Fuzz vs Overdrive vs Distortion Explained

Here I explain the differences between Fuzz, Overdrive, Solid State Distortion and Tube Distortion using an Oscilloscope and Spectrum analyser.
I also demonstrate hard clipping and a square wave form.
While often all of these effects are quite similar in some respects there are differences and hopefully in this video I highlight the differences so there is less confusion about what each effect does.
The pedals used in the demonstration are as follows:
DIY Fuzz Pedal (Fuzz Face Based Circuit)
Maxon OD808
Boss DS-1
DIY Tube Distortion Pedal with 2 x 12AX7EH
Hope this video is helpful.
All the best
Paul

[@misterguitargeek]

I need an oscilloscope - I'm certain my playing will look better than it sounds!

[@wileecohagen]

The Guitar Geek me too! Mine disappeared when we moved into my current house. It was a nice scope with its own roller stand. Someone helped themselves to it during the move. My wife and I took in her parents as they were both failing in health. I did inherit some cool,stuff though, so I guess it isn’t all bad. But I need that scope!

[@wileecohagen]

Man that tube distortion really changes the original waveform. The asymmetric clipping is something I didn’t expect. Is the schematic for that available?

[@robcerasuolo9207]

I don't need an oscilloscope to demonstrate that my playing looks better than it sounds. Well, actually, it doesn't look so great, so you can see where I'm setting the bar.

[@chipsterb4946]

One of the funniest comments I’ve ever read! 😝

[@koniistarr]

use corrscope

[@GuskumaRodrigo]

Dude i've been studying electric engineering and I must say you taught me much more than my teachers! Really thanks for explaining these fxs

[@luiseduardomiranda6807]

Hi, mate, so i study civil engineering and it's unrelated do most of the things i've learnt. But i just got curious, do you study how pedals influence the soundwave of your signal? I bet there are more aplications in your field, but it seems a really cool subject! Greetins from a brazilian random dude who comments on random posts hahaha :)

[@brucesmith9144]

If this were an EE course, you would be expected to compute the FFT, Bode plot response of the circuit, calculate its transfer characteristics H(s) including stability analysis, phase and gain margin, calculation of all poles and zeros. Actually, a pretty good exercise come to think of it.

[@somedude4122]

@@brucesmith9144 The depends on the design, bode plots and phase shifts are pretty normal, but stability analysis and gain,phase margins are only applicable to feedback systems.

[@lowgpu1687]

The distortion wave looks very similar to when you put a capacitor in a circuit

[@tacaobh]

I'm an electrical engineer and I agree! Congrats from Brazil! 👏🏽

[@3partsArt]

YES!!! I wonder how many of us fuzz-nuts have been trying to explain the differences we hear between fuzz, distortion and overdrive to our fuzz-innocent buddies - this straight-forward video does the very best job of explaining this that I have yet seen, and I feel like I have the tools to kind of helpfully explain it a bit now. Thank you so much for this video. It’s almost a truism that every guitarist who has a Fuzzface loves the way that circuit behaves as the guitar’s volume is rolled back, and it's so fun to see it on the oscilloscope and the spectrum analyzer. Any guitar player who has one is going to watch that section and jump up and down, "I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!!!" - and you see the pattern in the harmonics with the gain cranked (five and then a space, then five and another space, or counted another way, no sixth harmonic at all, no twelvth harmonic, and so on), and how it changes (the others drop but the sixth and twelvth come in!) - just really exciting!!!! Definitely one of the most fun guitar-related videos I’ve seen in ages. And it’s been out there since 2014, imagine that.

[@GabrielVelasco]

It might be interesting to do exactly the same type of comparison between silicon vs. germanium.

[@Willam_J]

Here’s a good one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKa4f4yiZZqqY5o

[@ecscottindiana]

@@Willam_J cheers for the link!

[@chipsterb4946]

@@Willam_J I was expecting germanium vs. silicon transistors, not diodes. Plus the Klon circuit is fairly unusual in the way it uses diodes.

