Distorting the sound of electric guitar Intentionally What is the history of 'distortion'?

Distortion which distorts the sound of electric guitar does not distort (distortion), it creates a unique tone color called "guy awaan", and it is indispensable in genres such as rock. A movie that describes the history of such distortion is published on YouTube.

A Brief History of Electric Guitar Distortion


The tone of the guitar with the effect of distortion is very impressive. Lightly distorted guitar tone that can be heard at Chuck Berry 's " Johnny B. Good " ... ...

Jimmy Paige plays guitar Led Zeppelin 's " Black Dog "

AC / DC guitarist Angus Young 's " Back in Black "

And the famous guitarist's distortion, such as "The Flow In Love With A Girl " by The White Stripes, which Jack · White gets used to guitar, is very hearing.

There are a lot of people who made a diagram called "distortion guitar" = "rock and roll".

A distorted tone is literally meaning that you can not hear the sound of the guitar beautifully but hear "distorted".

How was the distorted tone that was indispensable to contemporary music born?

There are several ways to "distort" the sound of a guitar, but the fact that the sound is finally distorted as "gwarane" is the same. Simply put, if it can distort the sound wave it is OK.

Although the amplifier is a machine that amplifies the sound wave ... ...

There is a limit to the width of the sound wave that can be amplified, and if it exceeds the width, both ends of the sound wave are unnaturally interrupted, and the sound is distorted.

In general, distorted sounds and voices are felt as unpleasant ... ...

Strangely, if you distort the tone of an electric guitar, you will hear that tone coolly.

Guitarists began to distort the tone from around the 1940 's.

At that time, the amplifier using the vacuum tube was used ... ...

Guitarists noticed that the sound of the guitar can be distorted by raising the volume of the amplifier to a certain level or higher and overloading the vacuum tube circuit.

This type of distortion will be called " Overdrive " as it is.

Overdrive was popular among guitarists in the 1940s and 1950s, but it is not clear what exactly who started using overdrive first.

Junior Bernard is known as a pioneer of such overdrive. Bernard was a band called Bob Wills & Texas Playboy and he was active as an aggressive guitarist.

Such a barnard overdrive often appears, "Barnard Blues" songs. Slow tempo melody, lightly distorted sounds are comfortably matched.

Golly Carter was one who used overdrive and the song "Rock a While" is perfect for tasting Carter's overdrive.

In addition, songs such as howlin · wolf 's "How Many More Years" are masterpieces using overdrive.

In 1951 of such overdrive heyday, a masterpiece " rocket 88 " said to be the "pioneer of rock and roll" was recorded. In rocket 88, there was a part where the tone of the electric guitar was distorted, but it was not due to overdrive, it was a coincidence distortion caused by some accident.

The bands of Jackie Brenston and others who recorded rocket 88 broke the amp on the street and stuffed the round newspaper instead of the internal diaphragm (speaker cone).

As a result, it seems that the sound coming out of the amplifier was distorted oddly after all ... ...

Producer Sam Phillips liked this distorted tone, so the record was recorded by chance the distorted tone as it was. As a result, a strange distorted tone of rocket 88 was born.

Since the 1950's, the act of hurting the diaphragm of the amplifier dared to get a guitarist ideal distortion is popular.

Link · Ray, known as a pioneer to expand the possibilities of electric guitar, pierced the diaphragm with a pencil ......

I succeeded in giving out a heavy rumbling tone. The song using this method was named "Rumble (fighting pimp)" by a public listing from a radio listener, from a rough and violent image.

Even after that the age of hardship continues for the diaphragm. In 1964, the guitarist of The Kinks , Dave Davis made a break with a razor on the diaphragm ... ....

I created an impressive guitar tone of " You Really Got Me ."

But soon the guitarists will create a distortion without hurting the amp ... ...

A device for creating distortion called fuzz box (fuzz effector) will appear.

In 1961, Grady Martin accidentally distorted the tone by connecting the amplifier in a wrong way ......

I recorded a song called "Do not Worry". Distortion born by accident accident spread as "Fuzz", Martin is regarded as a discovery of "fuzz effect".

Glen · T · Snowy who was a recording engineer analyzed this fuzz effect and developed a fuzz effecter that can intentionally generate fuzz. With the development of fuzz boxes, guitarists easily turned on and off distortion by stepping on a switch with their feet, and the range of performance widened widely.

Keith Richards of Rolling Stones uses fuzz box ......

I created a famous piece " Satisfaction ".

The influence of the fuzz box is very large, and a fuzz effecter that can generate slightly different distortion one after another is developed.

Fuzz Face was one of the most popular among them, and Jimi Hendrix , a great guitarist, also used Fuzz Face.

The famous " Purple Haze " was also recorded using Fuzz Face.

Hendricks tried a combination of many amps and fuzz effectors and kept searching for various distortions.

After that distortion has been used in various genres such as hard rock, metal punk and so on.

The impression of distortion is still strong to rock even now, and there are many musicians that use distortion even after several decades since discovery.