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Amplifier and overdrive
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Technology
Amplifier and overdrive · An amplifier is supposed to make a signal larger without changing it. If you turn it up further than intended, the peaks of the sound wave are clipped and the guitar sounds rough and tearing: overdrive. As early as 1958, Link Wray poked holes in his speaker to get that sound. In 1962, in his music shop in Hanwell, in west London, Jim Marshall built an amplifier that rock guitarists could make sound loud and distorted. Hard rock and heavy metal grew out of that sound, with the power chord as their foundation.
Listening
Listening tip. Is the guitar clean or distorted? Can you hear the difference between single notes and the heavy chords?
Rumble · Link Wray & His Ray Men, 1958
You Really Got Me · The Kinks, 1964
Highway to Hell · AC/DC, 1979
In School of Rock
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