[@bigbasil1908]

@@chipsterb4946 Whiney bstrd

[@electric.tlacuache]

I have been serching for a video like this literally for years! and I have to say this one is just perfect, as an engeneer I really love this video!

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

Thanks Ruben. I have had a number of people from electronic engineering backgrounds leave comments similar to yours and I really do appreciate it. It is reassuring to know this video is doing exactly what it was intended to do.

[@BlueBenGo]

Paulie, we gotta get you a better microphone buddy.

[@CharlesFerraro]

It’s not the microphone, it’s the room.

[@dissonance7269]

Loved the content bro. Make more videos like this, may be like a Flanger, Phaser or Wah. Cheers.

[@linuxguitarchannel]

Flanger, phaser and wah are basically (modulated) filters (in case of flanger and phaser, their frequency response it driven by an LFO - low frequency oscillator - in case of wah, the frequency response is driven by the pedal movement and in case of auto-wah, the frequency response is driven by the envelope of the signal - basically a rectified and low-pass filtered version of the signal - itself), so for a sine wave (which is the "purest" form of wave, consisting of only a single frequency) they would just cause the amplitude to go up and down. To see what these actually do, the best thing would be to feed white noise into them (because that has all frequencies in it) and then look at the spectrum analysis. A look with an oscilloscope (and sinosoidal input) actually doesn't reveal a lot about what these effects do. You need a wideband signal and a view of the spectrum to see what's actually going on.

[@llll-lk2mm]

7 years old but still explains it clearly. this is relevant.

[@midnightsocean2689]

This vid might be "boring and low production value" to some but it explained the EXACT differences a thousand times better than any other flashy vid I've seen. The scope and graphs REALLY do the trick. I saw it once and will never forget the differences between these effects now. Thank you so much for posting this! I learned more in just a few minutes, than hours with other vids.

[@GeligniteRocker]

Now I can actually see the difference between overdrive and distortion. Thanks for this very interesting video.

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

It is great to hear I helped you out.

[@iblesbosuok]

Now I know how valve (vacuum tube) preamp gives warm-sound. It skews signal. At 12:24 clearly seen that rising a little bit slower than falling. Valve's conductance-increasing sinks faster than its plate's resistor can pull it up again. This phenomenon can achieve in high-voltage low-current condition. Now i know how, thank's to your effort. Your share makes people getting more smart. Cheers from Indonesia.

[@beastworld8109]

Extremely high quality video. The spectrum analyses were fascinating!

[@josephcadoret4200]

One of the most valuable piece of electronic stuff I've seen on this "mojo" subject ! Sir, you nailed it, first class ! 🤩 Cheers from France.

[@mjwal00]

Great video. Love the use of the oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer to show the effects.

For a good sound the ratio of the harmonics are important!

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

+René Merz Absolutely.

[@muzboz]

Great stuff, great to see the oscilloscope and harmonics. Always wanted to know more about the differences between those approaches to overdrive/distortion!

[@terryeaster1]

That tube box sounds killer!!!

[@rolanddube2169]

This is one of the best videos I have seen on the subject. I love the lab scope analysis with the signal. Thanks for the great video!

[@PlanktoniusRex]

Great demo. This also shows why hard clipping of an audio system can blow speakers. Speakers take more time physically to move than a signal like that is telling them to. Depending on the frequency they can stack common signals before they can return to a lower position in the wave and they start to ride up and will destroy themselves. The hard clip is just way too much fast dynamic for them to deal with in the acoustic world. Pushing your speakers beyond their rated wattage is much easier on them than pushing your amps final output stage (causing hard clipping at high watts) beyond its rated output.

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

I have previously heard that overdrive and fuzz are quite similar circuits, whilst distortion is somewhat different. Is this true? It seems counterintuitive. From the tone and these waveforms I would expect distortion and fuzz to be the most similar, with overdrive the odd one out.

