He snuck into a show as a boy. Howlin’ Wolf was performing. Sumlin was standing outside, watching through a window, perched on empty crates. He became so mesmerized by Wolf and the music that he fell through the window and landed on the stage.
Wolf looked down at the small boy who had just crashed his performance. Wolf kept playing.
Some years later, Wolf invited him to Chicago. Sumlin became Wolf’s primary guitarist in 1955 and held that position for twenty-three years — broken only by a brief six-month stint with Muddy Waters in 1956, when Waters tripled his pay. Wolf eventually convinced him to come back.
The guitar work Sumlin produced during those twenty-three years is among the most celebrated and most influential in electric blues history. Jimi Hendrix frequently covered “Killing Floor.” The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton recorded “Little Red Rooster.” The Doors made “Back Door Man” their own. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck all imitated him on “Spoonful” and “Smokestack Lightnin’.” Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded “May I Have a Talk with You.”
Every one of those covers and imitations starts with Hubert Sumlin’s guitar on the original Howlin’ Wolf recordings.
Guitar World described his style as “wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions.” He played without a pick — bare fingers on the strings, more control than a pick could provide, more directness between the player’s intention and the sound. Wolf sent him to the Chicago Conservatory of Music for classical guitar and music theory training. The combination produced something that nobody else in Chicago blues sounded like.
Rolling Stone ranked him #43 on their 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. The Howlin’ Wolf album he appears on most prominently — The Rockin’ Chair Album (1962) — was named the third greatest guitar album of all time by Mojo magazine.
This is the gear story.
Background: Greenwood, Hughes, and the Man Who Fell Through Howlin’ Wolf’s Window
Hubert Charles Sumlin was born November 16, 1931, on the Pillow plantation near Greenwood, Mississippi. He was raised in Hughes, Arkansas. He got his first guitar when he was eight years old; before that, he had played diddley bow — the one-stringed instrument stretched on a wall or board that was the entry point to music for many children in the rural South. By six years old, according to one source, he had moved to a six-string guitar.
His first significant musical encounter was sneaking into a Howlin’ Wolf performance as a boy — the window-crashing incident that is one of the more colourful origin stories in blues history. Wolf relocated from Memphis to Chicago in 1953, bringing with him the raw, massive presence that had made him the dominant blues force in the Memphis/West Memphis club scene. His longtime guitarist Willie Johnson chose not to make the move. Wolf first hired Chicago guitarist Jody Williams, then in 1954 invited Sumlin to join as second guitarist.
Williams left in 1955. Sumlin became the primary guitarist and remained so for the rest of Wolf’s life.
Howlin’ Wolf’s investment in Sumlin as a musician went well beyond the typical boss-employee relationship. Wolf sent Sumlin to a classical guitar instructor at the Chicago Conservatory of Music “to learn keyboards and scales” — a formal music education initiative that Wolf funded and that fundamentally shaped Sumlin’s approach to the guitar. The combination of Sumlin’s raw blues instincts and the theoretical grounding he received at the Conservatory produced the specific quality of his playing: sophisticated harmonic understanding applied to blues expression with total emotional commitment.
The Wolf-Sumlin partnership was one of the great musician relationships in blues history — complex, demanding, occasionally volatile, and musically extraordinary. Guitar World described it: “Few musical marriages have been so magical, so intuitively right, as that of the great blues singer Howlin’ Wolf and his guitarist, Hubert Sumlin.”
After Wolf’s death in 1976, Sumlin continued performing and recording. He played with the surviving Wolf band members as “The Wolf Pack” through approximately 1980, then launched a delayed solo career that produced several albums. He appeared on the 1991 Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute album and contributed to numerous recordings. His final solo album, About Them Shoes, was released in 2004. He underwent lung removal surgery that same year and continued performing until shortly before his death.
He died December 4, 2011, in Wayne, New Jersey, at age 80. Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and others paid for his funeral — a collective tribute from the musicians who owed him most.
