Don't have an AC30, but my tubescreamer to AC4TV is yummy!

Maybe a little more info on what flavor of distortion you're looking for? Chunky rhythm guitar, screaming leads, noisy fuzz, etc?

There are lots of really good overdrive / distortion pedals out there and the Ibanez Tube Screamer is an industry standard. The great thing about Vox amps is that they take pedals so well. There are lots of pedals based around the tube screamer design but there are others out there as well. The Pro Co RAT distortion pedal was used a lot for punk based stuff. But it depends on your budget and what you want sound-wise. Only your ears will tell you so I suggest trying a few out. Other great pedals are the Crowther Hot Cake, the Xotic BB Pre-amp, the Fulltone Fulldrive. Wampler do a great range of pedals which give Marshall type tone - The Plextortion for example. My advice is to try before you buy then have a look on e-bay where you may get a well-looked after used pedal for a fraction of the cost of the one you want new...

Hi thanks will look into the pedals mentioned, my local store has the tubescreamers and pro co rats in stock but no Vox ac30 but do a buy it and if not satisfied within 14 days bring it back so think thats the best solution. is having both pedals a bit of a waste ? I know one is overdrive and one is distortion, but can a rat be a tube screamer at low settings on the pedal ? thanks

what is best for fairly clean but screaming leads? sustained notes that sing??

TS-9 tubescreamer, Zvex FuzzFactory, believe it or not the Boss MetalZone (old one from 15 years ago) sounds great.
(I use all of the od/Distortion boxes on the normal channel, volume at 12 o'clock brightness switch off) mine is a Vox AC30cc2x
I saw Mike McReady of Pearl Jam using the TS-9 tubescreamer and a keeley modified Boss Blues Driver and he had a Heritage AC30 Combo, AC30 Head and cab and some marshall head and 4x12. (check out the video for pearl jams sound, you get to see all the toys they use)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_d6Km3QJFc&feature=fvst

Beware of the RAT, they changed all the original components... (as always, only trust your own ears) a good read on that here:
http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=7

Rock on!!

Hey Devin!

With the brightness on, I get too much of a cutting edge to the sound that I don't like that much, so I turn it off and the result is more solid, thick, dry, growling, balsy... (hehe I'm not sure if I can find more adjectives for that) when I need to get away from that and into another color I just use the MetalZone that has a great EQ with low, highs and parametric mids or a EQ pedal that I run through the FX loop, other toy I use is a ABY box to switch to the top boost channel which I run dry with the treble at 2 o'clock and bass at 10 o'clock (both pointing straight at the EQ switch that I use in the CUSTOM position) the line from the ABY to the normal channel is where I put my OD/Dist boxes, so usually I go from the guitar to the ABY, line A goes straight to the top boost, line B goes thru the FuzzFactory, TS-9, MetalZone and into the normal channel. I was using a compressor but got tired of it for now... other toys I use go through the FX loop like a digitech Whammy, a green Line6 delay, a Electro Harmonix Small stone phaser and EHX Analog Guitar Synth.
The ABY is a LEHLE Dual SGoS (it has midi control too)

http://www.lehle.com/products/frameset_l1.php?country=gb&lang=en&L1_Link=Dual

The next step for my rig is going midi :-)
http://www.voodoolab.com/gcx.htm
http://www.voodoolab.com/gcontrolpro.htm

Rock on!!

Hey Ed/Brad

Thanks for the feedback. I like the idea of the ABY box and I will give it some thought. One of my distortion/overdrive pedals that I am using is a digitech death metal pedal with awsome low's, high's and mid's, similar to the boss metal zone.

Visual Sound has a TS clone called Rt66, Fulltone has the OCD pedal and there are a ton more and those mentioned above. If you have a sound in your head find the guitar sound closest to it from a favorite guitslinger and find out what they use as opposed to what they indorse. Old Rat, Fulltone's 69 and 70 pedal get the fuzzy sound as opposed to OCD's, TS-9 sounding like an overdriven amp.

On my AC30/CC/HD I use an OCD pedal and I have an early edition Rt66. I hardly use them as I keep the filter cap at the spongy setting and the output at the 22 watt setting and blend both channels and ride the power amp and pre-amp so I get distortion with the guitar's volume all the way up and clean as I roll off. I'm more likely to use the pedals in front of the AC30 Heritage Handwired Head as it has no master volume and its a loud 30 watts, 15 watts in triode still too loud. The ABY is also a great suggestion and I think I read somewhere that there's a 9v pedal power supply that will mimic a low battery for the battery sag effect minus the headaches.

I have to throw my two cents in here...I have a thing for dirt pedals ranging from the Box of Rock to Keeley modded BD2s...Go check out the FET Dream by Cause and Effect Pedals (cepedals.com). Its incredibly transparent. My AC30CC sounds like an AC30 not a transistored pretend Marshall. One of the great things about it the circuit allows a lot of flexibility in the way the tone can be set. Go check out the website and the review on Harmony Central.

You have three real choices for adding some dirt, a booster, overdrive, or a distortion pedal. A booster pedal will add more gain and help overdrive the amp, so if you are happy with your dirt your amp produces and just want more of it thats the way to go. (For example a Fulltone Fat Boost or Treble Booster). If you want to adjust the sound of the dirt then a overdrive pedal such as a Tube screamer or the 1 million knock offs and slight modification of a tube screamer are your best bet. (For example Fulltone Fulldrive 2 or TS)
Then for a completely different sounding dirt a distortion pedal can be used, but you will hear very little of the vox distortion, the pedal takes over. (For example a Boss DS1, PROco Rat, or Fulltone OSD)
I personally have one booster (hand built treble booster), one overdrive (hand built and fully modified tube screamer, and one distortion (a modified Boss DS1).