Three in One Pedals for Fuzz, OD, Distortion – Guitars Forum

Yep, that’s how I understand it as well, an overdrive is meant to push the amp, a distortion is supposed to be used with a clean amp. Some of them seems to overlap though, you can find overdrives which sound good with a clean amp and has plenty of gain, and you can of course use a distortion to boost/push a distorted amp, as I used my Boss HM-2 for. It might not be a great distortion pedal, it’s a decent booster though. For me, and this is just my perception of it, the distinction is the sound. There’s a distinct overdrive sound, fuller and softer, and a distinct distortion sound, thinner and sharper, of course a lot of pedals just fall somewhere inbetween

Is the Big Muff a fuzz or an overdrive btw? According to the internet it’s both, it apparently has both fuzz type circuits and overdrive type circuits built in, technically the answer might be in the chips and circuits