Without it, the modern rock music would be hard to imagine: The Distortion (= distortion) effect.
Originally it was simply the fact that their guitarist (then only) Roehrenverstaerker extremely wide turning up and thus overloaded. About This tax is the sound depending on the severity of a singing, screaming or screeching sound brutal, but has used the match quite an interesting dimension.
Electrically usually pretty easy to build, there are a number of ways to produce this effect. Here are some links with schematics

Here you may find Circuit, Basics, Schematic Diagram and DIY Kit components for Distortion