Scott Henderson Discussion

[mikoo69]

I'm struggling a bit to get feedback/sustain where notes infinitely sustain. Wondering which factor in my rig I can change to get more consistent feedback.

A lot of advice I'm getting is that playing a strat into a fender amp is not ideal for this and I should get a hollow body or humbucker guitar, though I'm pretty sure Scott gets feedback easily with his strats.

I play Fender 62 reissue strats into a Deluxe Reverb set to about 6 (with a high efficiency speak so it's pretty loud - Celestion Alnico gold). Klon Centaur usually always on with the gain around 1 o'clock and use my volume knob to get gradients of gain. I usually get told to turn down a bit at gigs so I'm not sure a higher wattage amp is going to do me much good, though not sure.

Suggestions? Right now I can get it more easily if I kick on a boost before the Klon to get more gain, though that leads to more noise as well. Would love to be able to get feedback more easily with a single OD pedal.

[Scott Henderson]

Feedback isn't just about having enough gain - your Klon has plenty. I think your problem is that your pickups aren't reacting with the amp, possibly because it's down on the floor and your pickups are 4 feet higher. I did one tour with a Deluxe and I sat down to play, not just so I could hear the amp better, but because I could get the same interaction between the pickups and the amp as as I get when standing up using a 4x12 cab.

Try setting your amp on something so it's about the same height as your pickups and see if you get feedback easier. Unfortunately you'll loose all your bass, but if it works, either buy a 4x12 for your Deluxe or sit down to play.

[mikoo69]

Thanks Scott! Will try setting the amp on my road case and see if that helps the feedback issue.

Sitting, or getting a 4x12 at this stage won't be possible. Would tilting the amp upwards potentially help with feedback and not lose too much bass response? I've seen players tilt combos before, and I know originally some fender amps came with tilt back legs.

The loss in bass isn't something that I can remedy by turning up the bass on the amp? I tend to find the Deluxe already needs to have the bass set fairly low. The max I ever set it to is just under 5.

[Scott Henderson]

You'll loose some bass by tilting it, but probably not as much as sitting it on something. Bass off the floor is completely different than the bass knob on the amp, which usually fucks with the midrange and just makes everything sound muddy, in my opinion. I never turn the bass up past 2, but my 4x12 is sitting on the ground with no wheels, so I have all the bass I need.

I tried an experiment once, because I heard that Eddie Van Halen sits his cabs on the floor, with no rubber feet, and even strips the tolex off the bottom so the bare wood makes contact with the floor. When I tried recording my Kerry Wright 4x12 cab without the rubber feet, the tone was horrible. The floor totally stopped the cabinet from vibrating, which is where the tone comes from. There was actually much less bass, and a shitty sounding low mid frequency that took over everything. When I put the rubber feet back on, the cabinet sounded amazing as always.

Maybe different floors would change the experiment - the floor in my studio is wood, so a concrete or carpet floor might be different.

[peter_heijnen]

The bass respons with the cab on the floor is not because of contact with the floor, it's because the soundwaves reflecting from the floor in that particular way. The height of the speaker is what determines the bass respons. You can play with that, as i did with the speakers in my home studio. The tiles those speakers were standing on were about 2", so i could make 2" steps up or down. The differences were quite amazing.

With direct contact between cab and floor the sound will totally depend on how the floor 'sounds'. If the floor 'sounds bad' you won't replace it, that's why the feet or wheels are such an important part of the design of a cab.

[mikoo69]

Hi Scott,

Tried raising the amp and it didn't really change much in regards to feedback...

I'm wondering if a higher wattage amp might help me get controllable feedback/sustain? My amp is a 22 watt Deluxe Reverb i it gets pretty loud when I crank it and drive it with pedals, (many sound guys still ask me to turn down though I usually can get away with setting it to it's sweet spot at most venues).

I know you use a 100 watt amp; in your opinion is wattage directly related to the ability to get controlled feedback/sustain? I don't know how much "louder" I can get on stage in terms of perceived/master volume, but maybe more watts/higher headroom has something to do with it?

I tried a hollowbody yesterday, and that was incredibly easy to get controlled feedback/sustain on my amp at almost any volume...though I just hate the way every guitar other than a strat feels...so I'd like to find a way to get as much controllable feedback as possible with my strat.

Thanks again for all the guidance!

[Scott Henderson]

I think raising your amp off the floor disconnects the bass and could make the feedback problem even worse. Try one more thing - try sitting down close to the amp. That's what I do when I play my Deluxe. If you're still not getting feedback, I'd try a bigger cab before going for a 100 watt amp, which might be too loud for your gigs.