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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → Overdrive vs. distortion?
While looking at effects pedals, I noticed some that were "overdrive" and some that were for "distortion". My amp has overdrive, like most amps do, but what's the difference between these two terms?
Overdrive is the Beautiful sound when a tube amp is played loudly and is pushed beyond the limit of the speaker and creates the sound we have all come to love. Thus the term "Over-driven." (Pearl Jam, Black Crowes, Stevie Ray Vaughn) Distortion is a lot more metallic and is not derived from a "natural" occurrence of an amp being played loudly and creating the overdrive sound. It can be distorted at low volumes without having stressed an amp etc. (Metallica, Slayer, groups of the like)
I don't know for sure that the last 3 groups mentioned don't use tube amps or do I was just referring to the sound of the distortion.
Hope that helps a little.
Thanks that helps. Overdrive is for more of a blues-rock type sound, where distortion is for more of a hard rock-metal sound. I get it 
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → Overdrive vs. distortion?
