A brief history of the distortion pedal in music – Far Out Magazine

Of course, this depends on the type of distortion used. Although distortion and overdrive are often used interchangeably, distortion is a more intense sound than overdrive and more full-bodied. Following this, fuzz is another type of distorted sound, often described as extreme, emerging from guitarists using faulty equipment like a valve tube that had come out of place. 

Amplified distortion had been around for a while before the distortion pedal emerged, with blues pioneers such as Buddy Guy and Elmore James helping to refine and popularise it. Another early example comes from Paul Burlison, the guitarist of the Johnny Burnette Trio, who deliberately dislodged a tube in his amplifier to record the song ‘The Train Kept A-Rollin’ in 1956. 

Some accounts say that this followed a review which praised the sound of his damaged amplifier during a live performance. However, others assert Burlison’s amp had a partially broken loudspeaker cone. Despite this, the track’s producers hated the sound of Burlison’s six-string, but Burnette insisted on releasing it anyway. He allegedly maintained that the “guitar sounds like a nice horn section”.

Elsewhere, in the latter half of the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Link Wray, the guitarist behind the widely-influential instrumental ‘Rumble’, began to intentionally fiddle with the vacuum tubes of his amplifier to create a dirty sound for his solos, after a similar stroke of providence to Burlison’s. Following this, Wray poked holes in his speaker cones with a pencil to distort the tone further, using electronic echo chambers, “fat” Gibson humbucking pickups, and controlled feedback to push the guitar further into the future. This early innovation was an incredible moment, setting distortion on its way.

The man typically credited as the founder of the fuzz distortion effect and pedal is Grady Martin. In 1961, Martin was featured on the Marty Robbins hit ‘Don’t Worry’, wherein a faulty preamplifier distorted his guitar into a fuzzy tone. Because of the song’s success, Martin recorded an instrumental under his name later that year, using the same broken preamp. Released on Decca, the track was called ‘The Fuzz’ due to the sound of his guitar. A preamplifier – or preamp – is an electronic amplifier that converts a weak electrical signal into an output signal strong enough to be noise-tolerant and robust enough for further processing. Without this, the end signal would be distorted or noisy. 

Glenn Snoddy, the engineer on Martin’s recording sessions, partnered with his colleague Revis V. Hobbs at WSM Radio in Nashville to design and construct a one-off device to re-create the fuzzy effect. The duo then sold their build to Gibson, who released it as the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone in 1962, one of the first successful mass-produced guitar pedals.

Not long after the release of Martin’s track, influential surf instrumental group The Ventures enlisted their friend, musician, and electronics enthusiast Orville ‘Red’ Rhodes to help remake their version of Martin’s fuzzy sound. Rhodes returned to them with a fuzzbox he had assembled, which they used to record their classic ‘2000 Pound Bee’ in 1962.

It was in the 1960s, however, that distortion and the ensuing pedal would become ubiquitous. Famously, Dave Davies of British quartet The Kinks allegedly used a razor blade to slash his speaker cones, which gave their 1964 hit ‘You Really Got Me’ the gritty edge that made the song a cultural heavyweight. This moment kickstarted the era of rock moving into heavier realms. 

In May of the following year, The Rolling Stones’ resident guitar hero Keith Richards used a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone on ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, wherein his guitar sounds almost like the horn section Burnette had described many years before. Another culturally significant offering, the monumental success of the song saw sales of the distortion pedal spike, with all stock sold by the close of 1965.

This triumph inspired other companies to dip into the market, and the distortion pedal increased in prominence again, particularly after a host of other legends used them heavily. Jimi Hendrix was known to use the Mosrite FuzzRITE, Arbiter Group Fuzz Face and Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, with the latter adopted by fellow guitar hero Carlos Santana. The Beatles bassist Paul McCartney was also a prominent user, adding thickness to his band’s sound on classics such as 1965’s ‘Think for Yourself’.

Since this era, distortion pedals have become a more affordable and refined tool for musicians, split into distortion, overdrive and fuzz categories, with their many different variations on each today. Famous examples include the Ibanez Tube Screamer, the boss DS-1 Distortion, the Pro Co RAT and MXR’s Distortion +. These are just the tip of the iceberg, too; the list of distortion pedals available in contemporary times is extensive.