Do Overdrive Pedals and Distortion Pedals Really Do the Same Thing?

[@jcwm01]

I have been playing guitar since 1979 and have heard many explanations dist vs od. This is simply the best and most accurate explanation I have ever heard. Well done brother. Cheers!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

That’s great to know! What else should i tackle?

[@jcwm01]

@@TheGuitarGeek I'll put some thought into it. I think what I liked best about this vid was the quantitative vs qualitative approach to your explanations. Here is what it is doing technically and here is what that means to you as a player. Love that!

[@aidoooh1]

Great video and very well explained. I love the curve ball at the end with the "don't buy one expensive pedal...buy loads of them and if you don't like them sell them and then start an addiction". Bravo.

[@peterszakal]

Thank you Andy! This is Guitar Stuff I Should Know. I never see this innovative visualization coming. You are the first person to explain to me what headroom means. Please do more presentations about fuzz, delay, reverb, compressor, wah, etc. it would be great geeky to see all with the oscilloscope.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Great news! I’m working on more!

[@mateusrodolfo98]

We need more videos with the oscilloscope on other effects! Fantastic job on this excellent video!

[@Riseandfishnish]

This was one of the most helpful videos I've seen. The oscilloscope was exactly what I needed to visualize the sound. Thank you! I love overdrive tones. hard to pick a fav, but right now I've been enjoying The Guess Who. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature riffs are a 10.

[@benjoel6692]

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and owned more pedals than I can remember, and this is by far the best and quickest explanation of distortion vs overdrive I have ever heard. Thank you. Now I'm looking for the fuzz explanation.

[@TroyNaumu808]

Favourite Distortion tone (one of them anyways) "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Boss DS1 / Boss DS-2 ...... Brilliant and informative video as always.

[@davidneily3532]

Wow, your videos have always been fun (please take this as a compliment) but now your videos have shot up immensely in production quality. Love the graphics and the inserted video while doing the A/B comparison. Fantastic job. Content and explanation were so clear and spot on. Thx Andy.

[@gregmock6808]

Brilliant explanation...I just bought the Triumph yesterday and love it. I don't care much for high gain sounds so I'll stick with my old DS1 for a warm distortion...the Blues Driver DS1 and Triumph really cover all the gain I'll ever need. The Triumph has such a useable EQ....the DS 1 I back off the treble and gain to warm it up. Then I use a GE7 EQ as a boost for soloing. I find the Triumph loves strats.

[@Twinhit]

Clean clean clean amp. That is your baseline. Pedals OD Distortion Flanger Phaser Fuzz Chorus Delay Echo plex Compressor EQ Sustainer Wah Spring Reverb Tube Reverb Digital X-pedal Reverb Outboard Tube Preamp Pedal Tone Stack Tone Treble Mid Bass It can get pretty pricey..... Amplifiers Fender Champ (tweed) Deluxe (tweed) '57 Twin (tweed) '59 Bassman '65 Princeton Reverb '65 Deluxe Reverb '65 Super Reverb Twin Reverb Blues Deluxe Blues Deluxe RI Blues Jr Supro Nice Small tube amps Blues King 10 or 12 Delta King 10 or 12 Solid State Roland JC-120 Probably the best solid state foundation for solid state based tone building. Legendary and quite reliable. Use caution when playing font hurt your ears!!!!

[@Peanut_Butter_Jelly_Jam]

This was a great comparison. Was really insightful to se how much they can sound like each other. I do feel that the Overdrive does a better job of sounding like the distortion than vice versa though.

[@tombudinger8504]

Well done mate. THE most helpful explanation. Thank you.

[@rolandk2403]

Thank you for adding some science into this explanation. As a newer guitar player I can never quite get the adjectives used to describe sound clear in my head. This made it understandable.

[@justmehere6094]

Easily the best description of this topic I have seen.

[@Parariddle]

Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter is my favourite today! Phenomenal video and phenomenal t-shirt sir. Easily top 3 online personality content! Will be selling branded guitar geek pedal switchers in the future ha ha

[@nyguezz]

This has been one of most useful video I have ever watched on YT regarding this topic. Currently I have a distortion pedal in low gain to emulate an Overdrive effect and when I want a distorted effect, I engage an EQ pedal in front to push mids, and the result is amazing.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Glad it helped. The eq pedal into a drive is an underused trick

[@jacobholler5534]

The Vandals- "An Idea for a Movie". Andy, this is one of the best distortion vs. overdrive explanation videos I've seen. Great job exploring it without being presumptive, focusing on the sound, and avoiding acting like there are things that everybody should know or do. Great advice on finding your tone as well. Your end of the video club assignment made me listen to a few classic songs to figure out where my idea of a good gain sounds came from. Thanks and keep it up!

