Guitar Meets Synth: Getting Started
Turning your guitar into a synth-like instrument opens up a whole new world of sonic possibilities. Whether you're chasing lush ambient pads, quirky electronic leads, or thick, atmospheric textures, the right pedals can transform your six-string into a versatile sound machine.
In 2025, guitarists have access to pedals that replicate classic synth tones, from shimmering octave effects to dynamic envelope filters and expressive modulation tools. This guide will go through the essential pedals, signal chain tips, and tone-shaping techniques you need to achieve convincing synth sounds—all without touching a keyboard.
Understanding Synth-Like Sounds
Before diving into pedals, it's essential to understand what makes a synth sound like… well, a synth. Synth tones are defined by their texture, movement, and ability to occupy space in a mix in ways a typical guitar tone doesn't.
Types of Synth Tones
- Pads: Smooth, sustained sounds that create atmosphere and depth.
- Leads: Bright, cutting tones often used for melodies or solos.
- Arpeggios: Rapidly sequenced notes that give rhythmic and harmonic motion.
- Experimental/FX Textures: Unique, evolving sounds that can be ambient, glitchy, or otherworldly.
Key Characteristics
- Sustain: Notes that hold and evolve over time, unlike standard guitar attacks.
- Modulation: Movement in pitch, tone, or amplitude, often created with LFOs or effects.
- Filter Sweeps: Dynamic changes in frequency content that give "talking" or evolving textures.
- Spatial Effects: Reverb, delay, and other effects that add dimension and depth.
Pedal Types for Synth-Like Guitar Tones
Synth Generators
One of the easiest ways to achieve authentic synth tones is with a dedicated synth pedal. The Electro-Harmonix SYNTH9 is a standout option, offering 9 presets designed to emulate classic synth sounds. Able to generate soaring lead synths, atmospheric pads, and deep, funky synth bass grooves, the SYNTH9 transforms your guitar or bass into a synth machine.
Its polyphonic design allows you to play chords naturally while maintaining the character of the original synth sounds, making it perfect for both live performance and studio experimentation.
For more experimental and otherworldly textures, the Maneco Labs Grone 2 opens up entirely new sonic possibilities. This updated drone synth creates mind-altering soundscapes with multiple layers for dark, epic pads.
You can also blend in white noise through a low-pass filter modeled on the MS-20, shaping cutoff and resonance while using two modulation sources for dynamic control. Its effects section adds a tap-tempo delay (with optional reverse) and a freezable reverb, perfect for creating magical, immersive textures.
Fuzz
Fuzz pedals aren't just for heavy rock or vintage tones—they can be powerful tools for creating synth-like sustain, harmonics, and unique textures. By pushing your signal into saturated, dynamic territory, fuzz pedals can emulate the sustained, evolving qualities often associated with synthesizers.
The Pardner is a delightfully whacky fuzz that can deliver synthy textures. Its core fuzz resonates and warbles, and when paired with the overdriven "Lasso" effects loop, the possibilities for unique sounds multiply. Whether ripping solos, stacking massive chords, or even running drums through it, the Pardner encourages experimentation.
Death By Audio Soundwave Breakdown
The Soundwave Breakdown is a "mystery fuzz octo generator" that pushes fuzz into experimental extremes. Using specially matched transistors turned backwards, it produces everything from screaming fuzz to bleeps, oscillations, and synth-like overtones. Its wide tonal range allows for fuzz, grind, buzz, and synthy sounds.
Octave/Pitch-Shifter
Octave and pitch-shifter pedals are essential for expanding your guitar's harmonic range and creating thick, synth-inspired textures. By layering sub-octaves, detuned signals, or even entirely new pitch layers, these pedals allow a guitar to emulate sounds like multi-stringed instruments and rich, orchestral synth pads.
The EHX POG2 Polyphonic Octave Generator builds on the legacy of the original POG, letting you create shimmering 18-string-like jangles and massive, layered walls of sound. Its attack control allows smooth octave swells, while the second sub-octave adds depth and richness.
A 2-pole resonant low-pass filter with multiple Q modes shapes the tone further, and enhanced detune options refine your sound for lush, synthy textures. With flawless polyphonic tracking, true bypass, and programmable 8-preset memory, the POG2 offers versatility for both studio and live performance.
EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine
For more experimental-inclined players, the Rainbow Machine is a pitch-shifting and harmonizing pedal with an experimental twist. It adds unpredictable pitch bends, shimmering detunes, and reverse-like pitch oscillations that give your guitar a distinctly synth-like character.
You can use it subtly for harmonics or push it to extreme settings for chaotic textures. The Rainbow Machine transforms ordinary guitar lines into vibrant, evolving soundscapes. Its intuitive controls and unique pitch-shifting algorithm make it a favorite among players looking for adventurous, synth-inspired tones.
