tlw
My current personal favourites are a Dunlop mini-fuzz face immediately after the guitar. Silicon for 'buckers, germanium for single coils. Run the gain flat out, then as you back off the guitar volume the tone brightens and fuzz decreases. You can get some nice overdrive/edge of distortion touch sensitive sounds that way. Nothing responds to the guitar quite like a simple fuzzface circuit and the Dunlop ones are fine. No need to pay "boutique" prices for a circuit that uses a handful of cheap components.

Yes.  I have one of the red ones (germanium) and it is amazing how it responds to the guitar volume.  I use it like you describe, but I also use it into another pedal (either a Wampler Sovereign or Triple Wreck).  Rolling off the volume a bit I get a nice tight mid-to-hi gain sound that is very similar to what I'd get without the fuzz.  Bring it back up and it's that thick, juicy lead tone I just love.  From what I've read about these things I think the blue one would be a better match for my pickups, but the red one still works well for this purpose.  If you don't already have a fuzz pedal these are a very good start.

MakeShift
 
I just got this OD pedal a couple of months ago, at the recommendation of Herb.  I am liking the smooth overdriven tones that I get from it as well.
 
 

 
I bought this for the paint job it has.....
 
 
No, not really, I too got it at the recommendation of a player I have great respect for.  I was lamenting the tone on the Fender Tele I had bought and was considering selling. I just couldn't seem to get a decent tone that I liked. The Gibson SG I have has great tone and I had always played it with a straight cord.... no pedals. I haven't used pedals in decades, preferring the sound of the tubes in the amp for tone.  The Tele was giving me fits trying to dial in a tone I liked. 
 
So my buddy Rick read one of my posts and suggested that before I sell the Tele, to spend the $30 or so and get the Joyo Ultimate Drive and see if that would solve the tone issue. Indeed..... problem was solved as the Joyo added the right amount of sweet, smooth, distortion to let the amps work their magic in fine fashion.
 
It is the only pedal I use in my guitar signal chain.  The amps are my Mesa Boogie Studio 22w and my POD2 modeling preamp.

Right now I'm using a 64 princeton  -clean - a first version Sansamp  into a Roland RE 501 tape delay w reverb and bucket brigade chorus. I'm looking to mod the 501 to mix back the chorus a bit. Great sound but it's default to about 50/50 mix - I want to scale it back. The Sans amp is dialed way back to almost nothing on the drive settings and it gets a really good subtle drive for jazz and fusion work.

FWIW I finally settled on the new more compact version of the Direct Drive. I found one used and it didn't look like I could lose in that selection.

there are so many good pedals on the market now....
but you cannot go wrong with the barber direct drive.
it is a really nice piece of kit.

be sure to try it in 18v

I usually go through a Digitech multiprocessor.  But when I want a different (hard) sound, I go to my old Boss Super Distortion Feedbacker (DF 2).  It may no longer available, but this little puppy just kills with excellent driven tone.  (I'm a tone freek.)  As for the feedbacker, it's gimmicky and I really don't use it.  It seemed cool then I first bought the peddle, but natural feedback, when desired, sound much better anyhow.
 
Well, that's my contribution.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

The Direct Drive finally got plugged in today and it seems to fit the need very well.  
 
On another note, I also got a Digitech Luxe pedal and I really like it as well.  Reminds me of the Boss Dimension C somewhat.  It gives you the shimmer without the chorus-ey effect.

18 volts.