How to buy equipment to sound like Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram - The new wave of blues

Kingfish

At age 5, young Christone saw a documentary about Muddy Waters, which immediately piqued his curiosity and sparked his interest in Blues music. The musician began playing drums at age 6 before learning bass at 11. He then quickly switched to guitar. In 2015, when he was just 16, he was noticed by a certain Tony Coleman, drummer for BB King, who considered that he played the Blues the way it should be played. His musical career began when he was still in 5th grade. He played around his home in Mississippi. By 2014, he was part of the Delta Blues Museum band, which played for Michelle Obama at the White House in November 2014. Everything accelerated in 2017 as he appeared alongside Gary Clarke Jr, on Eric Gales’ Middle of the Road album. A year later, he played at the Chicago Blues Festival. 

His debut album, Kingfish was released on May 17, 2019, on Alligator Records. Highly acclaimed by critics, this album was nominated at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in the “Best Traditional Blues Album” category. Right from his debut album, the young musician impressed his peers with his sensitivity, dexterity, sound and musical maturity. Indeed, he took advantage of the global pandemic to expand his theoretical knowledge and integrate more Jazz and R&B licks into his playing. After touring with Buddy Guy and accompanying the band Vampire Weekend on 11 of their concerts in August 2019, he released the single Rock & Roll in May 2020, a track recorded in tribute to his mother who passed away in December 2019. 

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram’s second album was released in July 2021. It’s called 662, the area code for the northern Mississippi Delta area that includes the guitarist’s hometown of Clarksdale. Nine months later, Christone Ingram won the Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy. Finally, he opened for the Rolling Stones in the summer of 2022 in Hyde Park, London, as part of the British Summer Times concerts. Our bluesman du jour has also released a Live album, Live in London, recorded at the Garage in London and released on October 13, 2023. 

Christone Ingram’s gear

From an early age, Christone listened to and learned the tunes of Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, BB King, Eric Gales, Gary Moore, Robert Johnson and Lightin’ Hopkins. These musicians have influenced “Kingfish” in terms of writing, phrasing and sound. For guitars, Kingfish favors Les Paul instruments, with two humbucking pickups, a Tune-o-Matic bridge and a StopBar tailpiece.

A New York-based luthier friend made him two quite similar guitars, one resembling a Les Paul and the other a Telecaster built like a Les Paul. Both instruments sport pickups inspired by Gibson’s PAF. Following his first album, Christone used a Fender Stratocaster Player in red for tracks with a Hendrixian influence. While he began his career playing on fairly large strings (.012), the musician now uses Ernie Ball Power Slinky strings (.011 – .048). In 2023, the guitarist collaborates with Fender on a signature model, the Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe. Thanks to a pair of pickups designed by Tim Shaw, the guitar develops very open, mellow and jazzy sounds, particularly in the neck position. Faithful and proud of its origins, Christone Ingram has chosen a pretty glittery finish called “Mississippi Night”, to evoke Mississippi summer nights where the sky is between black and blue. 

His amplification is provided by a Peavey DeltaBlues 210 — Kingfish is a big fan of the brand’s amps, renowned for their reliability and solidity — or a Fender Twin Reverb '65 Reissue. According to the musician, these amps generate a “powerful, clear and punchy” sound, which he likes a lot. With the Fender Twin, he uses the Vibrato channel with the volume set at around 5–6 and the reverb at 3. The bluesman’s pedalboard is rather modest but perfectly suited to his needs. It features, in order: 

• A tuner, the Boss TU-3W
• A wah-wah, the Dunlop CryBaby Mini CBM95
• A high-gain overdrive, the Marshall Shredmaster
• A delay, the Boss DD-3

He usually keeps the wah in fixed mode, but sometimes he uses it for movement. The Cry Baby Mini has three different voicings, with Christone using the middle one, corresponding to the “Vintage” mode. The Marshall Shredmaster provides all the saturation he needs, his amp being tuned to provide a clean sound. The pedal’s EQ is adjusted to accentuate the bass a little, with the Contour setting at zero and the treble turned down. The gain is set to full, as he’s particularly fond of pedals with high saturation levels. This allows him to create a powerful contrast and dynamic between his clean rhythm patterns and his saturated solos. Finally, the musician prefers subtle settings on his delay. He uses the effect to add a slight dose of space and air to his solos. 

In addition to those pedals, the musician uses a Shure BLX4 wireless rig.

