Can YOU Tell Fuzz from Overdrive? | Gain Appreciation

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How much difference is there between Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz pedals? We put a selection of the best drive pedals through the scope to find the answer.
Featured Pedals:
Ibanez Tube Screamer - www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_ts9_...
RYRA The Klone - reverb.grsm.io/ryraklone
Revv G3 - imp.i114863.net/mgXxW1
ProCo RAT - imp.i114863.net/QMLM3
Beetronics Vezzpa - www.thomann.de/gb/beetronics_...
EHX Little Big Muff - www.thomann.de/gb/electro_har...
This video contains paid promotion from Gthic Jewelry
#overdrive #distortion #fuzzrock
Time codes:
00:00 - Introduction & Concept
01:10 - Explaining the Oscilloscope
02:29 - Overdrives: Tube Screamer & Klon
06:34 - Distortions: Revv G3 & RAT
09:09 - GTHC sponsor
09:57 - Fuzzes: Vezzpa & Big Muff
12:39 - Conclusion
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Contact - [e-mail]
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Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg
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[@ScienceofLoud]

Get 20% OFF with code 'colin20' at Gthic Jewelry - gthic.com?aff=230 How much difference is there between Overdrive, Distortion, and Fuzz pedals? We put a selection of the best drive pedals through the scope to find the answer. Featured Pedals: Ibanez Tube Screamer - www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_ts9_tube_screamer.htm?offid=1&affid=367 RYRA The Klone - reverb.grsm.io/ryraklone Revv G3 - imp.i114863.net/mgXxW1 ProCo RAT - imp.i114863.net/QMLM3 Beetronics Vezzpa - www.thomann.de/gb/beetronics_vezzpa.htm?offid=1&affid=367 EHX Little Big Muff - www.thomann.de/gb/electro_harmonix_little_bigmuff.htm?offid=1&affid=367 This video contains paid promotion from Gthic Jewelry #overdrive #distortion #fuzz More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/d7b6MY8 Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - [e-mail] ____________________________________________________________________ *Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.* Affiliate Links: Thomann - www.thomann.de/gb/index.html?offid=1&affid=367 Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg Reverb - reverb.grsm.io/csguitars Crimson Luthiery Tools - www.crimsonguitars.com/?ref=csguitars + Discount Code 'CSGUITARS5' for 5% OFF Gthic Jewelry - gthic.com/?aff=230 + Discount Code 'colin20' for 20% OFF Title graphics and logo by: www.studiosmithdesign.co.uk/ Join the discussion at: Facebook - facebook.com/csguitars Instagram - instagram.com/csguitars/ Twitter -twitter.com/CSG_Scotland Music available at: Amazon: amzn.to/2HUdXgV iTunes: apple.co/2JvpCjp Google Play: bit.ly/2KgSzkl Or stream on Spotify: spoti.fi/2HuYPTP ____________________________________________________________________

[@firebald2915]

Your last lick.....takes me back. Strange Kind of Woman - DP Ritchie Blackmore. Did they even have that pedal back then cir.1970's ?

[@Merjia]

Colin has an oscilloscope! Now he’s even more dangerous!

[@jordanpulley4871]

Hey Colin. Could you talk about treble boosters?

[@sparepartsfordeadpeople]

A treble booster into a big muff garantees a classic 80's metal sound...

[@NeilOLoughlin]

Second that request!

[@olliutriainen6992]

A treble booster is a booster which cuts bass at the input level, thus boosting everything else. Cutting the low frequencies from a guitar signal prevents the guitarist from being bludgeoned with a four-stringed object.

[@NeilOLoughlin]

But Colin says it much nicer and now with pretty waveforms!

[@0megalul309]

@@sparepartsfordeadpeople only thing is that classic 80s metal are modded Marshalls and some mesas which are as far as can be from those crappy sounding pedals

[@gruggerduggerhoose]

“Decorate your hand sausages” Colin 2021 lol

[@mikehill3426]

Digging the oscilloscope demonstration. Great job.

[@cupidstunt66]

I'm an electrical engineer by training, and an ameuter guitarist. Excellent explanation of what's really going on. Keep up the great work

[@chadtindale2095]

Definitely earned a comment. This is the exact video I was looking for 2 years ago when trying to define the Distortion in my personal tone.