[@kevlar_87]

Bueno, this was a great description and demonstration of the unique qualities of the two.

[@marcdaslama]

this is by far the best explenation of the difference between overdrive and distortion! I finally understand it! thanks for that! I'm a absolutly beginner (playing for about 4 month), but I'm totaly in that overdriven sound. I need a sound that I like while I'm practicing. I also have a cheap fuzz pedal that should be like a muff. maybe I'm looking also for an cheap distortion on the used marked.

[@ddazuulada]

Bravo! This is such high quality content 🤌

[@jdkimple]

Fav song with fav guitar distorted tone - Sister Havana by Urge Overkill.

[@scke3717]

Clear concise and actually a great way to (indirectly) promote those Wamplers: good work!

[@Morstad64]

Thanks for this very clear explanation of the difference beteween Distortion and Overdrive!

[@KennethMoyer-t3y]

Well done!

[@guitardave]

Excellent video - I can imagine Mr Wampler himself would enjoy and appreciate this explanation. Best distortion or overdrive tone? Difficult to name just one, but I do love the Soldano SLO crunch and overdrive tones. That raises another question though - is amp gain hard or soft clipping?…

[@allanflippin2453]

Andy, Thanks so much for the fabulous video! I nearly didn't click on it... because I've been "overdriven" on all the overdrive and distortion pedal vids going around. But I'm very glad I clicked on yours. From what other folks had been saying, I got the impression that an "overdrive" pedal did its work by amplifying the signal so that your amp's input stage is driven harder. In other words, the amp distorts, provoked by the pedal. But then why would an overdrive pedal have a "gain" knob? Your video makes it clear, that overdrive and distortion BOTH add distortion/coloration to the sound, but distortion pedals add a more aggressive tone to it. My two amps both have master volume controls, so I can dial in the type of amp distortion I want without wrecking my ears. I never got an overdrive pedal so that's my excuse for not knowing exactly what they do. :)

[@texasbeatdownmusic1636]

I have both,the phenom for my humbucker on my strat and the triumph for the single coils on my strat. I use a wampler mIni plexi drive for a boost for both pedals on guitar solos. Very pleased with the tones I'm getting. Love your channel btw. Happy Holidays!

[@ikestoddard2458]

Beautiful!!! Masterful!! Did you write this yourself? Soft versus hard clipping! Excellent! WITH AN OSCILLOSCOPE?? Perfect! Imaginative! Andy, I have banged on a guitar for 50+ years, and I am a systems engineer by training. You told the truth about the sound the way I would have. Brilliant!! I would show this to any musician who understands and accepts the basic science that music is a bunch of sine waves added together. This explanation belongs in every electric musician’s bible. Boy, is it hard to pick my favorite distorted track, there are so many! Let’s go with AC/DC’s Thunderstruck for now.

[@matzer8846]

"I have banged on a guitar for 50+ years" ... you are a relicing zen master ... Had the same habbit ... but then changed it as being less rude to my axe and put on some power chords and Xm7 lines .,.. But i had to quit since i realized i'm now brutalizing my ears (and everybodys ears near me too) (;-((

[@danz2611]

Brother! This is the single best video ever created to explain the difference between OD and Distortion! Lucid, intelligently presented and scientifically correct. Well Done Andy! My favorite song...Hmmm---tough one, but probably 'Mother Mary/This Kids" from UFO's "Strangers in The Night' live LP from the Late 70's. Pure Gibson PAF through a 'cocked-wah' and Marshall EL 34 tone! Pure Schenker! I'm looking forward to the Fuzz video .

[@goatman3057]

Sampler knocked it out of the ballpark with these 2 pedals, that Triumph is the best OD I ever heard!😊

[@endezeichengrimm]

Sampler?

[@stefpenfield5918]

Great. Perfectly illustrated. My favorite distortion tone is El Hefe's from the NoFX song "Linoleum".

