Scott Henderson Discussion

[AlexThanos]

Hey Scott i just tried the Bella combo 1x12 non reverb 10 minutes ago n i love it i hear the tone from your amp which ive gotten so used to.

The came out with the reverb and head versions so id like to know jow you feel about those options. Does the reverb add or would you rather play the non reverb ones. Also head or combo seeing as a combo would replicate the characteristic of a fender combo well as opposed to head and cab.

Basically what do you suggest, head or combo? Reverb or non reverb ?


Thx much Scott!

[Scott Henderson]

I agree with John Suhr about combos - they're less dependable than heads. Tubes don't like to be constantly rattled by speaker vibration and often wear out faster or become microphonic. I also like to have a choice of cabinets, depending on the type of gig and stage size.

I haven't A/B'd an amp with and without reverb, but John says the reverb circuit affects the tone - my Bella head doesn't have reverb.

All that being said, my opinion is based on tone, not convenience. I think the amp sounds and responds better without the FX loop, and without FX in the same speaker as the dry sound, so I have to bring an extra amp for reverb.

Always a trade-off when it comes to gear - using a combo with reverb is so much easier.

[AlexThanos]

Yeah i can see where youre coming from. Id need to consider the tradeoff between my ideal tone and the convenience.

For reverb, would you say the Bella reverb sounds better or pedal based say the Eventide H9 in the loop? I mean in reality you just need a bit of verb to creat a sense of being in the mix but when its mic'd up you cant even have that much going on before your tone drowns....it doesnt make sense to allocate a 200-300 dollar reverb pedal just for that right?


How about the Suhr SH50? Have you tried that yet and do you happen to know when itll be released?

If i wanted a tone close to your Dog Party, Tore Down House, Vibe Station tone which amp would get me close to those records?

I actually have a Badger 35 that im super happy with but trying the Bella today reminds me so much of the blues twang i hear on your records i cant get it out of my head. The store only had a non reverb 1x12 combo w Celestion V speaker though which i like and i believe Mike Landau has it on his signature Fender amp.

Any ideas Scott?

[Scott Henderson]

I haven't heard the Bella reverb, but I'm sure it sounds fine. I don't think I'd waste money on an expensive reverb pedal.

I used a Matchless amp on Dog Party, which is class A. Your Badger is also class A and should get closer to that tone than the Bella. All my other records are Class B amps, mostly Marshalls and Fenders - the Bella sounds like a great vintage Fender amp in my opinion.

The speaker is a another trade off - if you want a huge sounding tone with lots of bass, the V-Type is great. However, the Heritage 65 speaker sounds more like a Greenback - the midrange is sweeter and the notes are fatter, especially high notes. I think the 65 is better for the kind of music I play, but the V-Type is better for rock.

There's no scheduled release date yet for the SH 50 - I think it's going to sound amazing. It'll sound like a great vintage Marshall, but I don't think he plans to make it as a combo or with reverb.

[AlexThanos]

Thx Scott, yes i actually have been using Head Cab for the past 10 years. I would only bring the guitar, pedalboard and amp head so i can take public transport and be able to carry everything at once.

The only reason i thought of the combo was just because i knew the Bella was based on your Fender and for some reason i just associate Fender amps as combos. You have a video of the jazz trio playing Equinox and i really love that tone and vibe but i seriously cant bring combos everywhere cos im in Singapore and cars here are ridiculously expensive and u only hv 10 years with it ....its not a lifestyle for jazz musicians lol

I just bought another Suhr SH guitar, im definitely getting ur SH50, i just as well get a really good fender type Bella to add to my Badger. Damn now im really not getting a car anytime soon haha. They just sound so darn good though.

I play in a church of 5000 seat capacity building every sunday w in ear monitors. I know how u feel about religion but im not weird uve met me and my family we seem normal n grounded right ? Lol.

Its a fun place to play cos thats where The All Star Band, James Taylor, and other big acts would come and play when theyre in town.

Problem is theyve moved from micing a cab in iso booth to using 2 kempers one for each ear. I wanna bring an amp w reactive load and Celestion IRs which i tried and love! What we play on sundays are clean breakup chimey w ambient stuff bit like Coldplay(i dont like coldplay) i guess and once awhile i get a treat and we get to play black groove RnB, rock n roll and jazz songs. Theyve banned me from using any fusion lines influenced by you so i cant play em there...they confuse the 5000 people sitting there they said...i gotta play those the rest of the week somewhere else 😁..but its a fun place to jam and i dont experience the crazy religion stuff here so im happy.

