Just wanted to see what everyone thinks. Up until I quit my last band a few months ago, I thought distortion/overdrive pedals were the spawn of Satan. I was doing a Creed/3 Doors Down kinda thing(we actually could and did play guitar solos though). So I had a Les Paul/Mesa Boogie metal sound going on. I recently quit and switched to a bluesy Fender setup. I got addicted to this forum and, lo and behold, you guys already have me addicted to pedals. Bought 3 different pedals in the last month. A Fulltone '70, a REAL TS-9(not a reissue) and a Jekyll and Hyde. Anyways, to make a long story even longer, I swear by pedals and not amp distortion now. Just wondering what you guys think?

hey,
i guess it's all just a matter of taste- i'm doing the blues thing, too, and i generally just use the pedals i have ('69, octafuzz, and fat-boost) for solos and shtuff. i run two fenders- vibrolux and two-tone- so i have two different amp sounds and different levels of breakup to switch between. it seems funny to say "i like a straight-to-the-amp sound" when i've got a full pedalboard in front of me, but i usually only have one or two at most in the signal chain. so that's my take- cheers...

I have been a distortion pedal guy up until recently, mainly because i can't afford an amp with decent distortion. I've been forced to use pedals because although my Fender Hot Rod Deville has a good clean sound, the drive channels are pathetic. The Jekyll and Hyde has been my top choice thus far, but hopefully it will become my backup once my FAT Multiscream arrives. I've been looking around for a good full fleged Distortion pedal rather than an overdrive (is anyone else tired of waiting for the Fulltone DistortionPro to come out??) but I've come to the sad realization that I will never get the lead tone I'm looking for from my Fender amp. So my ultimate plan is to A/B my Fender+the Multiscream for clean and bluesy sounds with a Peavey 5150II for lead sounds. Looks like I gotta start saving up again...

Amp. I use Soldano.

In my case... most of the time using a PSA-1 preamp. Some might nto agree to say it's amp distortion tho but to me it falls in the same category.

Tho sometime I do use it with pedals in front for experiments... it's always fun to rediscover a pedal after a few years of not using it regularly you sometime get good surprises

hmmm.... it's all relative. The amp is going to be the deciding factor in either case. Sometimes I like running my Jekyll & Hyde into my Marshall for a cheesy metal tone for shits and giggles, but it doesn't really compare to the amp cranked. The best facimile, but there is a discernible difference. You just can't replace cookin' tubes. However, you can easily, as many artists have done, Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, etc., obtain your own sound with pedals or a combination of such.