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Distortion Pedals: Heavyweights of Hard-clipped Saturation
Looking to beef up your pedalboard with head-turning power and aggression? Look no further than Sweetwater’s massive selection of hard-hitting distortion pedals.
What is a distortion pedal? Think of it as the powerhouse of a guitarist’s arsenal, able to unleash a raw and aggressive sonic palette with enormous gain to fuel your fiercest riffs and solos.
Simply put, a distortion pedal gives your signal a heavily saturated edge for genres like metal, punk, and garage rock. Legendary guitarists such as Billy Corgan, Kurt Cobain, Jim Root, and countless others have utilized many different distortion pedals in the pursuit of mythic tone.
How a Distortion Pedal Achieves Its Sound
Unlike overdrive pedals, which typically employ soft-clipping methods to achieve their smooth saturation, distortion pedals place hard-clipping diodes at the end of their circuits to lop off waveform peaks. This results in a fully saturated roar and a monstrous palm mute that stands out for heavier genres of music.
Distortion Pedals of the Stars: Which Artist Played Which Pedal?
Wondering which distortion pedals have the tone and versatility to take your music to the next level? Here are some popular distortion effects and the artists known to use them.
- BOSS DS-1 Distortion — Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day)
- Pro Co RAT — James Hetfield (Metallica), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters
- Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff Distortion — J.D. Cronise (The Sword), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
- BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone — Paul Landers (Rammstein), Ola Englund (Six Feet Under)
- Marshall ShredMaster — Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine)
- MXR Rockman X100 — Tom Scholz (Boston), Pete Thorn (The Classic Rock Show)
- MXR M104 Distortion+ — Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne), Tom Morello (Audioslave)
- BOSS DS-2 Turbo Distortion — Matthew Bellamy (Muse), Steve Vai (G3)
- JHS Angry Charlie — Rob Scallon (The Perfect Strangers), Todd Gummerman (Twenty One Pilots)
- TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion — Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses), Vernon Reid (Living Colour)
Shop Distortion Pedals and Accessories at Sweetwater
Searching for a special distortion to access the hard-edged sounds of your guitar and bass heroes? Sweetwater has the tools to accelerate your sonic journey. Use our shop filters to fine-tune your pedal results by circuit type, pedal bypass, ins and outs, and more. Need assistance? Call our Sales Engineers for personalized recommendations on your next distortion pedal and all other pedalboard accessories.
