Scott Henderson Discussion

[Scott Henderson]

I used to play 11's and tuning down to Eb made a big difference, but with 13's you'd have to have very strong hands, tuning down or not. One thing for sure, the world of rock guitar and hollow body jazz guitar couldn't be further apart - almost like two completely different instruments. The only thing we have in common is where the notes are on the fingerboard. But I mean this in a technical way, not in a musical way, because vocabulary can be shared between the two.

Bruce definitely acknowledges the difficulties and more complex problems concerning tone which rock players have to deal with, especially after hanging around with me. Most of the hollow body guys I know are very open minded and also listen to rock and blues guitarists, but I'm sure there are still some dinosaur snobs out there who don't even think of the solid body guitar as a real instrument.

[dizzy]

[quote="Petar"][quote="Scott Henderson"]I don't think I used it at all during the TT days. In those days my guitars were set up for speed, not tone. I was using 9's with really low action, so legato playing was much easier. Now I use 10's with medium action, so the hybrid technique probably made up for things that were too hard to play legato. That's just a guess actually - when it comes to technique I don't pay much attention to what's going on, I just do what feels natural.

When my students ask me questions about technique, I sometimes have to study how I'm playing because it's become like breathing - it's so "automatic pilot" that I've forgotten what I'm doing.[/quote]

Troy was talking about how SRV played with 13ths.
Bruce then acknowledged the fact that he was tuned to E flat, as if that makes a big difference.
I would love to see the look on Bruce's face, when he tries to play blues and constantly bend with 13ths on E flat.
He is looking it from a jazz guy's point of view but it's completely different, if you don't have to constantly bend notes.[/quote]

Petar
I can see how you may have interpreted what Bruce said like that but he definitely is completely hip to rock and blues technique. He appreciates Eddie Van Halen among others.
Up close when you watch Bruce he really beats his guitar like a blues player to get his sound. Especially when he plays his resonator with 14s😳I gave him my tele to play with 11s. At first he was hitting the strings way too hard but then when he lightened up he got his tone but it didn’t sound like his fat Bruce tone. He really depends on hitting his fat strings super hard unless he is playing fast. He has a huge dynamic range.
Scott, you get a great sound and great playing on Bruce’s guitar on Chelsea Bridge. I am impressed by that because the technique is so different from your normal technique with a strat.

[Scott Henderson]

Don't be impressed Dizzy, that guitar was unbelievably easy to play. I was actually shocked - I didn't need to change my technique one bit to play it (except for not bending stings - that would've been hard). I actually had a much harder time with my Tele - I thought my fingers would fall off. The strings seem to have a lot more tension than a strat, making them really hard to push down and bend.

[PetarDambovaliev]

[MesolimbicNAc]

Considering how much his tone was talked about in the press and also among his fans,with references to him playng very thick strings, i've found this vid about Billy Gibbons' live rig quite interesting and,in some way, ironic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6DrxfrbbF8