Yamaha G-100 bluesy pedal?

[J M Fahey]

Excellent points.
Just let me add (or rather repeat) something:
1) *Tube* Screamer is a cool clever brand name but it distorts nowhere like a tube. Simple as that.
The "famous users" *always* use them to boost an already crunching tube amp .
2) just for the record: a friend of mine loves (tube) Tweed Fender Bassman amps, a classic Blues amp, and saw that Boss made a pedal called FBM1 , a "Bassman in a box", asked for my opinion.
I hadn't heard it yet (just came out) but read opinions all over the Net.
Found this: those who loved it, had plugged them into some kind of tube Fender amp they already had; those who said "close but no cigar" used SS amps.
Now there's a third kind of users who love it ... but never had a tube amp, just modelers.
3) does it mean that your quest is hopeless?
No, start experimenting, by clever use youcan get very good results.

And, by the way, the Marshall pedal I sugessted both has harsh treble filtering (the tone control goes from "cut" to *more* cut he he , it's *never* flat) *and* clipping diodes are smoothed by series resistors to soften the waveforms.
As I said, tghose Marshall chaps were quite clever.
By the way, that pedal is hated by the Metal crowd who claims "it does nothing".
In my Blues book, that's a compliment
As of suppliers, parts are so common that even Radio Shack is fine, but also check DigiKey, Mouser, and such.
And you do not need to make a PCB.
Start by Protoboarding and then transfer it to veroboard or even perfboard.
Won't look as cool but will be simpler.
Pity it's no longer available, but the British (clever chaps) used to have the "Blob Boards", a very cool combo:
they sold you a simple cheap Protoboard and 3 or 4 PCBs with the exact same arrangementof holes and copper tracks.
Once you had your project working, you could transfer it as-is to the PCB.
PERFECT for musicians and guys like them who were not strictly into Electronics but who needed something.
The modern version is:

Which is "half size" , you see the protoboard on left plus front and back actual PCB views.
http://adafruit.com/products/571  Only $12.50 for a 3 pack.
For smaller projects, there is a smaller "1/4 size" kit.
http://adafruit.com/products/589


EDIT: just found this guy who seems to take his experimenting very seriously:
http://blog.tube42.se/?p=741
His version of very popular "Little Gem":

Some of his other projects:

[Scoticus]

WOW!

Lots of great ideas to try.
I can see this turning into a "free time" consuming illness.

Thanks to EVERYONE.

Now, where did I stash that breadboard?