jerrodw wrote:My question is related to the preamp emulating pedals out there like the OLC Orange Peel or Runoffgroove Flipster. Can you boost a signal going into these types of pedals to get an overdriven sound the same way you would do with an amp?
Putting a boost in front of a soft clipping "amp in a box" pedal can often sound very nice, whether it is a careful reproduction of a specific amp with FETs replacing tubes, a soundalike circuit, or a subtle opamp + diodes clipping in the feedback loop type pedal. Paul Cochranes' timmy pedal works nicely with a boost in front, as does the catalinbread RAH (j page hiwatt type sound): Wampler's plexidrive is a nice marshall-ish pedal, but with a single stage boost up front is also sold as the Velvet fuzz, which is a cool overblown, fuzzface + marshall-on-10-about-to-explode sound.
The best advice is to experiment, you're unlikely to damage anything (expensive).