Distortion/ Overdrive

Here is a past exam question and the associated mark scheme.

Question: Distortion is used on the electric guitar to modify the tone and increase sustain. Describe what distortion is. Describe the various ways that distortion has been added to the electric guitar from the 1950s to the present day.

Answer: In the context of electric guitar, distortion is created by clipping/ cutting off of the waveform. Distortion can occur by overloading an amplier/ pushing an amplier to output more that it is capable. The resulting signal has more power. The resulting signal has more harmonics/ partials giving a brighter/ harsher tone. IMD - Amplitude modulation of signals containing 2 or more frequencies with nonlinearities.

Voltage

Time

 In early days distortion was often added to a guitar by a valve falling out/ being damaged or cutting holes in the speaker cone. Some plugged in their guitar directly into the mixing desk and turned up the channel gain. Some artists chained amps together to achieve a distorted tone. In the 1960s, Jim Marshall modied amplier circuitry to make distortion easier to achieve. Distortion is sometimes called fuzz/ overdrive/ clipping. Fuzz is a more distorted/ higher driven sound than overdrive.

Typical distortion controls: Gain - A master volume knob is used to compensate for the increased gain/ control clean-distorted volume difference.

Valve/ tube distortion: As the amplier approaches its maximum the increase in signal is non-linear. This results in the peaks in the waveform looking attened/ rounded. This produces soft clipping. The distortion tone is warm/ less harsh. Transistor distortion gives a harsher distortion because hard clipping occurs immediately when the maximum output is exceeded.