Originally Posted by: hunter1801This thread was made in 2005...don't bump old threads[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by: mhowell67Why not?

Is there a time limit on threads?[/QUOTE]No, there's no time limit. Using the Search feature can reveal a treasure trove of information that was posted on questions that are being asked again by new members.

(see below)

[QUOTE=mhowell67]Technically, distortion is any change in the signal as it propagates through the circuit. There is always some distortion, even in a clean tone, because there is no perfectly linear amplifier.

Real over drive is a condition where an amplifier is pushed beyond it's design limit. A pre-amp or power amp is designed to work in a linear range (not perfectly linear) for certain input signal voltage levels. When the input signal is beyond the expected level then the output signal will be distorted due to the circuitry being over driven. In just about any other field of audio this would be a bad thing. We guitarist think it sounds cool. :)

Unlike other audio applications, guitar amps are now designed to distort things on purpose. Much of what we call distortion is really an attempt to emulate a dramatically over driven signal.

Now we have devices (pedals or circuitry built into the amp) that attempt to emulate various stages of over drive and other affects. You can tell that it's not real over drive because the fuzzy tone doesn't change with volume.

Cheers,

Good stuff!

[QUOTE=Lordathestrings] From January, 2007:

Overdrive is what happens when the front end of an amp is fed a signal that is strong enough to saturate one or more of the gain stages. The incoming signal can be clean or already distorted; doesn't matter. The point is, that the level is high enough to cause the amp to distort. Usually, an overdrive pedal pushes a strong, clean signal. The resulting distortion is produced within the amp. If the amp has smooth distortion characteristics, you'll get smooth distortion. If you overdrive a transistor amp that was not designed for 'nice' distortion, it won't sound smooth at all.

Distortion pedals deliver a distorted signal. Yeah, really! The output could be turned down so that it was nowhere near strong enough to overdrive an amp, and the sound would still be distorted. This is useful in situations where you can't crank a tube amp up enough to get it to distort on it's own. Or it can add extra crunch when fed into a cranked amp.

There are differences in the sound of distortion generated in a pedal or in the preamp, and distortion generated in the power stage of a tube amp. A distortion pedal can't generate power-stage distortion without also creating preamp distortion. An overdrive pedal will cause the most sensitive stage of the amp to distort. What stage that is, depends on the amp design and the control settings. Which setup you prefer, depends on what you're playing, and what you want it to sound like.