The details that make the sound

While some elements of the Kingfish chain can easily be replaced by generic gear, others are a must. You’ll need a guitar equipped with two humbucking pickups, and, ideally a Tune-o-Matic bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece. Another indispensable component is a clean-sounding amp, essential for the soul, R&B and jazz rhythms that punctuate the guitarist’s compositions. Finally, use fairly heavy picks and .011 – .048 guitar strings. 

Sound like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

After analyzing the gear used by our bluesman du jour and drawing out the must-have aspects, we recommend a list of accessible gear that will allow you to recapture that sound at a lower cost. 

For guitar, if you’d prefer a Les Paul-style instrument, we recommend the very cool Harley BentonSC450 Vintage €199 ($207). They offer great value for money. Raising the budget a little, the Epiphone Les Paul Standard '50s is a good solution, too. With a price tag of €589 ($699), it also offers good value for money.

If you’re more interested in a Telecaster-style guitar, we’d recommend the Squier Classic Vibe '70s Telecaster Deluxe. It features Fender-designed Wide Range pickups for a smooth, jazzy sound. It doesn’t have a Tune-o-Matic bridge but a single, string-through bridge. The average price is about €420 ($449). The Harley Benton TE-40 Deluxe is a good solution on the Telecaster side. With its 2 AlNiCo 5 humbuckers and Tune-o-Matic bridge, it ticks a lot of boxes. At €138 ($199), it offers excellent value for money.

On the amplification side, we’re recommending an all-tube combo. This technology will give you a warm, punchy and highly dynamic clean sound. The Bugera V22 Infinium could be a good choice because it has two channels, one dedicated to clean tones. It also has two inputs (Normal and Bright) that will help you, in addition to the EQ, to find that slightly dark sound. Moreover, the V22 has a built-in reverb, like the amps used by our friend Kingfish. This combo develops 22 watts thanks to 2 EL84 tubes and is priced at €425 ($499).

We also recommend the Blackstar St. James 50 6L6. It features the same power tubes as the Fender Twin used by Ingram, which will help achieve those typical American clean tones. This combo, fitted with a 12" Celestion Zephyr speaker, is priced at €866 ($1,449), representing decent value for money. Finally, the Fender Champion 40, a 40-watt transistor amp with integrated effects (including delay), is also an excellent choice. It generates a clear sound that is very faithful to the classic Fender tone, which will be perfect for achieving the classic sound of Kingfish. What’s more, its transistor preamp takes saturation effects well. Its €230 ($209) price tag is decent for a 40-watt amp.

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For pedals, let’s start with hi-gain overdrive/distortion. The Marshall Shredmaster is modeled on the brand’s JCM900 preamp, so we’re looking for high-saturation rock distortion. The Joyo Uzi R-03 will be perfect for this exercise. It benefits from 3-band equalization and a bias control, allowing you to vary sound textures. Joyo’s R-03 will set you back €45 ($49). The Tone City Dry Martini, heavily inspired by the legendary Fulltone OCD, will be very appropriate, too. Its simple controls include volume, tone and gain knobs. Count €58 ($63)to add it to your Pedalboard. Still in the low price bracket, the nUX Horseman OD is a good choice. Be sure to set the gain control all the way to the latter to regain a sonic character close to that of the Christone sound. Finally, the MXR Sugar Drive is an ideal solution, considering that Kingfish used it a lot between 2018 and 2020. Just be careful to keep the tone setting low enough not to be overwhelmed by treble. The Sugar Drive Mini is priced at €158 ($129).

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The wah isn’t an essential component of Christone Ingram’s sound, but it allows her some intensity variations and helps lend a more vocal edge to the guitar. We recommend the Vox V845, which will work wonders without breaking the bank. At €66 ($55), it offers good value for money. However, if you’re particularly fond of the Kingfish wah sound, you may want to consider the Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah CBM95. It has three voicings and will take up much less space than the Vox, but its €137 ($119) price tag may seem a little excessive. Finally, for the delay, we’re looking for a simple delay with no particular coloration. The Mooer Repeater (€69, $69), TC Electronic The Prophet €50, $49) and JHS Pedals 3 Series Delay (€125, $99) are all excellent.

In brief

You now have all the keys to sounding like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. However, a guitarist’s sound emerges not only from his gear but also from his unique touch and sensibility. This is all the more true for an expressive blues guitarist. Kingfish’s sound is, on the one hand, clear with reverb and, on the other, a big, saturated sound that he produces thanks to his guitar’s volume controls and variations in attack.