[@Broulis_]

Awesome video! Nice explained What Oscilloscope and Spectrum analyser do you use to take your measurements .

[@Delalumiere666]

what is that software for analyzing?

[@christophschuermann6512]

53845714N D3747UW13R3 i am intrested too. Have you found the software in the meantime? Today i use analog discovery2 from digilent.

[@kevmet84]

I liked seeing both the waveform and the harmonic graph for each. It made for an intriguing approach to explaining how the signal is being affected for each scenario. And, it was an excellent refresher for myself. \m/

[@BeyondtheRecord]

dear paul: your contents are great, I find them very usefull and well written. as a small youtuber, tho, I see you are not using your gear at the top: for a better quality of your videos I suggest you stay closer to the camera (whe you are talking on a blue background) so the audio will be better, also you could add some wrintings on the screen with any video editor so that everything is more clear and easy to follow. also try to use the tools youtube gives you to make people jump from one of your videos to another (annotations and such). also you may wanna use screen recorders like OBS or atubecatcher for a better quality overall. sorry if I made some mistakes while writing but I kinda suck at english.thanks fot your great videos, I hope this will help you make them even better! see you :)

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

Beyond the Record Thanks. I will have a look at taking on your suggestions.All the best.

[@PippPriss]

GREAT Video. The best comparison between the different distortion characteristics I have seen so far!

[@juanmartinreborati7928]

Hi Paul! Great video, thanks for sharing! I would love to see the pedals used in conjunction (eg. fuzz into tube overdrive, ss overdrive, etc.) and see how tha wave is affected and to underestand why its souds the way it does. Maybe you already did that. Thanks again!

[@KiR_3d]

Good explanation! Thanx! Paul, are interesting in building analog synth. circuits?

[@nikbivation]

this is golden, thanks!

[@bumblesnowmonster]

Love your tube distortion! Nice. Great demo.

[@andersonpessoa1671]

I'm finding this video years later, it's aged very well, thanks for the excellent explanation 😁👍

[@bigbasil1908]

Interesting. Thanks. Oh and subscribed. I think I probably have well over 2000 subscriptions now but feck YT LOL

[@vladimirdyagilev8946]

Good stuff! Content like this is much needed today!

[@EduardoMartinez-dm5pp]

you just gave me some good ideas in order to calculate the behavior of the pedals. keep on buddy

[@BB1CC666]

Exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you for explaining!

[@RobMods]

Excellent video. Thanks mate! Odd order harmonics, particularly the 5th and 7th are much further from equal temperament tuning than the even order harmonics. I'm guessing that's why devices that accentuate the odd order harmonics sound harsher in mixes, and vice versa. Well that's just my theory anyway... Paul, what is your spectrum analysis software? Cheers.

[@dragondrop7777]

I know to keep my subs a sin wave and now I know why! Thanks for connecting the dots!

[@geraldponce8336]

Pretty much why after 30+ years of playing I have instinctively gravitated towards natural tube overdrive by either pushing the head room of an amp or using undersized speakers. The oscilloscope analysis just confirms what my ears are hearing. Though one of the metal sounds I got was my mid 80s solid state Princeton amp mic'd off my 60w Peavy tube amp. With a hot rails bridge pup installed on my 83 Telecaster. That is something this video didn't analyze is layered soundscapes

[@jul3249]

So if you push the overdrive (which looked pretty square-leaning) effect by alot, like stacking multiple pedals for example, do you eventually end up with the square of a fuzz? How would that translate in term of harmonics? Would even harmonics gradually fade and make room for odd harmonics?

[@_trzn_]

9 year old video that explains the differences between fuzz, overdrive and distoration better than any other video I've watched. The oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer really nail the differences in the three "distoration" effects. Thanks for a great video.

