On my 2011 multi-watt triple the red and orange (both on modern) are very very close in sound. Not exactly the same but I can EQ them to almost identical.
They are close enough that I prefer one over the other based on which guitar/pickups/boost I am using at the moment.
Now they do "feel" a...
And why does everyone now say "I know right(.?!)" ?
We have a guy at worked named Dan, and most people call him Danno, and his last name does not start with an O.
Anyways, at any scale length, something like an Invader or Warpig will balance out nicely with a guitar that is very mid-bright unplugged. It will indeed be somewhat 2-dimensional because of the compressing nature of high-dcr winds and the strident and focused nature of hard-maple.
A lower or...
Scale has little to do with it. My full-maple Carvin is 25" scale with an ebony board, and it has the basic EQ profile of a jcm800 lol. It is anything but muddy even with an Invader, which only on the internet is a muddy pickup.
On a shorter scale just bump up the gauges by a notch and there...
^^^ Exactly this.
You want something thick with fat lower-mids and not too much upper-mids, or at least not a dominant upper-midrange.
Invader
Warpig
D'activator-X
Sonic Ecstasy
https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/high-power/sonic-ecstasy-bridge?v=32266
Between my four rectifiers I'm sure at least one will outlast me lol.
Only one of them has ever needed service yet, and that was my 95 dual needing some new caps, a couple new pots, a loose chassis ground fixed, and by choice a different effects-loop jack to convert it to their original factory...
Those are really great. If set to the "standard" clean-boost with level at max and drive at 0 they are cleaner than the basic ts9 or 808.
Sometimes I use the toggle in normal with the drive at 9:00-11:00, and other times with the toggle in boost with the drive at 8:00-9:00.
Even using the drive...