Effects are usually based on some facet of the human ears abilities to figure out from amplitude and frequency content variations what a sound source is doing. This was critical when the sound source might be a saber toothed tiger and early man knew when to run. Now it is a means for us to express ourselves musically by directly invoking emotion.
AMPLITUDE BASED EFFECTS
based on the instantaneous loudness
of the signal, how it changes, and
how quickly it changes.
Volume control
Tremolo
Auto tremolo
Panning/ping-pong
Gating/repeat percussion
Compression
Expansion
Asymmetric comp/peak compr.
Noise gating
Attack delay
ADSR
Limiting
Auto swell
WAVEFORM DISTORTION EFFECTS
All the generic ways to distort the
waveform that comes from the guitar.
Symmetrical clipping - example Ibanez Tube Screamer
Asymmetrical clipping - example Boss SD-1
Infinite limiting
Half wave rectification
Full wave rectification
Arbitrary waveform generation
FILTER/FREQUENCY RESPONSE EFFECTS
EQ/tone controls
Treble/mid/bass boost
Cabinet simulation
Resonator
Wah
Auto wah
Tremolo-wah
"vibrato"
Phase shifting
TIME DELAY EFFECTS
Revern
Echo
True vibrato
Flanging
Chorus/ADT
Slapback
Reverse echo/reverb
Sampling?
OTHER MISCELLANEOUS EFFECTS
Octave division
Harmony generation
Phase lock tracking
Noise addition
Talk box
Voice tracking (vocoder)
Ring modulation (DSBSC generation)
SSBSC generation
COMMON COMBINATIONS
Leslie
Aphex
Enhancers