Crossover Distortion

[FourT6and2]

Does anybody have an actual audio file or YouTube video of what crossover distortion sounds like in a guitar amp? To this day, I've never been able to find out what it actually sounds like.

 

[FourT6and2]

Nobody? With all this talk of proper bias and matched tubes and shit, I would have thought there'd be actual audio of what crossover distortion sounds like in a guitar amp.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah, i'd be curious to hear it too.....it's a term that definitely get's "OVER"thrown around by people that have no clue wtf they're talking about.

but it IS something you can see on a scope. some amp guys argue that crossover distortion is necessary in an amp to some degree....others hold up a cross and start throwing around internet holy water at the mere mention of it.

im curious about the subject myself..

there was a ton of info on it over at metroamp.com , but the site is currently down.

 

[FourT6and2]

yeah, i'd be curious to hear it too.....it's a term that definitely get's "OVER"thrown around by people that have no clue wtf they're talking about.

but it IS something you can see on a scope. some amp guys argue that crossover distortion is necessary in an amp to some degree....others hold up a cross and start throwing around internet holy water at the mere mention of it.

im curious about the subject myself..

there was a ton of info on it over at metroamp.com , but the site is currently down.

Yeah I read all the time that techs can see it on a scope when they bias. But I'd love to hear what it sounds like because I don't own a scope. I guess I could just go rebias my amp super uber crazy cold and see what happens. But I'd rather not do that because I have it dialed in perfectly right now.

 

[Rdodson]

Dry and fizzy. Odd-order harmonics.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

So easy to hear as the distortion is in the crossover point which is usually uneffected byte typical waveform distortion. Instead of more gain on top it sounds like added crunchy gain that fills in the empty space.


I hate the crossover of a 5150, some like it some don't. Once your ear is trained you'll always hear it.

Ever used a boss hm-2? Tons of crossover . Zvex machine fuzz plus crossover dist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk5POcGAUjY

 

[FourT6and2]

So that clip sort of sounds like there's almost two amps. One that's super thin and fizzy and another that's normal, sort of filled out and deep. I might just have to rebias my amp super super cold to see what it sounds like. Can't believe nobody else has made a video or audio clip of real crossover distortion before, though.

 

[Anonymous]

So that clip sort of sounds like there's almost two amps. One that's super thin and fizzy and another that's normal, sort of filled out and deep. I might just have to rebias my amp super super cold to see what it sounds like. Can't believe nobody else has made a video or audio clip of real crossover distortion before, though.

i think rebiasing your amp to super cold wont get it.

i just did it with mine, and the only thing i could hear was a drop in output volume. other than that, business as usual.

 

[glpg80]

Dry and fizzy. Odd-order harmonics.

Technically all class AB biased amplifiers cancel even order harmonics when biased properly, as class A designs cancel even order harmonics indefinitely by cathode biasing (not including tube drift). This is also ignoring any local or global feedback and solid state designs.

To the OP, to hear crossover distortion would depend on speaker efficiencies and the volume you're playing it. Essentially what is happening is the speakers are stopping at every quarter wavelength of a sine wave. This is heard as a harsh farting low end that is undefined and a phase shifted sound on the top end of any clean signal.

If you have a tone generator and bias any class AB too cold, you can hear the breakup of the signal at larger volumes as the speaker loses the ability to reproduce a sine wave effectively.

 

[FourT6and2]

So that clip sort of sounds like there's almost two amps. One that's super thin and fizzy and another that's normal, sort of filled out and deep. I might just have to rebias my amp super super cold to see what it sounds like. Can't believe nobody else has made a video or audio clip of real crossover distortion before, though.

i think rebiasing your amp to super cold wont get it.

i just did it with mine, and the only thing i could hear was a drop in output volume. other than that, business as usual.

Weird. I thought that's how you get crossover distortion. Your amp is underbiased. That's why techs say they bias with a scope. So they can see the crossover distortion and bring the bias up to the point where it disappears. If crossover distortion isn't audible, even when the amp is biased cold... then what the hell is the point in worrying about it to begin with?

 

[FourT6and2]

This is what it sounds like from a pedal...

Cool, thanks!

Does an amp that's getting a lot of crossover or notch distortion sound like this? And I always assumed (based on how people talked about it) that an amp that's biased too cold would yield this type of sound.

This video demonstrates that crossover distortion has its place if used as an effect. But yeah... I wouldn't want my amp to sound like that all the time.

I'd still love to hear an actual guitar amp that's producing "unwanted" crossover distortion though.