Your Gear And You I

Got a new stompbox that you just feel like “curbing”? Guitar feeling “stringy”? Is your new cab painted yellow with the word “taxi” on it? “Fret” no more Because “Your Gear, and You” is here to help. Puns aside article #1 covers one of the most confusing topics for new players, and some veterans alike: Distortion!

So you've decided to take up guitar? Or perhaps you've already been playing for a number of years? Either way if you are looking at this guide look no further for this is the place to be! In todays article we will cover the basics of what is commonly known as “distortion” the act of introducing foreign waveforms into a guitars signal causing that oh-so pleasant sound we have come to know and perhaps even love. There are different type of distortion each with it's own unique elements, some include:

Boost

Clipping

Fuzz

Overdrive

Tube-Overdrive

Gain

Distortion

I have tried to organize these from the least to most “complicated” in terms of signal modification, no worries though I'm not going to go into the science, this is a “Get started” guide, I may write something later if I really feel like it. Now that, that is out of the way.

a. Boost

Boost as the name implies is simply the act of “boosting” the input signal of a guitar, this can be done in a number of different ways including but not limited to: Active pickups, turning the guitars volume up, preamps, and separate boost-pedals. Boosting is not a form of distortion rather it is a precursor, without a high enough input signal distortion would never (as far as this article goes) occur naturally.

b. Clipping

Clipping occurs when an amplifier is unable to amplify a signal any more this creates a waveform that cannot be reproduced by the amplifier, since this signal cannot be reproduced it is “clipped” (imagine a large truck going under a bridge that is too low for it, the top of the truck is “clipped off) and a clipped signal causes... You guessed it, distortion!

c. Fuzz

Fuzz is most likely the simplest of all distortions, a fuzzboxes (as they are colloquially called) artificially causes clipping in the input signal which causes a distorted and somewhat synthetic sound.

Fuzz is typically heard in a lot of 60's music from genres including rock, and blues. Fuzz is also an effect that was relied upon heavily by a certain Hendrix, J. (perhaps you've heard of him?). Fuzz is also quite heavily used in modern rock and metal by a number of stoner rock bands including: Kyuss, Fatso Jettson, and Monster Magnet.

Famous Fuzz Tones Created By: Dallas Arbiter FuzzFace (Dunlop), Seymour Duncan TweakFuzz, Octavia, and the Maestro FZ-1A.

d.Overdrive

Overdrive, the most popular type of distortion found in rock music, it gave birth to an era, and it's echo may well be heard on forever. Poetry aside overdrive is the staple of an incredible list of musicians, it can be obtained naturally (through amplifiers themselves), or through artificial means (stompboxes, and digital reproductions). Overdrive is simply yet another form of clipping it is caused by running amplifiers at super-high volumes adding a certain “bite” to the sound. Overdrive was originally created by “driving” (pumping a high input signal into) a tube amp and causing the amp to clip in an “overly” aggressive fashion.

A common misconception of overdrive is that the amp is actually being damaged because it's being “over”loaded however this is not the case as amplifiers are able to handle the load (clipping anyone?).

Overdrive can be heard in almost any form of music imaginable but it is predominant in: rock, blues, country, and sometimes metal. Listen to music by S.R.V (who used two *TS9s in succession to create one of the worlds “best” tones), The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and nearly every other rock band you can think of!

The TS9 (Tube Screamer) is considered by most people to be the best possible external overdrive unit ever created, do a quick search on any guitar site and you will find wealths of information about this famous little green box.

Famous Overdrive Tones Prduced By: Ibanez TS-9 Tubescreamer, Fender Amplifiers, Orange Amplifiers, VOX Amplifiers, BOSS OD-3

e. Tube-Overdrive

Tube-overdrive is considered to be a special type of overdrive in todays world as more and more tube amps are (slowly) being replaced by inexpensive, low maintenance solid state amplifiers. Tube overdrive is fundamentally the same as regular overdrive with the exception that tube-overdrive equates good tone with high volumes (easily remedied with an attenuator) since the power-amp is being overdriven rather than the preamp (think of that little 10w Solid state amp you got for Christmas). Most people swear by tube tone because the clipping aside from sounding warmer, producing natural harmonics (a separate issue entirely), and introducing a form of *compression into the equation (another entirely seperate issue!).