[@jasonalbert9939]

I love the explanation. Can’t wait to to see the fuzz video. Just found a new song Morning After by Path to Midian. Great distortion sound

[@MarsHottentot]

I used to be a distortion guy, but when I found fuzz I never went back. Nowadays, tho I have become a "pre-amp" overdrive fanatic, just in love with all of those different pushed amp tones. Favorite overdriven tone - no particular song but Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion) gets something that is gnarly, rubbery and fat, sounding like his amp is threatening to explode.

[@shman3756]

This is exactly the explanation I've been looking for

[@CmdrMic]

Bloody well marvelous, absolutely capital vid mate. Clearest explanation I have ever witnessed in 40 years. Cheers. 🙏🙏💙🙏🙏

[@StatusRF]

You were able to turn a boring subject for me to a very interesting. Thank you for the info.

[@thomassteiger7169]

Good explanation Andy. I like that you used the scope to visualize the waveform. I can't tell you the song with my favourite distortion because I am listening to so many different styles.

[@moewhocooper]

Hey thanks for the cook video Andy I believe this was worth your time. Very cool iv only been playing guitar for about a year and seeing this not only hearing is really cool.

[@VikrantBhola]

Amazing explanation!!! Great job bro!

[@Buzzel-NL]

Nice video Andy! Big difference between distortion and overdrive to is the amount of compression.... I think. Hard to say which overdrive or distortion sound is my absolute favorite, but Porcupine tree's Arriving somewhere but not here, around 7:19 comes to mind. Contains some wicked guitar rhythm sound!

[@gregmorgan9564]

I need them all! Thanks for binging the geek out in me. Right now it's Crazy Train MXR Distortion +, with those Ge clipping diodes.

[@ErikOosterwal]

10:05 - The two tones are very similar, but the sound from the distortion pedal is highly compressed. For me, too much compression causes "ear fatigue" to happen sooner, especially at higher volumes. I think our hearing wants a mix of loud and soft sounds - something jazz and classical musicians talk about as "letting the music breathe." 🤔🎶

[@joeljezequel]

that oscilloscope is really nice! My favorite distorsion is the G chord à 37" in Van Halen's Meanstreet

[@aljohno72]

Great explanation 👌 Gilmour solo tones

[@danielm2474]

I am still struggling whether I need a distortion for my rig or not. Your explanations however are very helpful to understand the difference between overdrive and distortion. The Wampler Triumph is on my list now. You asked the end of the video club for favourite song with distortion sound on it. At the moment I dig into the sound from John Scofield's A Go Go where a rat is used if Josh is right.

[@ArvidNielsen]

Good stuff, Andy! Too many great guitar tone tunes to mention one. Overdrive and distortion, of course, are great each for various tracks.

[@JWCFB]

Excellent video which showed me the OD is not needed. I really love the guitar tone by a not so known American rock band called Velocity and the song is called Love is Dangerous. You can check it out on KZbin.

[@RileySullivan]

The Boss BD-2 is an overdrive and a distortion. A Rat is an overdrive, a distortion, and a fuzz. Take it from me, I’m a guy commenting on an internet video.

[@MikeLute]

Again what learned! Thx for this really educational and interessting topic!

[@mralgebro]

Love this mathematical analysis. Might even show this to my Algebra class as examples of sine functions.

[@MrUnterhugel]

Great video. Perhaps add spectral analysis to waveform would help.

[@jcf6]

Great video (as usual) ... I've always liked the guitar sound on "A Girl Like You" by The Smithereens ... For a long time, I was just amazed that sound came from a Rickenbacker - because I was judging it by the music video. Years later, I found out that it was a Les Paul into a Marshall. Live and learn.

[@ruckusfitnesd7505]

Great vid CMFT Diana's gone has a great tone well the whole album does

[@drpfrutti]

First things first: Ghost - Dance Macabre. No idea what pedals they use. Andy, thank you for this comprehensive explanation and I hope to see more of this in the future. I've been a couch player for almost 25 years now and I never really cared about my pedals or other equipment. Just recently I discovered my 18 year old me bought a Boss DS-1 and a Nobels Xtreme Distortion, but nothing else *facepalm*. Now I'm simply trying to fill a few gaps in my knowledge and hopefully make more of what I got so far.

