Amp distortion or pedal distortion?

[tom1325]

so what do you guys think? do you use your amps distortion/overdrive sound on its own, or do you use the clean channel and use a distortion pedal, or a combination of both??

[rastachild]

it really depends on the amp honestly. i don't think there is a hard and fast rule for every amp. there are some amps that have great sounding natural overdrive and gain stages (crunch, lead, etc.). then there are amps that have great clean channels that are the basis for great overdriven tones (when pushed by a distortion pedal). sometimes the gain from the pedal sounds better than the natural sound of the amp. or maybe you like having the option of both. one thing i can say for certain is that it's definitely a different sound (pedal vs natural amp distortion), so it really just boils down to preference.

that being said, i run my laney and marshall on the dirty channel with the gain extremely low (barely overdriving) and then run a modded ts9 on that for rhythm and a bb xotic on top of that as a lead boost. sounds great.

[tom1325]

thanks for your reply, reason for asking is because im planning on my buying a new amp and possibly some new pedals

[TheYoungGuitarist]

I've got a Laney GH50L that I run through an Orange PPC212 cab and the distortion is incredible without any pedals. I used my DS-1 with it once or twice and it didn't make a difference really.
If the distortion on the amp that you get isn't sufficient, use a tubescreamer with it, maybe with a Keeley mod like rastachild. I was shown a modded TS9 before on a JCM800 and it made so much difference in comparison to an unmodded TS9. I'd get one but I can't afford it!

I like to keep my amp sound as pure as possible, apart from effects like reverb/delay. As convinient as pedals are, I prefer not to use them - unless it's a modded TS9 of course!