[@mr.champlinssciencechannel906]

Great job of explaining the differences between the different types of overdrives. The oscilloscope adds a great visual component. Again, well done Colin.

[@KeithShelley1]

Damn, that's a nice o-scope.

[@dutch_urth]

A thing I actually quite with a Big Muff type fuzz is something I saw Josh from JHS demonstrate a few years back, where you run a Muff style fuzz into a tube screamer with the gain turned down, to account for the mid scoop. Sounds really good imo.

[@yurivincentweber]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqPGd6qioaqtopY Here's the video in question, if anyone else was wondering like I was. Gotta say, when the tube screamer kicks in it does sound godly.

[@miklos7503]

Found running my DIY plumes as a clean boost into a muff sounds great as well. Really makes the muff come alive.

[@bigmacdaddy68]

I love me some waveforms. Would love to see a follow up where you show some stacking with other pedals and/or with clean vs dirty amp

[@mcswordfish]

Is the Big Muff an Overdrive or a Fuzz? Is a Tomato a Fruit or a Vegetable? The answer largely depends on whether your an engineer/gardener or a musician/chef. Personally, my favourite thing about the Muff is it let's me apply Fuzz to my Overdriven sound and that seems to work best for me. Now I just need to mod the bastard so I can switch between mid-ducked riffage and mid-boosted solos.

[@dispersemedia]

It would also be interesting to see different amps on the oscilloscope.

[@dutch_urth]

Alright! "I-couldn't-make-it-to-the-premier-because-I-was-having-dinner"-squad go!

[@Plunkcown]

love the oscilloscope demonstration with the Klone, the internet treats that pedal too much like a mysterious holy grail

[@eleazarlaggui9739]

I finally got the peace I've always needed.

[@austinp95]

Always so cleanly discussed and well-rounded information to the topic. Keep it up!!

[@NeilOLoughlin]

Great video. This has made more sense about that a pedal is doing than anything else I have seen. Seeing the waveforms and frequency responses just makes more sense to me.

[@sartajhanspal5604]

Love the explanation of the impact of all the effects on a sin wave. Great video, Colin!

[@ZetaFuzzMachine]

I never really got around buying an oscilloscope to probe my pedals, but just seeing you do it is satisfying enough!, Thanks Colin!!

[@TheStrykerProject]

Very cool video - *love* the oscilloscope visuals! I was surprised to find I hadn't yet subscribed to your channel, but I am now!! 🤘🏻🍻

[@RicCrouch]

Excellent stuff! Great to be able to visualize what these pedals are actually doing to the signal.

[@Lantertronics]

I am so happy to see so much technical detail.

[@ralfhedstrom]

I came for the Deep Purple riff.... :) "Strange kind of women". Amazing how they still makes my head go "PARTY!!!"

[@moliver_xxii]

i love the Gain Appreciation series, i also love the "Sharktooth wave"! i will be using that now when talking about the first order charge/discharge wave, thanks 😀

[@mortin2608]

Very informative, entertaining and stylish 😉 as usual Colin 👍🏻

[@erikvincent5846]

If you want, you can get that gated sound out of the big muff too. On the third transistor stage, there is a 100K resistor going to the base of that transistor that then goes to ground. Reduce it and the Big Muff gates a bit. Usually installing a 100K trim pot in place is a good way to fiddle with "what you like"

[@juliansedor7101]

Very helpful information. I now know how to use an EQ as a tube screamer. surprisingly simple and effective to just copy the EQ from the analyzer.

[@koyzumie]

Great vid, I always wondered what the waveform of pedals looked like. The big muff was just crazy looking

[@anonymus8760]

Nice video to give an overview on this sorta thing! There are some additional things to take into consideration: 1) at what level are the sweeps taken? with our without clipping? 2) to really differentiate between different distortions/drives you have to take a look at the harmonic content that is produced. Different semi conductors produce vastly different harmonic content when driven. While two circuits using different semicoductors can have nearly the same -clean- voicing and frequency response, the results can differ greatly once harmonics are added and distortions is introduced. and I'm not only talking about hard vs soft clipping but the different harmonics introduced by power tubes, jfets, mosfets, bjt etc. 3) looking only at the audible spectrum is usually sufficient when working with purely analog tech, but once you're in the digital domain, frequencies way above the audible range can reflect into the audible signal and introduce modulation that otherwise wouldn't occur. With most gear (especially modern) this isn't really an issue but it has happened.

