system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do guitar pedals work?

I'm teaching myself how to play guitar on an acoustic, but I'm saving up for an electric. I want to know everything about pedals, and how they work with a guitar because I feel like it's necessary. If it helps narrowing it down I'm saving up for either a Fender Strat or Tele. Thank you!
gpt
An electric guitar, as you probably know, uses a magnetic pickup to transform the vibrations of the strings into an electrical signal. This signal is then carried to an amplifier and in turn a speaker (of course there can be PA systems and such but let's keep it simple.)

An effects pedal will take this electric signal and manipulate it in some way. Exactly what the manipulation is will depend on the effect itself. So the pedal could modulate the signal, duplicate it, repeat it, alter the phase, distort it, boost it... basically whatever you want really.