Why does my distortion sound fizzy?

What fizz is

Fizz is a thin, buzzing layer on top of the notes, loudest on held chords and as each note dies away. Players also call it buzzy or brittle, and a search for why distortion sounds fuzzy is usually after the same problem.

It sits at the opposite end from mud. A muddy tone has too much low end. A fizzy one has too much of the very top: the upper harmonics that distortion creates and that a guitar speaker would normally smooth off. That is why most of the fixes below take something away rather than add it.

Turn the gain down

Gain is the biggest cause. A distortion stage turned up past what the part needs keeps adding upper harmonics, compression and noise, and very little extra weight, so the tone gets buzzier without getting heavier. It also blurs palm mutes and fast riffs.

Lower the gain until a palm-muted riff stays clear, then bring the weight back with the middle and the volume rather than the gain. A louder sound always seems heavier, and the body of a distorted guitar sits in the mids. Most rhythm tones need less gain than they seem to when you play alone.

Presence, treble and the pedal's tone knob

After the gain, take the presence down a step at a time, then the treble. Presence works on the upper treble, which is where fizz lives, so turning it down often removes the fizz and keeps the body the treble control gives. Some amps have no presence knob: the Boss Katana-50 MkII has none, so on a 50 the top end comes from the Treble alone.

A distortion pedal's tone knob does the same job after the clipping. Start it near noon and shape the rest with the amp. The Pro Co RAT 2 is the one to remember: its Filter knob works backwards, so turning it up cuts treble, and a RAT that fizzes usually needs the Filter turned up, not down.

No speaker in the chain

A guitar speaker is a filter as much as a loudspeaker. Celestion gives the frequency range of the Vintage 30 as 70 to 5,000 Hz, the G12M Greenback as 75 to 5,000 Hz and the G12T-75 as 80 to 5,000 Hz, and it describes the Greenback's restrained top end as giving a lead tone without fizz. What a distortion circuit produces above that range, the speaker mostly leaves out.

Take the speaker away and the fizz comes straight through. That happens when a distortion pedal or an amp's line out goes into an audio interface, a mixing desk, a keyboard amp or a full-range PA speaker. The fix is a speaker simulation, a cab block or an impulse response somewhere after the distortion.

Most modelling amps build one into their headphone output. BOSS says the Katana MkII's phones jack gives you guitar sounds just as if you were playing through the speaker, so fizz in a Katana's headphones is a settings problem, not a missing cab.

Amp sims, IRs and the audio interface

In a plugin or a floor modeller, first check that the cab block or IR is switched on. Then use its high cut. Line 6's POD Go manual describes the Low Cut and High Cut on its cab and IR blocks as filtering the bass and treble to help remove rumble and high-end harshness. Start the High Cut around 8 kHz and lower it until the buzz goes. Much below 5 kHz you start removing what a real speaker would have kept, and the tone turns dull.

Then check the input level. Focusrite's Scarlett guide warns that with the preamp gain too high you might clip the input and hear harsh distortion in the recording; its gain halo turns red when that happens. Clipping the interface adds a hard digital distortion before the amp sim sees the signal, and nothing in the plugin can take it back out. Use the instrument setting on the input and keep your hardest playing out of the red.

Use one speaker simulation, not two and not none. A modeller with its cab on, going into a guitar amp, sounds boxy and dark; the same modeller with its cab off, going into headphones or a PA, fizzes.

Two drives at once

Stacking two high-gain sources gives fizz and mush rather than more saturation: a distortion pedal into an amp's distorted channel, or an overdrive with its drive turned up into a high-gain amp. Keep one of the two low. A distortion pedal usually sounds best into the amp's clean channel, with the amp's treble around 5.

The stack that tightens instead of fizzing is an overdrive such as a Tube Screamer with its drive near zero and its level high, in front of a high-gain amp. It trims the bass before the amp's distortion and pushes the input harder, which often lets you turn the amp's own gain down.

Pickups, the guitar and where you listen

A bright bridge pickup, a single coil especially, sends more top end into the distortion than a neck pickup or a humbucker does. Roll the guitar's tone knob back to 8, or its volume to 8 or 9, and the fizz often goes while the rest of the sound stays. Hot humbuckers push the amp harder, so take the gain a step lower again when you switch to one.

Volume and position change what you hear. Ears pick up less treble at low volume, so a tone set quietly often carries too much of it and turns harsh when you turn up. Headphones, or a speaker aimed straight at your ears, give you all of the top end with no room to soften it. Set the tone at the volume and through the speaker you will actually play with.

If the buzz is still there with the gain down and a clean sound, it is not the distortion. A crackle that comes and goes as you move the lead points to the cable or a jack, and a rattle on particular notes is usually something loose in the room or the cabinet.

When the fizz is gone but the song still sounds wrong

These fixes give a smooth-edged distortion on almost any rig. Matching a particular record is a different job, because the gain and EQ a song needs move from one amp to the next. When you want one song set up on the amp and guitar you own, Tonelify works out the positions using only the controls that amp actually has.