Hardwired for Tone: Roc Guitar Pedals

I am a second-year engineering student that loves playing guitar. My dad often asked me how I was able to sound like Metallica or Black Sabbath. A guitar pedal is usually an analog circuit (in special cases, microcontrollers may be used to create more uncommon effects) that uses active and passive components like transistors, operational amplifiers, resistors, etc to amplify a guitar signal to make cool rock and grungy sounds.