Tone note: Wolf sent him to the Chicago Conservatory of Music for classical guitar and theory training. This is the same move that Wolf himself was known for as an autodidact — investing in the technical foundation of music rather than relying purely on intuition. The Conservatory training gave Sumlin a theoretical vocabulary for what he was already doing instinctively, and the combination produced the specific sophistication of his playing within the raw blues context.
The Rig: Hubert Sumlin’s Guitars, Amps & Gear
Guitars: The 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop and Its Company
1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop — The Primary Instrument
Sumlin’s primary guitar — the instrument most consistently documented across sources and confirmed in the most specific way — was a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. The leftthisyear.blogspot.com documentation confirmed: “Sumlin played a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar.” Guitar World stated that “Hubert’s recordings with Howlin’ Wolf were most likely done on a ’50s Gibson Les Paul.”
The 1955 Les Paul Goldtop is a transitional instrument in Gibson’s production history: 1955 was one of the final years of P-90 single-coil pickups on the Les Paul before the PAF humbucker was introduced in 1957. A 1955 Goldtop with P-90 pickups has the raw, slightly aggressive single-coil character that the PAF’s warmer, fuller humbucker would later replace — a quality that suited Sumlin’s attacking, stinging playing style.
The Goldtop’s mahogany body and maple cap provide warmth and sustain; the P-90’s output and character give the instrument a midrange bite and clarity that later humbuckers somewhat smoothed over. For the specific sonic context of the Howlin’ Wolf band — Chess Records studio sessions, Chicago club performances, the specific recording character of Willie Dixon’s productions — the P-90 Goldtop’s aggressive midrange suited Sumlin’s stinging fills and sudden bursts of notes perfectly.
Equipboard also documents a photo of Sumlin with a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop from Rolling Stone, confirming the consistent Les Paul association across his career.
Tone note: P-90 pickups on a 1955 Goldtop. Not the PAF humbuckers that defined the late-1950s Les Paul sound, but the single-coil P-90 with its specific aggressive midrange. The guitar sound on “Killing Floor” and “Spoonful” has that P-90 bite — clear, cutting, without the warmer compression that humbuckers produce at the same gain level. Every guitarist who covers those songs and wonders why it doesn’t quite sound right is often missing the P-90 as the starting point.
Gretsch G6122 Country Gentleman — The 1971 Photograph
A 1971 photograph of Sumlin performing with Howlin’ Wolf shows him playing a Gretsch G6122 Country Gentleman — the semi-hollow thinline guitar with a single-cutaway design, DeArmond Filter’Tron-style pickups, and the specific warm, slightly compressed character of the Gretsch semi-hollow. The Country Gentleman was Chet Atkins’ signature guitar in the Gretsch line; its appearance in Sumlin’s hands in 1971 confirms that he was not exclusively a Gibson player and used different instruments for different periods or contexts.
The Gretsch’s Filter’Tron pickups produce a character quite different from the Les Paul’s P-90s — warmer, with more compression and less of the single-coil’s aggressive bite. For the later Wolf-band period recordings, this different tonal character may account for some of the shift in sonic texture audible between the 1950s Chess Records recordings and later material.
Rickenbacker 360 — The Mid-1970s Period
Equipboard documents a photograph of Sumlin playing a Rickenbacker 360 during the mid-1970s era — the semi-hollow Rickenbacker with its distinctive Hi-Gain pickups and jangling, treble-forward character. The Rickenbacker 360 is about as far from the warm mahogany Les Paul Goldtop as it’s possible to get while remaining in the electric guitar category — its specific bright, complex, semi-hollow character represents a different period of Sumlin’s tonal exploration.
Fender Stratocaster — Late Career
Equipboard confirms a “well-used Fender Stratocaster” in a user-uploaded photograph where Sumlin appears “delighted with the instrument.” The Stratocaster’s single-coil character, in Sumlin’s hands without a pick, would produce a specific warm but articulate tone — the bare fingers reducing the bright attack that a pick produces, while the Strat’s naturally detailed single-coil response preserved the note definition that his style required.
Bartolini Electric Guitar — Late 1960s
In the late 1960s, Sumlin played a Bartolini Electric Guitar — a relatively obscure Italian-made instrument documented on fetishguitars.com. This unusual choice demonstrates his willingness to explore instruments outside the standard blues arsenal; the Bartolini’s character in his hands during this period is an interesting footnote in his gear history.
