Difference between od, dist and fuzz?

[anti-idiot]

To me, if it sounds like a kazoo or it's no good for chords, it's a fuzz. If it sounds like doom, makes you want to get a mullet and play palm mute power chords it's a distortion. If it's kinda civilized and Hank Hill-ish, goes well with snakeskin and big belt buckles it's overdrive.

+1

[frank_p]

To me, if it sounds like a kazoo or it's no good for chords, it's a fuzz. If it sounds like doom, makes you want to get a mullet and play palm mute power chords it's a distortion. If it's kinda civilized and Hank Hill-ish, goes well with snakeskin and big belt buckles it's overdrive.

Put emphasis on KINDA.

[earthtonesaudio]

It gets confusing when you are on a forum like this where people use both the technical/scientific terms and the guitarist slang, sometimes in the same post.

Adding to Pete Moore's post, I would say that overdrive, distortion, and fuzz are ALL distortion.  And that's an objective statement.  If you were to compare output waveform to input waveform, you would say that all types of effects have "distorted" the input signal.

On the other hand, the guitarist slang is highly subjective.  What is called a "fuzz" to one person is a "distortion" to another, etc.  MOST people would put the terms on a continuum like this: clean-overdrive-distortion-fuzz (going from least to most distortion).  There are probably other words like "crunch," "boost," and "grit" in there but I can't help you there. 

Anecdote: I was very disappointed when I first heard a Tube Screamer.  The name just made me think it would be much more distorted and fuzzy than it actually is.  Ever since then I've not trusted the names of pedals.  Listening is the only way to know for sure.

[darron]

i don't think the name talks about the degree of gain... it talks about the quality.

you could say that they are all the same though: because all fuzzes distort and overdrive, all overdrives distort and fuzz, and all distortions fuzz (sort of) and overdrive.



fuzz has full bass before clipping, so it comes out with a 'bigger' sound and a more farty sort of sound. they generally don't palm mute well, and i think are only really good for lead if you want that old-school tone

overdrive distorts but does it in a more clean way, if that makes sense. it sounds as though it evenly sustains all parts of your tone. it doesn't flavour your tone too much. it can still kick in heaps of gain.


distortions overdrive your signal, but shape your tone too. for example a clean electric sounds nothing like heavy metal music until you start using these sort of pedals.

[bipedal]

Been following this thread and nodding (in the affirmative) all the way through the posts.

I think many new guitarists get it in their heads that overdrive/distortion/fuzz are all quite different entities, when it's certainly more complex -- a spectrum -- and it has much to do with 'how' a pedal is used, since pedals are just one link in the chain, as it were.

Example: take something like a Rat or a Tube Screamer, turn the gain/drive all the way down and turn the volume up.  Neither would be adding much "distortion", but they could be "overdriving" an amp.

Turn the drive/gain up on either pedal, and both will create "distortion", though they will be quite different sounds.  So are they overdrives or distortions?

Take it further: is a Tube Screamer marketed as an "overdrive" because it can boost the incoming signal to overdrive whatever follows it (other pedals, an amp), or because some people feel the distortion it creates has the flavor of an overdriven tube amp?

The gear geek in me loves these sorts of conversations.   

- Jay