Boutiquey options are great, i should know, I've got enough of them.. however, if you're not wanting to blow a wad, which is fair enough, get down to your local music store, line up a RAT, a fuzzface (dunlop is fine) and a current issue muff (which are quite well regarded).
Set the fuzz face up for a sound you like, ditto the muff.
Then tried to emulate the sounds with a rat.
There's a trick to this, treat the rat as a pedal with 2 distinct stages. Stage one is up to 2 o'clock on the gain knob. for e 2 oclock is where the compression happens. so before that it can sound loose and open. manipulate the (possibly most powerful tone control in the industry) until it sounds like the fuzz face or close.
After 2 o'clock it can compress and sustain drastically to the point where it sounds like a completely different pedal. set up the Muff (sustainy compressed fuzz) for a sound you like, get the gain in the right ballpark and manipulate the tone control again.
I swear you can get close as dammit for your audiences ears and for you as well. The RAT is massively overlooked as being a one trick pony. it really ain't. It's an extremely versatile pedal. just have to know how to make it do what you want. and like it's real world counterpart, they're everywhere and cost 60 quid.
One other thing, just my take on how the best way to run a fuzz works. either high gain on the pedal (i prefer just where compression kicks in because i like an open sound) into an amp on our just slightlly past the point of break up (power amp is best, but you can get good results with preamp grit), or as a booster with the roles basically reversed, pedal with the volume up high and the girt starting to come in from the gain control (or more, adjust to taste) and high gain on the amp.
I never thought fuzz pedals sound good into a clean channel, the sound fizzy and thin, i think they need to be interacting with a hot clipped signal in the amp itself.
There is the case of Gilmour. But he is the Gilmour an we can't sound like him anyway.. however in his case the muff is running into a butler tubedriver for tonal colouring and on into a hiwatt which has mighty amounts of headroom. so while in theory it is running into a clean amp, it's actually running into a cooking powersection which gives rise to the smooth almighty tones. That and his fingers are playing it. this also helps.
here's a couple of great gig rig vids. there's fuzz and include the OD vid as the rat appears in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJTUBFzZnM&list=UUfms3m2s7MsFs53dVmiw0zw&index=3&feature=plcphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdHANxGipVs&list=UUfms3m2s7MsFs53dVmiw0zw&index=4&feature=plcp
