Overdrive & Distortion Pedals

Finding the right overdrive/distortion pedal is the key to unlocking your unique voice as a guitarist. The term ‘overdrive’ comes from players in the 50s turning up their amps louder than the amp could handle. This overdrove the valves and created a rich, saturated guitar tone. Since then, overdrive has become the definitive sound of the electric guitar. The only trouble, however, was that turning amps like this was very loud. Overdrive and distortion pedals, then, allow you to capture this sound in a more user-friendly way.

We refer to the amount of overdrive something has as ‘gain’. Overdrive and distortion is pretty much the same effect, except distortion is higher gain than overdrive. This means it is suited to hard rock, punk, and metal. Famous distortion pedals include the Boss DS1 - as played by Kurt Cobain and Steve Vai - and the ProCo Rat - rocked by Blur’s Graham Coxon and The police’s Andy Summers.

There is a huge number of overdrive pedals on the market these days. This allows players to be extremely particular about their tone. In truth, there is a relatively small number of overdrive circuits and most other pedals are either a copy or embellishment. The circuits that reign supreme in overdrive mythology are the Tube Screamer and the Klon. With original units going for thousands of pounds, it’s easy to see why players prefer modern replicas!

What Makes Overdrive and Distortion Pedals Different?