Distortion (music)

Distortion and overdrive are "gain" effects used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, most commonly with the electric guitar but also with other electric instruments. Blues guitarists playing electric blues originally obtained an overdrive sound by turning up their vacuum tube-powered guitar amplifiers to high volumes. While overdriven tube amps are still used to obtain overdrive in the 2010s, especially in genres like blues and rockabilly, since the 1960s, a number of other ways to produce distortion have been developed, such as distortion effect pedals.