So big tips for beginners, don't over use your distortion or overdrive whichever it is. A big mistake made is that beginners like to think things are a lot more distorted than they are. Many of the big classic rock guitarist were only slightly overdriven to keep clarity. Also, just know that reproducing tube amp distortion just won't happen. Does your amp have reverb built in? I'm a big classic rock guy myself, so I've spent a lot of time picking up Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, Brian May, Angus Young, Eric Clapton, EVH. I'd say they're all my big influences.
I think for now, you can stick with just your built in overdrive. I'm not sure if you were playing acoustic before or not. If you're brand new to guitar than that should hold you for now. Once you start learning more pieces, you'll start to become more aware of what tones guitarist you like use.
For me, my bread and butter sound is just using my amps drive, and cleaning it up by rolling off the volume on my guitar. If I need a boost for solo, I use some form of overdrive. I typically use an Ibanez Tubescreamer, but sometimes use a trebleboost, blues driver, etc... The only pedal I use all of the time, is my Xotic EP booster, based on the echoplex tape delay (thought this has no delay circuit) known to be used by Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen. I feel it thickens my guitar tone slightly, so I never turn it off. I suppose I always have reverb on too, but it is in my amp. I wouldn't say it is necessary for learning or bedroom levels.
These are the pedals I use on occasion (tried to put in order of most to least used):
Phaser: sometimes turned low for a chorus sound, or cranked for some more EVH style use
Compressor: I like to use this on my cleans. I really love the Xotic SP Compressor. Gives me some bell like sounds. I feel this makes my clean leads really sparkle.
Wah: Hendrix, or funk, or just for some odd tones. Sometimes I use this as a treble boost, just turn it on and leave it all the way down. You can hear this on some early Zeppelin records.
Delay: U2, Floyd, some Queen sounds. Sometimes just to thicken up a songs intro if there isn't much to go on and it isn't too heavy.
Your guitars pickup selector and your tone and volume knobs will be your most used tools. Standard wiring on a strat is to have one tone control on the neck pickup, and one for the middle. I rewired both of my strats to have 1 tone control the bridge, and the other to control both the middle and neck pickups. You may find when practicing at home that the bridge pickup sounds very trebly and like you're hammering icepicks. It doesn't sound pleasant in that setting, but often, especially when overdriven, it is the best sound to cut through a band. I'd say I spend at least 75% of the time on my bridge pickup, especially when overdriven. If it is clean, I use the neck a lot more. I really like Neck + Middle on clean for a country sound, Middle and Bridge for funk. It'll take some time, but by messing with your pickup selector you'll find a variety of tones, especially on a strat. My strat is by far my goto work horse as it can be the most versatile by far. If I'm only taking one guitar with me, it is my strat, even though I honestly prefer my les paul for a lot of what I play. I mod the hell out of all of my guitars however. I've still got a squire strat of my own that I've modded the hell out of and like to bring with me sometimes.
Doc is pretty spot on with that Angus Young sound. His tone for the majority of it is just straight guitar and marshall amp.