[@ThunderBassistJay]

Kudos for using a function generator at the input of the pedals! 👌 This makes it a controlled experiment. 😊

[@Fawkes1978]

Hi Colin, Can you include a Boss Blues Driver in a future episode like this. Considering how many people love and use that pedal, detailed info like this is not available for it in a nice and easy to digest video form like yours. Thank you

[@robbaskerville253]

I second this. It has cascading transistors like the fuzz, but cleans up to a subtle overdrive. Would be interesting to see exactly what is happening waveform-wise.

[@Fawkes1978]

@@robbaskerville253 It will be nice to see how the BD-2 waveform compares to the Klon or the Tube Screamer and how the Blues Driver gain and level control affect the signal. Stratocaster neck pickup for sound samples please, Colin!

[@palukens]

Great video. O-Scopes are so much fun.

[@al271987]

This was excellent content, seeing those sonic qualities visualized is super helpful. That said, I thought the LBM had four transistors, not three? Maybe I misunderstood.

[@franpinyol8500]

so many years of tone reports and so many youtube channels and this is (to me) the first objective and well explained overdrive landscape. I guess you can go deeper into it in next videos

[@Furtheronmusic]

Brilliant video thanks Colin

[@GregHu77]

Got you a video idea! Explain how pots switches and electronics work on guitars. Show how you wire coil splits / humbuckers / single coils to pots 5way switches and all that great staff! You are the man for this job! anyway have a great weekend! And keep it loud

[@fredgarvin4482]

He has a video on coil tapping. Might be somewhat what you are looking for.

[@SlowMenThinking]

It's good to see somebody actually measure while demonstrating a pedals like a designer might do. When you look at a fuzz the makeup of the guitar pickup and tone/volume have an extreme effect on how the cct will react just try putting a buffered pedal in front of a fuzz and you will see what I mean, Though for this demo it is beyond the scope of most peoples comprehension. I studied this stuff for years and then worked in the telecoms industry where distortion was the enemy so building a few pedals and breaking the rules of good cct design (especially FUZZ not much to break there though) still does my head in I often understand the theory of why you would do XXX to make sound ZZZ but to change a small value and end up with something totally different like YYY.

[@myto8871]

you have great informative videos, thanks

[@tjstewart9344]

You should explain what the earthquaker spatial deliver does to the guitar signal, and how it works. Love the way you approach these videos!

[@coryroberts5048]

Great stuff as always sir.

[@PooNinja]

6:52 💜🤘🏽REVV Rules 🤘🏽💜

[@SlavaGrigoras]

Very nice video. Thank you!

[@MetalBaller83]

This is a cool one Colin!!!

[@josephsteffen7674]

Can we get a video visualizing the difference between solid state and tube distortion. I’d be interested to see the actual difference visually for something that we’ve been arguing for 40+ years

[@WolfmanAndy]

Quilter does something like that. To explain his amps.

[@mikecampbell5452]

The RYRA Klon clone is a pretty awesome pedal.

[@XenoTravis]

Between learning all this for guitar, then recording technology, higher level techniques and songs, and still keeping track of all my computer science knowledge.... My brain is starting to hurt

[@fajaradi1223]

Is this the consequence of too many headbanging?

[@XenoTravis]

@@fajaradi1223 lol well I do have a small brain tumor (not even kidding learned about it 2 weeks ago) that hurts for a waaay different reason haha

[@use0fweapons]

i remember asking for you do to the rat analysis on the HM2 video. THANK YOU.

[@marclove1159]

I enjoy your videos for the informative content, but I especially love listening to your wonderful accent.

[@monkeyrebirth]

love the ITV 'adverts approaching' warning!

[@christoddheartogold]

Awesome video and explanation, Colin. The scope helps immensely, and seeing that chart of frequency response was cool, too. Two questions: 1) do distortion or fuzz pedals for the bass do things differently, or can you just plug your bass into a distortion pedal and get a good sound, and 2) How did you learn all this stuff? Do you have an electrical engineering degree or something? Your knowledge is seriously impressive...

[@MrLambo0905]

This is my favorite pedal video ever!

