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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Guitars and accessories → output level from distortion pedal
I want to use a distortion pedal with my small home-made amp. Will the output from the pedal be similar to the output from the guitar alone, or is it going to be higher? Essentially I want the distortion effect at a relatively low volume but the little amp can only take so much before distorting (but not in a good way).
Most distortion pedals have a "level" knob to adjust the amount of boost you get. So you could use that to keep the level the same.
So I should be able to get a very distorted sound while still feeding a relatively low level of signal to the amp?
Correct. Is there a specific pedal you are looking at? You said you are using a small home-made amp. Are you a tinkerer? Give us the low down on your amp.
flester is sounds like you want sustain you can do that by cranking the distortion up and the gain down this will give a nice sustain and distortion at a low volume 
Yes, I am a tinkerer. I built my amp around a TDA2003 amp module (http://maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=32209) and built a case roughly to the dimensions of a Pignose. Runs on 6AA's, or one PP3, or a mains power supply. Goes into distortion fairly easily, especially via a preamp which I based around one of these (http://maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?moduleno=37746). Will post photos and sound samples some time. The guitar I mainly use with this is an Applause acoustic with a single-coil magnetic pickup. Strange, I know but was inspired by John Campbell with his J-45, dearmond pickup and Fender tube amps. Check him out on youtube. There's a very used Boss HM-2 pedal in a local shop which I may check out today.
My 1979 Ovation Pacemaker with undersaddle pickup gives a nice bright jangly 12-string sound through the amp but the single-coil (artec MSP-50) sounds a bit warmer and sort of electric-ish.
Another project is to play harmonica on this amp...
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Guitars and accessories → output level from distortion pedal