Complete Guitar List
- 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (P-90 pickups) — Primary instrument; “Sumlin played a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar” (confirmed); the guitar on the essential Wolf recordings including “Killing Floor,” “Spoonful,” “Smokestack Lightnin'”
- Gretsch G6122 Country Gentleman — Documented in 1971 performance photograph with Howlin’ Wolf; Filter’Tron pickups; semi-hollow construction
- Rickenbacker 360 — Mid-1970s documented use; distinctive Rickenbacker Hi-Gain single-coil character
- Fender Stratocaster — Late career; confirmed in user-uploaded photograph; single-coil clarity played without pick
- Bartolini Electric Guitar — Late 1960s; Italian-made instrument documented at fetishguitars.com
Amps & Cabinets: The Wabash, the Echoplex, and the “Distortion” That Wasn’t
The Wabash Guitar Amp — The Signature Early Sound
Sumlin’s own description of his core early setup is one of the most specific and most unusual amp descriptions in this series. He stated directly: “I was just using my Gibson and my Wabash amp, which I used for a long time. It was one of the first amps to have 15-inch speakers. I also got an Echoplex right when they came out, and combined with those 15-inch speakers, that made ‘distortion.'”
The Wabash Guitar Amp is an obscure vintage amplifier — not a Fender, not a Marshall, not a Gibson, but a Wabash. Its significance is primarily in the 15-inch speaker configuration. Standard guitar amplifiers of the 1950s predominantly used 10-inch or 12-inch speakers; the 15-inch speaker has a different frequency response, with more low-end extension and a different midrange character than smaller-diameter speakers. Sumlin’s specific identification of it as “one of the first amps to have 15-inch speakers” suggests this was a genuine technical distinction that he noticed and valued in the amp’s sound.
A Gibson-provided photo confirms “Blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin uses a Wabash Guitar Amp” — providing photographic documentation alongside the verbal confirmation in Sumlin’s own words.
Tone note: 15-inch speakers in a 1950s guitar amplifier. Most players were using 10-inch or 12-inch speakers. The 15-inch produces a fuller, more extended low end and a different midrange character. For Sumlin’s role in the Wolf band — providing both rhythmic drive and stinging lead fills simultaneously — the fuller low-end of the 15-inch speaker gave the bottom register of his playing a physical weight that smaller speakers wouldn’t have provided.
The Echoplex — Creating “Distortion”
Sumlin’s description of how his “distortion” was produced is remarkable: “I also got an Echoplex right when they came out, and combined with those 15-inch speakers, that made ‘distortion.'”
The Echoplex is a tape-loop echo unit — it records the guitar signal onto a moving tape loop and plays it back after a short delay, creating echo repetitions. In Sumlin’s hands, the Echoplex was not being used primarily for echo effects but for the specific way that its tape-loop preamp circuit saturated the signal before it reached the amplifier. The Echoplex’s internal electronics — particularly its tube-based preamp circuit — added a specific warmth and slight saturation to the signal that, combined with the Wabash amp’s 15-inch speakers pushed at working volume, produced the tonal character Sumlin identified as “distortion.”
This is the same functional use of the Echoplex that Eric Johnson (covered elsewhere in this series) documented — using the unit as a preamp rather than primarily as an echo device. The tape echo unit’s electronic character, when driving an amplifier’s input, adds harmonic complexity and slight saturation that dedicated overdrive pedals later attempted to replicate.
Sumlin explicitly identified this Wabash-plus-Echoplex combination as the source of his specific tone on the early Wolf recordings — the specific “distortion” quality of those Chess Records sides. This is not a conventional distortion pedal; it’s the byproduct of specific vintage electronics interacting in a specific way.
Fender Bassman 4×10 — Later Career Documented Amp
Equipboard documents: “Sumlin’s amplifier setup was one of extreme simplicity: a tried-and-true Fender Bassman 4×10 combo mic’d with a Sennheiser e609.” This later career setup — the Fender Bassman that also appears in Otis Rush’s, Lightnin’ Hopkins’s, and T-Bone Walker’s documented rigs — confirms the Bassman’s consistent role as the preferred clean, warm American amp across the Chicago blues world.
