
Originally Posted by
duncs
The term "fuzz box" is often used generically to refer to any effects device which produces a distorted sound, however the distortion in some classic guitar effects pedals, is not actually produced by transistor clipping, but rather by diode clipping.
As clipping is a non-linear process, intermodulation will occur, leading to the generation of an output signal rich in extra harmonics of the input signal. Intermodulation distortion also produces frequency components at the various sums and differences of the frequency components of the input signal. In general, these components will not be harmonically related to the input signal, leading to dissonance. To reduce unwanted dissonance, simple power chords (root, fifth, and octave) are often used when using fuzzboxes, rather than triads (root, third, and fifth) or four-note chords (root, third, fifth, and seventh).
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