marnold
February 4th, 2010, 08:33 PM
The past couple of days I've been trying out my new Digitech Hardwire SC-2 Valve Distortion with my AD30VT. The SC-2 has level, low, high, and gain knobs as well as a crunch/saturated switch. The tone controls are active so they will either add to or cut from available gain depending on how they are set. A little adjustment goes a long way. That switch is well named. Switching it to saturated adds another gain stage which also compresses the signal more. It's great for legato stuff, but chords become more indistinct. The crunch setting is Marshall-in-a-box territory. The distortion is crisp and chords don't get lost in a jungle of gain. It cleans up well too if you back off on the guitar's volume.
I tried it first with my Blackface settings, but it just sounded hollow. I had the same problem with my DVM-made OD2. Nevertheless, that gave me a chance/excuse to tweak it so it sounds even better clean. I really like that model for pristine cleans.
Anyway, somewhat by accident I discovered that both pedals work much better with the Tweed model right at the edge of breakup. Adding the OD2 with my neck pickup gives some really nice blues crunch. I had to futz with the settings both on the amph and the SC-2 to find something I liked. I set the level on the pedal to unity, low at noon, high at about 12:30, the gain at 3:00, and the switch on crunch. I'm still trying to dial it in. I've got the amph set with the gain about 11, volume dimed, treble at noon, mids and bass at about 1:00, and the master dimed. I went back and forth comparing that with my UK70s settings with the OD2 and the NuMetal settings I've been using.
The thing I like about the pedal is the crispness/definition to the distortion. Both of my old settings get too buzzy/fuzzy/indistinct for me. If I play the main "Crazy Train" riff with the old settings, it gets lost in a sea of distortion. The SC-2 doesn't suffer from that. I'm still trying to dial in a pseudo-Lynch tone that's bright enough without getting shrill. I've gotten things where the basic tone is the same whether using the old or new settings. The question right now is if the crispness/definition to the distortion of the SC-2 is enough in and of itself to justify its continued existence in my house.
I tried it first with my Blackface settings, but it just sounded hollow. I had the same problem with my DVM-made OD2. Nevertheless, that gave me a chance/excuse to tweak it so it sounds even better clean. I really like that model for pristine cleans.
Anyway, somewhat by accident I discovered that both pedals work much better with the Tweed model right at the edge of breakup. Adding the OD2 with my neck pickup gives some really nice blues crunch. I had to futz with the settings both on the amph and the SC-2 to find something I liked. I set the level on the pedal to unity, low at noon, high at about 12:30, the gain at 3:00, and the switch on crunch. I'm still trying to dial it in. I've got the amph set with the gain about 11, volume dimed, treble at noon, mids and bass at about 1:00, and the master dimed. I went back and forth comparing that with my UK70s settings with the OD2 and the NuMetal settings I've been using.
The thing I like about the pedal is the crispness/definition to the distortion. Both of my old settings get too buzzy/fuzzy/indistinct for me. If I play the main "Crazy Train" riff with the old settings, it gets lost in a sea of distortion. The SC-2 doesn't suffer from that. I'm still trying to dial in a pseudo-Lynch tone that's bright enough without getting shrill. I've gotten things where the basic tone is the same whether using the old or new settings. The question right now is if the crispness/definition to the distortion of the SC-2 is enough in and of itself to justify its continued existence in my house.