Early uses of amplified distortion
The first guitar amplifiers were relatively low-fidelity, and would often produce distortion when their volume (gain) was increased beyond their design limit or if they sustained minor

Guitar distortion can be produced by many components of the guitar's signal path, including effects pedals, the pre-amplifier, power amplifier, and speakers. Many players use a combination of these to obtain their "signature" tone.
Pre-amplifier distortion

While musicians intentionally create or add distortion to electric instrument signals or vocals to create a musical effect, there are some

• A Musical Distortion Primer (R.G. Keen) Article on the physics of distortion and electronic techniques
• Distortion 101 (Jon Blackstone) Article on the physics of distortion, with interactive demonstrations
• Amptone.com Website on overdriven guitar amplifier and

The word distortion refers to any modification of wave form of a signal, but in music it is used to refer to nonlinear distortion (excluding filters) and particularly to the introduction of new frequencies by memoryless nonlinearities. In music the different

Guitar distortion is obtained and shaped at various points in the signal processing chain, including multiple stages of preamp distortion, power valve distortion, output and power transformer distortion, and guitar speaker distortion. Much of the distortion character or

• Distortion meter
• Guitar pedalboard
• Tube sound/Valve sound