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→Effect on Tone
* Triangle wave - A triangle wave has progressively diminishing overtones, so the waveform is most impacted by the those closest to the fundamental. It sounds brighter and more interesting than a pure sine wave. Vocally it sounds like "aaaaaa".
* Square wave - A square wave has perfect overtones extending out to infinity with the same volume as the fundamental. As expected it sounds bright, but it doesn't sound shrill. Actually it sounds quite pleasing. Vocally it sounds like "ooooo".
== Applied to Guitar ==
Guitar strings tend to have lots of overtones by nature. This is heightened by several things:
* New strings
* Using a pick vs. fingers
* Playing harmonics vs. open strings vs. fretted notes
* Using higher values on the tone knob
* Picking location on the string
* Picking style/angle/strength
Distortion also tends to emphasize overtones. The most basic method of distortion is clipping, where the peaks of the waves are "cut-off" or flattened. If the guitar signal is a sine wave, it becomes clear to see that the greater the clipping that occurs, the more the signal resembles a square wave, which we know has high levels of overtones.