Better distortion..

[StratMan1125]

I play a Strat, it's a new one, not old. I know it wasn't made for super distortion but I'd like to get something a little more out of it. Should I switch pickups? Please excuse my ignorance, I have no idea what I'm doing. I play thru a relativly cheap amp, its a $99 dollar Ibanez job but when I play a differnt guitar thru it i can hear the difference. Any hints or suggestions? A new guitar and new amp is out of the question ( hehehe ). Thanks.

Jason

[Bofatron]

you could certainly drop a hotter pup in there, maybe a stacked humbucker so you don't need to cut the pickguard. Or maybe a distortion/overdrive pedal as an alternative.

http://ShredLikeHell.com

[StratMan1125]

So I ditortion box or pedal would work along with the built in distortion on my amp? No conflicts are anything???

[Raskolnikov]

It's usually best to run a distortion box into a clean amp- basicly if you run a distortion box into a distorted amp the two distortions add together. Sometimes this is what you want (the Smashing Pumpkins have used some insane number of Big Muff Pi's (like 30?) for one song), but usually that much distortion is very undesirable. If your amp's distortion is footswitchable, you can certainly use the two together:

Just the distortion box for heavy distortion
Just the amp distortion for overdrive
Both for fuzz

Regardless, a distortion box is a good idea. I recomend a BOSS DS-1, but shop around and see what you like. Another peice of advice: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES BUY A DOD PEDAL- the switch won't work right in 6 months because they use a cheap mechanism that wears out very quickly.

[Christoph]

Well, I have to agree with Raskolnikov over here about DOD pedals. They are rat crap.