The dirt comes from the pedals; the scream comes from the Badger's power section. A pedal-driven lead voice built as a controlled rig for testing Power Scaling.
First in line — the tube-driver foundation. Real ECC832 tube; Bias at noon sets the creamy texture. Line driver pushes the rest of the board.
The dominant Landau voice — sits second so its character leads the stack. Low-mid & Sparkle are internal trimmers; set once with a screwdriver.
Last in the stack — slams the Badger's front end. Tone cuts mids & highs, so keep it low for cut. Boost switch adds a +3 dB low/mid shove.
Per the Suhr manual, Gain is the preamp (two cascading stages) and stays low — the amp is a clean platform, the pedals are the dirt. Drive feeds the power section and behaves like a master volume; Power is the Power Scaling. The rule: keep Drive within 2 of the Power setting. Drive below Power reads brighter and more "master-volume"; Drive equal to Power pushes the power section hardest. Bass stays low — the EL84 / no-feedback design is bass-heavy.
| Stage | Power | Drive | What you're listening for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference — loud | 8 | 8 | Full power-section bloom and sustain. Your tonal benchmark. |
| Gig baseline | 6 | 6 | The card setting. Power section still cooking, room-manageable. |
| Studio | 4 | 5 | Drive nudged above Power to keep the push as headroom drops. |
| Bedroom | 3 | 4 | The honest test. Scream should hold; expect a touch more sag. |
As Power drops, the output section has less headroom before it clips — so it saturates earlier, just quieter. The scream, sustain and harmonic bloom should carry the whole way down; what changes is volume and a slight rise in compression and sag. If the tone goes thin or lifeless between 5 and 3, that's the usable floor for this Drive setting — back Drive off to 6 rather than chasing it with Power.
Depth at minimum = no modulation; it serves purely as the wet/dry splitter here. Nudge Depth up for an optional subtle chorus shimmer.
Mix full clockwise — dry comes from the Badger, so the Timeline runs 100% wet. Filter past noon darkens the repeats so they sit under the lead.
After the Timeline in the wet path. Tone just below noon keeps the tail warm so it's a bed, not a wash.
Stays clean — it's an ambience platform. The rear 5 W / Class A single-ended mode gives sweet low-volume voicing; Master set so the wet amp sits under the dry Badger.
Suhr S, neck pickup. Volume on 10 for the full scream — roll to 7–8 for a softer singing mid-gain, 5 to clean up.
Picking intensity gates the Venus — dig in for bite, ease off and the stack opens up. Let the hands do the volume swells.
The Badger's footswitchable MOSFET Boost is your solo lift — kick it for peak moments without touching the stack.