Question guitar tone? having problems?

i recently purchased a epiphone les paul Standard.. and it seems to be lacking the tone im looking for..its brand new so i now it doesnt have something electrical wrong with it.. my amp is a peavey vypyr 15w..and well on most of the amps settings it just sounds dead and non responsive..iv tried using a distortion pedal and its not much better..is my amp bad? or just a low quality amp.. i feel very disapointed in it and want to improve my sound!