Difference btw distortion and overdrive

[xiotis9]

Hi guys,

Can you tell me the difference btw distortion and overdrive?

Lord-George

[lalimacefolle]

When your amp doesn't really play with a clean tone, but is clear when you play softly, that's overdrive. When your tone is almost never clean, that's distortion. And also, when it's the input volume that causes the amp to distort, it's fuzz.

[pstring]

X9, overdriving an amp, makes a distorted sound. If this is a question about effects pedals, Brand A Distortion Pedal vs Brand B Overdrive Pedal, it's basically the same thing, just manufacturers choose different words,ie... King Elwood's Mega-Metal Ultimate Shred Distortion Pedal or Mr. Melvin's Death Ray Killer Laser Beam Overdrive Machine, just a marketing ploy!

[magicninja]

I always thought overdrive was from your amp and distortion was from an outside scource. I guess its all the same though unless your overdriving your distortion if that makes any sense.

[Zeppelin]

Overdrive comes from overdriven (too loud) amplifiers.. usualy overdrive comes from tube amps which are overdriven and there you get the sound.
distortion - got nothing to do with the loudnes of the amp. the distortion cuts off some parts of the sound wave and that way we get the distorted sound.

the overdrive sound is the sound of all the "oldie rock" players and all the blues guys. most of them didnt use any pedals but turned they amps as loud as they could and so they got the overdriven sound