Scott Henderson Discussion

[Vinchan]

In your tone videos from mmm, you talked about your Marshall and Bella(basically a fender), and how Marshall is more full range with fat bass frequency and Bella emphasizes low mid.

How's the badger 18 sounds like in these terms?

Thinking about getting one and suhr load box for my apartment projects

[Scott Henderson]

I don't know why I forgot to include the Badger in the tone video - definitely an oversight on my part. Sorry!!

The Badger is a class A amp. The tubes are hot all the time, they don't breath as you play like in a Class AB amp such as a Marshall or Fender. The result is a twangy, sparkly tone. It's great for country and blues, terrible for high gain. My Dog Party album was done with a Matchless, which is class A - it sounds fine for most of the record but on "Hound Dog", the distortion is really fizzy because there isn't a knob on the amp to dial out those ultra-high frequencies.

Long story short, if you're into high gain, the Badger is a bad choice. The Bella would be much better, and it can sound great for country and blues too.

[Vinchan]

I don't quite play high-gain, and one of my favorite sound is sco's recent live sound with vox 30, so badger would work fine.

Do you have badger 18 or 35?
I know John says it's practically same thing..but just wondering

btw, you mentioned several time that you really liked the prototype pedal from Xotic, what is it? is it AH soul driven? or something else you can't really mention?

[Scott Henderson]

I think you'll like the Badger even more than the Vox. I have the 35 - the 18 isn't loud enough for a gig unless you're playing really soft, and even though John says there's no difference, bigger amps sound bigger!

Yes, the pedal is the Soul Driven - cool pedal with a mid control. It has a lot of bass so it's great for recording, but for live use it won't replace my Maxon SD-9, which still remains on my pedal board after almost 20 years.