Compression, to put is simply compression is the act of compressing the input signal so that clipping occurs later (at higher input levels); basically loud sounds seem “normal” while quiet sounds seem “louder”.

f. Gain

Gain, is another way to boost the input signal, however instead of modifying the amount of signal reaching the (for all intensive purposes) the input jack on the amplifier, it modifies the signal level that reaches the actual amplification stage.

(I suggest reading up more on gain, for the purpose of this article I really limited my discussion on it.)

g. Distortion

Finally, the holy grail, the big kahuna, the main course, the rueben sandwich, the.. Rambling aside distortion is what you are reading this article for. Distortion is really a misconception, since it only exists as a concept (sorry, had you going there for a while though huh?) “classic” examples of distortion in reality are just extreme version of overdrive (see why I waited on this one?). Distortion is classically seen as a very thick, heavy, and manly sound emphasizing bass, and treble frequencies... While cutting out the “unimportant” midrange (*one scoop or two?) this leads to that heavy metal sound that makes babies grow beards, and vikings pillage space-villages! For examples of “distortion” listen to bands like: Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth.

Please do not scoop your mids, you liked this article so much that mids will never go below 4... Please?

Famous Distortion Sounds Come From: BOSS MT2 Metalzone, Mesa Amplifiers, Peavy Amplifiers, and ElectroHarmonix Big Muffs.

POSTED: 01/10/2008 - 01:31 pm

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Comments

[pos69sum]

the big muff is a fuzz pedal

[KKarasu]

Well for a brief explanation i guess its cool.
It actually gave me the curiosity to seartch for more info about it.

[Micsunderland3]

Not bad, clarified a few things for me.

[Kayfan]

pos69sum wrote:

the big muff is a fuzz pedal

But it's heard mostly in heavy metal music, compared to say an arbiter

...Just thought I'd justify my classification

[peacemoles]

fith!

[HavokStrife]

Reading through that, and knowing a bit about tone prior to this, I knew the "Distortion" section was gunna end up the way it did. This is a really, really good article. Definately need-to-know stuff for just about any electric player.

I don't know of any famous sounds that come from the Metalzone though. :P Or, maybe just the generic garage band tone.

[mysteryhawk]

Good article, but the grammatical errors and typos make it a little difficult to understand at times.

[Leonheart]

Nice article Kay.

[bortbort]

Nice article

I used to scoop my Mids out all the time I set my eq bass full, treb full, mid zero. I started to play with a new band, the bass player is a sound guy he came over and adjusted the eq on amp and processor, It sounded great. It didnt have the punch it did before but there was an amazing clarity. I asked what he did, he said all I did was roll your highs back and add some mids.

I thought mids????? But hey, I cant argue with the sound coming out of the amp!

[Zypher77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbp9rFtbrF8

[RedFez64]

Examples of which band used which type would be good, old and new. Great article either way

[joshjebl]

no mids??? have we all forgotten nirvana. they changed everything

[Invader Jim]

Excellent article. Looking forward to the next one!

[Darkshade666]

Good article. Brief and good explanation.

[fagelamusgtr]

Very good article. I hope you keep writing these.

[Thrall]

Yeah, on my tube amp I have the highs at about 9 of 12, lows at about 10 of 12, and my mids are at FULL BLAST!!! lol

But this was an excellent article that every electric player should read, even if they already know it.

The grammar was annoying though.

[callum2903]

well done

[IMABBALLPLAYER]

Nice article. It's always nice to understand what causes overdrive, and other sounds coming from your guitar and your amp.

[Td_Nights]

joshjebl wrote:

no mids??? have we all forgotten nirvana. they changed everything

Not really, please elaborate.

[E V H 5150]

I was planning on learning this eventually. Nice brief explanation on things, I was thinking of doing something like this, explaining all the different effects, but you seem to actually know HOW they work, not just WHAT they do.

