Help choosing drive pedals, or: what overdrive sounds good between a Fuzz Factory and possibly-cringe amp?

[wkc]

Playing a bit more electric after what feels like years of mostly bass and acoustic. I like to put my Fuzz Factory clone first on some out-there setting that allows me to throw down a wall of noise right quick. Putting a warm "amp-like" saturation after that compresses the noise into something acceptable. If I have my Iridium or e.g. a Fender Hot Rod after the FF, I'm probably good.

Problem: I have to play through backline amps quite often. If it's something with bad or no drive of its own, that might make using the FF difficult. So I'm ideally looking for an overdrive that can add a workable, expressive distortion to random backline amps on the one end, and flatter fuzz outrageousness coming in the other end, to make a small modular distortion chain (FF -> mystery OD? -> Iridium) from which I can include or exclude pedals as the situation requires.

Is there any pedal that can do this that you would suggest? I haven't bought a pedal in so long, I don't even know what's out there anymore.

[CS]

I've had a fuzz factory since 2000 with various amps and pedals. I'll try to answer your question as asked and also the issue as I see it. Ymmv.

The fuzz factory smooths out with a gain pedal after it. I liked a lovetone big cheese with it, but it was an expensive tone control so it went. A booster with a tone control is good. A bluesbreaker type pedal works well. As does a fuzz like a wooly mammoth. However I like my fuzz factory on its own. Last year I bought a bliss factory with a gazillion options and I regret to say I'm keeping it as an investment.

So my advice is experiment and try things with a decent tone control.

Now to where the issue is. IMHO it's 6L6 amps specifically the hrd i've tried a cornell pig nose twin and two hrds mki and mkiii. I now use el84 amps and the fuzz factory is so much better.

By all means try drive pedals. I did use the word but to start the next sentence but didn't like how it looked before plug. So, plug into a vox one day.

[wkc]

I've had a fuzz factory since 2000 with various amps and pedals. I'll try to answer your question as asked and also the issue as I see it. Ymmv.

The fuzz factory smooths out with a gain pedal after it. I liked a lovetone big cheese with it, but it was an expensive tone control so it went. A booster with a tone control is good. A bluesbreaker type pedal works well. As does a fuzz like a wooly mammoth. However I like my fuzz factory on its own. Last year I bought a bliss factory with a gazillion options and I regret to say I'm keeping it as an investment.

So my advice is experiment and try things with a decent tone control.

Now to where the issue is. IMHO it's 6L6 amps specifically the hrd i've tried a cornell pig nose twin and two hrds mki and mkiii. I now use el84 amps and the fuzz factory is so much better.

By all means try drive pedals. I did use the word but to start the next sentence but didn't like how it looked before plug. So, plug into a vox one day.

Yes, I usually use the Vox model on my Iridium and it takes the fuzz well at whatever setting. Maybe I should just turn off the cab sim and use that.

[GreenKnee]

My KTR found its way back on my board after finding how well it works after my Sun Face, so try a Klon/klone and see what you think? The £20 Amazon klones would achieve the same thing no doubt

[zhivago]

My '00 Fuzz Factory reacts differently with each of my guitars...with some, going Fuzz Factory > Klon > amp it sounds god-like, with others it sounds like scratching cardboard.

Some of my guitars like the Fuzz Factory > KoT > amp setup...and then there's my Sunlion (Sunface side)...my LP Custom goes "meh", my SG Custom on the neck pickup is the sound of lead guitar on so many records.

I think the answer is "it depends", in my experience...but I must agree with CS above, it usually sounds best by itself.