DigiTech Hardwire SC-2 Valve Overdrive

very easy to use< pretty much a plug and play type pedal. i like the easy access to battery.

i bought this pedal because i play through a clean amplifier, aka Fender twin and needed some grit going on in there. i must say this pedal ranks very high, it has a clean articulate typ tone, think old school marshall.this pedal also received the guitar players pick award from guitar players magazine. i personaly like the classic mode, but it has a switch to go saturated which is a modern type of sound (high Gain).I A/B it to a fulltone gt500 (also a good Pedal) and a Visual Sound Jekyl and hyde. this Pedal just sounded the best through my Particular amp.

only had it for a while but it seems to be built like an army tank.

never dealt with digitech, but they are a large company and probably would have no problems taking care of u.

for 99$ its a great buy, wish they would build a Model that is footswitchable from classic to saturated.but i am really happy with this purchase. typ stay away from digitech products but this line of pedals they got it right man!

Pretty basic features. Gain, 2 tone knobs, and a volume control. There's a bonus though, it has 2 modes of operation for which there is a switch. For this pedal the modes are Crunch (basically operates as an overdrive) and Saturated (higher gain). True bypass. Nothing complex, just plug and play.

It has an amazing tone. BUT, if you're looking to play Metallica, Iced Earth kinda stuff, then this is not for you. This is actually more like a high gain overdrive. It's more for classic 80's type of stuff. I'm talking like Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue kinda thing....not Pantera or anything like that. It perfect for rhythm AND soloing. Clear tone too. It sounds amazing.

I use it with both single coil and humbucker guitars. It can handle it all. Hardwire series have some kind of circuit design that eliminates clipping from hot output from guitars. So that's a plus, no clipping. I run this into an Epiphone Valve Special. I have also put this into a Fender 212r and a Roland JC-120. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that you will get the most out of it from a tube amp. It increased my harmonics and sustain. It also feedsback beautifullly.

Haven't had any problems yet. Except for this thing that happens when using it with a battery: It kept turning on by itself...wierd. But it looks and feels solid, it's in an all metal case. But nothing big. I've had it for about 4 months now. Still like new.

Great value if you're into a more high gain clear tone. Pretty classic tone. It works best with tube amps, but don't get me wrong, it's still great on solid states. It's a great value. I was considering the Rat, which is actually cheaper, but this one is everything I was looking for. I would still consider is better than the Rat. The tone is a little clearer and the notes ring out more AND you get great sustain (mainly with tubes). No regrets.

It's got 4 knobs and a crunch/ saturation switch. very easy to use.

I love the sound out of this thing. i play a Gibson Les Paul with burstbucker pros in it, and a mid 80's japanese fender strat through a fender blues junior. i had a 4x10 deville for years, but it was just too big for what i do.

since the blues jr is a single channel tube amp that doesn't get much distortion, i needed a good overall distortion pedal. the tube screamer and mxr classic distortion were good, but they're both over drives. i tried this pedal out at the store and thought it was a good sounding, beefy distortion. took it home and got cranked up in the tube's sweet spot, and i was in heaven. i prefer the saturation mode on this, to get a good beefy tube amp, AC/DC type distortion.

i tried many many different pedals and thought they were too crunchy. this one was nice and smooth, loud, and just exactly what i wanted.

the crunch/ saturation switch is great. if you go crunch, and roll back the distortion, you can get a great over drive sound, but that's what my other pedals are for. i purely use this for my beefy distortion.

i must say overall, i don't like digitech. they've always felt cheap, and sounded weak to me. i tried this one only because i couldn't find any other pedal that had teh sound i was looking for, and the sales guy said i had 30 days to return it. i took it home and fell in love. if i had to sell off pedals to pay rent, i'd sell ALL of my other pedals except this and the wah.

i must say, that this pedal sounds just ok in front of a solid state amp. it sounds worlds better through tubes. it is extremely harmonically responsive in front of tubes. it will pick up every nuance of your playing.

it's built like a tank. i like the included knob cover to protect your setting, and the knobs. i generally think digitech pedals are cheap, but this new hardwire series seems to be a whole new direction for digitech. digitech stepped it up with these.

i don't think i'd have to back this up.

haven't had to contact customer support. don't think i'll have to.

i've played everything from classical to heavy metal, and have been playing for about 20 years. off ALL of the many pedals i have gone through, this ties for 1st with my wah. i have over drive pedals, and a line 6 uber metal pedal. this one filled the void, but is versitile enough that i could lose the over drives and be fine. but for playing live, i don't wanna be reaching down and re-adjusting knobs.

i know i gave it all 10's but i was just so impressed with it that if i killed this one, or it was lost or stolen, i'd be at the store buying a new one same day.

Go buy one. you'll thank yourself.

Very easy to use, a good old school pedal. It comes with a manual but it's not essential before operating the pedal.

