pedals

i finally got my hands on an amp with a clear channel selection... basically my first and only amp was a modeling amp that was a pain to use. if you wanted to switch from a clean sound to a driven sound you had to stop and fiddle with dials for 3 minutes just to get everything sorted. then i realized my brother had an old fender frontman (doesn't say much else on it) with a push-button drive channel selection.

cool. it's nothing special, probably a 10-watt solid state fender amp, but the sound from it sounds way better than the old one.

anyway enough sidestepping, i have a question about pedals now. i've been thinking about picking up a used multi-effects pedal as a way to get an intro/education on using pedals. which channel would i want to use on the amp if i am using effects from a pedal?

for instance, if i had an external distortion pedal, would i just use that on the clean channel? would this be similar (i know it's not exactly the same) as just using the distorted drive channel on the amp?

i assume this is part of the learning process ahead of me which i'm open to. just curious about how exactly it works. i assume that using a distortion pedal + drive channel on them amp would be super distortion.

Generally you will get different tones,for example

If you use OD + clean channel,you will get a special tone,if you use the amps OD,youwill get another tine,you need tonexperiment,tho i woule never use OD + OD hannel,that sucks

Distortion is based on a combination of components that the signal path is run through. It is unlikely that a pedal would sound like the Fender internal distortion. I would run it through the clean channel - if for no other reason than to have a variability between the two sounds.

Or if you like a little grit at all times, put a little distortion on the dirty channel of the amp, and plug into that channel. Then you can clean it up a bit, but not too much when you turn off your effect.

I have run three distortion pedals in a row for fun before.