[@sfear6]

did you ever modified an overdrive pedal and add an input jack so that you could switch both clean and drive channel then at the same time boosting the drive channel of the amp by using the overdrive pedal? similar to fortin 33 pedal function

[@KurlozMakara16]

9:08 The sponsor sounded like you are doing a rap xD

[@trintdaddylandis]

i recognize that section... crown of thorns by mother love bone/pearl jam (starting at 3:43)

[@isaacramirez3729]

I like the big muff. It's great for bass

[@serinarose5746]

*What is a ground connection in a guitar pedal schematic?* I've seen many schematics with +9v power supply and ground ( and with no -9v power supply ). I read some articles from random websites and some say ground is negative some say ground can be any ( positive or negative ) and some say it is neutral. I've followed guitar schematics but i just don't have a clue where to connect ground. Could you go in depth with reading guitar schematics please? Thank you for taking the time to read this

[@jasonweber7426]

Great video Captain Fashion

[@jp2503]

I would love to see you talk about the earthquaker plumes pedal and it's 3 modes compared to the Klon and the differences.

[@erebus1723]

I would LOVE to see what a pedal Like Stone Deaf's PDF2 does on a scope like this! Damn now I have to buy a scope!!!!

[@johnortega1240]

what equipment and program is that to measure pedals output and gain ???

[@GuyNamedSean]

I wish you had kept the wave display for the particular settings you're demoing on screen during the demo so we can directly get an idea of what each sound would look like. When you showed the Revv swapping between a saw and square and whatever that was when the mids were scooped really got me lost on exactly what was happening to the waveform during the audio examples.

[@Johnny_dell]

Awesome!

[@hearthshinemusic2941]

I wonder how much the waveform changes with a big muff with all controls maxed

[@se7inhand]

Ummm... Thanks Colin. You just made me order an original Rat off Reverb just now. I hope you're happy.

[@UkiMalefu]

No Metal Zone? 🤨 what, were you afraid of blowing up your oscilloscope? 😉

[@paulh1355]

Was really hoping for this aswell

[@Nik930714]

9:29 HAHAHA. I love the Dark Souls joke.

[@JeanMarceaux]

Mildly related, but damn that Vezzpa is a looker. I'd own it for the looks alone.

[@colinmacdonald3931]

Could you do a video like this using overdrives boosting other pedals, or how ever it's done. Pedal into pedal.

[@vicarious_cringe]

Howdy, Colin (or anyone) can you recommend a decent oscilloscope that will not be crazy expensive? I see you are using a Keysight 1052G

[@TheCrimsonIdol987]

I do love decorating my hand sausages.

[@9omargiugiangiugia5]

Is that an oscilloscope with a built-in function generator? Which does Bode plots automatically without you having to take an ungodly amount of amplitude measurements manually???

[@crackedspyglass]

Believe it or not you can boost a big muff with a tubescreamer and it fills in that gap nicely

[@xdoctorblindx]

With the number of times the Colin says "hump," "rat," and "spike" in this video, he is just begging for someone to edit this into something profoundly disturbing...

[@LoveLindqvist]

Make a video on volume/tone pots!

[@SDisonYT]

I’m a simpleton who still prefers the sound of a basic Boss OD1 or BD pedal.

[@SonofTheMorningStar666]

They're great at what they do.

[@helicoid9415]

Would be interested in preamp pedals (such as AMT, Neunaber Neuron, etc.) being a part of this conversation.

[@jjqwer]

Whats the name of that osciloscope?

[@jeronimomartinezfabregas]

Now I'm curious to know what the oscilloscope has to reveal about "all the gaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnn, Slayerrrrrr!!!!"

[@coreyw7934]

Hey Colin, got a TATA for you. On my board I run a few pedals that use true bypass, and when I engage them they make a very loud audible pop. Is this normal, and is there anything to do to quiet the pop when I turn them on?

[@ScienceofLoud]

It is normal, it's got to do with using mechanical switches that aren't designed for an audio purpose that leaves floating voltage on the terminals as the contacts disconnect, then discharging suddenly when reconnecting causing the pop. There are some things you can do with capacitors to prevent the sudden voltage dump if you fancy modding your pedals.

[@coreyw7934]

@@ScienceofLoud most definitely. I'll have to see what could be modded. Thanks!

[@Ianforcements5669]

What happens if you plug one in to the other?

[@geordiedog1749]

Not sure I’ve ever experienced oscilloscope lust before ….. until now.

