Hubert Sumlin

He seems very happy with this well used Strat.

"The lead guitarist for Howlin Wolf was Hubert Sumlin. Hubert played a Les Paul a lot during this time, but it may also be a Strat or something else. I have seen him pictured with lots of different guitars. He plays without a pick and that is part of his tone.

He also would have used Tweed Fender amps, early Gibson amps, or Valco amps. The reverb you hear is probably from the room it was recorded in. Most guys today use an outboard Fender Reverb unit to try to capture it.

Louis Electric is making a Hubert Sumlin amp to capture this tone. If you want to capture it, most small tube amps from the 50's will get that tone. I like the Valco amps from that period.

You need to turn up the amp all the way, the turn down the guitars volume to clean it up. The amps treble will be set high and the tone knob on the guitar will also be rolled back a little. This will get you started. It will take a long time to master."

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/howlin-wolf-tone.688173/

In this 1971 photo, where Sumlin is performing with Howlin' Wolf, he is playing the Gretsch G6122.

In this photo, Sumlin is shown playing the Rickenbacker 360. He used this guitar during the mid-1970's era.

Hubert played with this guiatr in the late 1960's. It is common knowledge.

http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Get-That-Tone-Hubert-Sumlin.aspx

Sumlin’s amplifier setup was one of extreme simplicity: a tried-and-true Fender Bassman 4x10 combo mic’d with a Sennheiser e609