Sorry for the rant thx for listening my caffeine just kicked in ! Love ya Scott ure the man!

[Scott Henderson]

Thanks Alex, I'm glad you have a fun place to play. I live next door to a church and those guys seriously rock on Sundays - you can hear them a mile away! I think they're probably playing louder than my gigs....

I forgot to mention that about combos - they're heavy! I think I'd rather make two trips and be nicer to my back.

I use the Deluxe as a wet amp and it works great for that. Luckily on the road we have a crew and I don't have to do too much lifting. I did use it on the video you saw - it sounds OK on the web, but it can't compete with the SH-50 which I hope will be out soon. That amp is going to be amazing - a hand wired 50 watt version of a '71 Marshall, with FX loop and killer master volume circuit, switchable to 25 watts. Yeah!!

[AlexThanos]

LOL yeah the church has evolved. Pastors and musicians have tattoos and its perfectly normal. A lot of em figured out that preaching biblical law and the consequence of being toast eternally does nothing to anyone but make em feel shittier.

Ok i just spent an hour in the gym (for a strong arm n back to lug my gears ard) doing tone comparison on your records and yeah i think the Marshall Crunch will do more for me all around so ill wait for the back friendly SH50!!!
Maaan i cant wait i hope John is almost ready with that.

Short question Scott have you tried Bias FX amp app where you could tweak amps to the miniscule details and load up Celestion IRs with it? I would actually pay for an amp setting done by you since you know what good marshalls and Fenders are supposed to sound like. It wont be for live but i do youtube demos and lessons and it comes out pretty good and i can track literally anywhere w a pretty enjoyable tone. Would that interest you? 😄

[Scott Henderson]

I don't know that app so I wouldn't be the right guy to ask. I'm going to burn a bridge here and advise you that the IR player plug-in makes a big difference in the sound of the IR. Pete Thorn told me about mixIR 2, made by Redwirez. It costs 50 bucks, but it's way worth it.

Most IR players (especially the free ones like Wall Of Sound III and NadIR) truncate the sample. Many of the best IR's are 500 ms, so when the player reduces it down to 18 ms like Wall Of Sound does, you loose bass and and overall sound quality.

I never would've believed this, but I heard it with my own ears, and the difference isn't subtile at all. So now the Two Notes guys can hate me, but they need to re-design their software to play longer samples.

[AlexThanos]

Oh sweet thx for that tip Scott! Yes im really digging deep into this IR thing just because i want to use my amp head and not rely on venue micings and available cabs. Its really silly to invest thousands of bucks only to hv some engineer not know how to mic and mix to the musicians taste and let it all go to waste.

Cheers for the tip ill download it im already using Redwirez but didnt bother trying the IR software. Awesome! 😄

[peter_heijnen]

The SH-50 looks killer feature wise. Did you and John consider building the line out box into it? It would mean one less pedal to pack.

[Scott Henderson]

No, but there's plenty of room at the bottom of the head to use 3M Dual Lock and keep the line box in there - that's what I do in my Deluxe. I wouldn't put it in the amp - it would either make the speaker signal go through the line box all the time (which most people don't need), or it would use an extra speaker out which might be needed for an extra cab.

[peter_heijnen]

If you connect any line out/DI box to the second speaker out without the speaker thru connected to a load, the impedance of that speaker out remains 'untouched'.

Unless there is more to it technical wise, you could tap the second speaker output in paralel and hardwire the tap to the line out box. That way you'd have two clean speaker outputs plus a dedicated line out.

[Scott Henderson]

There's nothing more to it technically, but this is a simple, vintage style amp. John knows better than I do how people react to added high tech stuff which isn't a normal part of an amp's circuitry. If I had no need for a line out, I wouldn't want it in there. Maybe it's possible to make it an option.

[peter_heijnen]

I didn't think of that aspect, it sure is a vintage style amp and a lot of customers for it won't need a line out. I'll ask John about the line out as option, thx.

Thx too for the mixIR2 tip. Having problems with WOS on my macbook i just had Nadir installed last week because i thought MixIR2 would be overkill. I thought Nadir was cool since it loaded 500ms impulses, and imagined it would play the whole sample if it can load it.

[Scott Henderson]

NadIR will play the whole sample, so I'm not sure why it doesn't sound as good as mixIR, but it doesn't. I'm gonna say it's because mixIR costs 50 bucks and NadIR is free. Maybe that's ridiculous, but maybe you get what you pay for.