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Christone “Kingfish” Ingram Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to Mississippi Blues’ New King

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9 June 2026

His teacher gave him the name.

Bill “HowlNMadd” Perry — one of the instructors at the Delta Blues Museum Arts and Education Program in Clarksdale, Mississippi — gave Christone Ingram the nickname “Kingfish” when he was a child. Perry saw something in the young Ingram’s playing that required a name bigger than the boy’s age could justify. The Delta Blues Museum, Clarksdale, Mississippi — the birthplace of the Delta blues, the town where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul at the crossroads — is where Christone Ingram learned to play guitar.

He was eight years old when he enrolled. He started on drums. Then bass. Then guitar. By eleven he was playing gigs, his four-string Esquire going into an Ibanez amp, playing hill-country blues by R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. By twenty he had won a Grammy nomination. By twenty-two he was the youngest artist ever to win a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. By 2023 he had opened for the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park.

His primary guitar for the first several years of his career was a custom Les Paul-style instrument built by luthier Michael Chertoff — given to him when he was sixteen years old, one week before he had to play in Germany. He played the frets off it. Literally. Now on its second set of frets, that guitar traveled the world with him until the Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe arrived.

The Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe — the guitar he designed with Fender to combine a Telecaster’s comfort and feel with the humbucker blues-rock sound he was drawn to. “Mississippi Night” is the finish — the color of the Delta evening sky. Custom Kingfish humbuckers that can deliver the crunch he needs for top-gear blues-rock but clean up with the volume knob. A V-profile roasted maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. A Tune-o-matic bridge. He loved it immediately.

Through a Fender Twin Reverb and a Peavey Classic 50 — the Peavey in honor of his Mississippi roots. A four-pedal board: Boss TU-3W tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah, Marshall ShredMaster, Boss DD-3T delay. Small enough to put in a suitcase.

He is twenty-five years old as this series concludes. He is already one of the most celebrated blues guitarists of his generation. He plays like someone who grew up where the blues came from, because he did.

Background: Clarksdale, Mississippi, the Delta Blues Museum, and Buddy Guy’s Faith

Christone Ingram was born January 18, 2000, in Clarksdale, Mississippi — the city that is, by common consent, the epicenter of Delta blues history. Robert Johnson’s music was born in the Delta. Muddy Waters grew up in Clarksdale. B.B. King grew up nearby in Indianola. Son House was from Lyon, Mississippi. The Delta blues tradition flows through the soil that Christone Ingram grew up on.

The family’s musical heritage: his mother Princess Latrell Pride (d. 2019) was a first cousin of groundbreaking country singer Charlie Pride. She enrolled Christone in the Delta Blues Museum Arts and Education Program. His father Christopher sat him down at age five to watch Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied on PBS. The blues was not something he discovered; it was given to him.

His instructors at the Delta Blues Museum — Richard “Daddy Rich” Crisman and Bill “HowlNMadd” Perry — taught him the blues foundation. Perry gave him the name Kingfish. By eleven he was playing gigs. By thirteen he had heard about Eric Gales — “the only guy I heard playing blues with a rock style” — and started incorporating that wider vocabulary. By fifteen, a video of him went viral. By sixteen he had the Chertoff Custom guitar and was playing in Germany.

Buddy Guy heard him and believed. Guy shared stages with him and helped fund his debut album, Kingfish (2019), released on Alligator Records. The tradition of established blues masters recognizing and supporting younger players — B.B. King’s support for younger artists, Buddy Guy’s own experience of being recognized by Muddy Waters — continuing through Buddy Guy to Christone Ingram.

The debut album received a Grammy nomination. 662 (2021) won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. He has opened for the Rolling Stones. He was on the cover of Guitar Player. He is twenty-five years old.

