What is… overdrive?

This is the first in a series of posts where I’ll look at specific types of effects.  My goal is to steer clear of overly technical discussions, the “which pedal is better?” arguments, as well as “should I buy it?” - instead I’ll attempt to describe their function/purpose/place in the overall signal chain, and hopefully provide enough information for you to decide whether it works for you.

Very brief history lesson - I mean overview of the first effects pedals.

When the electric guitar was invented, the only amplifiers available were vocal amplifiers - designed to take a microphone and make the vocals louder.  Guitarists soon discovered that the signal from their guitars would overload (overdrive) the amplifiers, making them distort.  By changing the pickups in the guitar, they could get more (or less) distortion.  The only drawback to this was that the amplifiers usually had to be turned up as loud as possible in order to create the desired level of distortion.  As this sound became more popular, some very smart people decided to try and capture the sound in an outboard “effects box”, and the pedal industry was born.

Overdrive vs Distortion

Before we look at overdrives, let’s look at the difference between overdrive and distortion.  Overdrive is usually categorised as a slight distortion of the source sound - take a clean sound  (e.g. your unaffected instrument) and add a slight bit of breakup - your sound is very slightly distorted “in a musical way”.  Yes, I’ve pulled that from an advert, but only to make a point - there are a lot of buzz words that are used to describe this type of effect: “transparent”, “warm”, “tube like”, “musical”, “edge of breakup” - the list seemingly goes on forever.  

Let’s step out of the marketing speak, and work on an analogy - a clean sound is similar to looking at yourself in the mirror, or your reflection in a lake or pond - there should be no difference (or very little).  You should be able to recognise the reflection.  The clean tone should simply be your instrument made louder (yes, there are other things happening depending upon the amp, cable, etc., but we’ll ignore those for the purposes of this analogy).

Overdrive is taking that same reflection, and dropping a single, small pebble into the pond (slightly off to the side/out of view).  Your reflection will still be visible, you’ll still be able to see that it’s you, only with small ripples that slightly distort the image.  

In terms of sound, an overdriven sound is a slight distortion of the original sound - this is where all the colourful adjectives come from - attempting to describe how the sound has changed.

To keep with our analogy, distortion is what happens when you drop a large rock in the same pond, right beside your reflection - you may get glimpses of the original, but it’s also very different - quite broken up and changed from the original.

In the world of effects, distortion is classed as an effect that is typically more aggressive and saturated than an overdrive pedal.

Overdrive Specifics

Overdrive pedals were originally designed to emulate a tube amp that had been pushed beyond its input capacity - this caused the input tubes to overload, and distort the sound.  This is typically low gain (depending upon the amp, it would be the first ⅓ to ½ of the gain or volume control), and will usually clean up as the instrument volume is decreased.  Overdrive pedals are the cornerstone of a number of different genres and players, from blues to rock to country, and can be combined with distortion pedals to great effect.

I’ll split this into five main sub categories of overdrives, Tube Screamer style pedals, Blues Breaker style pedals, Blues Driver style pedals, hard clipping (blurring the lines between overdrive and distortion) and Klon style pedals.  First - a little terminology:

• Soft clipping - the overall sound is not fully distorted (small ripples)
• Hard clipping - the overall sound is distorted (large ripples)
• Transparent - the overall sound of your instrument is not changed (really small ripples)
• Preamp - usually the first stage of amplification inside an amplifier - this is where the overdrive magic happens
• TS/BB/BD style pedals- Tube Screamer/Blues Breaker/Blues Driver
• Unity - typically means that the control isn’t raising or lowering - it’s “bypassed”

Tube Screamers and Variants

While the first overdrive pedals were essentially what we would term fuzz pedals today - more fuzzy than amp like, and it wasn’t until the Tube Screamer was released that we got overdrives as we know it today.  There are literally hundreds of variations on this circuit - everyone (me included) has added their stamp on this classic pedal.  This is not a transparent pedal - it was never designed to be - it is a take on the distortion that happens in the preamp, and was meant to be noticeable. 

The late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan famously ran his through clean, high-wattage Fender amps, using it to push them just into breakup, achieving that signature articulate grit while keeping every note clear and dynamic, while more modern and heavier players can use them placed in front of a high-gain amp, to tighten the low end and boost the mids.

Main characteristics:

• Boosted mids
• More saturation
  
  

> Check out all Screamer style here

Blues Breakers and Variants

Blues Breaker style pedals were initially designed to be an “amp in a box” - an attempt to recreate a tube amp in a pedal, the dynamic drive of a Marshall ‘Bluesbreaker’ amp, and the same tone Eric Clapton made legendary to be more exact.  They (usually) don’t have a lot of volume (boost) on tap, but they do stay fairly transparent (don’t extremely change your instrument’s sound). 

Perfect for a wide range of styles - from classic rock and blues to pop, jazz, and indie, Bluesbreaker-style pedals are a go-to for players seeking expressive, amp like overdrive that enhances rather than overpowers your sound.

