Overdrive pedal

A pedal that adds moderate grit and compression, usually by pushing an amplifier's input harder or clipping gently in a way that resembles valve behaviour.

The design goal is to keep the guitar's own character audible while adding warmth and sustain, which is why so many overdrives emulate the response of a specific valve circuit rather than clipping hard. Most include a gain control, a level control and a tone or midrange control, and a considerable part of their popularity is as a boost: gain low, level high, driving an amplifier that is already close to breaking up. Placement before or after other gain stages changes how much of their own voice survives.

Example: a tube-style overdrive with the gain low and the level up is the standard way to push a small valve combo into a lead tone.

Overdrive pedal

See also