Looking for a drive pedal to put in front of my tube amp

If you're looking to tighten things up, you can't go wrong with a Maxon OD808.

klon centaur.  good luck.

The Empress Para EQ is great. Very low noise with a huge clean boost. The EQ is great and works with lots of instruments and it's so clean you can record through it or use it as an outboard effect.

There's too many options when it comes to drive pedals. Everyone has their own idea of what makes a good overdriven sound and drive pedals must be the biggest genre of stomp boxes. You can't go wrong buying something well known and popular. If you don't like it it's easier to sell than something obscure. 

I've just bought a Wampler Euphoria. Great tones with lots of knobs to fiddle with!

Maybe I missed it... but.... what amp are you playing through?

I'm admittedly "old skool"... so with that in mind.....

I played through various amps through the years.... some tube, some transistor.  And during that time I used any number and make of disto-pedals with varying results. 

I eventually broke down, slammed the bucks down on the counter, and bought a decent tube amp. Mesa Boogie 22w studio combo. 

From that day forward, I use only a straight through guitar cord. No pedals on live playing. Just tone that comes naturally from hot tubes. 

In the studio, I tend to cheat a bit. I use a Line 6 POD 2 modeler. However, in my own defense, none of the fx settings are used except the reverb. Dial up the tone and let it rip. 

My thought is (being old skool) that a decent tube amp should give you what you need without having to add pedals to the signal chain......

OK... so that's my 2 cents.... I'll duck now. 

I had a couple of Carvin amps. 

The first was the 50w combo with 2 channels and a 12" 70w speaker. The 2 channels were switchable and there was a 3rd input which sent the signal to BOTH channels so you could actually blend the clean and distortion together.... very nice feature.  Most 2 channel amps are either one or two but not both.... 

That amp really kicked a$$ ...  It blew the factory speaker at least 2 times.... (free reconing from Carvin both times) and it also had the nasty habit of blowing one of the chips in the front end section. I ended up carrying some spare chips in my gig bag.  That was a sweet little amp. I bought it as a replacement to an Ampeg 100w combo, with 2 12's that was unbelievably heavy.....and the Carvin, which was much lighter, blew that Ampeg away in volume and tone. Sold the Ampeg... good riddence. 

The second Carvin I got was the Carvin  answer to the Mesa Boogie..... self contained, 100w into a 12" EV custom speaker. 2 channels switchable but not blendable.... and a switch to go half power.  Talk about LOUD..... that thing would part your hair.... I ended up selling it because it had entirely too much power for the bands I was playing in. It sounded good cranked but it was definitely over kill for the gig's we  were playing.

That's when I looked into the Mesa Boogie 22w studio.  It's a very loud 22w amp that drips with tone at a much lower volume on a stage in a country band. With it's direct out, I ran that to a Carvin DCA-800 power amp and into 2 4x12 cabs, and used the attenuators on the DCA to set the volume to the levels needed on stage. The Boogie was on one of the 4x12 cabs with a 15" Jensen extension speaker on the floor to let me hear myself clearly and not have to play so freaking loud..... the 2 cabs really made for a fat full sound without dominating the stage. 

i use this as a boost....







works great on an amp that is 'almost' dialed in.






but when i want serious drive, i use this:




my Katrina-relief Barber Direct Drive Super Sport


awesome, gives a marshall edge to my smooth boogie sound.....


and he has a NEW Small footprint version of this pedal:


highly recommended, for a DRIVE pedal.