About the mids... on my Marshall MG I scooped the mids, because they made it sound like crap. It's an MG, what more should I say? I have a Fender Blues Jr. now, and I use the mids a lot more... not an EQ expert, but I like what I sound. I keep mine at about 4 or 5.

I take it you're gonna do another on modulation and delay effects too?

[Nutman69]

nice article. it's always interesting to me to learn about pedals and how they work.

[81gazelle]

my first crack at a tube amp is the one i got my 11yr.old for xmas.It's a vox 15w valvetronix.With only a preamp tube,it really kicks!! I struggle w/ my Fender Princeton Chorus to stay alive in song.The best feature is the dist.that keeps even at low levels.Pre all the way up,master down low.
Do the bigger amps do the same? I'd like to try out an AC30.thoughts,tips,welcome

[utahotc]

81gazelle: The 30w is great,especially for it'sprice.

[zeroyon]

Seems like most pedal designs make the distinction between Overdrive and Distortion based on what type of diode clipping it uses. Most "overdrive" designs have soft clipping diodes in the feedback loops for the transistors or opamps. Most "distortion" designs have hard clipping diodes that pull the signal right to ground.

This isn't the rule, just speaking from what I've seen in schematics.

[Kayfan]

zeroyon wrote:

Seems like most pedal designs make the distinction between Overdrive and Distortion based on what type of diode clipping it uses. Most "overdrive" designs have soft clipping diodes in the feedback loops for the transistors or opamps. Most "distortion" designs have hard clipping diodes that pull the signal right to ground.

This isn't the rule, just speaking from what I've seen in schematics.

damn... where were you when I was writing this?

[EnyoAdonai]

I plug my guitar into my sterio amp which is 180w RMS and has a 5 band equalizer which has a range of -10 through to 10. If I wanted to cancel out all mid tones (for example) would I treat -10 as zero or the true zero as zero?

[qotsa1998]

On some amps, like my crappy one, mids do make a distorted guitar sound aweful. And for your list of famous Distortion pedals, id add the Boss DS-1. Not only is it a good coice for starters, but some famous guitar players like John Frusciante(i think), Steve Vai(modded i think), and Kurt Cobain used em. And when you give examples of famous OD and distortion tones from amps, how could you forget Marshall amps? Marshall and co. made some of the best-sounding amps for distortion and od tones pretty much ever. Marshall had a big part in the defining sound of the sixties, seventies, and even into the 80's, with EVH's Plexi setup. Everyone and there cousin uses Marshall tubes, if they can afford it.

[zeroyon]

Kayfan wrote:

damn... where were you when I was writing this?

Sorry, didn't mean to go into electronics on you. Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion.

[listless]

As a side note, I believe the expression is "for all intents and purposes" not "for all intensive purposes". The latter implies a thoroughness you evidently don't intend.

[ZootCst]

Don't feel bad, even the GC C-lvl cert. doesn't even have that cool bit about the diodes. Well written and fun to read, thanks. I hope you won't mind if I pass this to some of my students.

[Huggy (-.-)]

Kayfan wrote:

But it's heard mostly in heavy metal music, compared to say an arbiter

No its not.
Its mostly heard in everything but heavy metal. Metal bands mostly depend on distortion for their amps.

[Mark-O1987666]

For all intensive purposes

should read

"For all intents and purposes"



Enjoyable read mind

[Abdul Al-Salaam]

Did SRV use the TS9 or did he use the TS808? I thought he used the latter, but perhaps I remember things incorrectly...

zeroyon, you make a young technical person very happy. I don't know many players my age who read schematics or the like. I guess what I'm trying to say ios I'm a bit impressed.

[rojomeansred]

joshjebl wrote:

no mids??? have we all forgotten nirvana. they changed everything

We should all just forget about Nirvana. Kurt is not the guitar god he's made up to be.

Anywhoo, great article, very informative.

