Scott Henderson Discussion

[Tommy]

Hi Scott! Lately I'm very interested in an old pedal combo you and Mike used to use for high gain - TS into Voodoo-1. I have to play into a clean amp (unfortunately), and for years I used to stack TS-type pedal (right now Maxon OD-9) into Maxon SD-9 with fine results, but recently I got Super Reverb and SD-9 just sounds too harsh and woofy into it. I remember in a Guitarwank episode John Suhr said Super is probably his all-time favorite clean amp, but it's very hard to make it get along with pedals. Now I know why. Onto the question: I recently tried Maxon OD-9 > Fulltone OCD combo and I liked it way more, and than it crossed my mind that maybe I should try your old combo with Voodoo-1. Since I don't have the opportunity to try it before buying, I was wondering could you tell me what should I expect of Maxon OD-9 > Voodoo-1 combo compared to SD-9 or should I simply ask for the opinion on difference between Voodoo-1 and SD-9? For example, which has more mids, softer top end, etc. I've searched the archive up & down but couldn't find definitive clues. I'm sorry if I'm asking too much, and I'm also aware that you don't use super-clean amps. That's why I'd like to ask other members on the board to chime in too. Anyway, thank you so, so much for all the music and also effort & time you put into this board, it's incredible.
P.S. Based on your live use, I bought a set of Suhr ML Standards for my strat and couldn't be happier. Best strat pickups ever!

[Scott Henderson]

The Voodoo 1 is nothing like an SD-9. It’s extremely scooped, and it’s gain sounds terrible. It’s only purpose in running an OD-9 or Tube Screamer through it is to increase the gain from boost to high gain, and flatten out the midrange spike which all Tube Screamer type pedals have. I ran the OD-9 with the volume all the way up, gain around 2, and tone at 12:00, into the Voodoo with the volume all the way up, gain very low or off, and tone at 12:00.

All that being said, I like the RC Booster way more than the OD-9, and I like the Klon or Klon KTR more than the SD-9. I still use the SD-9 live because it’s more compressed than the Klon and helps when playing legato, which for some reason seems to be harder for me to do live than in the studio.

Hope that helps - glad you like the ML pickups, they’re my favorites too.

[Scott Henderson]

Actually I do know why playing legato is harder live - because of the volume. At higher volumes, the notes want to feed back, making it harder for a hammered-on note to sound. In the studio I play much softer and that problem doesn't happen.

[Tommy]

[dizzy]

The closest pedal to the sd9 that plays well with clean fender amps in my experience is the fulltone plimsoul. It has less bass and more mids.
The bb preamp is good for this too but it is not as compressed.
The Forza by Seymour Duncan that Scott recommended is great too because it has a full eq section. The only problem is that it doesn’t get as much gain as the sd9 or plimsoul so into a clean amp it won’t match your sd9 for gain.
The other pedal that I love into clean fenders is the jan Ray. It is low gain but it could function like a less scooped voodoo 1.

[Tommy]

Dizzy, thanks for the suggestions! Speaking of BB and Forza, I have a spare Xotic BB Plus, and it's B channel also has full eq section, but it's not compressed/gainy enough. Works well as a low/medium overdrive, but I need more for that ''2nd spot'' pedal (the 1st being boost/od). I'll look for Plimsoul to try, although Scott said it sounds more scooped than SD-9 in another topic. It's funny how we all hear things differently, with no disrespect to anyone. I guess a lot of it has to do with the rest of the setup.

[Scott Henderson]

Here's what I've discovered by using these pedals in the same amps, both Marshall and Fender. They're listed by most scooped first and most midrange last.

Boost Pedals

Vertex Boost
LA Sound Design Boost
RC Booster
Lovepedal COT 50
Jan Ray
Maxon OD-9/ Tube Screamers

Distortion Pedals

Voodoo- 1
Plimsoul
DOD Overdrive 250 (vintage)
Klon, Klon KTR
Forza
SD-9
BB

My favorites are the Klon and RC Booster, but it's nice to have options for recording.

[Tommy]

Thanks, Scott, great reference list! But at the same time I'm very confused. My experience with Klon was that it's more of a boost/od pedal. It has enormous volume boost, and when used to push crunchy Marshall with output cranked, it easily gets into high gain territory. But going into clean amp it just doesn't offer enough gain by itself (no more than a regular Tube Screamer, anyway), it just gets super loud. Have you tried it with your HRD and do you maybe have a different settings when you use it with that amp?

[Scott Henderson]

You're right, the Klon and DOD 250 are overdrives, somewhere in between boost and distortion. I've never tried the Klon with my HRD, but it would work because I can make it into a crunch amp - I turn up the preamp pretty high and use a volume control in the FX loop. Unfortunately you can't do that with a vintage amp so you'd need a pedal with more gain than the Klon.

[dizzy]

You are right about the plimsoul Scott. I just took it out and played with it and it is very scooped compared to my sd9 and BB and Forza.---I hope you didn't order a plimsoul Tommy.

With the forza one nice thing is you have the full eq so it seems like it would fit with the most amps. Also it has a nice amount of gain on its own.
Would you agree Scott?

[Scott Henderson]

Yes it seems to be pretty versatile but I haven't messed with it enough - the jury's still out on that pedal for me. The one time I tried it, it was in an A/B test with the Klon KTR and I liked the Klon more. I'll check it out more closely when I start working on the new record.