[@test-qk3yu]

A seller at a small music shop grumpily answered me this, when I asked him what's the difference between all these pedals? "Well one distortion goes bzzzzz and the other goes bjjjjjjjj"

[@jimamsden]

So this is all interesting in terms of soft vs/hard and symmetric/asymmetric clipping. Essentially its what harmonics are created (odd or odd and even) and how they are distributed. But a more interesting question is what does it sound like, and how should we use it musically? Soft symmetric clipping will be the last aggressive. Hard and asymmetric clipping will have both even and odd harmonics and will take up a lot of sonic bandwidth, be more complex and will have more intermodulation distortion and sound more aggressive. How it sounds depends on personal preference and what you think fits the song. Generally I find using the minimal amount of distortion (i.e. leaning towards soft/symmetric) that fits the song works best.

[@GhostChamberR3]

Really good video man! This is the first video I see that has an electronic analysis of the signals. Could you make a video where you combine distortion and overdrive pedals?

[@travishaynes1180]

Thanks man , I like how you break it down for us !! Plus the spectrum analysis is extremely helpful !!

[@bjl1000]

i'm thinking that there is more to it. Doesn't overdrive also introduce some sustain, whereas fuzz doesn't?

[@ahmet-balci]

hi man thanks for the video, i have a question, how can i add a distortion toggle switch to an tube preamp overdrive pedal, for example hughes & kettner tube factor. is it possible to a a toggle switch with 2 led diots or diots to the ic in or output of the overdrive section of the pedal?

[@bouipozz]

Nice vid. What is this software - is it a pc based scope you're using? Can you recommend it? Some of them are very appealing prices compared with "real" scopes.

[@LukeHancockMusic]

Cool video man. I would be interested to see what the sound waves look like when combining different distortions, for example if you were to put an overdrive pedal in front of the fuzz (which is something that I often do).

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

When "Would be" audio instructors fail to check their audio, yet push it upon the internets.... Me: Next!

[@kutuplukondansator2662]

Such a great video! It answered a lot of questions that i have. Thanks a lot man!

[@pogchamp7983]

Lavalier microphones exist. Good explanation however!

[@RobFlaxMusic]

This was really cool! I'd love to see the oscilloscope and how the guitar sound looks-because of course each note is more complex than the simple tone generator to start, so it's hard to imagine how the peaks will look. Is there a way to do that?

[@fractal_gate]

This was a very detailed and thorough introduction to distortion! The only thing that can be improved is the sound (of both you and the wave forms). Thanks!

[@Argon908]

I'm just a pathetic amateur in effects building and your video gave me an overall idea of how the waveform is altered by different types of devices, really nice!

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

Thanks. Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone is on a learning curve. It cool to hear I have helped you out.

[@danvibin]

Thank you this video is timeless 🎊🤯 I was looking for something that went into detail just like this a proper tutorial looking forward to watching the rest of your videos

[@limao.jericao]

This video is bizarely exactly what i was looking for. Ty 💪🥰

[@MattyJ]

What's interesting is that these look exactly like what you'd expect them to from just listening to them.

[@redfaust8189]

I wish that I would have found this video years ago!!! So incredibly insightful! I almost fell off my chair when I saw the wave form of the fuzz and the distortion. So many lights went on!

[@Aquatarkus96]

You should use a lav mic instead of the room mic, your voice has a lot of reverb on it in the beginning. It distracts from the great explanation and analysis

[@ecscottindiana]

i would love to see the wave form of a zvex "machine" pedal -- he claims that the machine distorts not the peaks of the waves but the sides of the waves. i'd also love to learn more about how waves change over the duration of a note, from attack through decay, how sustain and compression interact; what "saturation" really means, and how all of the above differs with more than one note played at once verses single notes. ya know, just... everything 😅

[@bardinme171]

Sublime video mate. Thanks!

[@vinigretzky97]

What would you say to those people who insist that the sound of a tube power-amp cannot be replicated by a tube pedal or tube pre-amp alone?

