Fuzz (guitar effect)
The guitar effect that clips the signal so hard the waveform turns almost square — a technical fault that became a genre.
It started with a broken mixing desk channel. When Grady Martin recorded a bass solo for Marty Robbins' "Don't Worry" in 1961 it came out torn, and the label kept it. Gibson turned the fault into a product: the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone of 1962, which sold poorly until Keith Richards put it on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in 1965 and stock ran out within weeks.
Under the hood, a fuzz is two or three transistor stages driven far past what they can handle, so the peaks get sheared off. Arbiter's Fuzz Face of 1966 used germanium transistors, which sound different depending on the temperature of the room — a trait enthusiasts call character. The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff of 1969 traded some of the moodiness for sustain.