Scott Henderson Discussion

[guitarplayer]

Hi Scott,
A lot of working musicians such as myself find ourselves in the position of having to deal with tube amp back line gear without effects loops and gain controls. When traveling (with no budget for rental amps) the typical back line, as you know, is a fender twin, a reissue fender deluxe or something similar. All vintage amp layouts with no ability to interface delays in the efx loop and overdrives into the front.
I know your general opinions from reading other threads that are similar, but if you had to play through a twin or vintage style deluxe, how would you deal with that situation? I know that you don't do that and won't do that, but for some of the players on the forum that do, do you have an idea on how to make the best of that situation? Pedal order, perhaps what would work and not totally suck in this situation?

[Scott Henderson]

I've been there, in the days before master volume amps. I used a plexi, and I could never turn it up loud enough for it to get crunchy because I was playing in small clubs. I did what you'd expect - guitar into the distortion pedals first (I had an MXR Distortion+ and a fuzz), then into modulation pedals (I had an MXR Phase 90 and a terrible chorus), then into my echoplex, and then into the amp. Some of my friends had reverb or delay pedals which were a lot quieter than my echoplex, but I was addicted to it. My tone would've sounded fatter if I could turn the amp up to about 8, but then people would have nosebleeds.

[peter_heijnen]

Scott, part of the Echoplex sound was the onboard preamp as you will know, have you ever tried one of the clones? I own a Chase Tone that is supposed to be a true clone, and a Clinchfx that is 'inspired on'. They definetly won't change anolog or digital delay into tape but i love what they do. I have the Chase Tone after the RC booster, they are great friends.

[Scott Henderson]

I have a Chase script wah and I love it. I still have my Echoplex but it's to big for me to carry on the road - I use it in the studio sometimes.

[guitarplayer]

Thanks for the reply Scott.
It is nice to know that you have done the vintage amp thing with pedals. Maybe a solution is to continue the search for a pedal that sounds good at unity gain, so the amp can run clean with the pedal creating all of the distortion. I have not found a pedal that can do this yet, but maybe one will turn up someday! It should be possible to find a pedal that sounds ok through a clean amp with all of the pedal makers out there! I just have not found it yet.

[peter_heijnen]

[peter_heijnen]

[Scott Henderson]

The Echoplex and EP Boost color the tone - that's not what I'm looking for. When I use the Echoplex in the studio, it's more of a novelty effect. EchoBoy has a much sweeter tone in my opinion - and that amazes me since the Echoplex is a real analog tape machine and EchoBoy is a plug-in.

[peter_heijnen]

I remember you saying you loved the Echoplex but didn't use it because it's too big, but if you don't want the color it adds it's definetly a no go.