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

When a tube power amp is clipped it does add it own elements but under normal conditions when a tube power amp is not driven to that point it alters eq only which can be replicated pretty easily. So during live performances where the amp is not cranked you could run a tube pedal and a transistor amp.

[@vinigretzky97]

***** What exactly does a tube power amp do differently when it's clipping compared to a small tube that's clipping and then being amplified by a neutral sounding solid-state power-amp? Also, do tubes still color and compress the sound, even when almost no amplification occurs (amp set close to 0)?

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

Vin Power tubes are usually in more complex circuits than preamp tubes in guitar amps. They have feedback circuits and output transformers and generally run in Class B amplification, that all alters the clipped signal in different ways. Also generally 12ax7s are used for preamps which are triodes and they are run in Class A Mode. Triodes tend to clip soft where as most output tubes are tetrodes and pentodes and tend to clip a little harsher.

[@voxpathfinder15r]

Redesign the output section of your transistor amp to use an output transformer and I guarantee you'll notice a big big difference in tone when the power section is being pushed. For the most part, people aren't able to have the power section of their 100 watt amp really push, nobody has in 35+ years. So in reality output tubes are faithfully recreating what the preamp section is doing. In that sense, use a tube based stomp box into a transistor amp, in addition to having it rewired so the power section is using an output transformer - and I don't think anyone could tell the difference between tube or not.

[@jimfromoh8944]

Play a Dirty Little Secret. :)

[@gastonruiz10]

Fantastic video! Thank you!

[@TheOcing6]

Great video. This really puts things into perspective a lot better than I have ever seen

[@michaelcraig9449]

ok.. so you did that.. did not know you were going to..ok...spoke too soon..allrightee then..

[@Dartheomus]

Very good video. Do you have one discussing the tube distortion pedal that you built?

[@groove8787]

Cool explanation dude. Thanks!!!

[@JamesLaFleur]

Very very good video! Thank you very much !

[@douglasweir320]

Great demo. Very useful. Thanks!

[@nickvictor7398]

Your intro is way loud and your video dialog is way low with lots of room tone. Consider a close mic for your dialog.

[@meaninglessabu8231]

sound and video quality of video is poor makes it hard to understand what you are saying

[@nolfred98]

It would be cool to "draw" a wave and listen what tipe of sound would it produce

[@dp271]

Well you could modulate a wave in a way it suits your drawing

[@jrrarglblarg9241]

Exactly what I wanted to learn. Thanks!

[@Thecheater1]

Thank you, awesome work!

[@koolander89]

what oscilloscope hardware module/software and spectrum analyser software did you use?

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

Sound Card Scope.

[@koolander89]

Thanks Pauk

[@AngeloYeo]

This is great! I'm going to do it by myself too ! Thanks!!

[@DesmondsDrums]

Here is a pro audio tip, get a lavaliere mic for your long shots.

[@michaelknight4041]

That was a great sounding fuzz you had there !

[@bassjansson]

This is great, thank you!

[@nichttuntun3364]

Great video. Thank you.

[@Nopp3]

what software and i/o are you using on your laptop?

[@robillardjosh]

Great video, thanks for putting it together.

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

Thanks. Its good to know I helped you out. Cheers.

[@tonio892]

The Bible of distortion. Cheers!

[@roo18207]

Are you using an Oscilloscope and Spectrum Analyser on your computer, or are they hardware? If they are software, where can I download them?

[@PaulGrahamGuitarst]

+Ruaraidh Macfarlane Just search for sound card scope. It will do everything you need.

[@23fm]

great video, helpful for me.

