Fuzz vs Overdrive vs Distortion Explained 

7 years old but still explains it clearly. this is relevant.

I need an oscilloscope - I'm certain my playing will look better than it sounds!

YES!!! I wonder how many of us fuzz-nuts have been trying to explain the differences we hear between fuzz, distortion and overdrive to our fuzz-innocent buddies - this straight-forward video does the very best job of explaining this that I have yet seen, and I feel like I have the tools to kind of helpfully explain it a bit now. Thank you so much for this video. It’s almost a truism that every guitarist who has a Fuzzface loves the way that circuit behaves as the guitar’s volume is rolled back, and it's so fun to see it on the oscilloscope and the spectrum analyzer. Any guitar player who has one is going to watch that section and jump up and down, "I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!!!" - and you see the pattern in the harmonics with the gain cranked (five and then a space, then five and another space, or counted another way, no sixth harmonic at all, no twelvth harmonic, and so on), and how it changes (the others drop but the sixth and twelvth come in!) - just really exciting!!!! Definitely one of the most fun guitar-related videos I’ve seen in ages. And it’s been out there since 2014, imagine that.

Dude i've been studying electric engineering and I must say you taught me much more than my teachers! Really thanks for explaining these fxs

I have been serching for a video like this literally for years! and I have to say this one is just perfect, as an engeneer I really love this video!

One of the most valuable piece of electronic stuff I've seen on this "mojo" subject ! Sir, you nailed it, first class ! 🤩 Cheers from France.

Now I can actually see the difference between overdrive and distortion. Thanks for this very interesting video.

Now I know how valve (vacuum tube) preamp gives warm-sound. It skews signal. At 12:24 clearly seen that rising a little bit slower than falling. Valve's conductance-increasing sinks faster than its plate's resistor can pull it up again. This phenomenon can achieve in high-voltage low-current condition. Now i know how, thank's to your effort. Your share makes people getting more smart. Cheers from Indonesia.

It might be interesting to do exactly the same type of comparison between silicon vs. germanium.

GREAT Video. The best comparison between the different distortion characteristics I have seen so far!

Great explanation Paul. Thank you for taking the time to put this together 🙏

Great video. Love the use of the oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer to show the effects.

This is one of the best videos I have seen on the subject. I love the lab scope analysis with the signal. Thanks for the great video!

Great stuff, great to see the oscilloscope and harmonics. Always wanted to know more about the differences between those approaches to overdrive/distortion!

Great video. This really puts things into perspective a lot better than I have ever seen

this is perfect in every technical, musical and didactical aspect. great work. THX

Great analysis ! You just reminded me back this from University. I liked this signals modulation analysis, and now it has been very helpful to distinguish between pedals before buying. Thanks to you and Fourier !!!

I wish that I would have found this video years ago!!! So incredibly insightful! I almost fell off my chair when I saw the wave form of the fuzz and the distortion. So many lights went on!

the most complete clipping analysis i've seen until now, and is also in real time.

Thanks man , I like how you break it down for us !! Plus the spectrum analysis is extremely helpful !!

As many others have said, this is exactly what I've been looking for! A clear description of these effects with a scope to illustrate. I'm studying electrical engineering and have been getting into pedal design so this is gold.

I really enjoyed this video! Thanks for posting this, the explanations were quite straight forward and it was great to see everything on the oscilloscope.

This video is bizarely exactly what i was looking for. Ty 💪🥰

Good stuff! Content like this is much needed today!

Thanks for this. Learned more in 19 minutes than the last 4 decades.

I liked seeing both the waveform and the harmonic graph for each. It made for an intriguing approach to explaining how the signal is being affected for each scenario. And, it was an excellent refresher for myself. \m/

Thank you this video is timeless 🎊🤯 I was looking for something that went into detail just like this a proper tutorial looking forward to watching the rest of your videos

Such a great video! It answered a lot of questions that i have. Thanks a lot man!

This video is badass. Thanks so much for the serious in depth analysis!

Love your tube distortion! Nice. Great demo.

Exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you for explaining!

Perfect video. You should win an award for this. Thx

Brilliant video. This explains a lot about both pedals and amps...and even why some "clean" channels sound good and others boring...and yes...it's the harmonic distortion in the "clean" channel.

Loved the content bro. Make more videos like this, may be like a Flanger, Phaser or Wah. Cheers.

Thanks for the video, Paul! Interesting stuff.

This was fantastic. I eat this kind of stuff up. Well done mate!

What a brilliantly made video!

I'm just a pathetic amateur in effects building and your video gave me an overall idea of how the waveform is altered by different types of devices, really nice!

Glad to see there's vids about that tube distortion box. Heading there now 👍🎸

Nothing better than visual representations of all this audio voodoo.Thank you.

This was a very detailed and thorough introduction to distortion! The only thing that can be improved is the sound (of both you and the wave forms). Thanks!

Very informative and educative video! I do hope you're planning for some more effects to be explained like this :) Thank you!

Really good video man! This is the first video I see that has an electronic analysis of the signals. Could you make a video where you combine distortion and overdrive pedals?

