Scott Henderson Discussion

[Rudmer]

Yesterday I was at the Guitar Guinness World Record in Wrocław...

There I could not help to think about the song Too Many Gittars of the Dog Party album.

Maybe next year they could play that song instead of Hey Joe

PS Thanks for the concert afterward, it was very nice!

[Scott Henderson]

OMG, sorry about that - I need to apologize for my terrible performance. I was on stage just minutes before I played, and the amp they chose for me to play through was broken - turns out it was a bad speaker cable. By the time it was fixed, they were already starting and I had no chance to dial in my tone, and then I broke a string in the middle of my solo. I should've just stopped playing but I kept doing fills down a half step, trying to bend the notes up to pitch - unsuccessfully... totally embarrassing.

So I'm sure people will be pissed off at me as usual when I take it off YouTube. Of course, anytime I have a horrible stage experience, it's always posted there first thing in the morning, and on the rare occasion that I play a good solo, the guy who recorded it was standing in front of my amp with his iPhone so it's just fucked up sounding guitar with no drums or bass. I fucking hate YouTube.

[Rudmer]

I was taking part in the World Record. There were so many guitars around me, that I could not even hear the music from the stage during most of the Hey Joe song. I also could not hear your solo, but from what I hear from you now, maybe that was for the best.

Anyway, this brings me to a question. What do you do when you break a string during a (normal) concert?

I guess your Suhr guitar has the same thing as a Fender strat...when you break a string, all the other strings are detuned because of that.

[Scott Henderson]

Yes, the Suhr is set up like a strat - if you break a string, it's over. When I play in town I have a backup guitar, but if I break a string on the road I have to just end the tune somehow. I change strings before each gig, but we only played for an hour the night before the Hendrix festival so I thought everything would be OK - guess not!

[Hawx]

I always wondered how guys like you and Jeff Beck manage to avoid string breakage, of course I realized it just comes down to proper setup and regular string changes. How often do you change strings depending on the day? Teaching, Rehearsal, Gig etc? I tend to only change before every gig but I'd change everyday if I could afford it...

Also I'm wondering what you find to be the most efficient way to stretch strings?

[Scott Henderson]

I change strings before every gig and recording session, but otherwise they're on the guitar until they break.

It takes me a little time to stretch strings because I've found it's better to do it for longer, but gently. No sex joke intended. If you pull them too hard, there's more of a chance they'll break on stage.

There's a very sharp edge where the string comes out of the bridge plate - that's usually where my strings break, so I take my guitar to Suhr before a tour and make sure that all the edges on the bridge are smoothed out with a dremel.

[Hawx]

Thank you for that, really helpful info.

I heard that SRV's tech used to run wire insulation over the string where it comes up through that trem hole to stop it breaking, I'll have to smooth it out next fret job.

[peter_heijnen]