distortion

 

Overdrive is a gain (amplification) and distortion obtained by pushing vacuum valves (called "tubes" in the US) to their limits, which creates warm, rich-sounding "soft clipping". If the valve is driven harder, the compression becomes more extreme and the peaks of the waveforms are clipped. This adds additional odd-order harmonics, creating a "dirty" or "gritty" tone. A number of overdrive-style effects do not contain tubes (valves), and thus the effect is simulated by transistors or a computer chip. Distortion created using transistor "clipping" stages behaves far more linearly within their operating regions; when the input voltage falls outside its operating region of the amplifier, the signal is clipped without compression, known as "hard clipping", a sound which has more odd-order harmonics The number of controls on overdrive style pedals ranges from two knobs and an on-off switch on a relatively simple pedal like the FuzzFace to seven knobs, four tone-shaping switches, and two footswitches on a complex pedal such as the Radial Tonebone Classic TriMode distortion pedal.