Maxon or tube screamer or other?

[Rosco]

I use a digitech bad monkey at the moment in front of a 120watt valve head. Sounds well.
I'm considering a maxon od 9.
Any thoughts?
Cheers

[Juggz]

What are you trying to achieve, a temporary gritty boost or a fundamental tone?

[Rosco]

Overall tone and a bit of cream for harmonies and noodles

[Juggz]

Is the Bad Monkey your distortion/overdrive or are you getting that from the amp? Do you have the Bad Monkey on all the time?

I used to use a TS-7 for additional gain, as required, but found I could achieve much the same result by increasing the gain on the amp to my ideal most overdriven level, then use the volume control on the guitar to scale back. So, instead of the guitar at 10 all the time, I'd have it at 7 or so for rhythm playing and then turn it up to 10 for extra grit. If the amp sounds good on its own, I'd try to use that first. There was nothing wrong with the previous approach with the TS-7 but, when gigging in a place with shonky electrics which kept cutting out, I had to abandon the pedals and plug straight into the amp. It was quite a revelation and changed my opinion on needing pedals vs thinking you need pedals for certain things.

What is the amp? If the amp already gets dirty enough, a basic signal booster might work for you. If you can't get enough gain out of the amp, then the gain characteristics of the pedal become much more important.

[Rosco]

All gain is from laney irt 120. I like to have the bad monkey for adding more dirt when required and not a boost.
I like the idea of the rolled back vol knob on guitar it never really occured to me.
Might go for a maxon. I need something new to play with.