[@davetrombetti4240]

I already knew all this stuff but I have to say it’s probably the best explanation I have seen online so far. Great job! I think my favorite distortion tone is a song you probably have never heard. It’s by a band called Mucky Pup and the song is called All’s Good. The song has an almost ZZ Top vibe and I have to say that the guitar tone in ZZ Top’s Rough Boy is pretty equally tied as my favorite.

[@aprilkurtz1589]

Thanks for the explanation, Andy. OD Vs. Distortion had always confused me. Distortion 4ever.

[@DDStudia]

Best and fully explanation ever, thanks

[@Smart-Alex]

Nice job Andy! I have the Triumph and really like it!

[@keithh8661]

Thanks Andy, the (least) I ever heard you not mention Fuzz lol I was waiting 😁 You came across very understanding!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Fuzz needs its own video for sure! Thanks Keith, hope there’s more I can help with in the future

[@bobbrown5212]

Good video Andy!

[@joshuaevans1922]

Killer episode, Andy. Love the explanation and the effort that has gone in to this one. Oh, I nearly forgot: my favorite overdriven tone is probably "Riff Raff" by AC/DC. Love the sound of Angus pushing those Marshalls.

[@craigbragg2842]

Excellent and concise summary of the two effects and how they differ! Favorite OD/DS tone...probably Touch Me, I'm Sick by Mudhoney. Although I am sure that was probably a Big Muff more than anything. But that is technically distortion, anyway.

[@dw7704]

Certainly overlap between the two, and with a variety of options, including pedals & amp settings you can have a variety of sounds available And a lot of fun experimenting And you can get an overdriven sound from an EQ pedal or an envelope filter.

[@LeloCraveiro]

Thank you for this great explanation! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@John_2Much_Coffee]

These are two of the best pedals I have ever heard. But the Phenom Distortion just blows my mind how great it sounds. End of video club. I am sure AC/DC would love the Phenom Distortion too. Cheers from Canada

[@jeffrywhite6008]

Does the phenom cover ac/dc tones at low volume? Cant quite find what Ive been searching for. Have tried lots of miab pedals. Thanks

[@John_2Much_Coffee]

@@jeffrywhite6008 Hi. Hopefully Andy can reply to your question. I have not used this pedal personally. So I can't say how it is at low volume. Maybe someone reading this that owns it will be able to help you. Maybe mention what Amp you use too because pedals do respond to Amps differently sometimes. The pedal is on my short list so if I do buy it I will reply with what I find. Take care

[@jeffrywhite6008]

@@John_2Much_Coffee Thanks. Appreciate ya !

[@zenwarfare70]

Fantastic video !

[@andsoistopped]

Ooooff. Great guitar. Also brilliantly explained. ❤

[@mighty3tesla274]

Best explanation I've found, thank you! I think this will be quite useful in helping me chase down some better tones on my Katana. Alter Bridge's Metalingus for the song. Keep it up!

[@PPanossss]

Hi Andy , great video. It would be interesting to see how the sinewave changes with two overdrives stacked.If it would look and sound closer to distortion.

[@PaulCooksStuff]

Best online guitar personalities of 2022 - MusicRadar poll #5 Andy Ferris Congrats 🥳🔥🎸🎉

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Thank you brother

[@scottybrowndotca]

Absolutely brilliant .. After playing guitar for over 30 years I finally have a clear picture of the difference between the two .. Now .. How do we feel about putting Fuzz on the scope ..?

[@martingalicia36695]

great video!! It's helped me decide whether I should buy both the Phenom and Triumph...I'm going with the Phenom since it can get into OD territory! Thank you. Favorite song: Tool - Tempest for that serious distortion!!!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Glad I could help!

[@yo9103]

Very good job , merci 🇫🇷

[@TroyNaumu808]

How do you get Nirvana DS1 / DS2 tone out of the Phenom?

[@saarangnarayan123]

What a lovely masterclass! Loved the visual cues throughout. Your favourite song with your favourite overdrive or distortion tone on it is a matter of great debate. Mine is perhaps Lamb of God's Ashes of the Wake or Slipknot's The Blister Exists (something about mid-00s heavy tones that just has my heart beating extra fast).

[@cquig2691]

Amazing video

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Thanks for the visit

[@TheMerc1950]

Hurra for audio engineering! I appreciate the use of the oscilloscope! Favorite song tone....man that is tough.. An argument could be made for Siamese Dream fuzz tone. While simple distortion Zeppelin always is nice as well...

