John Scofield

Normally, John Scofield plays an Ibanez AS-200, but in this Premier Guitar video, Scofield’s guitar doesn’t make an appearance. At 0:31, Scofield says, “We flew from New York via Chicago and my Ibanez AS 200 is in transit. It's not here yet. It's not lost. It's OK. But it's not here at the gig yet.”

“A few years ago, I was contacted by a guy who had my high-school guitar – a ’66 Tele that I bought new at Manny’s on 48th Street in New York. I sold it in ’68 to buy a Les Paul. The guy I sold it to gave it to another guy in Connecticut, who kept it all those years before moving to Texas. He came to a show I was doing in Austin a few years ago, and I played it. It was in good shape – had the same case and everything. I remembered the dents I put in that case. He asked if I wanted to buy it, but wanted a lot of money. I told him I’d just buy a new Tele, and I did, from Fender’s Custom Shop. Well, last year, the guy got back to me and made another offer. I couldn’t refuse, because it’s got such sentimental value. So I bought my first guitar – I own it again! I had it set up, and it sounds killer!”

John Scofield’s preferred amp is a VOX AC30. In this Premier Guitar interview, Scofield is quoted as saying at (0:58), “Well I like Vox AC30s, and I always ask for them on the rider. We don't bring our amps with us, we just bring our pedals and guitars when we play fly dates. Where a lot of times on a bus, we'll have our own amps, and I have an older AC30 that I really like. I like the reissues up until about 2006, and through the '90s. I like those reissues. It's called AC30, TB model. These are the new models, and right here that they got for me, but they're good too.”

Another of Scofield’s pedals, the Digitech Whammy-Wah is his, “favorite of the DigiTech ones,” (6:23). “Most people like the other whammy pedal I like this one,” he says. “I don't know. It's kind of a lot of different effects. The way I have is set up right now it's six presets I have a set for a couple of wahs that I use occasionally. The second is auto wah I use that a lot if you like that auto wah thing…I have a [pre]set so I can whammy down the whole set. That's kind of a whammy bar effect, but on the pedal. And then I use this preset which brings it up one octave. Then I have a [pre]set to go up two octaves if I want for some really ‘out’ type effect. And then this last preset that I have it's set so it's octave below, and the original note - like an octaver thing. That's kind of whammy bar effect but on the pedal…”

"I have a 1963 ES-335 that I got a long time ago, and I recently got a 1962 ES-330 that I really like. I’ve got an old Fender Telecaster, the guitar I bought in high school that somebody resold me about 10 years ago, and I have some Custom Shop Fenders. I have a nice old Gibson Howard Roberts as well. But I mainly play those Ibanez guitars because I’m used to them, and I really like the way they sound and feel."

This guitar was also featured on "Who's Who?" album cover, and this guitar is mentioned as well in the Guitar World interview.

"That’s when Ibanez brought me this brand-new AS-200 to try, and I said, “Man, this plays great and feels great … it feels a lot like my 335.” I began playing it on that tour. When I got home, I had the Gibson adjusted, but I’d been playing the Ibanez for a month and was used to it … and I’ve been playing it ever since.".

The RAT distortion pedal can be seen on John's pedalboard. Confirmation of this being John's board can be found on John's official site.

At 5:47 and 14:02 you can glimpse Scofield's pedalboard and a silver klon is visible on the floor.

“Mason Mangella convinced me to use this because it's true bypass,” Scofield says in this video at 3:43. “This is pretty subtle. It's a distortion thing, but it's a blues kind... not a real crunch. As much as anything I use the distortion of the AC30. It's a natural thing,” Scofield said.

Speaking of amps, what was your go-to for the Juice sessions? I used one amp for the whole record: my Vox AC-30. It’s a reissue from the late Nineties that I modded out a little bit. I changed one of the speakers so they’re mismatched, which is what Matchless does. I have a Matchless amp I really like, too.

What did you put in for the second speaker? Another Celestion, but a different wattage. One’s a 30-watt and the other’s a 15. It’s exactly the same setup as the two speakers in the Matchless 2x12 combo.

Gearbox

“I’ve found that some of the amps that sound great are just not loud enough. And I don’t want to put the signal through the monitors if I can at all avoid it. Generally you can find the Mesa Boogie Mark III combos on the road 90% of the time, and that’s my favorite amp, because they have the EQ and I jack the shit out of that, say to roll off highs and add lows and mids, and that, with my guitar and my set-up really makes it-on Bump it’s the [Mesa] Boogie with all the pedals. But I’ve also had good luck on the road with Fender’s new Twin, not the re-issue. On Works for Me I used what is called a Victoria High Powered Twin, a 2-12? with a tiny touch of RATT and a little bit of reverb…but not enough. And the Victoria doesn’t have the bottom of the Mark III, but it has a quality I like, and I used on the new record. I bought one of those tubed outboard Fender Reverb units to go with it, but I only used a bit of plate on Works for Me.”

John Scofield famously used a Boss CE-3 (NOT CE-2) Chorus pedal that’s been modified to be true bypass. “I turn it up all the way and played this kind of fake Leslie sound. It's just another vibrating device,” (5:49).

"I have a 1963 ES-335 that I got a long time ago, and I recently got a 1962 ES-330 that I really like. I’ve got an old Fender Telecaster, the guitar I bought in high school that somebody resold me about 10 years ago, and I have some Custom Shop Fenders. I have a nice old Gibson Howard Roberts as well. But I mainly play those Ibanez guitars because I’m used to them, and I really like the way they sound and feel."

