Scott Henderson Discussion

[Philentropy]

Hello Scott... been exploring some of your workflows for awhile now and one thing is utterly vexing me ! You very consistently have the volume on your pedals - Maxon, FuzzFactory, Klon, RC, Octafuzz - turned all the way up.

I have tried this, with each of the pedals above, and for each one the result is always WAY louder than unity and a bleep-ton of increased noise floor.

You, on the other hand, seem to be able play clean, and pop in and out of gain pedals with no volume jumping, and no annoying noise floor hiss.

How do you do this magical trick? ??

Loving the new album too

Phil

[Scott Henderson]

I think what's confusing you is that you think I'm playing without pedals and then turning them on. That's not the case - my "unity" level is with one pedal on all the time.

My main pedal, the RC Booster, is set so that when my guitar volume is on 6 or 7, it's pretty clean, not clean like a clean channel, but clean enough for chords with just a bit of distortion and compression. I turn the guitar volume up for more gain, or use a high gain pedal. Also, my picking varies a lot, so I can turn up my master volume (using a volume control in the FX loop) and pick soft, which can sound very clean. I can also turn up the guitar volume, pick hard, and turn down the master volume.

By using different guitar volumes, master volumes, pedals, and picking, I can get a pretty wide variety of tones without huge differences in the overall volume level. Hope that helps!

[Philentropy]

Aww thank you Scott for unlocking this crazy mystery... now back to the lab to test it out

❤️

[Thumberstrummer]

Hi Scott.
Being a big fan of your tone at any stage, from the stereo rig + big refrigerator dating back to Joe Zawinul days to the back-to-the-roots one nowadays, I was quite surprised when getting the same info, that you are maxing up volume on almost all of your dirt pedals.
Here is my experience with that:
I have an SD9, a Klon-style pedal, an RC booster, a TS 808 and all of them get big benefits from having the volume set all the way up. They sound more organic and do clean up well when tweaking the volume on guitar.
Of course, if you push a JTM45 style head (in my case), which is naturally crunchy, never crystal clean like a Fender, with a pedal preamp maxed out, you need to take care of the drive knob.
On the other hand there are some other (good) pedals, i.e. my Fulltone OCD or my DOD Looking Glass (a Timmy-style OD) that you could never handle the same way, unless you want to get any sort of crazy feedback and hum.
This second group needs more care when tweaking the volume, but they can sound good as well with that knob half way.
It's easy to undertand that some sort of pedals, even when the volume is set all the way up, do not lead to a dramatic volume increase / change.
That's what happens when I stack my Maxon OD-9 (a TS 808) and a Roger Mayer Voodoo 1, both set at maximum volume: you get a wanderful singing tone, but it's prone to become quite and crispy at a guitar volume knob twist!
Things change a bit when using a Fender-style amp, and in general a naturally clean amp. But is a ROT that most of the drive pedals sound better when patched to a cruncy - slightly dirt amp, like Marshalls are.
These are my two cents...

Fabio
_________________
Germino Club 40 plexi replica + EJ Strat w Suhr ML st. pups. I'm not asking for more so far (but... who knows...?)

[Scott Henderson]

I think it's probably different for everyone, depending how much gain they want for their playing style. I use a lot of gain and I don't care if the chords are a bit distorted too, as long as you can hear the notes. Most of the distortion pedals I like seem to sound best with the volume all the way up and the gain somewhere between 12 and 2 o' clock. The OD-9/ Voodoo 1 is a nice combination but I stooped using it when the RC Booster 2 came out, which to my ears sounds better and with less noise. It's all personal taste though - whatever works!

[Thumberstrummer]

Thanks Scott, also having teached me the Voodoo1-OD9 thing.
It was a few months ago, in another thread, answering to a question related to “well to the bone” tone.
That’s a fantastic combo, probably also due to the fact that the 2 units are sonically different, and complement each other.
I have an old RC Booster that I love, and will stay forever on my board.
Buying these two pedals (the od9 brand new, the Voodoo1 used) costed me way less than getting an expensive brand new RC.
It’s funny to consider that I do not like at all none of the two pedal alone. But when matched, something magic happens.
Starting from there I discovered a few other pedals based on the same criterion (e.g. hardly available King Of Tone, etc...), most of them unreasonably expensive.
The combo thing was pretty new to me, and as usual I appreciated the good advices you spread in this blog. Thanks man!!! Very much appreciated!
Beyond that, I wander whether the complexity brought by two pedals with a totally different voice is anything similar to a dual gain stages pedal like the new RC. On the other hand, this latter helps to save a lot of space.
In the end, is always a matter of personal preferences and needs.
Cheers

Fabio
_________________
Germino Club 40 plexi replica + EJ Strat w Suhr ML st. pups. I'm not asking for more so far (but... who knows...?)

[Scott Henderson]

Using both channels of the RC is quieter than combining the OD-9 & Voodoo 1, and it's also more transparent sounding. However, it's not as compressed since the OD-9 is a Tube Screamer, known for it's compressed, punchy sound. Try to borrow an RC-2 and try both - you'll know which option fits your playing style better - both sound great.

[Thumberstrummer]

Thanks Scott.
I'll try to borrow one and AB test my combo and the new RC.
However my feeling is that there's a lot to learn on stacking pedals, which is something out of my sight till a few menths ago.

It's a creative exercise, where amps, guitars, pick ups (SC or HB), matchability between pedals, all the players in the game contribute to the final results.

Fabio
_________________
Germino Club 40 plexi replica + EJ Strat w Suhr ML st. pups. I'm not asking for more so far (but... who knows...?)