Scott Henderson Discussion

[dscb57]

Hi Scott. I am a long time admirer of yours since the '80s - I first heard you with the Elektric Band, then the TT album 'Dr Hee', which is still my favourite. I have only seen you live once on July 16th, 1989 in Barcelona, Spain. One of the songs the band played, I think it was called 'Shadows and Light' actually brought tears to my eyes, and it still does every time I hear it...and it still sounds fresh to my jaded ears.
I understand that you have moved on since then, both in terms of your expression and your musical direction, but to me you had the most amazing tone I had ever heard live. I remember that your guitar was blue (maybe purple - an Ibanez Sabre?), and you were using a pretty sophisticated stereo rack - I think it was a Mesa Boogie power amp. I remember reading that Allan Holdsworth had helped you with the cabinet selection?
Anyway, I have searched the site and found very little information regarding your rig for the Zawinul Syndicate tours and I would very much like to know what you were using please back then - if it's not too tall an order to expect you to remember!
I also really dug your tone with the Elecktric Band.
Finally I just wanted to thank you for your contribution to the art and for inspiring me as a then young player .

[Scott Henderson]

I used rack gear in those days, so it was a Boogie power amp, and either the Boogie Quad or Studio preamp. I love the song Shadows and Light too, but I have to tell you there's a ton of EQ on that guitar track. That Boogie rig might have sounded OK on stage but in the studio it was pretty thin sounding - Joe kidded me about having to dick around with the EQ so much after I'd played. He said "why don't you just make it sound good while you're playing?" ha ha.... keyboard players. Anyway, I added a lot of 250 and 100 to make it sound bigger. Believe me, you don't want that rig.

I don't take it as an insult when people tell me they like my tone better back when - the biggest thing I changed was switching to single coils. Some people just like humbuckers more. If I used a humbucker with my current rig, it would sound just like the old days, except without having to use EQ to make it fat, which is what I needed to do on every Tribal Tech record up until Thick - that's the first album I recorded with my OD-100 amp instead of preamps and power amps.