Hi All


I keep on forgetting to make this post. I don't play guitar so there is a lot of terminology (gain, tone, feedback, distortion, overdrive etc) that I'm never sure if I'm using right, or what it refers to. So for the guitar players here, can you define some of the important terms (the ones that describe the sound) and give me some illustrations from PJ songs (to justify its inclusion here)

much thanks

gain and tone will usually change the actual song of the guitar depending on the use of your pick ups..you do no want any feedback it sounds like shit an distrotion and overdrive are usually the same thing

examples?

In basic terms:

Distortion gives a fuzzy sound, as does overdrive. Distinguishing between the two, as a non-guitar player, is pretty much futile; they're pretty much interchangable. Think the intro to "Alive." Rather than the guitar sounding nice and clean like that of, say, "Elderly Woman," or "Black," notice that it's a lot more crunchy and "distorted."

Tone is really kind of a malleable term; usually, people use it to describe the feel and sound that a certain guitarists' music has. If someone's talking about Billy Corgan's tone during Siamese Dream, they're talking about the genuinely thick and fuzzy quality, or if they're talking about the tone of Dinosaur Jr.' J Mascis, it's about how muddy and hairy it all sounds. For example, Mike McCready has a very spacey tone on "Nothing as it Seems." A lot of people remark about how Pearl Jam's guitarists have gone from a much louder, distorted sound, to a creamier feel in recent years. It's got a variety of different uses and definitions, but I've noticed that when people around here are talking about tone, this is what they're talking about.

Feedback is merely the manipulation of the amps/guitars/effects pedals to get that loud, screechy noise. Think back to elementary school, when you'd have an assembly and one of your inept faculty members would grab the microphone or the PA system and you'd get that loud, obnoxious, nails-on-the-chalkboard screech. That's feedback. Usually, during times of intense distortion and fast playing, you'll get feedback. Mike McCready's also put feedback to good use during "Evenflow" solos. It just adds to the sound, gives it a reckless, unpredictable kind of quality.

Basically, the amount of gain is the amount of voltage supplied. More gain = more volume/noise. I'm sure someone can give a much better definition on this.

thanks--that was all really helpful.

i´m a guitarrist,i´m not shure if my terms are correct,but heres the way i see it.overdrive is like the name says it;overdriving an amp,like ed does,he uses no distortion but the overdrive his amp give him,is like a distortion given byw the hi volume i think,and distortion is using a pedal pr changin the channel of the amp.a good example would be nirvana´s lithium,the intro is clean and then on the chorus it has distortion.

Glad to help. I'm sure some gearhead will come in and tell me that all of my definitions are "technically" wrong or correct me or something, but for a basic understanding of the terms and how they're used in relation to Pearl Jam, they should tell you what you need to know.

Thanks alot for that Imitation. Even I understood it

any young PJ-inspirder guitarist must add this site to their favorites immediately!

http://www.giventowail.com

Nah, I'm pretty much a gearhead and I agreed with what you had to say. Well done. I would attempt to explain the difference between OD and Distortion, but I have to leave for work in 10 minutes and I'm writing for a newbie. Maybe more later.

For a non-guitarist that was an excellent synopsis. He put it into layman's terms for us other non-musicians. Great post.

i_i pretty much hit the nail on the head. There are differences between overdrive and distortion on so on, but it's nothing that you would need to know unless you were going to attempt to recreate the sound; his explanation, therefore, is pretty much all that's needed.

Great example of distortion would be Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. The intro starts off clean, then he kicks in the distortion with the drums and everything.