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→Compression vs. Distortion
Clipping typically introduces compression, leading many to fail to think of the two as different phenomenon. Rather than simply turning up the gain until you get a thick saturated tone, you may prefer using a compressor to thicken up the tone, using only enough distortion to get a little harmonic richness and crunch to the tone. This allows you to retain clarity in your playing and improve signal-to-noise ratio. It also lets your dynamics have more influence over tone, where accents will push the amp into distortion, while softer playing will be clean. But the compression keeps the levels of even the soft playing more audible, giving your notes more sustain.
Most place their [[Compression|compressor ]] before their distortion. Since distortion introduces compression, you have to expect that and use a milder compressor setting or a larger Attack setting than you would on a pure clean tone. The compression will also add more balance to the frequency response, giving you less control over your distortion. This can be remedied by placing a boost or EQ after the compressor.
You can also try using the compressor after the distortion, but I find this tends to over-emphasize distortion in attack and sounds a bit artificial. Of course, this is a bit different when adding a limiter in the DAW, which is also post-distortion compression. That tends to help achieve loudness in a mix but isn't quite what I'm talking about here, which is a larger compression used to thicken up the entire guitar tone rather than tame peaks. Even so, a mild compression can work well.