John has been a player of the Takamine NP65C (currently known as the P3FCN) since 1998. It remains his nylon string acoustic of choice.

Premier Guitar Interview: John Scofield - Uncle John’s Electro-Jam Band Jason Shadrick June 20, 2013

Re: Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop Relic model

Are they vintage Fenders or newer ones?

No, they are fake vintage. [Laughs.] They’re from the Custom Shop. I told a friend of mine, Artie Smith, who is one of the great guitar guys in New York, that I wanted to get a Strat, but didn’t want to spend 15 grand on a vintage one. He said there was a good one at Sam Ash, so I went up there and played it for a while. I was totally embarrassed to buy it, because it has a fake cigarette burn in it and screws that have been rusted and two kinds of rubbed-off finish. [Laughs.] But you know, it sounds really good and it’s a great guitar.

I came across this Montreux performance of the George Duke/Billy Cobham video by happenstance. Our hero John Scofield was a member of this band for about 2-years. If memory serves, Mike Stern was first hired by Billy and introduced to Miles Davis through Mr. Cobham, but that is whole 'nother Oprah Show.

Back to John... It took a lot of careful view to ID this guitar as a natural finish Gibson Les Paul Junior. It was the obvious modifications that throws one off the scent. This is Les Paul Junior with an aftermarket bridge and what appears to be a DiMarzio pickup added on the neck, hence the added pickup up selector in between the volume and tone control. The bridge pickup looks like the stock P-90. Based on the headstock, this looks like the old '50s style headstock and not the open book style more associated with all Les Paul's.

See for yourself here: (it take a bit of patience, camera work is dodgy at best) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrJ_OIlcKe8

“The most important thing of all,” according to John Scofield, “is the tuner,” (2:52). “I use the little Mini PolyTune here to tune up,” he says. “And if you want you can tune up like that, with all six strings. I never do that. I get one note at a time, one string at a time. I like this tuner. Also, it's small, which really comes in handy trying to fit all this stuff on a board.”

John Scofield’s Boss EQ pedal has been modified by his guitar tech at Vertex to be true bypass. “I use this occasionally for rhythm if I want super treble,” Scofield says (5:13).

Although John is practically inseparable from his Ibanez AS200, he does have other guitars. Here we see him pictured on the cover of his CD "Flat Out" with a Custom Ibanez GB Model.

This is a Black custom shop GB model with the standard GB headstock inlay. It is a thin hollowbody guitar with Ibanez designed tremelo, 5-way pickup selector switch across Humbucker-Single Coil-Humbucker pickups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Out_(John_Scofield_album)

“It’s a nice reverb,” Scofield says at (3:18). “A quick reverb. I leave it on all the time, although occasionally if I really want some definition I like to play without reverb, so I will turn it off.”

John Scofield uses a Boomerang Phrase Sampler to create loops and samples. “One of my favorite devices is the boomerang phrase sampler,” Scofield says at (8:16). “I take off my shoe I always wear this kind of shoes in order to do this.” “You can also now that its in reverse play backwards. You can go like this, where I played the phrase and then it came back to me backwards. You can turn off the original phrase, the original guitar, and play it until comes like backwards but you don't hear the original. That’s if you wanna do some really weird stuff…”

Scofield playing an AM-205AV in an Ibanez Ad

John Scofield also uses an Electro-Harmonix Microsynth. “which is a real bizarre kind of Electroharmonix pedal which gets this cool sound that I like once in awhile,” (10:01).

The Line 6 DL4 can be seen on John's pedalboard. Confirmation of this being John's board can be found on John's official site.

On John Scofield's official Website, the Mesa Boogie Mark I Reissue is named in the list of his gear.

John is hold a late 80's Ibanez Artist AR-350 (PLT) Pearl Tremelo on the cover of his Still Warm release.

1964 Fender Deluxe Reverb (Blackface)

The amp on the record is a ’64 Deluxe Reverb I bought about ten years ago at a music store in New York. I liked the way it sounded, but noticed it was really soft. Then, it just sort of died. I took it to a repairman, and he said, “This thing has been in a flood. You’re screwed.” I thought, “Oh, man,” and it sat in my basement for a few years. Then, last year, I brought it to a different guy for a second opinion. He replaced the transformer with another vintage one of the same type. Now, the amp is up and running and sounds great. I usually set the volume just above 3, for a touch of breakup. Fender’s reissue Deluxes are good, too, by the way.

A "Vintage Rat" reissue is listed in this 2003 Pro Co interview.

Gear List

Guitar: Ibanez Artist AS200

Amp: Mesa/Boogie Mark III

Effects: Pro Co Vintage Rat/Rat 2

Album: Uberjam-John Scofield Band

OH!-ScoLoHoFo (john Scofield, Joe Lovano, Dave Holland, Al Foster

Sco uses this chorus pedal as stated in this article.

Next is a breakout insert interface going into a Vertex-modified Boss CE-3 Chorus, Neunaber Technologies WET Reverb, and another Vertex true-bypass loop (for the Boomerang Phrase Sampler and Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth).

John owned a pair of Sundown A-50 50W Combo Guitar Amplifiers in the 80's designed by Dennis Kager.