Scott Henderson Discussion

[daschwarjazz]

Hi Scott,

As we all know, the OD channel of the Hot Rod Deluxe is not the best in the world, thus requiring pedals to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to gain. But recently I stumbled upon a preamp pedal with which you can transform the HDR into something akin to a single-channel Marshall: The Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n.

It's essentially a tube-driven OD pedal (which I know you do not care for), but what I do is plug it directly into the Power Amp In input of the HDR and use it as the primary preamp. The English Muff'n has pretty sensitive High, Mid, and Low, controls, so it can easily achieve a wide variety of tones. Another nice thing is that you can still use the Presence control on the HDR with this setup.

So far I've been pretty impressed with the English Muff'n. It cleans up nicely, plays well with other pedals, and since it uses two preamp tubes, you can use any combination you want depending on the amount of gain you're after. Definitely worth a try!

Thanks for all the great music,

David

P.S. Have you ever checked out Peavey's ReValver software? It's the only modeling software that I've found tolerable. You can modify everything that can be modified in an amp, including biasing, plate voltage, speaker cab size, tube compliment; literally everything. You can also use your own IRs, which is nice. It's a fun way to kill time, and I think you can download a free demo.

[Scott Henderson]

Thanks for the tip - I'll check it out! Yes, the OD channel on the HRD sucks. I don't mind the preamp tones on the clean channel but it's too clean. I still haven't found a better amp for small gigs though.

[Mojolang]

Ever get a chance to try this one? I used to have one. I liked it.

[Scott Henderson]

No, I never tried it. I'm just not into amp modeling - I've tried so many of them and they don't work for me. They can sound like real amps, but the only way I can get my personal sound is by using my own amp and pedals.