This is a very versatile pedal, I use it with a Les Paul Junior and it sounds fantastic! Real clarity and definition in tone. The SC-2 also works well with humbuckers. This is the sound I've been hearing in my head but could never achieve it with my amp's distortion. I did an A - B test using my SC-2 and my amp distortion and there was no competition. The SC-2 was so much better, it had so much tone and punch to it - I have the pedal set on the crunch setting.

This pedal is built to last. This makes any Boss pedal look and sound cheap.

N/A

The Hardwire SC-2, overall, is a great pedal. It has some good features, sounds, versatility and is dependable. I play pop-punk in my band - mainly rhythm guitar, and it's perfect. It has true guitar tone - none of this fizzy pap you get from Digitech's contemporaries. This is all I use on stage and is all I need - Guitar - Sc-2 - Amp.

Very easy to use, and very versatile.
True bypass, very cool blue indicator light. Built solid.
I love the puke orange color. Comes with a glow sticker if you want to use it, and some other well thought out accessories.

I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a Mesa Express 5/50 212
The pedal has a crunch and saturated switch. A wide range of sounds.
I can't tell you how much i love this little baby.
You can use it with the clean channel to get awesome bluesy tones which i like better than the tube screamer, or with some gain to get to those screaming 80's tones.
I like to use the crunch setting along with a distortion channel on the mesa for those singing, harmonic solos. Lynch, Satriani, Timmons, DeMartini, Steve Stevens, Eric Johnson etc. I play it over the fender clean for an amazing blues sound.

This thing is rock solid. I bet i could shoot it with a shotgun from 50 feet and it wouldn't hurt it at all.
No issues so far.

I play as many styles as i can, but mostly blues, rock, alternative, etc. I played religiously for about 4 years, got pretty good and then stopped for 15+ years. I'm back baby. I'll probably never consider myself very good because i compare myself to the best and i can't touch them.
I love everything about this pedal. If i lost it i would 100% get another one.
I have a Maxon 808, which i like but the Valve Distortion does that and so much more.
Have i made it clear enough what i think about it?

This is a very straight forward distortion pedal: four knobs, one switch.

i play a Blade Durango Deluxe (Humbuckers) through a '76 fender vibrolux reverb.
This pedal sounds just great! Very "sparkly" if you dial in the highs. High and low knobs can produce very extreme settings (its easy to dial in too much). I usually have the highs below a 12 o'clock setting as my amp already produces enough highs. The low knob packs so much punch! Makes my 10 in. speakers sound more like 12s.
I absolutely love the crunch / saturated switch, makes the pedal so versatile. saturated gives a rich modern scoop sound. crunch is more old school. I wanted a pedal that could produce modern distortion and this does it for me.
I haven't noticed any clicks due to the true bybass and the pedal itself is very quiet. (my other pedals, Ibanez MT10 Mostortion and Marschall Bleusbreaker produce way more noise)!

have only had it for 3 weeks. Extremely solid construction, quite heavy. I will use it without a backup.

haven't ever dealt with digitech.

I play in a rock powertrio (w drums and bass) and this pedal gives me the distinct sound I need. I've been playing for 14 years now and thought about getting a lot of other pedals before choosing this one.

I compared it to a lot of other pedals out there and none of them (in a similar price catagory) could give me as many sounds as this one.

I'm also thinking about getting the hardwire dl-8 delay to replace the digital delay I've got now (Boss dd-7 is said to be extremely noisy, so I'm wondering how digitech has done).

I would definitely get this pedal again if it got stolen or lost (how do you "lose" a pedal??!!).

I haven't discovered anything I don't like about this thing and I just love how "alive" it sounds.

Very easy to use. Great Battery compartment design, good battery life, and a simple control layout.

I also posted a review on the Tube Overdrive, which I will say right now, is a better pedal in my opinion. However, this pedal is a very good straight ahead distortion pedal. I always use the classic mode; saturated to me begins to sound less "Alive". This pedal is very scooped, and with the gain turned low, reminds me very much of a blackface amp (this is played through my tweed Blues deluxe amp; a glorified fender Hot Rod deluxe). I'm an SRV fan, and with a good strat and a good tube amp, this pedal can give you a really good "slinky" overdrive. The controls are actually more difficult to dial in than the Tube Overdrive. It really is easy to dial in "Too much", whereas with the Tube Overdrive It's more like "How much". Once dialed in though, this pedal delivers the goods. I use it for blues because of the way it sparkles, and I use my Tube Overdrive for metal because of its mids. This pedal has more of it's own tone and fell, whereas the Tube Overdrive only sounds and feels like the amp you're playing it through.

Don't get me wrong; this is a much better pedal than say, a Boss DS-1 or a Metalzone (that may be more of an opinion). The problem I have with this pedal is probably more to blame on the overall sound of my amp/speaker setup (very scooped upper-mids) than the pedal itself. Also, $100 dollars is pretty pricey. It should be about $65 or $70. I will always keep and use this pedal but should something happen I would replace it with the Tube Overdrive, which works better for me.