I've been using the same rig since the mid-60's, a 1965 blackface Fender Super Reverb and a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom Fretless Wonder. I've tried difrferent pedals over the years, but always ended up plugging straight into the amp and pushing the volume until it starts to sing. I've also tried other guitars over the years and my main guitar right now is a 1999 Fender American Deluxe Strat (love those noiseless pickups). I play in a contemporary Christian church band and can't dime the amp anymore, so I finally gave in and bought a TS9 Tube Screamer, which sounds good; I wish that it had a little more attack. I also added a Danelectro Chorus and Delay to thicken the sound of the Strat. The Dano pedals are some of the quietest I've ever used. One of the reasons that I quit using pedals in the past was the noise - I finally figured out that the preamp of my Super is so hot that the noise generated by transistors and microprocessor was always audible when playing quietly. That's why I like the Ibanez TS9 and the Dano pedals. I tried a Zoom 505 which was a lot of fun, but still put out a lot of noise that was noticeable with my Super. I tried the 505 through other (newer) amps and didn't notice the noise.