[KenG]

The amplifier itself may be protected but it is possible to hurt an amplifier's speakers with overdrive or excessive distortion if the speaker's power ratings aren't significantly higher than the amp's ouput! Square waves (heavy fuzz or clipped waveforms)can heat a voice coil more than cleaner signals as the signal spends more time in the maximum negative or positive regions. Also, overdriving can cause transients (short duration peaks) that are much higher in power than the amps normal output. Either of these can damage a speaker. I once had to pay to recone two Jensens from a 60's Black Faced Fender Twin Reverb when my cheap fuzz pedal ruined them (I was even playing the amp above 5 (no master volume). Of course nowadays amplifiers often have speakers rated much higher in power than the amplifier they are connected to to avoid this.

[joshjebl]

ok to clarify the nirvana comment i am refering to the reaction that music lovers had to nirvana. they were the death of hair bands and shredding leads. no more stadium bands after nirvana (except metalica and guns and roses) i am not refering to his skill only his sound and popularity. most modern rock you hear echos what they did in chords and effects. i'm not a nirvana fan i am just stating what i think has happenned to modern rock

[XKR]

OK, I'm not trying to be a dick, but this article was terrible. You sound like a 16 year old kid that just copied and pasted these "definitions" into a wordpad, complete with even more stereotypical puns and references.

Honestly, to anyone that is not experienced with music, your "definitions" lack any depth and fail to separate or differentiate between the different types of distortions.

[bassetrox]

plus 1

Huggy (-. wrote:

Kayfan wrote:

But it's heard mostly in heavy metal music, compared to say an arbiter


No its not.
Its mostly heard in everything but heavy metal. Metal bands mostly depend on distortion for their amps.

[bassetrox]

the first paragraph amused me, content was ok, though not exactly groundbreaking.

I dont agree with calling the BMP distortion. And where was the mention of marshall along with Orange/Vox/Fender? :s

As someone has already said, the type of clipping is worth mentioning too. I'd have included a graph or two, but then, I'm a geek... :|p

[SurfinWithSatch]

Really good article for anyone new to the world of guitar. Kudos.

[Leedostar]

when i was a guitar greenhorn i picked up a Roland CUBE15 very cheaply off a mate. i never touched the EQ then one day a neighbour dropped in and being the metal head that he is scooped the mids and what i got was the killer sound i had heard in the music i was trying to reproduce. since have upgraded to a 50W Marshall and have never really found the sweet spot on it

[The_Big_A]

Well, this was fairly useful

[rottened23]

never new that

[wozzsta]

all these peep saying it was rubbish or what ever, or bad gramma and stuff.
who cares he/she at least took the time to try and help someone like my self, so lets stop hateing and start loving.

[makuserusukotto]

this thread is full of fail for not mentioning a SINGLE thing about Marshall.

[DOMR28]

Leedostar wrote:

when i was a guitar greenhorn i picked up a Roland CUBE15 very cheaply off a mate. i never touched the EQ then one day a neighbour dropped in and being the metal head that he is scooped the mids and what i got was the killer sound i had heard in the music i was trying to reproduce. since have upgraded to a 50W Marshall and have never really found the sweet spot on it

I picked up a 7 band EQ about a month ago and have solved almost all of my tone shortcomings. Play around a little, you may find it best to run it through the amps loop effects as it is best used post-distortion. for the less informed crowd, most amps over 35 watts have a loop station in the rear of the amp. In an Out jacks, this is what I am referring to.

[Thefallofman]

SRV used TS-808s, not TS-9s. And the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz is hardly a famous fuzz pedal. Nice article, though.

[no. 1 maggot]

qotsa1998 wrote:

On some amps, like my crappy one, mids do make a distorted guitar sound aweful. And for your list of famous Distortion pedals, id add the Boss DS-1. Not only is it a good coice for starters, but some famous guitar players like John Frusciante(i think), Steve Vai(modded i think), and Kurt Cobain used em. And when you give examples of famous OD and distortion tones from amps, how could you forget Marshall amps? Marshall and co. made some of the best-sounding amps for distortion and od tones pretty much ever. Marshall had a big part in the defining sound of the sixties, seventies, and even into the 80's, with EVH's Plexi setup. Everyone and there cousin uses Marshall tubes, if they can afford it.

