{"id":3865,"date":"2013-04-25T15:24:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T22:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/blog\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2014-04-07T12:16:33","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T19:16:33","slug":"get-great-tone-with-overdrive-and-distortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rolandus.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/25\/get-great-tone-with-overdrive-and-distortion\/","title":{"rendered":"BOSS Your Tone: Overdrive and Distortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overdrive and Distortion: What’s the Difference?<\/h2>\n

What\u2019s the difference between overdrive and distortion? Learn the difference and how to get great tone with either stompbox<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"Get<\/a>

Get Great Tone With OverDrive<\/a> and Distortion<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

As guitar players, what are we all after? What do we struggle to describe, work to attain, but always know when we hear it? And what is all that gear out there for? The answer to all three of these questions is the same: great tone. With so much equipment available today to help in creating tone<\/span>, how do we go about making it do what we want? Let\u2019s take a look at some simple and effective ways to get killer tone with overdrive and distortion.<\/p>\n

The first question is which should you use: an overdrive or distortion? The answer isn\u2019t quite that simple. Like many things in the tone-quest world, there aren\u2019t too many fixed rules here. The real answer is: it depends. Maybe an overdrive is what works for you; maybe it\u2019s a distortion. So the next question is: What\u2019s the difference between an overdrive and distortion?<\/p>\n

Learn how to chain your guitar effects pedals.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"BOSS<\/a>

BOSS OD-1 OverDrive<\/p><\/div>\n

Generally, an overdrive is designed to work and sound like an old tube amp turned up loud. A good overdrive can produce the same overtones and harmonics that an overdriven tube amp produces, hence the name Overdrive. BOSS started the overdrive revolution with the legendary and very collectible OD-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A distortion usually goes beyond the amount of gain and harmonic crunching typical of an overdrive. They tend to get more distorted, are usually (but not always) louder than typical overdrives, and often have multiple gain stages for abnormal amounts of sustain. The BOSS MT-2<\/a>, probably the best selling distortion pedal ever, is a good example of a distortion pedal with those features.\u00a0Now that we know what they are, let\u2019s look at making them do what we want: getting great tone. First, let’s start with overdrive and after you’re finished reading that check out the distortion article.<\/p>\n

Articles:<\/em><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Learn how to get great tone from an OVERDRIVE\u00a0stompbox.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Learn how to get great tone from a DISTORTION stompbox<\/span>.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So there you have it, what is your preference? What do you use to get your tone? Leave us your comments.<\/p>\n

    [jetpack_subscription_form]<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Overdrive and Distortion: What’s the Difference? What\u2019s the difference between overdrive and distortion? Learn the difference and how to get great tone with either stompbox. As guitar players, what are we all after? What do we struggle to describe, work to attain, but always know when we hear it? And what is all that gear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[42],"tags":[25,346,525,67,522,147],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nBOSS Your Tone: Overdrive and Distortion - Roland U.S. Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What\u2019s the difference between an overdrive and distortion? 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