Scott Henderson Discussion

[bonga]

Hey Scott,

Three questions for you:

1. I have noticed that a lot of players have stopped using the SSC system by Suhr. Landau had it removed from all his guitars when he was still playing Suhr and now pretty much plays Fender. You too said you had it removed. Why is that?

2. Did you have a chance to check out the V70 pickups? I'm debating between the Suhr Classic Pro and the Classic Antique and apart from the finish which I don't really care for, the main difference is the choice of pickups - ML's or V70's. What's your take on the V70's?

3. And finally, any recommendation on a small amp that can give me Fender like clean tones but takes pedals really well?

Thanks Scott!

[Scott Henderson]

I had it removed because I switched to the new SSC system. When the first SSC system came out, it was a thin band of wire in the shape of a square which surrounded all three pickups. There was shallow rout in the wood under the pickguard for it to sit in. At that time, it sounded better than any noiseless pickups I tried, but it still changed the tone a slight bit. Then they improved it - instead of a square band of wire, it's now in the shape of a pickup which sits in a rout on the side of the guitar, under the pickguard. This new system doesn't change the tone at all. All three Suhr strats which I used on Vibe Station have it, otherwise the record would be humming like crazy because LA sucks and there's RF everywhere. Mike gets away with not using a noiseless system these days because he's playing much cleaner sounds - with high gain, if you don't have some kind of humbucking guitar, you're gonna have a huge problem if you live in a city.

Sorry, this is the first time I'm hearing about V-70's. They must be something John doesn't think fits my style or he would've told me about them.

The best Fender style amp I've ever heard in my life is the Suhr Bella. My friend Adam Stark bought one - he brought it over and I liked it even more than my modded Bandmaster. I'm selling my Bandmaster and getting a Bella ASAP.

[HenryJ]

Hi Scott. How much would you be willing to sell your Bandmaster? What other combos would you recommend beside the Bella. I would go for the Bella but you were saying that to get really clean chords you would have to turn pedal off and turn up amp... Thanks.

[Scott Henderson]

Sorry I've already sold the Bandmaster, and the Bella is the only combo I'd recommend. Going between totally clean and dirty is no different than with any other one channel amp - you need to turn it up louder and turn off the boost or distortion pedal to get a clean sound. That's no problem if you have a volume pedal in the FX loop. With the volume pedal full on, set the amp to the right volume for your clean sound. Then when you use your pedals, just lower the volume pedal to match the volume of the clean sound. It's not as easy as using a two channel amp, but one channel amps have better tone.