Hi Stratman,

If you have an iPad and a mobile interface, there's an app called bias fx that turns your device into a digital amp and has pretty faithful recreations of how the pedals sound, so you can try out a lot. I tried Amplitube and didn't like it--it felt too "digital" and charged me for every little thing. Line 6 has some modelling products as well, but I've never tried them.

For drive, the pedals are too personal to recommend. It's like recommending food to someone. Here's what I use.

I use a $120 TS9DX tube screamer clone for my light overdrive with the gain set to halfway. That pedal dries up my sound and gives it a punchy little bite, but lets the notes ring out. Think Stevie Ray Vaughan or Gary Moore.

A $60 Soul Food pedal with gain set to 8 o'clock is my medium overdrive. This gives my sound a more rock feel, but I start to lose the clarity of the individual notes. I don't use this as much, and the Soul Food is a really popular pedal, so there are probably people on this forum who use this pedal more and can tell you how to get better sounds. I think John Meyer when I hear this pedal.

For fuzz, I use the $90 Big Muff Pi. This is one of my most used drive pedals, and it sounds like the black keys or Jack White. Be careful when trying out a fuzz pedal though. Most fuzz pedals don't "kick in" until you have the amp cranked--the classic fuzz face just sounds like overdrive with a typical bedroom playing. Since you don't want the neighbors calling the cops on you just because you're trying to use your pedal, I'd recommend looking for a fuzz that has a "level" knob, and still trying it out at low volumes in the store.

Happy Playing!