Scott Henderson Discussion

[nigel]

Hi Scott, I got a few questions:

AMP DISTORTION
I'm always wondering why so many guitarists use an expensive tube head and put a 200$ stompbox in front of it to get their distorted tone...and I'm talking master volume amps here. If the amp distortion lacks gain I could understand...or the pedal has a distinctive character that you like...but in general my impression is that the amp tone gets smaller and less fat if you add a pedal (except the SD9 of course😉). As far as I know you used amp distortion from your Custom Audio Head on some recordings back in the day. Could you tell me on which tunes? And what is your view on that?

PICKUPS
I play a 2009 American Standard strat with stock pickups and well...it sounds like a strat...BUT...there is something missing. I read that on "Dog Party" you used a Matchless amp and a Tube Screamer...and on "Tore Down House" a Marshall Plexi with pedals. To me your tone on those two albums is THE STRAT TONE...PERIOD! With the myriads of pickups on the market I wonder if new pickups will get me closer to that tone or if it's more depending on wood/hardware and amp/pedal combination. I don't expect to buy new PU's and boom...Instant Karma...but my experience so far is, that the differences between pickups are not thaaaaat huge.
Feel free to correct me and give me advice:-)

CELESTION IR's
You wrote that the new Celestion IR's are awesome...which cabinet or bundle do you use or could recommend?

Greetings,
Nigel

[Scott Henderson]

The amps which sound the best with pedals are crunch amps (or amps with crunch channels) and many of those are master volume amps - they just don't have enough gain to get a high gain tone without a pedal. I used amp distortion on Tribal Tech Thick and Rocket Science, from channel 3 of an OD-100. My take on amp distortion is that it's OK for the bridge pickup, but woofy sounding on the neck pickup. A good pedal like a Klon or SD-9 will make the amp sound just as big and fat sounding, but much clearer and punchy on the neck pickup. You're right though, it sounds strange to use an expensive amp and cheap pedal, but that's been going on since the days of Hendrix and his Fuzz-Face. I also use an expensive Neve 1073 mic pre with a $100 Shure 57.

Pickups actually make a huge difference - The guitar I used on both those albums was a cheap Fender re-issue '60's strat ($800) and it sounded pretty thin and harsh. I put Lindy Fralin Woodstock pickups in it for Dog Party - they're very fat and sparkly sounding. It was like having a completely different guitar. Then I changed to Suhr V-60LP's for Tore Down House because they sound like the strat pickups from the 60's (even better in my opinion) and work better with high gain than the Fralin's. Now I use mostly Suhr ML pickups because they're even fatter sounding and are better for fusion.

I've only tried the Greenback IR's, but Pete Thorn told me the 65 Creambacks sound great too so I'll get those soon.

[nigel]

Wow...that's a fast reply...thanks a lot!
Again very useful information that will lead to some gear adjustments🙂