Thread: Distortion and Overdrive

Originally Posted by skuruza

which is which and what's the difference? i have lately been getting into rock, and i need the cool effect. when i turn the distortion on my amp to the max, it does not sound like the stuff in rock songs...

ok...its sorta subjective but i think i got an accurate description...

there really isnt much between them. theres different ways to arrive at a similar sound in the end.

overdrive, involves more signal i believe, for sustain, or pinch harmonics...its basically turning the gain up to distort and increase the signal

distortion is either an effect to sound like overdrive...or on your amp its probably used to mean 'gain'.

its really hard to describe...but distortion is more heavy rock, and overdrive is more vintage

my boss mega distortion pedal has a distortion control and a gain control. if i want solos, i might have distortion on 4 and gain on 7....or rhythms....equal 4 or 5.

id just say, they are pretty hard to tell apart, but 'distortion' will distort the signal more than overdrive.

hope it helps

Well said. Also, depending on what kind of amp you have, using it straight from the amp usually isn't that good. I mean if you have a high quality amp it is, but I would get some sort of distortion pedal. You can find them at just about any music store that has guitars.

i would agree with rainman, that unless you have an upper price range amplifier, the amp. distortion may not sound that good. There are a variety of pedals you could buy, and its worth going into a music shop and trying out as many as you can.

But because your taste in tone will change, i reconmend saving your penny's and buying a distortion pedal with a few types of distortion, or a distortion AND gain control. that way you can create overdrive AND distortion. 100% of my effects come from this awesome Boss Multi-effect pedal the ME-50...it can easily create tones of much more expensive guitars and all the types of distortion/OD (10-12 if i remember) you could want.

just try to save, cuz you will be limited in ways to improve your amps sound.

hope thats helps too

Overdrive is a power mismatch between amplifier stages. Distortion is any change in the shape of the waveform at the input.

Overdrive creates distortion. What it means literally is over driving the power amp section, resulting in a squared-off wave form - distortion.

Tubes do this elegantly. Solid state does it harshly. Digital signal processors have come very close in emulating tube distortion these past five or ten years. Square waves bring with them rich harmonics and overtones. Tubes tend to produce even harmonics, which sound sweet to our ears.

A very cheap, small tube amp can sound absolutely delicious, but would obviously need sound reinforcement for live situations. One of the best sounding guitar amps I ever had, (and I wish I still had it!,) was a Sears Slivertone from the mid 1960's.