In playthrough 1, outside of the DLC, there's no such thing as scaling. Enemy levels are determined solely by the area they're in and your mission (certain missions effectively "level up" areas, notably Sanctuary and The Dust). You can easily check the level of an area by checking out the vending machines in the area, they sell items scaled to the level.
DLC in playthrough 1 scales to your level...ish. It maxes out at level 30. I played the DLC as a level 34 character and was disappointed to see everything was at level 30 in playthrough 1. Not sure if it has a minimum level it scales to.
Playthrough 2 works the same way until you beat the Final Boss; then everything in that playthrough scales to your level (except mission rewards for missions picked up before the final boss).
Playthrough 3 works the same was as Playthrough 2 after the final boss: Everything scales to your level, period. In team play, it will always be scaled to the highest level player's level. And you have to be at least level 50 to unlock it, so enemies are effectively level 50-61 at all times. Though if you take a mission before leveling up, the mission will still stay at that lower level, as always.
Basically the game works like a standard RPG without level scaling until you A) beat the game twice (because you should be maxed out anyway) or B) enter a DLC (because you can do that at any time so a preset level would be a really bad idea)
wow, old question, so my answer is probably late.
I play a mechromancer. I've not gotten to UHVM yet, but I've solo'd most of TVHM so far with very little problem (I do die occasionally, but I never got 'stuck')
I invest in anarchy (I keep the stack limit at 150) with maxed type I iconocast and rational anarchist. I always pack a one-shot jakobs; even if its weak; purely to build anarchy; though you have to be far from the enemy and stay safe while you charge it up. It takes very little time to get to 100 stacks and Deathtrap does a fine job at keeping them from getting to me while I charge up. At about 100 stacks or so, I switch to my main guns and start chewing through enemies very quickly. Anarchy, at least for me, has been key for Mechromancer. Shotguns are your friend; 5/5 close enough, standing close to the enemy, and 150 stacks of anarchy = awesome offensive power. Throw in 5/5 bloadsoaked shields and you can stay alive as long as you keep killing stuff; an easy thing to do with the anarchy/weapons mentioned above.
Rest of my points generally go into Best Friends Forever tree to beef up Deathtrap. He is seriously a beast even on TVHM late game; so long as you spec him for it.
I do admit; I am nervous to see how this build fares in UVHM..
Best Answer
If you're any less than level 50, the easiest thing to do is probably to just play through TVHM's main storyline. Ignore every side quest. You'll be so overleveled for the content that you should blow through, especially if you have weapons at your level. Plus, as soon as you get to UVHM, everything will be level 50 minimum, and if you're not at 50 yourself yet, you'll be in instant trouble - every enemy will soak tons of bullets and feel like its own mini-quest to kill.
If you're at 50, and don't have weapons at or very close to that level, find some before you tackle UVHM. Anything at even 49 or less will start to have trouble. (The higher the rarity, the longer it'll last, and some weapons will survive especially long, such as a DPUH.) Buy greens from a vending machine if you must.
If you're 50 and have leveled weapons, then a save editor might work, but I'm not sure. I found an editor on NexusMods. I can't tell from the screenshots whether there's any info there on which game mode you've unlocked, but if it's anywhere, it seems to be in that editor's Raw tab. Hope you're comfortable with Regedit.