2 distortion
This is the sound of hard rock and metal, the essential ingredient for roaring riffs, wailing solos and the entire metal genre. As opposed to overdrives, distortion pedals are more commonly used with clean amps, with all the gain coming from the stomper itself. Perhaps the most iconic example of a guitarist stepping on a distortion stompbox is when Kurt Cobain slams his foot down on his Boss DS-1 in the intro to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, but you’ll be able to hear distortion – whether from a pedal or an amp – on most heavy music.
Distortion’s hard clipping yields a more extreme sound with bigger gain ranges. That means the sound is more compressed, which results in increased sustain and feedback, something guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Joe Satriani manipulate to great effect at loud volumes. It also makes for more noise, too, so you’ll sometimes see a noise suppressor on the pedalboards of extreme gain abusers.
An increasing number of distortion units now feature three-band EQs (mid, treble, bass), offering increased control to shape your tone and essentially acting as an additional channel for your amp. These pedals are great for getting killer gained-up tones at low volumes, too, something you might struggle to do even with low-wattage valve amps.