There are blues guitar players who favour quite a saturated distortion sound however it's more normal for a blues sound to be more in the early stages of break-up. This is normally through a combination of pushing the amp to naturally overdrive along with the use of a certain popular pedals. It has to be said however that a blues guitar sound is very much a personal preference and you should always use your own ears as the final judge. Have the confidence to believe in your own sound without wanting to copy anyone else.

It almost goes without saying that you'll get the best kinds of guitar sounds by using tube amplifiers. They produce the best quality distortion and will react well to your pick dynamics which vary according to how hard you hit the strings with your plectrum. What we want from a blues guitar sound is a human quality with as much potential for expression as possible. To really have a proper blues tone it must be 'your tone' and not just an inferior copy of someone else's.

You can make a tube amp overdrive naturally into a blues break-up simply by turning the amplifiers volume up however this is not suitable for most players when playing in their bedrooms. You can buy an overdrive pedal which will do the work for you and generate overdrive while still remaining at a low volume level. In fact, even when playing large venues a lot of professional blues players will still use pedals, kicking them in and out as they switch between lead and rhythm sounds.