Fuzz

Truthfully, there's no hard line that separates overdrive from distortion from fuzz. They all kind of hang out in this nebulous world of spillover from a auditory standpoint. If looking at the manner in which the signal is manipulated to get the "clipped signal", it might be easier to arrive at a place where the distinction between the terms makes a difference.

All of these terms can be applied to a clipped instrument signal; fuzz and distortion share the definition of when you have a signal where both halves (or more properly, "excursions") of the sine wave of the music signal get clipped or "chopped off". This results in even-order and odd-order harmonics being generated. What tends to separate the clipped sound of Fuzz from Overdrive or Distortion usually consists of a few things:

1. That the clipping is not all achieved by over-amplification in a tube, transistor, or integrated circuit but,
2. That clipping is mostly obtained by employing either
   • A single limiting diode (for one half of the sine wave), or,
   • A pair of limiting diodes (for both halves) in the circuit.

These diodes serve to truncate (or "square off") the tops and the bottoms of sine waves going through their particular circuit. In the most extreme situations this can result in what is known as an audio "square wave".

Contrast Guide

We do not expect these definitions to be authoritative, however, we have put them together in order to be able to separate out how we understand the different forms of signal clipping - and how to make it occur. What we hear isn't necessarily what you hear, but this is our attempt to put definitions around what happens electronically to the signals. This is how we understand the different forms of signal clipping as pertains to an audio signal and heavy music. Quote and link to these definitions at your own peril.

Overdrive

Minor waveform squaring-and-rounding from over-amplification, Effects usually only applied to one half of a sound's sine wave. Usually only through one or two gain stages.

Distortion

Major waveform squaring-and-rounding from over-amplification. Effects usually applied to both halves of a sound's sine wave. Usually cascaded through multiple gain stages.

Fuzz

Major waveform squaring without rounding due to diode clipping of waveform. Effect applied to both halves of a sound's sine wave. Usually occurs only through a single gain stage.

Fuzz Pedals

• Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face
• Colorsound Tonebender
• Gibson Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz
• Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz

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Sources

• Hewitt's Sound Garage:Timeline of Fuzz devices
• Jim Dunlop Guide: Overdrive vs. Distortion vs. Fuzz