# Who invented the distorted guitar sound?



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

To me, the distorted guitar is almost like an instrument unto itself.

My question is, who would you credit for first using/inventing/popularizing (insert legal-ese here) this sound?

I know it was before my time, so I wont take a stab at it, because the only one I can think of is Hendrix, but I'm sure there were others before him.


----------



## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

I seem to remember reading that Ike Turner would use razor blades on the speaker cones to make everything sound nasty. Of course, its all a matter of perspective, as is that really distortion or noise?...............


----------



## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

One of the stories I've hear/read many times is the one about Clapton using his 18 watt Marshall cranked while recording with Mayall's Bluesbreakers. The engineer said "It's distorting!!" and Mayall said just record it...


----------



## RIFF WRATH (Jan 22, 2007)

wasn't part of the Ventures tone the use of distortion???????????????


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(music)

Google and Wikipedia are your friends, though maybe not the last authorities on the matter.

Peace, Mooh.


----------



## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

Nobody _invented_ it. All tube amps would distort and it was seen as a design fault. Engineers actively tried to get rid of it which is why amps kept getting louder and louder through the 60s (the idea was you could have clean headroom and run the amps loud _without_ distorting).

However, by the 1960s the distorted sound had simply become an inherent part of many types of music (blues, rock, rockabilly); those early small amps defined _the sound_ of electric blues and rock music so musicians just kept cranking their amplifiers regardless of how loud it was (leading to the literally deafening concerts of the 60s and 70s). Distortion became heavier and more prevalent as rock developed and eventually engineers started purposefully making amps distort (often via redesigning preamp circuits to give much more distortiont). This trend became particularly noticeable in the mid 70s with the introduction of master volume controls and "hot rodding" companies like Mesa Boogie (who started out modifying Fender Princeton amps into super-charged distortion machines).

Hope this helps,
TG


----------



## Toogy (Apr 16, 2009)

Link Wray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_Wray


----------



## montreal (Mar 25, 2008)

seconds on Link Wray...he also proved that tuning was entirely optional
seconds on Ike Turner on Rocket 88
Can't forget Guitar Slim...who also played a Les Paul at knee level years before Jimmy Page
Even Roy Clark provided some prehistoric fuzz sounds on several Wanda Jackson sides....
But ultimately, nobody really invented because it was always there....


----------



## fishin' musician (Jun 19, 2008)

Check out Paul Burleson's growling riff on Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio's version of "Train Kept A Rollin'". That knarly Telecaster tone must be the result of something being overdriven way back in the mid-50's. No stomp box here, just straight-up amp distortion.


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I've been following this stuff for years, and while undoubtedly someone is going to find something somewhere that predates both of these two, the names that routinely come up, from those in the know, are Paul Burleson and Link Wray.

Keep in mind that loudness expectations in the early days of amplified music were VERY modest. The speakers were rated very modestly for power handling, and the amps were rarely turned up all that high. Consequently, the earliest instances of "distortion" were cases where the player had exceeded either the clean performance capabilities of the amp, or the physical limits of the speaker.

Note that the negative feedback, found in so many tube amps, was an attempt to maintain clean performance at all possible loudness levels. Eventually, someone clued in that the amount of negative feedback could be varied, and produce interesting sounds in their own right. And that, my friends, was the birth of the "Presence" control on so many classic amps.


----------



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Mooh said:


> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(music)
> 
> Google and Wikipedia are your friends, though maybe not the last authorities on the matter.
> 
> Peace, Mooh.


Thanks, I know but I trust the wisdom of the folks here on topics lilke this, more than I trust wiki.
More specifically, here's the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_(music)


----------



## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

Toogy said:


> Link Wray
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_Wray


that would have been my guess, too


----------



## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

puckhead said:


> that would have been my guess, too


Though it was Bob from Indiana ? :sport-smiley-002:


----------



## fishin' musician (Jun 19, 2008)

shoretyus said:


> Though it was Bob from Indiana ? :sport-smiley-002:


No, no, no, Bob from Indiana invented the neck bend/fake whammy bar technique.:2guns:


----------



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

shoretyus said:


> Though it was Bob from Indiana ? :sport-smiley-002:



Same here....it was on a Tuesday, fairly sure about that part.

Dave


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Diablo said:


> Thanks, I know but I trust the wisdom of the folks here on topics lilke this, more than I trust wiki.
> More specifically, here's the link.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_(music)


WTF! I never even was on the "overdrive" page according to my internet history, but that's what was linked. How did *that* happen? Anyway, Diablo provided the link I *thought* I provided. Weirdopedia strikes again.

Peace, Mooh.


----------



## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

Charlie Christian......recorded August 1939. Sweet, sweet distorted tone.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Somewhere is the deep recesses of my memory I recall a story about the Kinks being one of the early advocates of distorted guitar.


----------



## Joey D. (Oct 16, 2006)

I remember when I was a bit younger, I was standing behind the Kinks and "You Really Got Me" as being the first intentional use of distortion, when a far more knowledgeable individual slapped some sense into me and asked "Don't you think somewhere, sometime in segregation era America some bluesman in a juke-joint had his amp singing on 10?"....he had a point.


----------



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Guitar Slim and Link Wray from what I've read so far.


----------



## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Not sure who invented it, but Leo Fender perfected it. :smile:


----------



## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Sneaky said:


> Not sure who invented it, but Leo Fender perfected it. :smile:


Don Leslie had a little invention that distorted too. Just no strings attached to it.


----------



## sysexguy (Mar 5, 2006)

Shouldn't Big Jim Sullivan be on the short list?

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:dpfrxq95ldfe

Andy


----------



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Thanks everyone, lots of good info here, and some names I've never heard of for me to check out sometime.


----------



## Stonesy (Oct 7, 2008)

Link Wray is supposed to be the guy who went specifically for it. But I bet Lester came up with it first and said 'OH MY WHAT HAVE I DONE'.


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

This is interesting:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-46209.html

Peace, Mooh.


----------



## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Mooh said:


> This is interesting:
> 
> http://www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-46209.html
> 
> Peace, Mooh.



That is interesting...And yet indefinitive. Looks like I posed a question that is impossible to answer with any certainty, but interesting nonetheless (to me at least) :smile:


----------



## peter benn (Mar 29, 2007)

faracaster said:


> Charlie Christian......recorded August 1939. Sweet, sweet distorted tone.


I was going to vote third-stage Django Reinhardt with the L5, faracaster, but I believe you win here. Only caveat would be that Reinhardt's '30s Hot Club stuff was acoustic into mike, too.

The 1951-1953 stuff where he was in the States with the L5, playing with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet, was either through a mike or through a pickup, I don't know. However, IMO there is an extremely dirty tube amp in the chain, perhaps a single 15" combo amp.

This clarinet-period stuff has lots of thick, dirty power chords, with distortion a little like Jeff Beck on "Rough and Ready," IMO.


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Diablo said:


> That is interesting...And yet indefinitive. Looks like I posed a question that is impossible to answer with any certainty, but interesting nonetheless (to me at least) :smile:


Though I've posted some possibilities, I personally doubt there's a definitive answer as it's nigh on impossible to know for certain in an era and area of rampant simultaneous discovery. Certainly there are some very early examples, documentation, and classic definitions, never mind "how to" descriptions. 

However, it is fun to speculate.

Peace, Mooh.


----------