Ml-2 should be in there instead of the mt-2 i have an ml-2 and my friend has an ml-2 - there is no comparison in the sound. also, to all of you who buy marshall amps, for what it's worth i think they're overestimated and overpriced. to those of you in the market for marshall amps look at roland cubes and peavey valve kings(valve kings have a beautiful sound but steer clear of peavey windsor[shudder]) but the most important thing i can tell you is... dont take my word for it.

[|Guitarhead|]

That was very helpful, thanks very much. =)

[mr_hankey]

You seem to have managed to change one thing into many: clipping, overdrive, distortion and gain are all the same. Fuzz is really just an extreme version of clipping too(square-wave).
The 'famous tones created by' seem pretty random/strange too. For example; in which famous recording can I hear a Tweakfuzz? Since when is the Big Muff a distortion pedal?

That definitely isn't all, but I don't want to have to rewrite the whole article (which is almost needed).

Please, research more before you submit articles; because you're just spreading false information.

[playmetal5150]

rojomeansred wrote:

joshjebl wrote:

no mids??? have we all forgotten nirvana. they changed everything

We should all just forget about Nirvana. Kurt is not the guitar god he's made up to be.

Anywhoo, great article, very informative.

haha woo im not the only person that hates nirvana hurray for you!

[led_zep_00]

When I think Rolling Stones guitar sounds I'd say its more fuzz than overdrive. And I think maybe Marshall ought to be added to your famous overdrives section?

[1339]

led_zep_00 wrote
When I think Rolling Stones guitar sounds I'd say its more fuzz than overdrive. And I think maybe Marshall ought to be added to your famous overdrives section?

My Marshall's distortion pisses me off. I'm buying a nice Line 6 as soon as i have enough money, and then selling this goddamn Marshall stack.

that's what you get for buying a rubbish solid state Marshall

checked, all good

[axe_man]

1339 wrote:
My Marshall's distortion pisses me off. I'm buying a nice Line 6 as soon as i have enough money, and then selling this goddamn Marshall stack.

line 6 amps for the win!!

[shwilly]

What's an attenuator???

[Creative-Noise]

I might not have this 100% but i think i'm right... An attenuator soaks up an adjustable amount of the power your amp puts out... after your amps done amplifying but before the signal hits the speakers. You use it so you can run your amp really hard (for tonal purposes) without breaking your ear drums and pissing off everyone within 100 meters.

[shwilly]

Creative-Noise wrote:

I might not have this 100% but i think i'm right... An attenuator soaks up an adjustable amount of the power your amp puts out... after your amps done amplifying but before the signal hits the speakers. You use it so you can run your amp really hard (for tonal purposes) without breaking your ear drums and pissing off everyone within 100 meters.

Kay, that sounds pretty neat because most high end tube amps only sound good after you crank the volume up to, say, 3 or 4 or something, which is too loud for me.

But anyway, thanks for explaining man, I think I might get one with my new amp. I just found this thing called the THD Hot Plate which seems really popular, probably because it's not an amp mod but a neat little box

[ginotech]

This is terrible. The site would be better if this didn't exist.

[f1sk]

I thought the opposite, I think tube amps are starting to become more popular again, but even if they weren't I don't think I'd trade my mark IV for a solid state.....

[grunge_kid]

haha i love having my low at 7 high at 8 and mids at 4 that gives me beautiful sound..... although i do use a behringer. lol so its nothing crash hot still

[Gundam pilota09]

joshjebl wrote:

no mids??? have we all forgotten nirvana. they changed everything

yes now shut up before anyone remmebers. and i use treble@10 bass@6 mid@8 give a very punchy clear sound just estimates and i vary alot so but i almost always put emphasis on treble so solos stand out better i think the lowest i've ever had my mids was 5

[Gundam pilota09]

1339 wrote:

led_zep_00 wrote
When I think Rolling Stones guitar sounds I'd say its more fuzz than overdrive. And I think maybe Marshall ought to be added to your famous overdrives section?


