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fuzz vs. overdrive


TCEDDIA

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Originally posted by Thumper

I'll take a stab...


'Fuzz' is a solid-state effects pedal, like a Big Muff.


'Overdrive' comes from a tube amp in which the gain is high, causing the preamp tubes to distort for an 'overdriven' sound.


Anyone else?

 

 

I only consider it to be overdrive when the preamp tubes AND the power tubes are overdriving. Otherwise, you just get a buzzy, weak distortion (most of the time).

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Prefers pedal and processor overdrives over fuzz's. Gets more articulation and warmth. Order of liking for me is heavy/massive overdrive, distortion, then fuzz. Ox has a good point in that qaulity of overdrive matters a lot. How well a given pedal works with an amp, wether its clean or OD/Dist ch can also depend on wether it emphasises odd or even harmonics. Which is why for example Boss pedals to me dont work as well with marshalls as do DOD and Zoom. OD's along with distortions or fuzzs whose harmonics are at odds with what the amp prefers cause tone suck in most cases. Compatable ones however can stack quite nicely into each other for even better tone. Experimentation is often the only way to find which works best with ones amp. Peavey for example seems more friendly to wide range of diff brands then most. Peaveys also sound better imo with a pedal in front of it, then they do just plugged straight into. I find marshall SS amps OD/dist ch the same way, best sound with another pedal in front of em.

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Originally posted by The Ox



I only consider it to be overdrive when the preamp tubes AND the power tubes are overdriving. Otherwise, you just get a buzzy, weak distortion (most of the time).

 

I'm with you on this one Sean. Ummmmm...tube saturation....;)

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Originally posted by Texas Noise Factory

Fuzz generally has a wave form shape that is called square wave. Overdrive is just a small amount of distortion usually caused by tubes or simulated as such..


Fuzz is more..... extreme.

:thu:

Exactly. A lot of people use them interchangebly but infact, they are two seperate things not to be confused with one another.

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Originally posted by Texas Noise Factory

Fuzz generally has a wave form shape that is called square wave.

Almost, but not quite. It's close, though.

 

Right:

 

Overdrive is what you get when tubes are pushed. You get overdrive pedals too: these are either diode distortion pedals aiming to imitate the sound of tube overdrive, or they are boost-type pedals which aim to overdrive your tubes in a specific way. OD creates even-order harmonics, which sound smooth to the ear.

 

"Normal" distortion is diode distortion. It creates odd-order harmonics, which sound harsh to the ear, especially on odd chords. Like tritones. :D

 

Fuzz is diode distortion that causes odd-order harmonics, and clips so much that it almost forms a square-wave pattern. Thus, it almost sounds synthy.

 

To me, fuzz > overdrive > distortion.

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Overdrive = Non-linear distortion

 

Fuzz = Linear distortion

 

Non-linear distortion = "soft" clipping, when the tops of the waveforms are dynamically compressed, slowly leading into clipping.

 

Linear distortion = "hard" clipping, tops of waveforms are clipped without compression.

 

Facts:

 

Vacuum tubes naturally generate even-order harmonics when run clean.

 

Clipping produces either equal even- and odd-order harmonics, or odd-order only, depending on how the circuit is built.

 

ALL preamp distortion is linear, whether tubes or IC's are used for gain. You CANNOT obtain "soft" clipping from a preamp, unless a power tube is used with a dummy load and DI'd out. Preamp tubes in Class A DO generate harmonics, but do not clip softly.

 

The harmonics generated in distortion depend on HOW the circuit is built, AS WELL as what it is built with.

1) A Class A tube power amp will produce more even-order harmonics, but odd-order harmonics are still present. A Class A SS power amp will produce equal amounts of both.

2) A distortion circuit built with an even-order harmonic generator, fed into a diode clipping circuit. If Germanium diodes are used, this becomes a fairly accurate tube overdrive model.

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