The mic choice (Sennheiser e609) suggests this setup was documented in a recording or professional performance context where microphone placement was a deliberate choice rather than whatever the venue provided.
Louis Electric Model HS M12 — The Dedicated Tribute Amp
Louis Electric Amplifier Company created a dedicated Hubert Sumlin amp — the Model HS M12 — specifically to emulate his unique sound. This is an unusual honour: boutique amp builders typically create tribute amps for guitarists whose tone is widely sought after, and Louis Electric’s decision to create a Sumlin-specific model confirms both the desirability of his tone and the technical interest in what produced it.
The specific circuit character of the HS M12 is designed to capture the Wabash-and-Echoplex quality that Sumlin described as his “distortion” — the warm, slightly saturated, clear-but-complex sound of those early Wolf recordings.
| Amp | Era / Context | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wabash Guitar Amp (15-inch speakers) | Primary early Wolf years | “One of the first amps to have 15-inch speakers”; Gibson-confirmed in photograph; used long-term; the foundation of his early Chess Records sound |
| Echoplex tape echo (as preamp/saturation unit) | Wolf years alongside Wabash | “Combined with those 15-inch speakers, that made ‘distortion'” — used for saturation character, not primarily for echo effects; tape-loop preamp circuit adding warmth and harmonic complexity |
| Tweed Fender (various) | Documented in Equipboard | Tweed Fender amps confirmed in equipment notes alongside other amp options |
| Fender Bassman 4×10 | Later career | “A tried-and-true Fender Bassman 4×10 combo mic’d with a Sennheiser e609” — the standard Chicago blues amp configuration |
| Louis Electric Model HS M12 | Tribute/documentation | Boutique amp created specifically to emulate his tone; confirms the desirability and technical interest of his specific sound |
Pedals & Signal Chain: The Echoplex as the Only “Effect”
Sumlin’s signal chain was deliberately minimal. Guitar to Echoplex (used for preamp saturation rather than echo effect) to Wabash amp. That’s the core chain on the Wolf recordings that influenced Page, Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, and the Stones.
No conventional overdrive pedal. No wah. No delay as a musical effect. The Echoplex’s tape circuit provided the saturation he needed; the Wabash amp’s 15-inch speakers provided the physical presence. Everything else was fingers on strings.
Guitar World’s documented amp settings for approximating his tone: Gain 2, Bass 3, Middle 4, Treble 6, Reverb 4. These settings confirm the clean-to-lightly-driven character — low gain, moderate bass, moderate middle, present treble, light reverb. Not a heavily driven sound; the “distortion” he described was subtle tube saturation rather than crunch or overdrive in the modern sense.
Tone note: Gain 2. That’s almost clean. The specific “stinging” quality that Guitar World described — the cuts and edges in his playing — comes from technique and the guitar’s character (P-90 bite) rather than from gain. High gain would blur the “wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions.” Low gain preserves the attack and definition that those descriptions require.
Strings, Picks & Setup
Strings: Not documented in specific commercial terms. Standard electric guitar gauges consistent with his Les Paul and later Stratocaster use — .010–.046 or similar medium-light gauge — would suit his playing approach and the instruments he used.
No Picks: Sumlin eventually stopped using a guitar pick entirely, playing with bare fingers. The Chicago Blues website confirmed: “Over the years, he stopped playing with a guitar pick and just played the guitar with his fingers. Realizing that he had more control to create the sounds he heard from others as well as creating his own style of playing. He had no need to use a pick anymore.”
This is the same choice made by Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, and several jazz guitarists — bare fingers providing more nuance and control over attack than a pick allows. For Sumlin’s specific style — the “wrenched, shattering bursts,” the “cliff-hanger silences,” the precise rhythmic suspensions — the ability to vary individual note attacks by fingertip angle and pressure was more important than the consistent attack a pick provides.
