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Some "all valve" amplifiers (cough!) actually have an IC front end. Depending upon specific design this will overload, maybe not nicely, when hit with a pedal or it might have ~3 times the headroom of a triode and be impossible to overload with a 9V pedal.
The triode first stage is virtually impossible to overdrive with most passive guitars so any OD effects start with the second valve stage and onward. A 9V powered pedal will boost the guitar and start the first valve stage on its way to distortion.
Bottom line: the guitar/pedal/amp system is peculiar to THOSE components, no other combination will behave in the same way.
Diode Clippers. Said it before, what most folks call a "clipper" is in fact a diode feedback compressor and only 'clips' in extremis.
You need to see the schematic to know which you are talking about.
Dave.
Step 2: if not, change things around a bit. Repeat step one.
Step 3: play music.
Don't overthink things - if it sounds good and works for you, it's good. For some people, that means a bandit and some boss pedals, for others it means hand wired boutique amps and no stompboxes to colour the tone whatsoever.
Long answer: because pedals (or combinations of pedals) can give you sounds you can't get from an amp alone. Generally when you're playing in and around the zone where pick attack determines how much your sound is clean or crunchy. Add pedals to that and you have a surprisingly wide amount of variation in exactly how that clean/crunch thing works and sounds and feels. Amp + pedals can also relieve you of fxloop headaches, depending on how you set your basic amp sound.
In my case I'm very happy to accept that despite having a really really nice amp I think it sounds even better with a couple of $150 boxes in the signal chain.
As for drive pedals, something like a Rockett Archer just thickens the tone gorgeously when the amp is starting to break up. It enhances the tone rather than colouring it. All subjective though - get your ears on the case and enjoy whatever you get!
Not that pedals can’t sound fine, but rolling back the guitar volume gives you an infinite palette of edge of breakup and up that any number of OD pedals never gave me
I used to have 3-4 tones using OD pedals - now I have one, or 500, depending on how you look at it
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I sold my tube amp and am using a Quilter 101. I've always used pedals for distortion etc.
Though I love the sound of an amp just breaking up, I can get a similar sound on the Quilter, and it's more like a monitor with a good clean sound base for me.
Would I get another tube amp? Maybe, but now it's not feasible.
I do remember the first time I put a Big Muff through a cranked Fender Deville,and it was great.
Use them as required.
A transistor is generally linear. When it's just about saturated, it'll amplify the signal without any distortion by the same amount (gain) as a small signal that's nowhere near the saturation level. As soon as the signal is big enough to saturate the component, it'll clip and you'll hear distortion. No initial compression, just clipping.
The net result is that the "soft-clipping" of the valve will introduce even-order harmonics into the signal, and the transistor's "hard-clipping" will introduce odd-order harmonics. One is more pleasing to the ear than the other, I'll leave you to guess which .
However, a pure valve signal can be spiced up with a few odd-order harmonics from a solid-state drive stage. This gives your sound some of what's usually described as 'bite' or 'grit'.
Mix to taste and don't ever let anyone tell you you're doing it 'wrong'. If you like the sound then you like the sound. Doesn't matter a jot what the internet says.
If we'd have had reliable, cheap transistors in the 1940's when L. Fender was making his first foray into musical instrument amplification, we'd be hearing a totally different sound today.
That hallowed valve distortion that we all adore and revere was a happy accident. The aforementioned Fender didn't actually approve - he liked it clean. Then again, he apparently never thought much to Jimi Hendrix either. Takes all sorts to make a world.
My pedal board amounts to 7 pedals - all of which (aside from looper and tuner) I could happily live without if I had to!