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A few recommendations:
All of these can be found used and new under $100.
You might give a TC Electronic Magus pedal a try. It's basically an updated version of the old RAT distortion pedals, and it's really pretty versatile. You can get light, almost clean tones all the way to a pretty punchy rock distortion. There's a little bit of a learning curve learning to balance the gain and volume knobs to get the distortion level you want (both knobs kind of control both volume and gain, but in slightly different ways), and the tone knob is reversed from most pedals, but it's not difficult to get the hang of. It's also not very expensive. When I bought mine I think it was like sixty bucks. That was pre-pandemic though so they've probably gone up in price since then, but I'd be surprised if they were more than $80 or $90.
I bought mine on a whim and not really expecting much, but it ended up being my go-to distortion for pretty much everything except super high-gain metal distortion.
Thanks! I'm already looking for it on youtube
Edit: It seems that there is a pro version that has an LED clipping mode and that's really interesting...
+1 to ye olde trusty Rat! Tons of variants, many of which are cheap and cheerful. The ones with an LED clipping option are my favorites.
Can you use amp overdrive and boost with the TS? My alternatives to that are Blackstar HT dual and Strymon Sunset which both have a lower drive side and a heavier side.
Since I'm allergic to tube screamers, I actually usually use a more neutral drive or a treble booster (which is a bass cut or underdrive in disguise) along with amp distortion.
I don't have a good actual anger answer, though. Distortion pedals are pretty varied and personal taste thing. You might just need to try some. I'm tempted by Rat and Riot clones but don't have either apart from modelling patches.
Would you consider a digital multi-fx pedal and a frfr speaker?
They're not typically budget options but you can pick up some good deals if you're ok getting second hand equipment.
The advantage of a multi-fx pedal is that you can dial in a tone you like and then once you're happy, buy the equivalent analogue equipment rather than having to try several different combinations of individual pedals, amps and speakers before you find a tone you love.
DOD OD 250 (the yellow one not grey) is still my fav. It was my first pedal and still kicks ass. I believe theres a VST of it now.
As for "budget" you can build one from a PCB or hand wire it yourself, its so old theres no multi layer PCBs, I built one for use with a bass back in 2009 or 2010 since I didn't want to modify the original.
What amp & amp settings do you typically use?
I'm using an Eko V50R mostly on the clean channel. It's a cheap transistor amp which tries to mimic the style of a Fender.
Ok, reading the description, it is may be trying to sound like a deluxe reverb or a blues junior.
If that is true, then a blues driver pairs with that amp style really well in my opinion. More grit than a typical tubescreamer, but not quite a full bore distortion pedal like a DS-1 or a Distortion+ (My personal favorite distortion).
Check out some samples online and see what you think. If you want something a little more like Black Keys, or Jimi Hendrix, then you may also want to consider fuzz pedals with some, relatively lower-ish, gain settings.
I was in fact thorn between the blues driver and a rat styled pedal. With my band I have a couple songs where we need a little more grit to it, like we're in a kind of "the Clash" territory of grit.
It sounds like the Rat might be more of what you are looking for. Blues can and does distort, but not THAT much. Try out a Rat, dial it back a little, then see what you think. Worst case scenario, you try stacking the TS and the Rat? Although, that may get untenable quickly.
I'll also put the Fulltone OCD overdrive onto your radar. It has a very wide range and my buddy loves it with his deluxe reverb. It isn't as classic or super well-known, but it isn't super obscure either.
This is why your TS9 is not giving you the sound you want. The TS stands for Tube Screamer. You really need a tube amp paired with a TS9 to get a nice distortion sound. Tubescreamer clones will not sound good with a solid state amp.