Tone note: He grew up in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He didn’t move there to absorb the blues tradition — he was born into it. His mother enrolled him in the Delta Blues Museum program. His father showed him Muddy Waters on PBS when he was five. His teacher at the museum gave him the name Kingfish. The tradition was not something he found; it found him. The gear he plays reflects this: the colors of the Delta evening sky on his Fender signature, the Mississippi roots represented by the Peavey amp in his rig, the feel-first philosophy that connects directly to the blues tradition he inherited.

The Rig: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram’s Guitars, Amps & Gear

Guitars: From the Chertoff Custom to Mississippi Night

Chertoff Custom Les Paul-Style — The Guitar He Played the Frets Off

Christone Ingram’s primary guitar for the majority of his early career — through the debut album Kingfish (2019) and the Grammy-winning 662 (2021) — was a custom Les Paul-style guitar built by luthier Michael Chertoff. He described how it arrived: Michael Chertoff was one of those who contacted him after a viral video in 2015, and kept saying, “I’m going to send you a guitar one day, man!” He had that LP-style guitar built already, and finished it for Kingfish and sent it a week before he had to play in Germany.

The guitar arrived. He played it in Germany. He played it on the debut album. He played the frets off it. Literally — the guitar is now on its second set of frets, worn to nothing by the intensity of his playing. In the 2024 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, the fret-worn Chertoff Custom was still being used on tour as his secondary guitar.

The Chertoff Custom’s specifications:

Body: Mahogany with maple cap — the Les Paul Standard configuration
Neck: Set neck (mahogany)
Pickups: Jalen humbuckers — high-output humbucker configuration
Construction: Custom LP-style body with the set-neck feel that Ingram values for the warmth and sustain of the mahogany/maple combination

He described his affinity for humbuckers to Guitar.com: “Coming up in blues, I feel like you have to have a good tone, one that’s big and bass-y. If you look at guys like Eric King and Freddy King and even Clapton back when he was in Cream, [they all used] a humbucker guitar! I feel like that’s the big sound. It was always a sound that I was drawn to.”

Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe (“Mississippi Night”) — The Current Primary

Christone Ingram’s collaboration with Fender produced the Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe — the signature instrument that now defines his sound and stage presence. The color he chose — “Mississippi Night” — is the color of the Delta evening sky, the sky he grew up under.

The specific design philosophy: “I kind of always had a love/hate relationship with Teles over the years. So when we went to Fender about [designing a signature model], I was like, ‘Okay, well, let’s do the best of both worlds, so I can have my Tele fit [but] also have my humbucker sound.'”

The Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe’s complete specifications:

Body: Alder body — the standard Telecaster body wood
Neck: Roasted maple with V-profile — a firmer, more stable neck that resists humidity changes; V-profile for the specific feel he prefers
Fingerboard: Rosewood with 12-inch radius
Frets: Medium jumbo
Pickups: Two custom-voiced “Kingfish” humbuckers — “custom wound and they really pack a punch. They really scream for the blues-rock.” Designed to deliver crunch for blues-rock but clean up with the volume knob. The pickup described: “I told them the sound I wanted — kind of a classic [Gibson] ’57 sound, but something more versatile that I can roll back and get smooth sounds”
Bridge: Tune-o-matic — the Gibson-style bridge rather than standard Telecaster bridge; provides different intonation adjustment and string feel. He described being influenced by Pete Townshend and Keith Richards using Telecasters with humbuckers: “so that was the sound I grew up on for sure”
Color: Mississippi Night — a deep purple/dark finish representing both the Delta sky and raising awareness for an illness his mother had (purple was the color associated with it)
Strings: Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011 sets

Tone note: The color raises awareness for an illness his mother had. Princess Latrell Pride died in 2019 — the year of the debut album’s release. The Mississippi Night signature guitar carries her memory in its color. His mother enrolled him in the Delta Blues Museum program. His mother’s death and his debut album’s success happened in the same year. The signature guitar is named for the sky over the Delta where she enrolled him. The guitar carries the complete story.

