Derek Trucks's Sound
The greatest slide guitarist alive, playing with no pick and no fear of silence.
Fingerpicked slide through Fender Super Reverbs — warm, vocal, endlessly sustaining
The rig
The gear associated with the sound. Each item opens a live Reverb search — vintage examples where they exist, modern equivalents where they don't.
Guitars
- Gibson SG 1961 reissueFind on Reverb
- Gibson Dickey Betts goldtopFind on Reverb
Amps
- Fender Super Reverb (two, in stereo)Find on Reverb
- AlessandroFind on Reverb
Effects
- None — the signal chain is a cableFind on Reverb
Pickups
- Gibson '57 Classic humbuckersFind on Reverb
Other
- Coricidin-style glass slide on the ring fingerFind on Reverb
- Open E tuning, heavy stringsFind on Reverb
Why it sounds like that
Midnight in Harlem
Two Super Reverbs at the edge of breakup, no pedals — the sustain is all fingers, slide and volume.
Anyday
Bright, cutting slide with a hard attack that still never turns brittle.
Sahib Teri Bandi / Maki Madni
Raga phrasing on electric slide, where the tone has to be clean enough to expose intonation.
Similar sounds
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