Scuffham S-Gear Standalone Guitar Amplifier User Guide
- June 10, 2024
- Scuffham
Table of Contents
Scuffham S-Gear Standalone Guitar Amplifier
This Quick Start guide is intended for customers upgrading to S-Gear v3.1 from an earlier version of S-Gear. The guide provides information about everything new in v3.1 and assumes that you are already familiar with the core features of S-Gear. For comprehensive information about S-Gear, please refer to the full S-Gear User Manual.
Installing the v3.1 update
It is recommended to uninstall an earlier version of S-Gear before running the S-Gear v3.1 installer. Please see the website support page for uninstalling S-Gear. After installing, fire up the S-Gear Standalone Application. This should create a new bank called ‘SGS Compressor’, containing 23 factories presets for the new SG-S Compressor pedal. See the compressor section below for more information on the new factory presets. S-Gear v3.1 will load your existing presets and projects created using an earlier version of S-Gear. The following support note details some cases where the DAW may not recognize the S-Gear v3 VST plug-in: https://www.scuffhamamps.com/support/faq/sgear-v30 -upgrade-faq/will-my-daw-sessions-and-presets-be-affected-by-the-update
The Virtual Pedalboard
S-Gear v3 includes a new Virtual Pedalboard that can host up to eight pedals with high quality 8x oversampled audio processing. The initial v3.0 release introduced the first pedal, Drivethru. The v3.1 release adds the SG-S Compressor.
Show or Hide the Pedalboard
- Click the pedalboard icon in the top control bar to show or hide the pedalboard.
- If the pedalboard is hidden with active pedals, the pedalboard icon is displayed red.
Add a Pedal
To add a pedal to the board, click on the yellow ‘+’ button, or click
anywhere on the pedalboard. Select the desired pedal type from the pop-up
menu.
Remove a Pedal To remove a pedal, right-click anywhere on the pedal box and select ‘Remove Pedal’ from the pop-up menu.
Pedalboard scroller
If more than three pedals are placed on the pedalboard, a horizontal scroller
tool will appear below the pedalboard. Use this tool to scroll between
pedalboard sections.
Re-position Pedals
Pedal processing occurs left to right, and each pedal can be moved backward or
forward in the processing chain by simply by dragging and dropping the pedal.
The pedalboard view will scroll automatically as you drag and drop pedals to
different positions.
Pedal Control Tab
The control tab on the right hand side of the pedal provides buttons for
Bypass and Parallel. Depending on the Pedal, there might also be a Bypass
footswitch on the main pedal controls. For example, Drive thru also has a
footswitch and led for Bypass. A pedal can be placed in series or parallel
with the preceeding pedal. When the Parallel button is engaged, the pedal is
placed in parallel with the preceeding pedal. Parallel mode cannot be engaged
on the first pedal in the chain. The Instance number is useful when assigning
Midi Controllers or Automation parameters.
Pedal Presets
S-Gear Pedals include built-in Factory Presets and also offer the ability
to store and recall User Presets. To access the Factory Presets, left-click
anywhere on the Pedal control tab, alternatively, you can access Factory
Presets from the pedal right-click menu. Use the right-click menu to Load,
Store and Delete User Presets for the Pedal. It is also possible to Export and
Import User Preset files. A User Preset file can be imported by dragging and
dropping the file directly onto the pedal.
SG-S Compressor
SG-S is a vintage-style compressor with input and output controls to balance
the amount of compression. A unique shape control mixes two distinct circuits
for compressor dynamics. The SG-S provides fast attack and release times for a
natural-sounding compression effect. 
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Input – Use the input control to adjust the amount of compression. Increasing the input gain will push the signal further into the compression threshold, resulting in more compression. The input gain ranges from -6dB to +30dB.
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Output – Compensate the pedal output level with this control. With an output gain range of +/- 12 dB, there is the possibility to apply clean boost to the amplifier input.
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Ratio – Adjust the compression ratio from 4:1 to 16:1. Ratio controls the amount of gain reduction applied to signals above the compressor threshold. Ratio settings from 4 to 12 are typical. With a lower input gain setting, higher ratios can be used to limit signal peaks.
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Attack – Adjust the compressor attack time from 0 (slower) to 7 (fast), i.e. turning the knob clockwise will yield a faster attack. The faster attack time generally sounds more natural, since you don’t perceive the action of the compressor circuit reducing the gain. Be aware, however, that very fast attack times along with fast release can cause unwanted distortion. The measured attack time can range from 5msec to a very fast 50 usec.
