Distortion. Merriam-Webster describes it as “falsified reproduction of an audio or video signal caused by a change in waveform of the original signal,” and it’s certainly one of the most important words in a guitarist’s vocabulary. We take it for granted these days that distortion circuitry is built into just about every amplifier and modeling device we plug into. Distortion pedals were originally developed to mimic the warm overdrive that tube amps were famous for, and were a refreshing change from the fuzzboxes and treble boosters that preceeded them. But guitarists always go back to the roots of tone to find “new” ways of expressing themselves, and that’s why any respectable pedalboard these days likely contains distortion pedals, fuzzes, boosters, Octavias, and just about anything else that can alter a waveform to produce interesting distorted harmonics.