The bare-finger approach on a P-90-equipped Les Paul through a lightly driven amp produces a specific tonal character: the finger’s flesh rounds the very tip of the attack while the nail adds definition, giving notes a quality that is simultaneously warm and articulate — neither the hard click of a heavy pick nor the pure warmth of full-flesh fingertip contact.
Tone note: He stopped using a pick because he had more control without it. That’s the complete reasoning — practical, empirical, direct. He heard the difference, preferred what his fingers produced, abandoned the pick. For a guitarist whose defining characteristic is control over the precise quality of every note, this makes complete logical sense.
Guitar setup: Standard electric guitar setup appropriate for clean-to-lightly-driven playing. No specific unusual modifications documented. The P-90 pickups on the 1955 Goldtop were maintained in their original configuration — no pickup replacement, no modification of the basic electronics.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: The Anti-Guitar Hero
Hubert Sumlin’s playing style is defined by qualities that almost no contemporary analysis adequately captures because the qualities are primarily about what he doesn’t do: he doesn’t play too many notes; he doesn’t fill every available space; he doesn’t demonstrate his speed or range when the song doesn’t require it. Guitar World’s description — “wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions” — captures the what but not the why.
The Economy of Means
Guitar World called his approach “economical, stinging fills.” The “economical” is the critical word. Sumlin understood — from the Chicago Conservatory training, from watching Wolf command a room with his voice and presence, from twenty-three years in the same band — that the guitar’s job in the Wolf context was to support and augment, not to demonstrate. Every note he played served a specific function: to answer Wolf’s vocal phrases, to set up the next section of the song, to provide harmonic information the listener needed, or to provide rhythmic emphasis the groove required.
Notes that didn’t serve these functions were not played. The “cliff-hanger silences” are as musically important as the notes — they create expectation, they give the listener room to absorb what just happened, and they give Wolf’s voice space to breathe. The silence is not the absence of music; it’s music.
Tone note: “Sudden cliff-hanger silences.” In a musical tradition where most players fill every available moment, Sumlin’s willingness to stop — completely, without embellishment, without a note to indicate he’s stopping — and leave the silence for Wolf is an act of musical generosity and confidence. You only leave silence when you know the silence works as well as the note would have.
The Rhythmic Approach
Guitar World cited his “unusual rhythmic approach” and “perfectly placed bent notes” as defining characteristics. The rhythmic approach refers specifically to his tendency to place notes in unexpected parts of the bar — off the beat, between beats, in places where most guitarists would play on or near the downbeat. This rhythmic displacement creates the “daring rhythmic suspensions” that make the Wolf recordings feel simultaneously urgent and unsettled, as if the music is always on the verge of falling off the beat but never quite does.
This approach requires exceptional rhythmic security — you can only displace notes confidently if you know exactly where the beat is and can find it again after the displacement. The Chicago Conservatory training in scales and theory presumably included rhythmic training that gave Sumlin the foundational security to take these rhythmic risks.
The Classical Training’s Influence
Wolf sending Sumlin to the Chicago Conservatory of Music for classical training was an unusual move in the Chicago blues world and produced unusual results. The classical guitar vocabulary — particularly the understanding of scales, intervals, and harmonic movement — gave Sumlin a conceptual framework for his playing that most self-taught blues guitarists of his generation didn’t possess.
The result: he could hear what a phrase should be harmonically and know how to voice it on the guitar, rather than relying purely on ear-trained instinct. This isn’t to say that ear-trained instinct is inferior — some of the greatest blues guitarists in this series are entirely self-taught. But Sumlin’s specific combination of raw blues instinct, formal theoretical training, and twenty-three years of performance with one of the most demanding and distinctive singers in Chicago blues produced a result that is genuinely unique.
