Position:Home>Performing Arts> I just bought a blues overdrive pedal?

Hey, ignorance is okay, it can always be corrected!. It's stupid we gotta watch out for!. =)

I hope I'm not going to be too technical here!.

So your pickups generate a weak voltage when you pluck your strings!. We've got to make that weak voltage a much larger voltage so that we can get that speaker to move!. We do this by amplifying the signal bunches!. The process of amplification is called gain!. Gain is a ratio between the signal coming into a "gain stage" (like a transistor, vacuum tube, etc) and the larger signal leaving it!. I suggest the link below, as it explains some of the math - there are different types of gain, so its important we know the right type we're talking about!. Pedals usually have between 1 and 3 gain stages, while amps usually have at least 2, and as many as 5!. More gain means more ability to do EQ, which means better distortion, etc!. One reason why an amp sounds better distorted than a pedal, usually!.

In things like a distortion pedal we specifically want the gain to approach the saturation of the gain stage - this clips the audio signal which creates that distortion sound we like!. Visually if you can image normal guitar sounds looking like rolling hills, clipping is like chopping off the tops of those hills!. How a pedal/amp clips, the EQ done before and after clipping, how much clipping is done, etc makes all the difference between a blues pedal, a sweet tube amp, a digital preamp, etc!. Same principle, used differently!.

Anyways, the idea is that gain describes how a small signal gets really large!. Sometimes we want the gain to clip the signal (like with guitar pedals and amps), and sometimes we don't want it to clip at all (a power amp, computer circuitry, hippie communes, etc)!.

I bloody hope that made sense!.

Oh yeah!.!.!. and so the volume pedal is probably a resistor - the signal hits the gain first to get bigger (and probably clipped some) then it hits the volume knob, a variable resistor, which means that it gets quieter!. Low volume = much quieter, half volume = half as loud, full volume = no change in volume coming out of the gain stage!.

Again, hope that helped!.

SaulWww@QuestionHome@Com

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