Anyone use a clean amp with pedals for OD/Dist?

[nosajwp]

I've always had difficulty finding a channel switching amp where I liked all of the channels. I've also been through many great OD and distortion pedals that sounded great through a clean amp, but never quite right when added to an amp's OD channel (at least for my tastes).

How many of you guys out there use your amp for clean sounds, and get your OD's and distortion flavors only from pedals?

If I were to decide to go this route, what would be a good clean tube amp head or combo that takes many kinds of OD/dist pedals well?

 

[X-1]

Even though I use a MkIII Simulclass Boogie, I often run with just the clean channel and then use a Carl Martin Hot Drive N Boost pedal for distortion tones.

 

[Platypus]

I use my Orange combo for this. It doesn't take pedals too well though, for example it hates my TS9 but loves my OCD.

 

[ytse_jam]

i use an OD pedal with the clean channel of my mesa amp only for slightly overdriven tones, and i like the job it does. For hi-gain distortion i would go for a hi-gain designed amp and add a boost pedal only for solos if needed (an OD pedal with quite low drive settings can help in boosting and smoothing your tone). I've heard good tones from fenders+OD pedals, and also from marshall JCM900 clean+OD pedals...Not sure if Mesa's are the best choice to achieve an hi-gain distortion with the combination clean channel + OD pedal... 'cause you can't beat their own lead channels imo

 

[Cleekster]

I've also been through many great OD and distortion pedals

There's no such thing as a great distortion pedal IMHO.....you just haven't found the right amp yet.....and if you think pedals are great you should be checking out solid-state or digital modeling amps.....i mean really don't you think putting a transistor based box in front of a set of tubes......well isn't that more or less self-defeating...like trying to turn a tube amp into a solid-state or something....just something to think about.