Arguably the most popular effects pedal, there’s no shortage of overdrive and distortion options available on the market today. Let's break down what each type of drive sounds like so you can buy the best one to suit your playing style.
Ultimate Guide to
Overdrive & Distortion Pedals
What Are Overdrive & Distortion Pedals?
Gain, grittiness, saturation... overdrive and distortion pedals make your guitar sing by imitating the overdriven valves of a guitar amplifier. Overdrive is a defining part of guitar-centric music. It's a great way to bring fullness, character and most often aggression to your guitar sound. Tapping into that power in pedal form makes your sound that much more customisable and unique.
The secondary role an overdrive plays is to boost your signal and increase the overall volume and output from your amplifier. This is why overdrive pedals are sometimes used to bump up lead melodies and solos, to help cut through a band mix when playing live.
Most overdrive or distortion pedals actually derive from only a handful of circuits. The difference between them is that pedal makers, over the years, have modified the classic stompboxes to put their own twist on the sound. Let's highlight the key pedals that have inspired so many guitar-driven songs and break down their tonal characteristics so that you can find the right flavour of gain for you.
Overdrive & Distortion Pedals
What Does An Overdrive or Distortion Pedal Sound Like?
Overdrive pedals range from a very low-gain breakup – you've heard it used by Lindsey Buckingham or Peter Green in Fleetwood Mac – through to midrange snarl, which you'd hear on a Stevie Ray Vaughan track, and to a high gain sizzle from Gary Moore or Scott Gorham with Thin Lizzy. Distortion pedals clip even harder, producing more high-gain saturation and imprinting even more tonal characteristics that suits hard rock or metal genres. Biffy Clyro are well-known for using the Boss Metalzone and Baroness rely on several different distortions to get their huge sound, including the MXR Super Badass.
An overdrive essentially increases the signal strength from the guitar to the point where it begins to clip. Most overdrive pedals produce a “pushed” edge-of-breakup tone that can stretch to a crunch, dependent on how it’s been dialled in and how hard you pick your guitar strings. This is a key characteristic for a lot of players, as an overdrive that reacts to playing dynamics or lowering the guitar’s volume control has an authentic, natural tone and makes it far more controllable.
On the flip side, there are drives that produce a saturated distortion sound that are full throttle the entire time. There are many pedals which meet in the middle, bridging the gap between overdrive and distortion thanks to their wide-ranging gain controls.
Popular Overdrive & Distortion Pedals
There are indeed a lot of overdrives made by a lot of different brands, but don’t feel intimidated! Here are the classic overdrive and distortion pedals and some of the biggest brand names making them.
Tube Screamer Overdrive Pedals
First made in the late '70s, the Ibanez Tube Screamer is a truly iconic pedal. The most recognised and used iterations of this pedal are the original TS-808 and the TS9, the latter possessing more top-end frequency presence. Both come set with volume, drive and tone controls, letting you adjust the output and amount of gain and brightness.
Renowned for its ability to push the upper mid-range frequencies of your signal, the Tube Screamer is also regarded for adding a soft compression to give you more dynamic consistency. It’s popular for pushing your guitar sound through in a busy mix, thanks to its punchy mid-range and adjustable tone control.
The late Stevie Ray Vaughan used the Tube Screamer extensively to form his signature sound. Running it through the clean channel of his high-headroom Fender amplifiers, the Tube Screamer would send his amps into break-up without deafening his audience by maxing out on volume for a similar effect. Metal players are also known to utilise Tube Screamers or derivations of the circuit in their rigs. As a Tube Screamer typically shelves the low-end frequencies, it tightens high gain amps to focus and saturate the amp.
As well as the original Ibanez and Maxon creators, several brands have been inspired by the green box. The Earthquaker Devices make truly unique sounding pedals with loads of character, and the Plumes delivers that across three distinct settings. JHS Pedals' Bonsai is a massive nine-in-one stompbox celebrating the fun Screamer variations that have been released over the years. The Tone City Kaffir Lime boasts iconic Screamer tone in an even smaller, space-saving mini pedal enclosure and available at a fantastic price.
Klon Centaur Overdrive Pedals
Considered by many to be the holy grail of overdrive pedals, the Klon Centaur is an often well-imitated pedal – and it's great it is – seeing as though the original is an unobtainable multi-thousand pound pedal. Developed in the early '90s and manufactured between 1994 and 2000, only around 8000 of these rare pedals were made. This pedal’s circuitry has inspired many iterations over the years, with players wishing to attain that luxury tone for a fraction of the price.
Featuring a similar control set to the Tube Screamer, the Klon is regarded for being a “transparent”, meaning it adds gain to your signal without affecting your original tone (although this is a bit of a myth – it does add some midrange colouration). It can range from a low-gain boost to a convincing amp channel emulation when cranking the gain control, being labelled as an “amp-in-a-box” by some. We wrote an entire deep dive blog on the Klon Centaur if you'd like to find out more.
John Mayer is a prominent modern player who uses a Klon to achieve his enviable sound, helping him create his signature warm and rounded tone. A huge array of other famous artists have used original Klon pedals or recreations too, making this style of overdrive a very popular choice.
Ryra have designed a line of convincing Klon recreations and their The Klone pedals are available in a range of colours. Not only do they spice up your tone, but the look of your board too! The JRAD Archer also recaptures the essence of the original Klon, with similar aesthetics and circuitry. The Wampler Tumnus is an in-house favourite here at Andertons. This packs an extremely original-accurate tone and has a “hot” switch for a little extra something. It also comes in a nice little mini pedal version. If you’re looking for a pedal that gets close to the Klon sound for under £100, then Electro Harmonix’s Soul Food might be appetising.
Klon Shootout On Andertons T.V.