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Shape – Increase the Shape control setting to give more character to the compressor attack.
The shape control mixes control signals from two different sidechain circuits, one (clockwise) offering a more characterful attack characteristic and variable release, the other (counter-clockwise) a more natural response with a programme dependent auto-release. -
Release – Adjust the release time (for the second sidechain circuit). The Release time is the time it takes for the compressor gain to return to normal once the signal falls below threshold. Range from 600 msec down to 30 msec.
SG-S Compressor Factory Bank
The SG-S Compressor Factory Bank includes 23 full S-Gear presets to showcase
the pedal. The SG-S Compressor factory bank can be restored from the PRESETS
‘+’ menu.
000: Bottles| The classic American bright clean, which can sound be a bit like bottles clinking together.
A strong treble lift is achieved by setting the Wayfarer input gain low and using the compressor output level to boost the amplifier input.
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001: Studio Clean
002: Studio Drive
| A softer, clean sound with very smooth dynamics.
Studio Drive pushes the pre-amp and power-amp harder, pushing the Wayfarer clean channel into a classic American overdrive.
For a different tone, try the S12-65 speaker with the Rbn-121 mic.
003: Sparkling Clean
004: Sparkling Air
| A super-bright clean sound with ambience. Perfect for padding into a pop
song (think MJ’s Human Nature). The ‘Air’ variant adds even more ambience.
Turn on the delay for added thickness.
005: Bottles Drive I 006: Bottles Drive II| These two presets take
‘Bottles’ as a base and then add the Drive thru for overdrive. I & II swap the
position of the drive pedal with some additional compensations. Makes for two
very interesting clean/drive configurations.
007: Dual Comp Gritty Rhythm| A big and ambient rhythm sound using a two-
compressor setup. The second compressor is adding just a little additional
compression, but also provides a clean boost into the Duke.
008: Core Plexi I 009: Core Plexi II| Two examples of using the SG-S to
give additional boost and sustain for that maxed-out Plexi sound.
I think this gets the Stealer a bit closer to the brown sound. Some post EQ will no doubt help too.
010: Wayfarer Comp Dark 011: Wayfarer Comp Bright| Two variations of
boosting the Wayfarer with SG-S.
012: intimate
013: snappy
014: fast vintage
015: medium vintage
016: vintage r4
017: strummed guitar
018: natural
019: shaped
020: punch sustain
021: amp primer
022: dual compressors
| The last 11 factory presets show the SG-S built-in device presets with a DI guitar sound (no amplifier) and some basic reverb.
These presets demonstrate the range of compression effects available. Listening with the DI’d signal through good monitors or headphones allows you to hear (and feel) the compression effect in detail.
Drive-thru
The Drivethru pedal is a combination of the classic TS style filtering and
format, along with refined modeling of the clipping stages. The result is a
very natural analog drive that complements all the S-Gear amps. 
- Gain – Adjust the saturation of the pedals clipping stage
- Tone – Adjust the treble cut and mid-boost characteristics of the pedal. Roll the control back to 3.0 to 4.0 for a softer attack and smoother overdrive. Settings of 5.0 to 7.0 provide more upper-mid emphasis.
- Level – Balance the overall pedal output level. This will have a significant impact on how overdriven the amp input stage becomes.
- Pre-Clip – engage the pre-clip to emulate additional saturation in the input stage of the pedal. This can add a little more depth and sizzle to the sound.
- Tone Tip: Find the perfect gain and tone balance by adjusting the amp gain control in conjunction with the pedal controls. The gain control of the amp will affect the treble and upper-mid frequency emphasis.
Drive-thru Factory Bank
The Drive-thru Factory Bank includes 17 full S-Gear presets to showcase the
pedal.
000: Blackface Drive
001: Wayfarer Lead I Drive 002: Plexidrive
003: Sweet Spot Tweed 004: Mojo Drive
005: Blackface Drive 2 006: Stealer Crunch Drive 007: Tweed Drive
008: Joe B Blues
| 009: Wayfarer Drive Heaven 010: Blackface Drive 3
011: Texas Twister
012: Country Drive
013: Big M 1
014: Big M 2
015: Stealy Ray Drive 016: Drop-A Drive
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Restore Factory Banks
Restore the S-Gear Factory Banks at any time, using the ‘+’ menu. A new factory bank will be created. This operation will not overwrite any existing factory bank. If a bank of the same name already exists, then a unique bank will be created (for example ‘Drivethru 1’).