My Marshall's distortion pisses me off. I'm buying a nice Line 6 as soon as i have enough money, and then selling this goddamn Marshall stack.

you fail at life if your trading in ANY marshal solid state or tube for a line 6. at least get something useful like a Vox and orange or a mesa or randall. line 6 was my first practice amp and its good for maybe a week then you start to get major issues. it is the only amp i can think of that does get dammaged by overdrive. its responds to pedals like shit line six you get convienience but you sacrifice so much the clean sound gets distorted at 3 the distortion channels actually loose volume when you crank the amp up past ten. you sir need to kill yourself i've used bassically every marshall variant even the MGs and every line 6 variant and the wrost marshall beats the best line six.

[phenom1991]

Boss MT2...i wish it wasn't mentioned there. Now more unlucky people will get it. Shit pedal with shit distortion. Really good distortion comes from a overdrive tube amp with overdrive kicked in to get that wonderful bite and attack.

[phenom1991]

*overdriven
*overdrive pedal kicked in.

****in typos

[doomed1]

this artical was very good, and certainly woruld clear up any questions someone might have, and for me it pushed away the slight 'fog' i had about the different levels of distortion

[americablanco]

my mids go down to 0.5!

[vjferrara]

finally i wont have to try and explain the differences to my friends anymore!! i'll just send them here... should've thought of it myself

[SL!!!]

So, i haven't read this yet, but i just had to say, i really like that there are articles about gear like this to help clear up stuff for beginners, and veterans alike. Okay, i'm going to read this now. Haha.

[SL!!!]

Kayfan wrote:

zeroyon wrote:

Seems like most pedal designs make the distinction between Overdrive and Distortion based on what type of diode clipping it uses. Most "overdrive" designs have soft clipping diodes in the feedback loops for the transistors or opamps. Most "distortion" designs have hard clipping diodes that pull the signal right to ground.

This isn't the rule, just speaking from what I've seen in schematics.

damn... where were you when I was writing this?

Haha, yes, i want to learn more about what is actually going on when this stuff is happening. i already knew the thing about hard and soft clipping, but there's more to know, i think you should do another article that goes

Gundam pilota09 wrote:

1339 wrote:

led_zep_00 wrote
When I think Rolling Stones guitar sounds I'd say its more fuzz than overdrive. And I think maybe Marshall ought to be added to your famous overdrives section?


My Marshall's distortion pisses me off. I'm buying a nice Line 6 as soon as i have enough money, and then selling this goddamn Marshall stack.
you fail at life if your trading in ANY marshal solid state or tube for a line 6. at least get something useful like a Vox and orange or a mesa or randall. line 6 was my first practice amp and its good for maybe a week then you start to get major issues. it is the only amp i can think of that does get dammaged by overdrive. its responds to pedals like shit line six you get convienience but you sacrifice so much the clean sound gets distorted at 3 the distortion channels actually loose volume when you crank the amp up past ten. you sir need to kill yourself i've used bassically every marshall variant even the MGs and every line 6 variant and the wrost marshall beats the best line six.

Haha, truth. Line 6 makes nice pedals though. They need to stay away from amps however.

[rhcp_freak]

Alright, the the asshats hating on Nirvana, what the original guy meant about not forgetting about them was that Kurt had his mids dimed.

[insurgentsteve]

my amp doesn't even have a mid... that's how badass it is. lol

[Woogles]

Kayfan wrote:

pos69sum wrote:

the big muff is a fuzz pedal

But it's heard mostly in heavy metal music, compared to say an arbiter

...Just thought I'd justify my classification

It's not used in metal...

[grapedrink]

Dimebag cut his mids, and how badass was his sound?

[grapedrink]

rojomeansred wrote:

joshjebl wrote:

no mids??? have we all forgotten nirvana. they changed everything

We should all just forget about Nirvana. Kurt is not the guitar god he's made up to be.

Anywhoo, great article, very informative.


Who said he was a guitar god? I think you are completely missing what that guy stood for and what he did.

[ValoRhoads]

but i like scooping my mids

[JonasStevens]

Good "article." But, there is a lot of "unnecessary" quotation "marks." Otherwise it was "nice."

[Invader Jim]

Where's Part 2?