[@pt477]

very interesting stuff .... I guess that it is a thorough analysis of the distribution harmonics. sadness me that I do not know English :((

[@matrixarsmusicworkshop561]

Pt 47 lol

[@stephenhookings1985]

So consider a periodic signal, then we can use a Fourier series rather than a transform because the signal will be band limited. When you look at the spectrum you see pretty much what you would expect. Sine wave -> single frequency Saw wave -> odd and even harmonics of.decreasing amplitude Square -> even harmonics of decreasing amplitude So far nothing too interesting. BUT seeing that tubes cause a hybrid of square and saw plus seem to reduce Gibbs phenomenon (so no overshoots - seems to filter out the higher frequencies) and even a sine has some limited harmonics plus a valves ability to resonate - now a lot of the warmth of valve amps becomes a lot clearer. Thanks for the video - I only recently got a valve amp - I bet those pedals sound even better in the room - KZbin doesn't do a valve amp full justice

[@hoggboyy]

What a brilliantly made video!

[@jonny1251]

Great video. I wish it had better sound tho.

[@worthawatch6981]

Are you going to do more? Reverb, chorus, delay, de-tune, octave, phaser, flanger, envelope, wah, synth, whirli?

[@garymoore1567]

Paul, I read somewhere that Class A tube circuits clip asymmetrically ( which you show in your video) and that Class AB circuits clip symmetrically. Is this true regarding Class AB circuits?

[@isodoubIet]

It's sort of true. Class AB circuits basically cut out symmetric halves of the waveform, amplify them separately, and then combine them. As a result, all asymmetry is lost. This, however, is true only of an ideal class AB design. Real circuits may not separate the two halves perfectly (and this may even be done intentionally) so that asymmetric clipping is still possible in class AB. There's also some crossover distortion which is like the scar from cutting and stitching the waveform back together.

[@chipsterb4946]

You may be confusing a push-pull circuit with “class AB”. There’s a lot of mistaken mumbo jumbo about “class A” on the internet. It has to do with how the tube is biased and the circuit construct, but you can have single-ended class AB and push-pull Class A (at least theoretically).

[@jeffreyyoung2727]

Is that LabView? lmao

[@18lilol]

Great analysis ! You just reminded me back this from University. I liked this signals modulation analysis, and now it has been very helpful to distinguish between pedals before buying. Thanks to you and Fourier !!!

[@mauroariascontreras9284]

this is a pearl, dude! thanks a lot =)

[@xiaotang822]

Thank you, sir!

[@Iggytommy]

nice demo. thanbks

[@Andrey.Balandin]

Paul, Is it possible to make a circuit that produces mostly even-order harmonics? Wouldn't that sound super pleasing? ) Does SS distortion waveform always have rising sawtooth shape and tube distortion falling saw-tooth shape, and can this be altered? Is there a circuit that can make a waveform where the top half is M-shaped and lower half W-shaped? Wonder what that would sound like )) I wish I knew electronics well enough to experiment and make my own distortion effects... I envy you in a good way! And good luck!

[@Earlvis]

I’ve always said overdrive dominates the guitar signal while fuzz rides on the outer edges of the signal.

[@voxpathfinder15r]

Wow, what an informative video about how different components clip in our favorite amps and pedals. I must say I am very surprised by the frequency response of the Maxon OD808 and the shape of the sine signal. It was to my eyes the 'softest' clipping waveform of all the waveforms including the tube pedal - and yet contrary to popular belief where a 'soft' clipping waveform has more even order harmonics - that had all odd order harmonics without a trace of any even - and that's the all time favorite overdrive pedal in history. So I guess this shatters two widely held beliefs, one - that soft clipping creates even order harmonics and two- we don't like odd order harmonics, everyone - or nearly everyone loves the Maxon OD808. Would have loved to have seen a boss SD-1 being analyzed with it's slightly different arrangement of 3 clipping asymmetric clipping. Another funny observation, the maxon od808 has always been described as a 'smoother' breakup where as the boss sd-1 asymmetric overdrive has always been described as more 'rough' - but i bet it has more even order harmonics while the od808 has none.

[@garymoore1567]

Paul, would Class AB power tube distortion produce a similar wave form and frequency response similar to your 12AX7 distortion device?

[@HappyOrangeTheBand]

This was fantastic. I eat this kind of stuff up. Well done mate!