Scott Henderson Discussion

[andbenitz]

Hi, Scott! Huge fan here!

I'm a guitarrist from Brazil and I've been struggling my whole life to get that bluesy guitar sound (in lack of a better word to describe) right. Studying your music I found out that you changed a lot your way of playing over the years. Today you have a real grip over that blues guitar sound!

How was the process to achieve that tone? Does it take picking hand strength or is it a technical thing?

Thank you so much for your music!

[Scott Henderson]

That's kind of a global question, but I'll try to answer the best I can. Tone is in the fingers and blues has a lot of dynamics, so I change my picking from hard to soft very often, and I use my fingers a lot instead of a pick. Also my guitars have higher action than they used to so they're set up for tone, not speed.

That being said, good gear helps a lot. Pickups are really important - for a few albums I used a very average Fender strat, but I put in Lindy Fralin Woodstock's for Dog Party and Suhr V-60LP's for Tore Down House. It drastically changes the tone of the guitar.

I keep it really simple - guitar, pedal, tube amp, and 4x12 with Greenbacks. That setup has been around forever and it's still my favorite. Hope that helps!

[andbenitz]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your answer! This will help me a lot!!