
Song Rig
634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)
Steve Cropper · Have You Seen Her? · 1966
Tone Overview
What Makes This Sound Unique
Call-and-response soul guitar — Cropper plays a conversational role against Wilson Pickett's vocal, inserting short fill phrases between the vocal lines. The Telecaster tone is warm and round in the fills, bright and cutting on the rhythm chops.
Signal Chain
- 1Fender Telecaster (neck and bridge pickups alternated)
- 2Fender Twin Reverb
Amp Settings
Slight reverb for studio space — the Stax sound includes a degree of room ambience. The amp is always clean; the dynamics are entirely pick-hand controlled.
Technique
How to Play It
Pickup switching mid-song for tonal variety — neck for warm fills behind the vocal, bridge for the chop rhythm pattern. A technique Cropper used constantly across the Stax catalog.
Budget Alternative
Achievable With
Telecaster with good pickup switching → Fender Blues Junior or Deluxe Reverb at moderate volume → control tone through pickup selection and pick angle.
Your Gear
Adapt to My Amp
More from Steve Cropper
Other Song Rigs
Green Onions
Green Onions · 1962
The most famous organ-guitar instrumental in American music — Cropper's Telecast…
View rig →In the Midnight Hour
In the Midnight Hour · 1965
The Wilson Pickett classic that Cropper co-wrote in a Miami hotel room — the Sta…
View rig →(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
The Dock of the Bay · 1968
Co-written by Cropper and Otis Redding in days before Redding's death — Cropper'…
View rig →Soul Man
Soul Man · 1967
The sound of Stax Records — Cropper's Telecaster through a clean Fender amp prod…
View rig →Knock on Wood
Knock on Wood · 1966
Cutting and percussive — Cropper's Telecaster riff on this Eddie Floyd track is …
View rig →