explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

[BluesNRock87]

ok so i know there are many different types of distortion, especailly with tube amps.

there is pre amp, power amp, pedal, and some other distortion. i know 1 is sweet, pedal is good, and the others are decent. explain how each one works, which is good, why, and how to get it? thanks a bunch. in fact, anything info about distortion and how it works would help. whats the difference between cranking a tube amp and swithching to the distriotn channell also?

thanks ahead of time guys

 

[seafoamer]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

We're still lookin' into that answer for you. Sit tight!

 

[what?]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

crunch, which is the overdriven speakers, and chunk, which is the power amp. chunk is used alot in nu-metal today. i dont know much else.

 

[some_dude]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

We're still lookin' into that answer for you. Sit tight!

Good answer.

I think I'll leave it at that.

 

[y2stevo]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

As you proboly know tube ovedrive is produced by "driving" the tubes harder to cause the tube essentailly to "clip"producing the distortion, Pre amp gain is usually though to be more "gritty"because the overdrive is produced by driving the preamp tubes hard which is then being amplified by the power tubes,alos its in a preamps natur to be grittier and less smooth than a power tube..Pre amp OD occurs mainly in Master Volume amps where the channel volume and gain are cranked fully but master volume is turned down to managable levels, essentially acting as an attenuator..The Power amp OD is where that smooth articulate overive that everyone seems to be talking about comes from, basically over-driving or saturating the power tube till it distorts, Pedal distortion (if yu mean solid state pedals i cant really help you there because as of yet i dont understand what exactly is done in the circuits to produce the gain) , other tube overdrive pedals like the Mesa V-Twin have pre amp tubes in them to priduce the overdrive, these will usually sound much better or at least less sterile and smoother than the solod state ones as they produce more even order harmonics, thw ones more pleasing to the ear and less sterile sounding(odd order harmonics)

Hope this helped somewhat, John (stratdeluxer) could tell you exactly how pedals work..

Please correct anything i may have mistaken as im quiet tired at the mo..

 

[y2stevo]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Actually these words are usually used to describe the type of sound coming from your amp, Crunch is usually reffered to as the low gain Stevie Ray type sound, That kinda bluesy vibe, at the same time (these things are really hard to explain in words you;d really have to hear it to understand) crunch can bedescribing a much heavier "crunchy" tone (i really cant explain it)

Chunk is more to do with the low end, like a metal type distortion doing some low C# palm mutes..

 

[metal101]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

wow i didnt even think of that i alwas thought it was either overdrive and distortion

 

[korovamilkdud]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Pedals just use diodes instead of tubes, but same concept, you push current through them to make them clip. I found a way to pump more juice through the clipping section of my Blues Driver, and I added more bottom, and wound up with a BD-2 that reminds me of a Soldano Hot Rod. I like.:headbang:

 

[some_dude]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Personally?

Crunch - Speaker distortion.

Chunk - Low Mids - Palm mute a Dual Rectifier, you'll know the chunk when it kicks you in the junk.

Bite - Upper Mids - Play a Marshall. That screaming electric sound you hear, that's bite.

Balls - Bass - Needs to be tight bass, otherwise it's called mud.

Overdrive - The sound a tube amps makes when it's tubes are clipping, but not yet distorting.

Distortion - One step past overdrive.

High Gain Distortion - The buzzy, staticy distortion made by a high gain preamp or distortion pedal

Power Amp Distortion - I can't describe this one very well. Best heard in person.

Fuzz - Extreme distortion. Usually, there's so many different overtone going on it's hard to make out the original sound. Originally, fuzz was cut and/or torn speakers. Then they invented pedals to simulate that sound. Now fuzz is a general term used for extreme gain distortion boxes.

Those are the terms I use most often.

 

[BornToShred]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Overdrive means overdriving an electrical circuit in a way that it ****s up your signal. This can produce some wonderful things...

... such as Crunch, which is a smooth distortion, you know, that semi-clean tone. Doesn't necessarily have anything to do with speaker distortion.

Distortion = Lots of overdrive.

Fuzz is nasty-ass square wave-distortion.

Preamp distortion/overdrive, power-amp distortion and speaker distortion are the results of overdriving different parts of the amp. Namely the preamp stage, the power-amp stage, and the speakers.
The preamp is overdriven by turning up the gain. The power-amp and the speakers can be overdriven by turning up the volume. This is why an amp (especially a tube amp) sounds better at high volume.

Pedal overdrive/distortion refers to the kind of overdrive produced by a pedal. ( :duh: ) Pedal overdrive varies from smooth OD to nasty fuzz.

Chunk, bite, balls etc. are not different kinds of distortion, but rather words that describe different tones.

 

[Jonnylane]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Just thought I'd clear some bs up:

Fuzz 'aint distortion. Ok, it's a type of distortion but it's produced by overloading transistor pairs. Solid state distortion is normally produced by using opposing parallel diodes. Both have the effect of "clipping" (be it hard or soft clipping) the signal (how many of you who used that word actually know what it means?) but to my ears fuzz is not just a high gain distortion, it's very different.

