Crunch (krə́nč) is the musical term used to describe a highly distorted guitar played with a palm-mute picking articulation. The distortion creates a heavy, crunchy sound that embodies a lot of tension. Achieving the standard crunch sound is usually accomplished by running an electric guitar through a distortion pedal and into an amplifier with low- and high-end frequency equalization. The guitar is played with a pick, usually on the lower bass strings. The crunch guitar sound is most often associated with rock, metal and punk rock music.