i recently just purchased a new distortion pedal. It is the Boss DS-1. I see a lot of people using this pedal. Probably because it is cheap, and sounds good. It is like a Honda Accord. Anyways, if I were to run this pedal direct, it sounds like crap. That's what happened when I first bought it. I didn't have an amp set up, so I ran it direct, and what came back at me through my monitor was not the desired sound. I almost took it back right then and there. But I gave it a day, and hooked it up to an old tube amp, and wow! Sounds great. Slap on a little reverb, and I had a good sounding pedal. I think it was 40 dollars. Smart buy. I am stuggling whether or not to use individual pedals, or to keep on using my digital processor. Life is full of wonderful choices.