There are also other ways of producing distortion with different diode/transistor arranagments. It just depends on your application.

And tubes are complicated beasts. But they sound great

 

[Artie]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Technically, as it pertains to guitar, all forms of distortion are simply different flavors of the same thing - clipping. So, what is clipping? Its literally the "chopping off" of the top of a waveform.

Here's a sine wave:

Here's that same wave driven to the point of clipping:

In the second image, I enhanced the green line to make it easier to see.
In all these cases, you start with a signal, your guitar, you then apply it to the input of an amplifier stage, whether its a guitar amp, or a pedal. Then, as you increase the input signal, you reach a point where the output section has hit the limits of the power supply. It can't go any higher regardless of how much signal you put in - and "clips".

The manner in which you achieve this clipping, determines the way it sounds, and thus, the adjective used to describe it.

In a tube amp, the electrons flow from a plate, (cathode), through a grid, to a another plate, (anode), through a vacuum, in the form of an "electron cloud" so to speak. Because it is a cloud, it has "soft" clipping characteristics. This is what makes tube clipping so desirable.

In a solid-state amp, the signal flows across a pn juntion, which is basically two chemicals bonded together. The clipping characteristics of transistors is fairly harsh.

In a distortion pedal, the signal is driven across a pair of diodes that go to ground. A diode doesn't "turn-on" electrically until you exceed approximately 600-700 millivolts. (about 300 for older germanium diodes.) As you drive the input signal harder across these diodes, you eventually hit their turn-on threshold, and they route the excess signal to ground - clipping off the top of the waveform, and creating the distorted signal.

Each of these methods has its own tonal characteristics, and pros and cons. The "con" of tube saturation is that it, ideally, must be obtained by overdriving the amplifier, and thus happens only at loud volume. Virtually all overdrive, distortion, and fuzz pedals use slightly different means to achieve this at lower volumes.

A solid-state amp clipping, is simply being destroyed. :evil:
Not desirable.

Hope this wasn't too long-winded.

Edit: Just one quick last thing. The main difference between an overdrive pedal, and a fuzz/distortion pedal, is that in the latter, the actual clipping takes place in the pedal. That clipped signal is then passed on to the amplifier. In an overdrive pedal, the signal is overdriven, or amplified, so that it overpowers the preamp section of the amp. The clipping happens in the amp, but in an input section, so that you still have control over the overall volume.

Two different ways of obtaining the same thing.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

^Nice Artie
And using different diodes also yields very different results, going assymetrical is also quite to try.
Lots of stuff to try with overdrives.

 

[Artie]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

There's some great info on the different diode thing over at Aron Nelson's Stompbox website, click on the "SImple Mods/Tips" link on the left.

 

[Jonnylane]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Excellent explanation artie :cool3:

Note that the graphical example is theoretical. In solid state (and no doubt tube) guitar electronics clipping rarely gives such a "hard" result (because the input is never just a sine wave with guitars!). In reality, a hard clipped waveform would look a bit like a rounded rectangle, and a soft clipped could look more like the original waveform with a rounded-off top. It really depends on the characteristics of the circuit and your clipping method...

Nice one!

 

[seafoamer]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Now all we have to do is get BluesNRock87 back to this thread. After this threads failure the 1st time around, for all we know he could have sold off all his gear & proclaimed all things distorted as the "DEVILS DOING".

 

[sanrafael]

Re: explain to me the diff. types of distortion?

Excellent explanation artie :cool3:

Note that the graphical example is theoretical. In solid state (and no doubt tube) guitar electronics clipping rarely gives such a "hard" result (because the input is never just a sine wave with guitars!). In reality, a hard clipped waveform would look a bit like a rounded rectangle, and a soft clipped could look more like the original waveform with a rounded-off top. It really depends on the characteristics of the circuit and your clipping method...

Nice one!

Especially tube. Tube distortion is considered best because it really is a very rich and subtle process (and not so easy to understand, even for engineers!) The warm sound of a tube amp when played clean is probably low level distortion in the preamp, rather than the output stage. In the preamp, triodes have asymmetrical distortion: the positive and negative halves of the guitar signal are modified in very different ways. A small amount of this kind of distortion adds even harmonics, which seem to have a warm sound. More distortion (perhaps by turning up the volume some with the master volume low) modifies picking transients, but leaves the rest of the note pretty clear. Severe distortion in the preamp pushes the tube into a lower gain region of its operating curve and helps give sustain as the guitar signal decays. Very different from diode clipping! The output stage uses uses pentodes in a symmetrical arrangement, and so this is has its own characateristics. Nonetheless, the sustain effect is still there from altering the bias, and there are complicated efects from the two tubes switching on and off with high overdrive.