Scott Henderson Discussion

[countandduke]

Thanks for getting back to us on that power cord.

While we’re talking about it, do you know Allan Holdsworth’s recording setup? I think he consistently got fantastic tones and his gear changed quite a bit. From what I’ve heard, he would always use cabinets and microphones, with various preamps, and power amps, but I’m curious if HE tried IR’s...

Thanks again Scott... 😃

Chris

[Scott Henderson]

I don't know if he ever tried IR's, but he did two different things in the studio. One was to use transistor amps with a cabinet - they don't care how loud they are, so no need to play at volumes which disturb the family or neighbors. The other was with a loud tube amp which he ran into his "harness", a load box he invented. It was like the Suhr load box but very compressed - he loaned it to me for Tribal Tech Reality Check. Out of the harness you go into a transistor power amp to run the speaker at low volume. He liked to record late at night so he built a large box which had a speaker and mic mounted inside it - it was extremely quiet.

He changed amps quite often but my favorite tone was when he was using the Lee Jackson preamp into a tube power amp (not sure which one). Of course I love his tone with Tony Williams - an SG and a Marshall - but Allan hated it, I'm sure because it was raw sounding and he was going for a smoother tone. I know he never put the mic anywhere near the cone of the speaker, so he got the treble he needed from the amp or EQ.

[dizzy]

I’ll go with sunlight and IRs for now:)

But there is something satisfying about having the live tone match the studio tone—-capturing your tone instead of creating your tone.
I have heard some players with great album tone and bad live tone. But now that I think of it, these are mostly rock guys in bands and I’m hearing the mains so that might fuck it up.

[Scott Henderson]

Yeah, nobody fucks up tone like a clueless sound man... don't get me started. That's why my little Boss Loop Station is the most important pedal I own - I can go out to the board and EQ the guitar myself.