TWA SH-9 Scott Henderson Signature Distortion Pedal

For the past 20 years, Jazz Fusion guitar great Scott Henderson has had a Maxon SD-9 Sonic Distortion parked on his pedalboard. He's even gone so far as to call it "...the best distortion pedal ever made."

Yet for all his praises, there were several shortcomings to the SD-9 that many players -Scott included - had discovered. Chief among these were a loss of low-end on high notes and a Tone control that was basically unusable past the 9 o'clock setting.

Over the years, many boutique pedal builders have modified the SD-9 in hopes of improving its performance, but they have all missed the mark - Until now.
TWA is very excited about their first signature model, as well as their first collaboration with TubeScreamer creator Susumu Tamura - the Scott Henderson SH9 Signature Distortion.

With the SH9, Mr. Tamura has taken the basic SD-9 circuit architecture that he invented in 1981 and re-worked it to meet Scott Henderson's exacting performance standards.

The first and most beneficial improvement was the re-voicing of the pedal's Tone stack. The current SD-9 has a respectable low-frequency response - until the Tone pot is turned past 9 o'clock. At that point, the lows get cut and there is an unpleasant spike in the upper-mids that is somewhat harsh, fairly unmusical, and more than a little reminiscent of an AM car radio.

Mr. Tamura has shifted the center frequency of the SH9's Tone control and focused it in the lows and lower-mids. Even as the Tone control is turned up, there… read more is no loss of the bass frequencies that Scott considers essential for allowing notes to speak properly in the higher registers on the guitar.

This increased note girth combined with the SH9's inherently compressed sound allows Scott to effortlessly articulate the fluid, horn-like lead tones that he is known for.

Another useful improvement to the SH9 circuit is an increased output level that helps the pedal to be heard clearly in a full band context.

Mr. Tamura also designed the SH9 to operate with 9-or 18-volt power. Although Scott only uses the pedal with 9-volts, powering it with 18 VDC will allow for increased headroom with less compression and a slightly different character to the distortion.

The SH9 is housed in a die-cast zinc chassis and coated with a beautiful and durable metallic purple powder coating that was chosen by Scott.

Only the highest quality components such as ALPS potentiometers, Marushin Jacks, KOA/Speer resistors and WIMA, Nichicon & Kemet capacitors are used in the SH9 circuit in order to maintain the highest standards of tonal reproduction.

The SH9 is available with two different faceplate screens: The first version highlights the SH9 logo in the same trademark lime-green color as the original SD-9, while the second, all-white screen features a replication of Scott's signature.

TWA would like to offer their heartfelt thanks to both Scott Henderson and Susumu Tamura for their involvement in this project and their willingness to go above and beyond the norm. TWA has learned many invaluable lessons during their interactions with these two Masters of their crafts.

TWA are deeply honored to have been a part of the SH9 development. TWA had been knocking this one about for the better part of three years, and there were several times that they didn't think it would get off the ground - they're very pleased that the SH9 has finally taken flight

Features:

- Signature distortion pedal inspired by classic SD-9 circuit
- Thick, compressed, amp-like tone
- Improved Bass and lower Midrange response
- Increased "girth" on high-register notes
- Allows notes to "speak" properly
- Increased output level
- JRC4558 OpAmp
- Optional 18-VDC operation for increased headroom, less compression and alternate drive signature
- True Bypass switching
- Die cast zinc enclosure with custom powder coat
- Made in USA read less