Modulation
While modulation pedals alone won't fully transform your guitar into a synth, they're a great way to add dynamic movement and evolving textures that make your tone feel alive. Subtle modulation can make pads shimmer, solos wobble, or ambient layers breathe, helping your guitar sit naturally in a synth-inspired soundscape.
The Modulatron is a versatile chorus and vibrato pedal for players who enjoy shaping and experimenting with their sound. Gentle settings create subtle shimmer, while more intense tweaks produce woozy, seasick vibrato or spacey, otherworldly textures. Four knobs, a shape switch, and dual LEDs let you fine-tune depth, speed, and tonal character with precision.
Envelope Filter
Filter pedals are a great tool for guitarists looking to mimic the tonal shaping capabilities of a synthesizer. By dynamically emphasizing or cutting specific frequency ranges, they can create wah-like sweeps, resonant peaks, and evolving textures that add movement and character to your sound.
EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery
Envelope filters respond to your playing dynamics, opening and closing a filter based on how hard you pick. The EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery lets you sweep through frequencies in ways that mimic classic analog synthesizers.
With its switchable modes — Up Sweep, Down Sweep, and Sample & Hold — you can create filter movements that pulse, wobble, or glitch like a modular synth patch. Combine this with a fuzz or octave pedal, and your guitar can blur the line between strings and synths, unlocking a whole new palette of futuristic tones.
Reverb/Delay
Delay and reverb pedals are essential for giving your guitar a synth-like sense of space and atmosphere. By layering echoes, repeats, and reverberant tails, you can create lush ambient pads, enhance sustain, and make single notes or chords evolve over time. These effects are especially effective when paired with fuzz, modulation, or octave pedals.
The NightSky is a revolutionary reverb pedal designed for experimental sound design. It allows you to warp reverb tails with pitch manipulation, synth-like filter sweeps, and harmonic shaping, creating vast, evolving soundscapes from just a few notes.
Features like the Warp Core Reverb, Shimmer, Glimmer, and variable-resonance low-pass filter give you hands-on control over pitch, size, and harmonics, while a step sequencer with glide adds rhythmic movement. NightSky redefines what's possible with reverb, making it a powerful tool for guitarists seeking immersive, synth-inspired tones.
The Bathing Delay is a unique, liminal effect that blends elements of delay, reverb, and phasing into one versatile pedal. It allows precise control over delay time, feedback, filter stages, and modulation, with LFO shapes and envelope options shaping the character of each stage.
With stereo I/O, analog dry-through, presets, expression, and MIDI control, Bathing Delay integrates seamlessly into complex rigs. The result is a delay that evolves, creating textured, ambient layers that can sustain and morph like a synthesizer pad.
Tone-Shaping Techniques
Once you've assembled your pedal setup, the way you shape your tone is just as important as the pedals themselves. Subtle adjustments can make your guitar feel more like a synth, with sustained textures, evolving harmonics, and dynamic movement.
Adjust Gain and EQ
Balancing gain and EQ is crucial for maintaining clarity while adding thickness to your tone. Lower gain settings on fuzz or overdrive pedals can produce smoother, pad-like sustain, while EQ tweaks allow you to emphasize frequencies that mimic synth warmth or cut through a mix like a lead synth line.
Use Volume Swells and Expression Pedals
Volume swells can emulate a synth's attack envelope, letting notes fade in smoothly. Pairing swells with expression pedals to control modulation depth, filter cutoff, or delay/reverb parameters adds a dynamic, evolving quality to your playing.
Experiment with Pedal Stacking
Layering pedals—such as octaves into fuzz, modulation into delay, or reverb into pitch-shifters—can create complex textures that resemble synth pads. Changing the order of pedals in the signal chain can dramatically alter the sound, so don't hesitate to try unconventional setups.
Explore Hybrid Sounds
Combine subtle synth generator tones with effects like modulation, reverb, and delay to craft unique hybrid sounds. Even small tweaks to knob settings can produce entirely new textures, allowing your guitar to occupy sonic spaces usually reserved for keyboards or synths.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, turning your guitar into a synth is all about creative pedal combinations and a willingness to experiment. Stack modulation with pitch effects, blend in filter sweeps, and let delay or reverb shape the space around your sound.
There's no fixed recipe — the magic comes from exploring and finding textures that inspire you. So plug in, twist some knobs, and start sculpting those synth-like tones until your guitar becomes an entirely new instrument.
More Interesting Reads:
Fuzz Pedal Tricks Every Guitarist Should Know
Top 10 Unique and Experimental Guitar Pedals for 2025
The 10 Best Ambient Guitar Pedals of 2025
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*Excludes Strymon, Death By Audio, and EarthQuaker Devices.