Scott Henderson Discussion

[guitmac]

Hi Scott,

I have been using tha Maxon Sd9 for several years for my lead and hi gain tones with my Fender blues reissue.
I have been changing my other pedals and now the Sd9 sounds really thin to me, and it doesnt have enough volume neither. (Im really happy with my other od, etc pedals)

I tried some moded sd9, but they take away the "magic" of the stock one.

Could you, or someone else here please recommend a similar pedal for thick hi gain and lead tone using a clean amp like the blues reissue?
I have been trying for too long with no luck....

Thanks in advance!

[Scott Henderson]

I'm a bit confused - why would changing your other pedals affect the way the SD-9 sounds? Are you mixing them together? You said you like your other OD pedals, so can't one of them replace the SD-9? I need a clearer explanation of the problem to answer your question.

I've tried way too many distortion pedals for one lifetime, and the only three I really like are the Klon, SD-9, and channel 2 of the RC Booster.

[guitmac]

Sorry Scott, let me explain myself a little better. I have been on this kind of tone fight for a while, and English is not my first language.

I was using the Maxon OD9 for low gain and the SD9 for hi gain with my Fender Blues Reissue, but was never completely happy with the eq on the OD9, so I switched to the Keeley Red Dirt for low, Kept the Sd9 for hi gain, and the J Rockett Gto for mid OD, the last one is also one of the few pedals that I find "even" on both position, bridge and neck eq wise.

I have to turn really low the volume on this too pedals to work with the Sd9 and they lose character when I do this. If I turn them up, then the Sd9 is not loud enough, even at maximum volume.

I'm using the clean channel on my Fender and my main guit is a Musicman Cutlass HSS (strat type). The only pedal that is not working on my chain right now is the Sd9.

I have also a J Rockett Archer, that its suppose to be a Klon clon, but I don't get enough gain out of it for this setup, it sounds thick, but not enough distortion.

So that's why I was asking for a similar Dist pedal to replace the Sd9.
Please let me know if this is clear and make sense, and thanks a LOT for taking the time to reply!

A big fan here!

[Scott Henderson]

I get it now, and you're right, the SD-9 and Klon don't have the amount of volume that a lot of other pedals have. I'm lucky that my 3 main pedals, SD-9, RC Booster, and Fulltone Octafuzz are all pretty balanced.

However, that info doesn't help you and I really don't know of a distortion pedal which would replace the SD-9 - that thing has been on my pedalboard for about 15 years. For sure there are a lot of distortion pedals out there - most of them suck in my opinion, and here's why - they usually loose their clearness if the guitar tone control gets anywhere under 7, and they might sound fat for the treble pickup but that almost always means they're gonna be woofy and unusable for the neck pickup.

The only suggestion I can think of is to combine the SD-9 with a very low boost. An RC Booster with gain set very low or off can help the SD-9 do it's thing better in a totally clean amp.

[guitmac]

Thanks a lot Scott!

The Sd9 have been on my pedalboard over 10 years too, thanks to you and Mike.
I'll try the boost idea, but I don't want to step on 2 pedals every time I have to solo.

I'm not using the sd9 much with the neck pickup.
Was the Vop9 good for hi gain lead with the bridge pickup when you used it? Or is it more like a ts9 type of OD?

[Scott Henderson]

As I remember, the VOP-9's midrange is voiced a bit lower than the SD-9, so it doesn't cut through the mix as well. It's been a long time since I had one so my memory of it may not be very reliable.

[dizzy]

Gitmac
You should try a way huge geisha drive. It is like the sd9 but has much more volume and the tone control has bigger sweep. It’s George Tripps modded sd9.
I don’t think it’s better then the sd9 but with a clean amp you can dial it in easier.

[guitmac]

Thanks Scott!

And thanks dizzy!
I'llcheck that one for sure!

All the best guys!

[dizzy]

Hey Gitmac

You may have already found something but if not:
I just tried an xactone Winford drive.
Into a clean fender amp it is a really nice distortion that reminds me of the sd9 a little bit. It seems to work well with clean amps.

[guitmac]

Thanks again dizzy!

Im gonna try it for sure.
I was lucky to find a geisha drive in a little store while touring US.
Its close to the SD9 and way louder, but it sounds a bit les natural.
I'll keep it and try it at home with other amps, its a great pedal.
I also ordered a Caroline Wave Cannon 2 but it sounded really thin, they might mod it to ad some low end, im looking forward because the pedal has a couple of things that i really like. Its wilder than the sd9, but has something similar, hopefully the mod will bring the low mids back.

I just saw a Windford drive on amazon, ill pull the trigger soon.

Thanks again!

[dizzy]

Yeah—I agree about the Giesha—it solves problems for use with clean amps but it doesn’t have quite as good of a tone.
I’ll have to try the Wave Cannon—someone else told me about that too.

The Winford is nice because it does a slightly different thing then the sd9 but it works with clean amps. So you aren’t always missing the sd9:)

[Thumberstrummer]

Hi to all. I have recently discovered a JD Rochett distortion / OD pedal, The Dude, which I have heard for the first time on a YT live take of ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers’, by Snarky Puppy’s axeman Mark Lettieri.
Mark’s axe voice there is extremely similar to Jeff’s crying / singing legendary tone. Very organic and rich, with plenty of smoothness on demand, but screaming when needed. Which is definitely not an easy catch, as Mark uses mainly clean Fender style amps and the grit in his tone comes only from pedals.
As far as I know, the pedal used there is a JRAD The Buddy.
It seems (never owned one... not yet!) it has plenty of flexibility, ranging from crunchy to high gain territories. Furthermore the drive control, just like for the Klon, is a blender pot, bringing progressively in the grit upon the clean signal. One of the magic aspects of the original Klon design...
Check it out here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3MAKJN6oJtQ
I’d give it a try.
It makes sense you do not feel comfortable with a SD9 pedal on a clean channel / amp, since it is aknowledged that certain pedals work much better when hooked up to a dirty amp. SD9 is one of these.
Hope it helps.
Ciao
_________________
Germino Club 40 plexi replica + EJ Strat w Suhr ML st. pups. I'm not asking for more so far (but... who knows...?)

[guitmac]

Thanks Thumberstrummer! I'm gonna check that one too!