The Wolf Songs — The Specific Recordings
Guitar World documented the specific songs that made Sumlin famous and the musicians who absorbed them:
- “Killing Floor” — Jimi Hendrix frequently covered it; the specific guitar riff that opens the song is Sumlin’s contribution to the blues vocabulary
- “Spoonful” — Page, Clapton, and Beck all “flattered Sumlin by imitating him” on this; Cream’s extended version is the most famous cover
- “Smokestack Lightnin'” — Same multi-guitarist imitation; one of the definitive Wolf-and-Sumlin recordings
- “The Red Rooster” (Little Red Rooster) — Rolling Stones and Clapton recordings; one of the most covered Wolf songs
- “Back Door Man” — The Doors remade it; Jim Morrison’s version is how most people know it
The Howlin’ Wolf album (the “Rocking Chair Album,” 1962) — which contains “Spoonful,” “The Red Rooster,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Back Door Man,” and others — was named the third greatest guitar album of all time by Mojo magazine in 2004. The #3 ranking placed it above virtually every album in this series’ catalog. The guitarist on that album is Hubert Sumlin.
How to Sound Like Hubert Sumlin: The Howlin’ Wolf Guitar Tone
Sumlin’s tone is approachable with standard equipment. The Les Paul with P-90s is the authentic starting point; the amp settings are deliberately low-gain; the technique — bare fingers — is the hardest element to develop.
The Guitar
Gibson Les Paul with P-90 single-coil pickups for the authentic early period sound. The P-90’s specific aggressive midrange and bite — different from both Fender single-coils and PAF humbuckers — is the tonal foundation.
- Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (P-90 equipped) — The authentic choice; 1955 or similar vintage year; or current Gibson reissues with P-90s
- Gibson Les Paul Junior (P-90) — Single P-90 on a mahogany slab body; less expensive; similar tonal character
- Gibson SG with P-90s — Alternative Les Paul-derived P-90 option
- Any guitar with quality P-90 pickups — The P-90 character is more important than the specific guitar model
The Amp
Clean to very lightly driven. The documented amp settings (Guitar World): Gain 2, Bass 3, Middle 4, Treble 6, Reverb 4.
| Control | Sumlin Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gain | 2 (almost clean) | Very low; the P-90’s natural bite provides the edge; high gain would blur his specific attack character |
| Bass | 3 | Moderate low-end; the Wabash’s 15-inch speakers already added warmth; avoid muddiness |
| Middle | 4 | Moderate mid; the P-90 has natural midrange presence |
| Treble | 6 | Present treble for the “stinging” quality of his attack; the P-90 and bare fingers together need treble presence |
| Reverb | 4 | Moderate reverb for spatial depth; not drenched, but present |
For the Echoplex-as-preamp effect: an Echoplex or MXR Carbon Copy in front of the amp can approximate the tape saturation character. Set the echo level very low or to zero; adjust the internal level so the unit is boosting the signal slightly into the amp’s input. The result should be a barely audible warmth and saturation, not an audible echo.
Budget vs Pro Rigs
Budget:
- Guitar: Epiphone Les Paul with P-90 pickups (or standard Epiphone with P-90 pickup upgrade)
- Amp: Fender Blues Junior (clean, lightly driven at working volume)
- No picks — bare fingers; develop the technique
- Strings: D’Addario .010–.046
Pro:
- Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (1955 reissue or vintage equivalent) with P-90 pickups
- Amp: Vintage Fender Bassman 4×10 or Louis Electric Model HS M12 (the dedicated Sumlin tribute amp)
- Signal chain: Echoplex (or MXR Carbon Copy used as preamp boost) → amp
- No picks — bare fingers
Tone note: The amp settings say Gain 2. Start there. Resist the urge to add more gain. The “stinging” quality requires note clarity, and high gain compresses and blurs notes. The P-90’s natural bite at Gain 2 produces more character than a PAF humbucker at Gain 6. Trust the low gain.
The Technique
Stop using a pick. This is the most important single instruction for approximating Sumlin’s approach. The bare-finger attack — the ability to vary the angle of contact between fingertip and string, choosing between flesh and nail depending on the specific attack quality required — produces the nuanced dynamic range that his playing demonstrates.
Learn “Killing Floor.” Learn the opening riff note for note, then the fills that Sumlin plays in response to Wolf’s vocal. Specifically: notice where he doesn’t play. The spaces are as important as the notes. Practice leaving those spaces — not filling them, not adding a run, just letting them exist. The silence after a stinging note is part of the phrase.
