Beginner-friendly control help in guitar effects - useful or clutter?

[ToneEG]

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Hi KVR,

I'm the developer of EG Tone, a beginner-focused guitar tone app/plugin project.

One thing I'm trying to get right is built-in contextual help: every knob, effect, switch, and button has a plain-language explanation, so newer players can understand what they are changing instead of just copying presets.

For guitar effects and amp-sim users here, does that kind of always-available control help feel genuinely useful, or does it just become clutter once someone knows the basics?

For context, the free browser tuner is here:
https://egtone.com/en-US/tools/tuner (https://egtone.com/en-US/tools/tuner)

No need to buy anything; I'm mainly trying to sanity-check the UX direction with people who actually use guitar effects and amp sims.

If this is the wrong section, mods please move or remove it.

[ksandvik]

Would just popup windows showing more info be better, and use the standard nomenclature for guitar amp and effect settings, otherwise I'm afraid you end up with very long button labels? Also, remember that many users will be non-English speakers so using standard names might be better and the popup will clarify the parameter definition.

[zerocrossing]

If you put the contextual help in a spot off the main interface, that's generally fine. Arturia does this with their plugin, and it's generally unobtrusive. If you have a popup at the cursor, make sure you have a way to switch it on and off, like a little button that says, "help" or a "?"