[@se7inhand]

OK Colin, I need answers. What pickups are in that Goldtop? Don't let me down.

[@therealdavegrohl1098]

Be cool to see the oscilloscope output from different pup types like SC Vs p90, etc, maybe using an ebow for consistency..? Or is it still harmonically too rich to look sensible?

[@rickeymitchell8303]

As of today I I've officially watch this dude turn into a grown man myself included first video of you I seen was when you were hating on EMG pickups way back when

[@wido123123]

Ok, now I want a scope :/

[@ErickC]

Dammit now I wanna listen to Mudhoney.

[@dhvalden]

tone-wood analysis in this way would be amazing.

[@adamfstewart81]

Cool new scope! PS. With the hair cut you look almost like a brown haired Macaulay Culkin

[@Yupppi]

I feel like despite the benefits of data analysis, you should never trust just the data on music related analysis. Like how TS and Klon look _very_ similar on the eq spectrum graph, yet they are so different sounding and reacting in their realm. The oscilloscope definitely takes this analysis to another level. What would be cool might be showing all the graphs of different types on the same screen at the end! As a recap summary!

[@CastToVoid]

My hand sausages couldn't press on the like button fast enough!

[@mickavoidant4780]

Why do overdrive and distortion kill the lows on bass guitar?

[@matydavus1078]

Could be that the pedals are boosting the other frequencies up enough to drown out some of the super low frequencies Human ears are more sensitive to mid range frequencies

[@mcswordfish]

Mathematically, distortion works by adding a shittonne of high frequency harmonics. Once the volume is tamed, this will result in a drop in low-end. Also, guitar pedals will roll off the bass to avoid the tone being too muddy. A 4-string bass onto my guitar amp allows me to channel Lemmy, but a 5-string just descends into farts.

[@mickavoidant4780]

@@mcswordfish That would be why Boss Power Stack has almost nothing below bass mids. It's not the whole answer, though. Even bass distortions kill lows and need a blend knob to bring them back in.

[@3rdStoreyChemist]

@@mickavoidant4780 It's partly psycho-acoustic. Any form of distortion adds harmonics to the signal and as a result the lowest harmonics are perceived as quieter even if they are the same level without the additional harmonics. Partly it's a result of shaping the tone because distorting a signal with all the low end in there results in a mud, so taking lows out means you can use more gain and still hear everything that is going on. For 'deep' low end, you don't want to be adding lots of harmonics, it's just how our ears work.

[@justsomedude5727]

A blend knob helps add the clean lows back in, but i actually like how guitar pedals sometimes cut the lows out on the bass, it makes the effect sound more clear to me.

[@andrewjwilliamson]

I appreciate the dark souls reference.

[@thelonelydirector]

Okay, here's a really dumb question (sorry), but can your hands affect your drive sounds in some way? I cannot get Revv pedals to make a decent sound. Instead they just have this high end piercing gain that I can't reduce by bringing my highs or gain down. I end up using things like the EVH 5150 Pedal but nothing I find makes the nice saturated sound that people like you and Rabea get from the Revvs. Maybe it's because I'm going into a PRS MT-15? I don't know but it seems like I should be able to get a great distortion tone from the Revvs and I just can't.

[@OurFreeReflections]

Are you going into the front of the clean channel with the Revv pedal?

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

Have you tried an EQ after your gain (whether in the chain or the FX loop)? Might allow you to cut out the freqs giving you the issue while keeping everything you like.

[@thelonelydirector]

@@OurFreeReflections Yes. And, to respond to an earlier comment, I'm NOT using an EQ.

[@thelonelydirector]

@@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t Thanks for the response. Nope, not using an EQ. I could give it a try.

[@thelonelydirector]

@@OurFreeReflections Hang on I just watched an Ola video. Is this pedal supposed to go through the effects loop like the Boss Metal Zone? Am I that daft?

[@RJW14]

props for Strange kind of Woman.

[@dontlikeloudmusic]

i tried to understand, and i'll try again

[@sixstringsandthetruth3891]

First vid I've seen from you.......fantastic content. Love this. Instasubsribe and like.

[@captainchaos3053]

Fight ye fer that Klon!

[@davidhollowelljr949]

FOR THE ALGORITHM!

[@armax00]

yeeeeeh, oscilloscope

[@beaarthurmiller]

Discord squad!