overdrive

Overdrive is a type of drive effect that boosts the guitar's signal and slightly clips the waveform's peaks, producing a broken-up sound associated with a pushed tube amp¹. It provides a gain boost that pushes an amp harder and causes it to distort, while also adding its own clipping, which is less than that of a typical distortion pedal²³. Compared to distortion, overdrive has a cleaner (but not clean) sound with usually less sustain that is more "bluesy," accenting or enhancing the amp's sound rather than dominating it². Overdrive pedals are typically dynamic and touch sensitive, usually using soft clipping, and are used by blues, rock, and country players, with tube screamer types also common among metal players for tightening up tone⁴.