Originally Posted by: Sasuke199distortion pedal for a fairly cheap price. ...good mellow blues distortion, to like an early metal type distortion

Your budget?

Which guitar and amp do you have and what are tones you wanting to emulate?

NUX do some quality built budget analogues I can recommend which might possibly suit your needs. Their OD-3 Vintage Overdrive pedal does a good early metal e.g. Black Sabbabth "Paranoid" era, and would do blues well too I should think. Yes I know it's overdrive not distortion, but that line is blurred anyway in early stuff.

[br]Their HG-6 High Gain Distortion pedal is a modern distortion, but "impressive" to borrow the arena annuciation from Quake 3. They describe it "Ready to nuke!"

I have both of those. Love both, very different, and agree with the emphasis about the latter's grunt. But you can tone it down with its controls, so it is quite flexible.

If you're wanting to replicate variable tones right across the spectrum to Marshall tones, their AS-4 Amp Simulator is as versatile as it comes. I have it too. Use it with your clean channel, analogue amp or PC. In terms of bang for the buck, it doesn't get any better than this.

To these old ears, NUX kit are solid performers without the big name pricetag IME.