Main characteristics:

• Smoother than a TS style pedal
• Usually less volume gain (boost)
• Transparent
  
  

> Check out all Blues Breaker style here

Blues Drivers and Variants

The Blues Driver pedal is sometimes described as the opposite of a Tube Screamer - it is thicker, more aggressive and has a flatter overall EQ - where the TS style pedals cut the low frequencies and boost the mids, the BD style pedals do not.


Originally released in March 1995, the Boss Blues Driver (BD-2) was designed to capture the warm, dynamic breakup of a tube amp on the edge of overdrive which was perfect for the blues revival happening at the time. It aimed to give players that expressive, touch-sensitive feel associated with legends like Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, delivering smooth, natural drive that responds beautifully to picking dynamics and guitar volume.


Main characteristics:

• Thicker, touch sensitive
• Transparent at low gain
• More aggressive (sometimes labeled as grittier) at higher gain

> Check out all Blues Driver style here

Hard Clipping Overdrives

These pedals typically fall between overdrive and distortion, and they can be labelled as either.  If we go back to our analogy, they have more ripples than an overdrive pedal, but maybe not as much as a distortion pedal.  Sometimes they actually do bridge the gap - able to deliver overdrive sounds at low gain settings, and distortion sounds when cranked up.


Main characteristics:

• Not as smooth as the other types, but still fall short of completely distorting your original sound
• More aggressive than a traditional overdrive
• Typically designed to provide all distortion (instead of boosting an amp’s input)
  
  

> Check out all Hard Clipping Overdrive here

Klons and Variants

The Klon is one of the most sought after pedals, and is a completely different design than the others.  It uses hard clipping to get the distortion, but mixes it into the clean signal, which adds back the transparency and smoothness of the original sound.  There’s a lot more going on inside this box, but the most important piece is the blending of the original sound.

Main characteristics:

• Transparent - the distortion is blended with your clean sound
• Can be used as a clean boost (more on this in another post)
• The depth a hard clipping circuit, coupled with the clarity of the original sound

> Check out all Klon style here

Of course there are other styles of overdrive available, ranging from the completely unique to a combination of all of the above.

How to choose your overdrive

The first thing to think about is what you are looking for - a little bit of warmth vs something more aggressive - this may help narrow the field a little.  If you’re not sure, tried and true favourites (Tube Screamer, Blues Breaker, etc) are always a great starting point. 


Still not sure?  Reach out and ask someone!  Points to consider before asking:

• Do you have a specific sound in mind?
• What is your current instrument/effects/amplification?
• What is your budget?
  
  

How to use your overdrive

Ok, it’s all well and good knowing what they are, but how do I use them you ask.  I’ll start by saying there are no hard and fast rules on effects pedals - what sounds good to one person may not sound good to another.  Guidelines for pedal order, how to set them up, when to use them (or not to use them) are just that - general guidelines to use as a starting point.

I find the best way to try any pedal is to set all dials (aside from gain), straight up at 50% of max (12 o’clock).  This is usually the unity setting for controls like volume, tone, eq.  Note that unity volume on certain pedals may be higher or lower than this - the original Blues Breakers are a case in point - unity volume is about 75% of full (3 o’clock).  Start playing, and slowly turn up the gain until you hit the desired amount.  From there, keep playing, and change the other controls (one at a time) from fully off to fully on, turning them back to where I feel they sounded the best.  Finally, I adjust the gain from min to max, just to check out the range, and see how many different sounds I can get out of the pedal.  If I’m having trouble getting the right sound, I will then look at recommendations (either from the manufacturer or online).

One thing to remember is that most overdrives are meant to work in tandem with your amp (modeller/sim) - they allow you to achieve overdriven sounds without having to crank the amp, though they can also push an already cranked amp into something truly spectacular.

Stacking Overdrives

This is a fairly straightforward process - rather than turning off your overdrive (that you’ve just spent hours dialling in to perfection) and turning on a distortion pedal, you leave it on and turn on another overdrive immediately after it.  The two (or three, four or more) overdrives can be tuned to deliver a richer, deeper sound than a single distortion pedal, especially if you mix and match overdrives - start with a TS style pedal, and run it into a BB or BD style, (or vice versa).  This is where the “fun” starts - can you create a sound that is uniquely yours, yet still fits what you're playing.

Again, this is meant to be a guide, not an instruction manual - mix, match, imitate, emulate, inspire and create at your own pace.

We'd love to hear about your experience with any of these pedals and setups! Drop a comment below and tell us about any of them.

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Joe has over 30 years of experience in the music industry. He is a musician, sound engineer, recording engineer, and has expertise in amp and pedal design. Additionally, he has worked as a guitar tech and in sales. He considers himself a "pedal junkie" - there’s always a new “bright and shiny” pedal that begs to be added to his pedalboard.