BLUES DRIVER OVERDRIVE PEDALS
Based on the Marshall Blues Breaker pedal, this style of stompbox serves as the perfect transparent overdrive. The aim of this pedal is to add gain to a pre-existing tone with which you're happy, be that provided by your amp or a second overdrive. That makes gain stacking – keeping two overdrive pedals on at the same time – a viable option for rich, thick driven rhythm tone and leads, giving a boost or bump in heaviness or volume
A common transparent drive akin to the Blues Breaker is the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver. Boss are a giant in the pedal world, and like Ibanez’s Tube Screamer, the BD-2 is a classic pedal that's been in production for decades. The BD-2 is distinctive for offering a smooth drive that satisfies blues players and any guitarist after a little extra heat without getting too spicy. For more variety, check out the Snouse BlackBox which offers three different types of quality EQ modes. A great budget mini pedal option is the Tone City Blues Man, delivering transparent drive at a great price.
Transparent overdrive is often used in dual drive pedals, which incorporate two overdrives in one single enclosure. The first drive gives character and colour, and the second serves the transparent side to layer the gain. The Browne Amplification The Protein is an exquisite boutique option based on the classic overdrive heard on records like John Mayer’s Continuum. The Tone City King of Blues offers a taste of those two overdrive flavours on a budget.
Amp-Style Distortion Pedals
There are a few brands that make pedal-formatted versions of their amps, often in preamp form. This means you get amp-in-a-box sounds that are almost identical to some legendary amplifiers for a fraction of their full prices. They differ slightly from a standard overdrive/distortion, as they are best placed in the FX loop of your guitar amp to offer an alternative to your amp's channels. Simply set your amp to a clean tone to get the most out of a preamp pedal.
Driven and high-gain tones are easy to come by in a preamp. The MXR 5150 Overdrive emulates the tone of the game-changing Peavey/EVH 5150, plus you get a built-in noise gate; Victory make several preamp pedal versions of their great valve amps, including the Copper, the Jack and the Kraken; Friedman's IR-X and Dirty Shirley are larger all-tube preamp that pumps out genuine and authentic classic amp tones; and the Engl Fireball stuffs its face melting high-gain tone into a two-channel compact pedal.
These amp-style pedals tend to demand a higher price due to their more comprehensive features. They are a great investment after all though, allowing you to tap into a particular amp sound no matter what you're plugged into. So, if you’re a musician who regularly gigs and has use different rented amps night-after-night, these pedals are a real blessing.
Overdrive Pedal Shootout on Andertons T.V.
OVERDRIVE & DISTORTION PEDALS
FAQs
How Do I Use An Overdrive Pedal?
Overdrive pedals are most commonly used with a “clean” amp setting, or only just a touch of gain. This is how blues players prefer to use overdrives, to “push” the front end their amp’s speakers.
You'll want to dial in the amount of gain that sounds good to your ear and that meets the needs of the music you want to play. The sweet spot on a lot of overdrives is between 10 and 3 o'clock. From there, every overdrive has different settings that might looks something like an EQ, tone or attack control (usually a balance between treble and bass frequencies) that is best dialled to taste.
How Do I Use A Distortion Pedal?
The same as an overdrive, place the distortion pedal in front of your amp as one of the first pedals in the signal chain.
Can You Use Overdrive & Distortion Together?
Yes. Like running a Tube Screamer into an amp’s high-gain channel, you can “tighten” the sound of a distortion pedal as well. Running a TS-style overdrive before a distortion pedal will give it more saturation and focus, improving your picking response for a tightened metal tone when palm-muting. It's worth considering a noise gate pedal to temper the noise both might make while active.
Where Do I Place An Overdrive In the Signal Chain?
Overdrive pedals are conventionally placed in front of the guitar amp, after tuner and wah pedals but before modulation and time-based effects like reverb and delay. This is because it is a core element of your guitar tone from which you can expand with other effects to add colour and movement.
What Is OVerdrive Stacking?
If you would like to get a unique, fuller sound than what you currently have, or even create a type of fuzz, then you could activate two overdrive pedals at the same time to achieve overdrive “stacking”. To do this, you'll want to pair overdrives that compliment one another in frequencies and set them to a light, mild gain.
How DO You Use An Overdrive Pedal For Metal?
Overdrive pedals can also be used in conjunction with an amp’s distortion channel. This is a popular method with metal players, who will often use a Tube Screamer style pedal to tigthen their sound, giving it more midrange frequency punch. Players will often set the pedal up with the drive and volume low, so that only slightly more gain will be added without getting too out of control. This will introduce more saturation and sustain, making it great for chunky rhythm tones.
What's The Difference Between Overdrive & Distortion?
Overdrive is more subtle soft-clipping effect, while distortion pedals are a more saturated, intense and aggressive hard-clipping effect. The former is ideal when dynamics are a huge part of your sound. The latter produces a sound that is always firing at full throttle and it's actually beneficial not to feel that dip in attack or aggressiveness. In terms of circuitry, the two are very similar, but distortion pedals are designed to clip harder.
What Are The Best Overdrive Pedals?
This is going to heavily depend on who you ask and what you need your overdrive to sound like, as a metal guitarist might say a Tube Screamer, while a blues player says the Blues Driver. Others might say a diverse range of sounds makes an overdrive the best. But one benchmark of a great sounding overdrive pedal is one that reacts dynamically to your picking strength: it quietens when you pick softly and clips when you pick hard. As a result, the Klon Centaur, which performs this to perfection, is often considered one of the best overdrives ever made.
Want To LEarn More?
For extra information about the different pedal types highlighted here, check out our dedicated guides for each of them:
Ultimate Guide to Boost Pedals
Want To Learn More?
For more information about the other pedal types mentioned in this piece, check out our dedicated guides for each of them: