You just can't go wrong with the £50 Boss DS-1 or Boss SD-1 - these are basic, straightforward distorsions that will keep you rocking for a good while. If you want something more sofisticate, maybe an Ibanez TS-808 or an Ethos Overdrive (there are cheaper new Epiphone Casinos than this pedal y'know) might serve you.
Axes:
Epi Explorer (natural Korina finish - my true love) - never changed anything in/out but intending to buy some chunkier-sounding p/ups to give the tone some extra punch
Epi Les Paul (Alpine white - the work-horse) - again, not changed anything in/out
Ridgewood semi-acoustic
(Also have a Ridgewood Superstrat, first guitar I ever bought, cheap and a bit knackered now, planning on turning into my first major revamp project when I get some money to burn)
Gear:
Bugera V22 valve amp - generally run through the clean channel but has a tidy crunch channel; if you don't have the big bucks for your JVCs, AC30s etc., you could do much worse than check one out
Boss ME-20 multi-FX (mainly use for compression, delay, and tuning - Wah / volume too)
Boss DS-1 distortion (distortion up to 11, tone down to 1, level at 12 o'clock)
Boss SD-1 OD pedal (generally use as a bit of a line-boost and to add a bit of bite to the clean tone, or definition to the distortion)
Some cunning buffer pedal I got for £30 on eBay which makes a huge difference if I borrow my mate's Wah pedal (to counter industrial-level tone-sucking)
(the most recent stuff on here - https://soundcloud.com/hjwoj - has some decentish recordings of what the general chain sounds like in practise)
qu'est-ce que c'est the new gear?
Supriising!