Gibson Goldtop Les Paul — The Third Guitar

In the 2024 Rig Rundown, Kingfish’s touring setup included a Gibson Goldtop Les Paul alongside the Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe and the veteran Chertoff Custom. He used the Goldtop on solos for the debut album: “I used a Goldtop Les Paul on some of the solos.” The Goldtop’s PAF-style humbuckers and the maple cap over mahogany body provide the classic Les Paul Standard character for specific applications.

Earlier and Additional Guitars

Four-string Esquire (first guitar) — His first proper electric; played gigs with it at age eleven; four-string configuration going into an Ibanez amp
Epiphone 335 Dot (Christmas gift) — Christmas gift from his family; his first guitar for learning chords and blues properly. “Wanting to expand his repertoire and do his own thing, he began learning chords and blues on a Christmas-gift Epiphone 335 Dot”
Fender American Professional Telecaster Deluxe Shawbucker — Used in the period before the signature model was complete; the Shawbucker (a humbucker designed by Tim Shaw) provided the humbucker-in-Tele-body character he was seeking
Fender Boxer Telecaster — Used for a period; “I used the Boxer Tele for a little bit before I got this one [the signature]”
Fender Starcaster (Modern Player reissue) — Featured on the cover of his debut album Kingfish; the Starcaster’s semi-hollow character was part of the early visual identity
Fender Vintera 50s Stratocaster — Used for Fender promotional videos and specific recordings; he noted he “can’t play Strats onstage” but will pick one up for studio work if it looks good
Squier Starfire — Documented in 2019 Guitar World interview

Complete Guitar List (Key Instruments)

Chertoff Custom (LP-style, mahogany/maple, Jalen humbuckers) — Primary from age 16 through debut album era; frets played off; second set of frets now; still in touring rotation
Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe (“Mississippi Night”) — Current primary; Delta sky color/mother’s illness awareness; custom Kingfish humbuckers; Tune-o-matic bridge; roasted maple V-profile neck; Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011
Gibson Goldtop Les Paul — Third guitar; debut album solos; touring backup
Epiphone 335 Dot (Christmas gift) — First “proper” guitar; learning chord and blues foundation
Four-string Esquire — First electric; age 11 gigs

Amps: Peavey for Mississippi, Fender Twin for Power

Fender Twin Reverb ’65 Reissue — The Primary Live Amp

Ingram’s current primary live amplifier is a Fender Twin Reverb ’65 Reissue — confirmed in the 2024 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown. He switches between these two: a Fender Twin ’65 Reissue and a Peavey Classic 50 — the latter in honor of his Mississippi roots. The Peavey is usually a backup in case there’s an issue with the Twin, or can be used for guests who are invited to join Christone onstage.

The Fender Twin Reverb’s specific character: 85 watts (in the original; the reissue is similarly powerful), two 12-inch speakers, the enormous clean headroom and spring reverb that define the Fender Twin’s sound. Its power provides the volume for arena-level performance while maintaining the clean foundation that lets the pedal-board’s dirt character come through clearly.

Peavey Delta Blues 210 — The Mississippi Roots Amp

His earlier primary amp — used on the debut album and through the early touring years — was the Peavey Delta Blues 210: a tube amp with a 30-watt output and two 10-inch Celestion speakers, with built-in tremolo. The amp is set to run clean with dirt coming from the pedalboard. The Delta Blues model’s name is specifically appropriate: a Peavey amp named for the blues tradition of the Delta, used by a guitarist from the Delta.

Peavey is a Mississippi-founded company (Meridian, Mississippi) — making the Peavey Delta Blues specifically resonant for a Clarksdale musician. He also uses a Peavey Classic 30 and Peavey Classic 50 in different contexts.

Pedals: “I’m Simple When It Comes to Pedals”

Ingram’s pedalboard philosophy is the most minimal in the series’ younger guitarists: “I’m simple when it comes to pedals.” His 2024 live rig uses just four pedals on a Pedaltrain Nano board — small enough to put in a suitcase.