[@robertdonosobuchner3129]

Hey Andy, great video! Please show also the difference between other effects. This helps to understand what is going on if you using different effects pedels on your pedal board. I always get inspired by good made effects pedels and I try out to find my sound. I have the super overdrive sd1 pedal from boss on my pedal board and it is always on. It gives a special character to the sounds of my guitar. For lead tones or heavy stuff I use a Trinity distortion and a Carcosa Fuzz pedal, sometimes all together...and my supoctave pedal. I'm using the fuzz pedal behind the distortion pedal, it gives me more flexibility and together they sounding really heavy. Especially if I play my baritone I love the overdrive sound.

[@rolandmengedoth2191]

Depends on the curicut of the Pedal and the used components, means in the electronic of the pedal. Specially if you have symetrical or asymetrical clipping. Or when you want it explain with mathematics, than have to calculate it via Fourier Analysys. Anyway a very good explaination and presentatition.

[@royrobles7423]

I take a bass eq pedal and set the 50 hz all the way negative...leave everything else in the middle...then run my overdrive next in the chain...this allows me to use the output boost to overdrive my overdrive pedal...try it...cause it works awesome

[@jaywong873]

would be awesome if you could show the frequency domain(FFT or wavelet transformed) of these two kinds of sound.

[@wideyxyz2271]

All the way through I was thinking "what about fuzz!" Love your playing Andy (Yes i know i say that a lot ,bro love no homo). To many songs to name a favourite that uses overdrive/distortion but one track i often play is "Bring your loving back here" by Gomez. Thanks for the review. Fuzz next! Ive got a fuzz box and Im going to use it!

[@ErikOosterwal]

Billy Gibbons got some of his iconic ZZ Top tones by running his guitar output through six overdrive pedals before his amp. 🤘😆

[@SFESky]

Seeing those "different types of distortion" due to different circuits was really enlightening. Still seemed quite versatile on the overdrive. Except death metal etc that wants the most evil, biting tone possible I reckon? ^^

[@PooNinja]

I like blending a soft clip into a hard clipper into an amp with lots and lots of headroom.

[@PooNinja]

My favorite tone changes daily but for playing it’s the REVV G3 it’s the gain I’ve been looking for my entire playing career.

[@benbrown7617]

Great video and really helpful as someone that’s trying to understand all this stuff! Thank you! Current fav song Empty promises by Christone kingfish Ingram. 13:46

[@marka3239]

you cant argue with an OSCILLOSCOPE. fantastic

[@BopKitBill]

If the gain of the high gain of the overdrive or the distorting gain of the distortion is below the gain of the distorting overdrive or the overdriving distortion of the overdrive then the sound will be good.

[@michaelsandoval15]

Where did you get that shirt?…love it and want it!

[@mikewick77]

like both of them.

[@jimmy5634]

I wish someone would make a an analog pedal like the Triumph whereby you could “program” up to 3 settings. That’s all guitarists need 90% of the time. Are you listening Brian Wampler?

[@andybungert]

Soooooo I need that shirt! Where'd ya get that?

[@JackieSunshineOmega]

One thing I discovered is distortion pedals sound terrible in mini amps. Too trebley unlike an OD which still retains its "roundness" even if small practice amps.

[@tonybroken6353]

i find turning the gain down on my distortion pedal gives me a good classic rock/blues sound, not much different to the natural overdrive, depends what you play mostly, i guess having both pedals gives more options.

[@Skypor]

Hey how about a pedal like the Boss OS-2 OD/DS, where you can go across the range of OD to DS? Oh and I really like the tone Nuno got on 'Decadence Dance'!

[@gcensing6351]

Is that a Rick Beato signature model on the wall behind you?

[@TheGuitarGeek]

No, that’s the Ferris Blue that I collaborated on with Harley Benton

[@robertavila1863]

7:56 ftw!

[@leehenderson8132]

Nerd ville.if your in a conversation with an electrician this is usable. I go by my ears.as a guitar player it should be natural. But great indept review.but really does rhis matter.

[@oldguydave7355]

💯 times like on this video! Too many songs to name. :)

[@theroadrunners7703]

Thanks wonderful video. April Wine's Just between you and me. (for one)