analog distortion recording!!!

[esotericality]

hey everyone,

I have a vintage Teac A-160 tape deck I record with. I am using a behringer mixing board and RCA cables to hook it to my deck. I am using a sm57 mic and I place it about 150-200mm from the amp. I get a really good clean recording without distortion, but distortion is really dirty when recorded(which I like.) But im hoping to get a good sounding dirty fuzz type recordings for when needed.) Is there any advice anyone can give me for using this setup?
Maybe I need to crank down the distortion on my pedel? It sounds like compression or a limiter is a must? Which one should I use and how do I know? I have a Boss LM-2B bass limiter pedel, will this sound alright for guitar?

thanks,

 

[esotericality]

also, ive been recording with my 30watt amp at about quarter the volume up, but on the input channel on my mixer, I have the gain all the way up due to trying to keep overall volume down in the house. I am assuming that if I turned the amp up more, and turned down the gain, there should be overall less channel distortion and background noise?

 

[esotericality]

nm this, I found some other threads somewhat relating to this. Ill keep looking around.