The 2024 Live Pedalboard (Premier Guitar Rig Rundown)

Boss TU-3W Waza Craft Chromatic Tuner — Stage tuner; the Waza Craft version is Boss’s premium tuner with improved display and signal path
Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah (CBM95) — Primary expressive tool; “I have used that wah so much that I’m uncomfortable using a standard-sized wah.” He uses the wah like a treble booster — kept on with the overdrive for a cocked-wah treble boost effect. “I like to use my wah like a treble booster — like a cocked-wah thing. I keep it on with the overdrive, and it gives me a treble boost”
Marshall ShredMaster — Primary distortion; “When it comes to overdrive or distortion, I like it at high gain.” The Marshall ShredMaster — originally released in the early 1990s, associated with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood — is an unusual choice for a blues guitarist; its hard clipping produces a specific aggressive, Marshall-character distortion different from the vintage fuzz or smooth overdrive more commonly associated with blues. Ingram’s choice reflects his interest in the blues-rock rather than traditional blues tone
Boss DD-3T Delay — Clean digital delay; the delay portal he mentions turning up at the end of shows for the “spaceship effect”

Earlier Pedal Configurations

His pedal setup has evolved through his career:

MXR Sugar Drive — His previous primary overdrive; modeled after the Klon Centaur; “I’m very drawn to the MXR Sugar Drive”; used on the 662 album
EWS Brute Drive — Debut album recording overdrive; stacked with Tube Screamer and Klon clone for the debut’s overdrive tones
Ibanez Tube Screamer — Stacked with EWS Brute Drive for debut album recording
Klon clone — Used on debut album recordings alongside the EWS and Tube Screamer stack
Way Huge Aqua Puss — Delay pedal; documented in early touring rig
Way Huge Conspiracy Theory — Overdrive; “I have a Way Huge Conspiracy Theory, but on the record I used the Sugar Drive. Live, I like to alternate between the two”
ProCo Lil Rat — The miniature RAT distortion; documented in 2024 Rig Rundown alongside the ShredMaster

The signal chain for the 2024 live rig: Shure Wireless BLX4 wireless system → Boss TU-3W tuner → Dunlop CBM95 Mini Wah → Marshall ShredMaster → Boss DD-3T Delay. Powered by Strymon. Assembled by Barry O’Neal at XAct Tone Solutions in Nashville.

Strings, Picks & Setup

Strings:

Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011-.048 on the Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe and any guitar with humbuckers
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky .010-.046 on Stratocasters

Picks: D’Addario Acrylux picks — confirmed in the 2019 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown. The Acrylux material (acrylic) produces a specific bright, clear pick attack.

The feedback technique: He uses a specific end-of-show feedback technique inspired by Samantha Fish: “I like to do this thing where I have heavy feedback and I turn all the knobs up so it can be really booming. Put the delay portal on it, turn all the knobs and it gives a spaceship effect.” The wah, overdrive, and delay all turned to maximum simultaneously creates the feedback cascade he uses as a show-closing dramatic effect. He credits Fish for the inspiration: “one lady by the name of Samantha Fish… she would do this thing in her show where she goes to her pedalboard and twists the knobs and creates certain sounds. I didn’t wanna do that but I was like, ‘I could turn all the knobs up and create this, like, big whirly sound at the end.'”

The cocked-wah treble boost technique: He uses the Mini Wah in a fixed (cocked) position rather than sweeping it — keeping the wah pedal engaged at a specific position to add treble boost to the overall tone without the sweep effect. This is similar to the approach documented for other guitarists in this series who use the wah as a tone filter rather than a sweep effect.

Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: Blues Rooted, Genre-Unafraid

Christone Ingram’s guitar philosophy is simultaneously the most tradition-rooted and the most genre-fluid in this series’s younger generation of players. He is deeply and explicitly rooted in the Delta blues tradition — he grew up in Clarksdale, at the Delta Blues Museum, learning from the direct inheritors of the tradition. But he absorbs equally from Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Gary Moore, Eric Gales, and Eric Johnson.

