I've been playing guitar for a few years, and apart from upgrading my amp I've never really dabbled much with peripherals or effects. My knowledge of distortion pedals and such is pretty limited I've been considering buying a distortion pedal, but I've got a pretty basic question:
Do most guitarists use a distortion pedal coupled with their amp, if so whats the main reason for this? I know this is a really stupid question, but I've never fully understood why a distortion pedal would be necessary if the amplifier produces distortion anyway? I'm assuming this is to get a better tone, but if someones playing through an expensive tube amp which produces great sounds anyway whats the need for a distortion pedal, apart from changing between clean and overdriven tones in a song? Are there any professional musicians who don't use effects pedals?