The rhythmic displacement: practice playing blues fills slightly behind or ahead of where you think the beat is. Not randomly — with intention. Find the note’s most powerful placement in the bar by experimenting with its position. The “cliff-hanger” quality of Sumlin’s playing comes from knowing where the beat is and choosing to be somewhere else for specific musical effect.
Influence & Legacy: The Man Behind the Songs That Defined Rock and Roll Guitar
The scope of Hubert Sumlin’s influence is, in one specific sense, the scope of rock and roll guitar itself — because the Howlin’ Wolf songs he created with Wolf are the specific songs that British blues players absorbed, covered, and built their careers on. Every guitarist in the British blues revival who covered a Wolf song was, whether they knew it or not, absorbing Sumlin’s specific guitar approach.
The documented direct influences:
- Jimi Hendrix — Frequently covered “Killing Floor”; the specific guitar energy and rhythmic approach of Wolf’s original (meaning Sumlin’s) is audible in Hendrix’s attack
- Jimmy Page — Cited Sumlin; imitated him on “Spoonful” and “Smokestack Lightnin'” recordings; the specific melodic fills that characterise Led Zeppelin’s blues-derived moments have Sumlin ancestry
- Eric Clapton — Absorbed Sumlin through the Wolf recordings; the Bluesbreakers’ approach to Wolf covers was partly an attempt to replicate what Sumlin was doing
- Jeff Beck — Similarly cited and imitated Sumlin on Wolf-derived material
- Rolling Stones — “The Red Rooster,” recorded 1964; one of their most-performed early songs; Keith Richards absorbed the guitar approach
- The Doors — “Back Door Man” became one of the Doors’ signature songs; they learned it from Wolf, which means from Sumlin
- Stevie Ray Vaughan — The 1991 tribute album included “May I Have a Talk with You”; the Wolf tradition runs through Vaughan’s playing broadly
Rolling Stone #43 on their 100 Greatest Guitarists list. Mojo named the album he appeared on most prominently as the third greatest guitar album of all time. Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger paid for his funeral.
He was the guitarist on the songs that defined what British blues was trying to be. He played without a pick. He used a Wabash amp with 15-inch speakers. He used an Echoplex for “distortion.” He fell through Howlin’ Wolf’s window as a boy and spent the next twenty-three years making some of the most influential guitar music in American history.
Tone note: Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger paid for his funeral. That’s the specific measure of gratitude that three of rock’s most commercially successful musicians expressed for what they owed him. The debt was real. The gesture acknowledged it.
In Chicago, in the early 1950s, a young guitarist from Hughes, Arkansas stood in Wolf’s band and played the Les Paul Goldtop through the Wabash amp that was one of the first to have 15-inch speakers. He got an Echoplex when they came out, and combined with the 15-inch speakers, that made “distortion.” He stopped using a pick because he had more control without it. He went to the Chicago Conservatory of Music because Wolf sent him, to learn keyboards and scales.
He played “Spoonful” and “Killing Floor” and “Smokestack Lightnin'” and “Back Door Man” and “The Red Rooster” and twenty years of Wolf sessions, and Jimmy Page imitated him, and Eric Clapton imitated him, and Jeff Beck imitated him, and Jimi Hendrix covered “Killing Floor,” and the Rolling Stones covered “The Red Rooster,” and the Doors covered “Back Door Man.”
He died in 2011. Clapton, Richards, and Jagger paid for the funeral.
Mojo magazine named the album he played on the third greatest guitar album of all time. Rolling Stone ranked him #43 of the 100 greatest guitarists.
He started by falling through a window. He spent twenty-three years earning the right to be in the room.
If Sumlin’s Chicago blues guitar approach — the economy, the space, the bare-finger P-90 attack — has you exploring the tradition he helped build, check out our complete guide to Muddy Waters’ guitars and gear — the other defining figure of Chicago electric blues, with whom Sumlin briefly played in 1956 when Waters tripled his pay.
And for the man whose voice Sumlin served for twenty-three years, and without whom the guitar parts would never have existed in the form they took, don’t miss our coverage of the Howlin’ Wolf story — because the Wolf-Sumlin partnership is one of the great musical marriages of the twentieth century, and neither half is complete without the other.