Muy, muy bueno! Very, very good job Paul Graham!

A ton of thankyous, helped me solve multiple issues with one video.

Great demo. Very useful. Thanks!

Exactly what I wanted to learn. Thanks!

Great job man. Good to know what is going on with the signal from an instruments. So nice to look on the scope :)

you just gave me some good ideas in order to calculate the behavior of the pedals. keep on buddy

As a physicist and fuzz pedal enthusiast, I really appreciate this video

Great demo. This also shows why hard clipping of an audio system can blow speakers. Speakers take more time physically to move than a signal like that is telling them to. Depending on the frequency they can stack common signals before they can return to a lower position in the wave and they start to ride up and will destroy themselves. The hard clip is just way too much fast dynamic for them to deal with in the acoustic world. Pushing your speakers beyond their rated wattage is much easier on them than pushing your amps final output stage (causing hard clipping at high watts) beyond its rated output.

O melhor vídeo que encontrei mostrando a forma de onda dos diversos tipos de pedais. Obrigado! Excelente conteúdo.

excellent comparative analysis

This kicks ass, thanks so much for making it!

Gracias por el vídeo, muy completa la explicación, las imágenes del osciloscopio son de gran ayuda para diseñar los circuitos, Felicitaciones, saludos desde Colombia.

Really cool video 😎 a lot of insight why these effects sound like they do :D

Nice video, a great waveform reference, thanks.

Hi Paul! Great video, thanks for sharing! I would love to see the pedals used in conjunction (eg. fuzz into tube overdrive, ss overdrive, etc.) and see how tha wave is affected and to underestand why its souds the way it does. Maybe you already did that. Thanks again!

Cool explanation dude. Thanks!!!

Absolutely wonderful video. Thank you!

Great vid, super informative and, finally, a graphic illustration of terms that people throw around with no idea of their meaning. Thx for sharing "the oil" - Jamie the Pom

Sublime video mate. Thanks!

Excellent presentation. Thank you.

Very cool explanation! Thanks.

thanks dude. i have been looking for something like this.

Fantastic demo. Thanks.

Great video, thanks for putting it together.

Wow, what an informative video about how different components clip in our favorite amps and pedals. I must say I am very surprised by the frequency response of the Maxon OD808 and the shape of the sine signal. It was to my eyes the 'softest' clipping waveform of all the waveforms including the tube pedal - and yet contrary to popular belief where a 'soft' clipping waveform has more even order harmonics - that had all odd order harmonics without a trace of any even - and that's the all time favorite overdrive pedal in history. So I guess this shatters two widely held beliefs, one - that soft clipping creates even order harmonics and two- we don't like odd order harmonics, everyone - or nearly everyone loves the Maxon OD808. Would have loved to have seen a boss SD-1 being analyzed with it's slightly different arrangement of 3 clipping asymmetric clipping. Another funny observation, the maxon od808 has always been described as a 'smoother' breakup where as the boss sd-1 asymmetric overdrive has always been described as more 'rough' - but i bet it has more even order harmonics while the od808 has none.

absolutely fascinating. this needs to be done for all pedals. start a website tomorrow, please.

Thank you, awesome work!

That tube box sounds killer!!!

Great video, Very helpful, Thanks!!

Thanks for the excellent demo. I learned a lot.

That was a great sounding fuzz you had there !

I know to keep my subs a sin wave and now I know why! Thanks for connecting the dots!

Loved the explanation

Fantastic video! Thank you!

Great video! Very informative!

I built a two-valve pre-amp (Marshall circuit) and overdrove it with a Germanium transistor booster fifty years ago. Still use it, or an incarnation of it. Awesome fat distorion tone. The thing is......... the biggest difference occurs when the note dies away. The pedals for fuzz/distortion etc seems to me to have a clear and definite point where the fuzzy sound ceases whereas the valve distortion just smoothly transitions into a clean tone. It's good to see someone put up some oscilloscope traces and show people what's actually going on with a waveform as it distorts. The unit I built starts by rounding off the bottom of the waveform in a very pronounced way - the bottom peak gets rounder and rounder and the top peak just keeps climbing until it all starts to bend and morph into a waveform almost identical to your own valve unit.

Awesome explanation, thanks.

Very very good video! Thank you very much !

This is great! I'm going to do it by myself too ! Thanks!!

I've wanted to see this for a long time :-)

great video, helpful for me.

Cool video man. I would be interested to see what the sound waves look like when combining different distortions, for example if you were to put an overdrive pedal in front of the fuzz (which is something that I often do).

best video ever! Thanks so much.

Thank you so much, super useful!

this is a pearl, dude! thanks a lot =)

Great video. Thank you.

this is golden, thanks!

Excellent information.

excellent video

I've been looking for something like this

This is great, thank you!

Great video!

Awesome, mate. Thanks!

good explanation, really apprecieated

Really great video.

nice demo. thanbks

Awesome video! Nice explained What Oscilloscope and Spectrum analyser do you use to take your measurements .