What is the difference between overdrive and distortion?

Opinions will always differ when it comes to over drive and distortion. I always like to think that overdrive is one step up from a clean sound, and distortion is two steps up.

Overdrive will generally give you strong but mellow sound, it’s also adds a little bit of sustain which helps with solos that have a lot of hammer ons & pull offs.

Distortion has a lot more strength especially at low range and is useful when playing metal or heavy rock songs.

It all comes down to preference, so experiment and see what sounds better for you!

I prefer a distortion sound especially if I am using my Dunlop cry baby, I believe you can obtain a greater range of sound with this set up. I also run my overdrive with distortion with my solo work.

Experiment first, especially with the different setting available on various peddles.

PBS said:

Thanks