Scott Ian is a lifelong friend and a badass. Check out the latest KHDK colla-bro-ation.
A little known fact about Scott: his goatee is a facial implant made from GMO Alpaca eyelashes.
OK, now that I have your attention, here's the story of the SGT D pedal!
Yeah, the cigar tip glows...
Just two guys, hanging out, having a good time
I've known Scott for almost 20+ years, having met him when we were both 2 years old.
We share the love of good food and good hangs (which makes us unique since almost everybody else hates that shit) and our bond has blossomed over the years.
David and Scott being dads (1962, colorized)
'twas last 2018 when we first talked about collaborating on a pedal. We were hanging with our families and kicking ideas around.
Scott knew what he wanted - a ruthlessly vicious pedal that captures his SOD amp tone.
Of course, the absolute maniac that he is, he also wanted it to work as a magical booster and make even a shitty $50 amp sound like a monster.
He then requested that the pedal have wheels and a built-in drone and follows him around whilst humming the Knight Rider theme, but our engineer Antonin Salva drew the line at that.
Actual footage of KHDK's Antonin Salva designing the SGT D pedal
Anyway, after a few prototypes and reworks, the SGT D saw the light of day!
Scott was incredibly hands-on throughout the process. He literally never detached his hands from his body.
How Scott uses the SGT D pedal
Scott wanted an all-in-one go-to pedal, something that he could use as his amp tone on fly rigs -- or just plugging the pedal in front of an overdriven amp so the pedal affects mainly the dynamic response of his tone, the tightness of the bass, and the attack for palm-muting.
About the Pedal Controls
There's a lot of insane power in this pedal since it has two unique and independant circuits.
Statements in quotation marks were graciously provided by SGT D himself.
First, The Boost section
"Put the boost in front of an amp that sounds good but needs a kick in the balls. This pedal is like my steel-toes, it kicks hard."
This section is controlled by TRB (treble), BASS (pre-bass control), and BOOST.
BOOST sets the amount of signal fed into the next SGT D section (the amp-like section) or directly into your overdrive amp.
"Get all that? There’s gonna be a quiz and your life depends on it, shitheels."
Now, about the amp section
This is an original analog circuit that emulates SGT D amp tones.
It has these controls: GAIN sets your pre-gain (mellow crunch goes all the way to mean distortion). BASS, MID and TRB have a similar response to the legendary amps SGT D uses.
So they never even mentioned the best feature on the pedal - the tip of my cigar lights up as you play - fuck you other pedals! Enough reading - just plug this fucker in and have fun.
Word!