‘Musical’ overdrive. Wtf?

joshahobbs17 · September 2023

This is the strangest description ever used in pedal reviews for me. Does anybody have any clue what somebody is trying to get across when they use it? Feels like the most nonsense of all guitar pedal jargon…

Secret_Sam · September 2023

It means that if you wind it up and then open it, it plays a tinkly version of The Nutcracker Suite while a model ballerina rotates for your amazement and delight.

Sassafras · September 2023

It's the opposite of "un-musical".

Secret_Sam · September 2023

But in general I am always impressed by the gap between the reality of an overdrive (compression, sustain and a buzzing noise caused by squaring off the waveforms) and the lyricism of the manufacturers' marketing staff.

soma1975 · September 2023

The old Jan Ray marketing bumpf going on about the tonal characteristics of the enclosure was funny.

Also Isle of Tone going on about NOS cardboard for their circuit board.

merlin · September 2023

Bearing in mind not only how many different types of music there are in the world, and how many different guitar tones there are.... and taste. Let's not forget a twiddler's taste.

ICBM · September 2023

It’s all to do with crystal lettuce.

roberty · September 2023

Unmusical would be hard clipping without any pleasing compression or harmonic distortion. So the opposite of that

thermionic · September 2023

Could it refer to there being more even-order than odd-order harmonics?

digitalkettle · September 2023

Secret_Sam said:

It means that if you wind it up and then open it, it plays a tinkly version of The Nutcracker Suite while a model ballerina rotates for your amazement and delight.

Yep, if it's also a transparent overdrive, you should be able to see the mechanism turning.

Seziertisch · September 2023

With drive pedals people are looking to hear certain frequencies (generally speaking mids) pushed or boosted, and others (generally speaking bass and treble) cut or at least not boosted.

A “musical” pedal, in my understanding at least, is one that does that in a way that aligns with what the player wants to hear, and ideally can be adjusted to whatever gear a player is using.

I recently picked up a Klon clone and I would describe the tone control on it as “musical” - it’s one knob, it boosts and cuts and it works well with a variety of pedals running into it, nearly always “improving” the sound to my ears at least.

merlin · September 2023

I think "musical" is a fruity word, more fruity than say "pleasant sounding" or "smooth".

It's a bit like "nose" meaning "smell" in wine snobbery.

joshahobbs17 · September 2023

roberty said:

Unmusical would be hard clipping without any pleasing compression or harmonic distortion. So the opposite of that

Does the sound coming out of said pedal cease to be music? Just feels like an arbitrary label people put on things that they presume everybody understands

EricTheWeary · September 2023

I've seen heard/that but I'm not sure what they mean. Everything you could say to give it meaning (clarity, harmonically rich or whatever)you could have said in the first place. At least it's not 'organic' I guess.

Secret_Sam · September 2023

thermionic said:

Could it refer to there being more even-order than odd-order harmonics?

You might be onto something there. It wouldn't be quite that straightforward. Using only even- numbered harmonics, you can generate a triangle wave an octave up from the fundamental frequency, or with different parameters you could get an asymmetric waveform.

You raise a very good point, though. It would reduce the waffle if manufacturers provided sample waveforms and frequency plots at a couple of different gain levels. A bit like they do for speakers.

But that wouldn't be very rock and roll and we might just choose the pedals that look coolest anyway.

monquixote · September 2023

I must confess that when I've heard overdrives described as "musical" it doesn't conjure anything in my mind other than as another way of saying "Good"

Sassafras · September 2023

It's just hype that sounds like it means something but doesn't, like most hype.

thecolourbox · September 2023

ICBM said:

It’s all to do with crystal lettuce.

I used to love her song "Don't it make my brown eyes blue" when I were a kid

hotpickups · September 2023

This is the kind of marketing bullshit I hate that is said when selling stuff of this ilk

merlin · September 2023

It means that it would work especially well if you were playing tunes from Showboat, Oklahoma, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, The Book of Mormon, Les Miserables. The King And I..... et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

joshahobbs17 · September 2023

hotpickups said:

This is the kind of marketing bullshit I hate that is said when selling stuff of this ilk

It’s also said by reviewers when they feel the need to trot up some fluff

merlin · September 2023

joshahobbs17 said:

hotpickups said:

This is the kind of marketing bullshit I hate that is said when selling stuff of this ilk

It’s also said by reviewers when they feel the need to trot up some fluff

And when they can't hear or feel the difference between this week's latest Musical Overdrive and last week's latest guitar that plays like butter.

57Deluxe · September 2023

Julie Andrews Overdrive

randella · September 2023

ICBM said:

It’s all to do with crystal lettuce.

Needs a 'Liz Truss' setting.

randella · September 2023

On a serious note, I think it's one of those 'fluff' words that we're all guilty of using as guitarists.

In my mind, it's like this: I have a few Marshalls here - one manages a reasonable facsimile of a cranked 2204 and sounds great to my ears. Musical, I guess. The other day I bought an MA100H head for dirt cheap as a platform for experiments. The drive channel is nasty (and not in a good way). Harsh, grating, generally unpleasant. That's not musical.

DLM · September 2023

randella said:

ICBM said:

It’s all to do with crystal lettuce.

Needs a 'Liz Truss' setting.

Wis'd. Whatever Cormac Battle used in Wilt.

joshahobbs17 · September 2023

randella said:

On a serious note, I think it's one of those 'fluff' words that we're all guilty of using as guitarists.

In my mind, it's like this: I have a few Marshalls here - one manages a reasonable facsimile of a cranked 2204 and sounds great to my ears. Musical, I guess. The other day I bought an MA100H head for dirt cheap as a platform for experiments. The drive channel is nasty (and not in a good way). Harsh, grating, generally unpleasant. That's not musical.

I do get this. I think all the words you used to describe the dirt channel there make sense, except I still don’t know if I’d say it makes it ‘not musical’ because almost any sound can be found a use for in some kind of musical context. Feels to me like people use it to mean ‘pleasant’ or ‘unpleasant’.

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‘Musical’ overdrive. Wtf?

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