Scott Henderson Discussion

[MarkLawrence]

Hi Scott. I was lucky enough last night to see the Steve Gadd band for the first time with, of course, Mike Landau on guitar. I'm just blown away by this band, such great playing both individually and as a unit. His dynamics, control and tone were breathtaking. Also at the same festival we had Robert Cray, again some very tasty playing and tones...

I just wanted to say thanks to you for really opening my ears up to an appreciation for tone and the 'language' of this part of playing. Naturally I've always heard it before but maybe not listened as much as I now do. I just bought one of the Suhr Load boxes and I hope this will give me an opportunity to really work hard on this aspect of my playing which, up to now, has been a bit hit-and-miss.

A question regarding chambered strats: have you tried one yet? Looking back through past questions it would seem maybe not, but if you have what were your thoughts? Some companies, like Godin, offer strats with 'tuned' chambers... I'll admit to being a bit baffled by what's more important, the acoustic properties of an electric guitar or the chain of hardware needed to amplify it. For example, pressing the axe to my body changes the acoustic sound quite a lot but not the amplified sound anywhere near as much as altering amp settings/changing strings/pickups etc but it obviously it makes a huge difference what woods are used, if the neck and body resonate in sympathy with each other etc. What a Minefield!

Many thanks Scott

[Scott Henderson]

Glad you got to see Mike - he really is amazing! I'll stick by my statement that I believe he's the only living blues/ rock guitarist on the same level as Beck and Hendrix.

I haven't tried many chambered guitars so I'm not an expert, but I didn't like the ones I tried. They don't sound vintage at all, and they tend to feed back (not in a good way). They might be OK for certain styles but I often play with high gain, not super loud, but loud enough for a chambered guitar to give me problems. Allan played chambered guitars, but he used 8's, and needed the guitar to help make the string sound bigger. He also played pretty quiet compared to most fusion guitarists, so he probably didn't experience the feedback issue.

The wood and hardware are equally important, but the wood really defines the "type" of tone you'll get. I like alder because it's dark - I've changed pickups on alder guitars and it definitely changed the tone, but they still sounded like alder guitars.

[MarkLawrence]

Cool, thanks Scott. Yes, I totally agree. It's really instructive to have heard Robert Cray and then Mike straight afterwards... As great as Cray is, Mike is on another level. That's really obvious as far as language goes, but I think it's true for tone too.

I definitely get it that the woods provide the type of tone but I guess the thing that foxes me is how the acoustic property of the guitar interacts on a solid body. I'm also thinking partly about what Bruce mentioned in a recent Guitarwank about possibly approaching archtops more from an acoustic guitar way with mic's etc because the pickups give a different vibe. I'm just thinking out loud here, but should we hold a guitar tight to our body or try to let it float away a bit?

I guess in searching for a great vintage tone it's a different thing again. I always think of Hendrix as having a very woody sound, but maybe I'm thinking of that in the wrong way? I was interested to read you say that you go for a 'stringy' sound and perhaps that's more what the vintage tone is about?

[Scott Henderson]

I think you have the right idea when describing the Hendrix tone, and what I mean by "stringy" is clear and voice-like - it lets you get a variety of tones from the guitar, depending on how your pick or fingers touch the strings. The opposite would be "woofy", as in every note sounding the same, no matter what you do. Bad pedals can easily create that, or high gain amp distortion on the neck pickup.

I don't know much about hollow body tones, only that I don't like the overly dark, muddy sound I hear from a lot of hollow body players. Bruce has a very clear tone, and I love the tone of the guitar I borrowed from him when I recorded Chelsea Bridge - that kind of tone lets you hear the subtleties of how different finger movements affect the strings. I can't hear that at all when I hear "traditional" jazz box tones - all the notes sound exactly the same to me.

[countandduke]

Then there's guys like Bill DeLap that build hollow headless guitars. Allan Holdsworth used one for a long time but then hasn't used one for the last 10 years or so. BUT Big Al was going for more of a horn type sound with almost no bass in his tone.

I've dabled with guitar building in the past and it's always amazing how much the wood affects the tone. I'm impressed with guys that can get consistent tones in their guitars. It really is an art form...

Best,
Chris

[dizzy]

I have an opinion about chambered guitars:
I bought a chambered tele because I wanted to get a fat hollowbody style tone combined with a tele tone.
I found it didn't give me enough of the fat hollow body clean tone OR the tele tone. If someone likes the sound of chambered guitars get one but don't get one to approximate a hollowbody tone.

[Red Suede]

You guys ever heard Eric Gales? Or Ty Tabor?

[Red Suede]

And Ray Gomez is fantastic!

[sieuminh]

When I grow up, I want to be Ray Gomez.

Wait, I'm already grown up, damn ...