The great debate...

[keysandguitars]

After I posted, I thought that I should probably just look at the build BOM's and organize them out into the categories that you mentioned:

"There are two major families for distortion pedals: transistor based and opamp based. Those can then be broken into two branches each: Ge and Silicon for transistors; single and double for op amps."

I should probably build one of each from those families so I can hear the differences, but also compare schematics...which I still can't read very well, but am learning.

Thanks for the link and the prodding to do the f'in work myself. It would be cool to have those subcategories in the projects though.

PS- If you feel green, this is hopeless for me.

[jkokura]

I would also break pedals down by clipping method as well: Soft, Hard and combo. So fir example, you could have dual op amp with soft, hard and combo, or a Si based with sift, hard or combo, etc.

Really, building one if each would be at least a dozen. Then there's the tone stacks...

Jacob

[TNblueshawk]

An analogy strikes me here. Blues is the father of modern music, certainly to R&R and jazz, in my humble opinion and those of many much smarter than me, but not all music is Blues. Is this a similar analogy to the 808 to all OD's maybe?

Just a thought.

[jkokura]

An analogy strikes me here. Blues is the father of modern music, certainly to R&R and jazz, in my humble opinion and those of many much smarter than me, but not all music is Blues. Is this a similar analogy to the 808 to all OD's maybe?

I don't know. I think it would be more like: Rock is a form of music, and alternative is a subgenre of music, and Pearl Jam is one of the most successful Alternative rock bands of all time. Distortions is a form of guitar pedal, and the Dual Op Amp drive is a popular form of distortion pedal, and the Ibanez Tubescreamer is one of the most successful Dual Op Amp Distortion pedals of all time.

Does that flow?

Jacob

[TNblueshawk]

Hmmm, I had to read that a few times but sure, that makes sense. In your analogy what would you consider the genesis pedal then for OD/distortion? In mine, I would say the "field hollerers" ie. blues in the 1800's.

[jkokura]

If I'm honest, I don't know what the first marketed "Overdrive" pedal was. I know that the Linear Power Booster was one of the first circuits to 'drive' the signal of a guitar, followed by the Muff Fuzz a short while later.

What the first Dual Op Amp Distortion pedal was I don't know.

Jacob

[redbean]

Opamps are a basic technology that even has their own foundation... There are two major families for distortion pedals: transistor based and opamp based. Those can then be broken into two branches each: Ge and Silicon for transistors; single and double for op amps.... So really, the Tubescreamer is just a variant of one branch of one major family...

Jacob

I like your logic here, Jacob, as it could be used to help develop a more clear nomenclature for distortion/fuzz/overdrive pedal designs, and pedal designs in general.

Craig Anderton may have had it right a long time ago when he began referring to all of his distortion devices as "fuzz" pedals (no matter how a signal is overdriven, the end result, desired or not, is a kind of fuzzy sound). For example, "tube-sounding fuzz" (pedal) could be used in place of the more problematic term overdrive, which could fall under either of the parent categories: opamp fuzz and transistor fuzz pedals. Distortion is also a problematic term, as all of the analogue devices we build here at Madbean and elsewhere somehow distort the input signal.