The Traditional Foundation

“I’m very natural when it comes to playing. For me, I have to feel. I use my playing as an escape, so I use those [tough, personal] situations; just put them into my music and try to create something meaningful and soulful.” This is the blues tradition’s specific approach to music as emotional expression — not performance but release.

His stated influences run from the foundational to the contemporary: “The old school acoustic guys like Robert Johnson and Son House, to the guys who electrified it like B.B. King and Muddy Waters, and Albert King, and Freddie King, and Magic Sam. The list goes on and on. Then, to the guys who like modernized it a little bit, like Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Gary Moore, and even guys of the day like Eric Gales, Eric Johnson.” The chain from Robert Johnson to Eric Gales is the complete history of electric blues guitar in one list.

The Humbucker Philosophy

His specific gear preferences reflect his tonal philosophy: the humbucker’s “big and bass-y” sound is the sound he was drawn to from childhood. The custom Kingfish Telecaster humbuckers give him the Tele’s comfort with the humbucker’s power. “Coming up in blues, I feel like you have to have a good tone, one that’s big and bass-y.” The King influences — B.B., Albert, Freddie — all used humbucker guitars. The big sound of the Gibson humbucker is the sound of the blues tradition he grew up hearing.

The Young Generation’s Responsibility

“The aim is always to get younger kids into this type of [older, blues] music. In order to do that, you have to stretch out a little bit.” This is the specific challenge of a young blues musician in the contemporary moment: maintaining the tradition while making it accessible to people who didn’t grow up with it. Ingram’s solution — blues fundamentals with rock energy, traditional feel with modern awareness — is exactly the right one for the moment.

The Improv Philosophy

“Unless a lick is integral to the song, I don’t really play the same thing twice.” This commitment to spontaneous improvisation — the blues tradition’s core virtue — means that every performance is different from the last. The gear serves the improv: minimal, direct, with enough tonal variety to serve whatever the moment demands.

How to Sound Like Kingfish: The Mississippi Blues-Rock Tone

The Guitar

Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe for the current sound; any Telecaster with humbuckers provides a foundation. The humbucker-in-Tele-body configuration is the specific character.

Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe — The direct authentic choice; custom Kingfish humbuckers; Tune-o-matic; V-profile neck
Any Telecaster with humbucker pickups — The “best of both worlds” character Ingram seeks
Les Paul-style guitar — The Chertoff Custom’s territory; mahogany/maple, high-output humbuckers

The Amp

Fender Twin Reverb ’65 Reissue (primary live) or Peavey Delta Blues 210 (earlier period). Set clean; the dirt comes from the pedalboard.

Control	Setting	Notes
Volume	Clean throughout	“The amp is set to run clean with dirt coming from the pedal board”
Treble	6–7	Present; the humbucker pickups provide warmth; treble adds cut
Bass	5–6	Moderate; the “big and bass-y” sound comes from the humbuckers, not amp bass excess
Reverb	Light to moderate spring	The Twin’s spring reverb adds dimension; don’t overdo it

The Essential Pedals

Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah — Used in cocked position as treble booster (fixed position) or swept for expressive leads
Marshall ShredMaster — High-gain distortion; “I like it at high gain”; the Marshall character for the blues-rock aggression
Boss DD-3T Delay — Clean digital delay; also used for the “spaceship effect” at show’s end with all knobs turned up

Budget vs Authentic

Budget:

Guitar: Fender Player Telecaster (with aftermarket humbuckers) or Epiphone 335-style guitar
Amp: Fender Blues Junior or Peavey Classic 30
Pedals: Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah + Boss DS-1 or ProCo RAT (high-gain distortion) + Boss DD-3
Strings: Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011

Authentic:

Guitar: Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe (“Mississippi Night”)
Amp: Fender Twin Reverb ’65 Reissue (clean) + Peavey Classic 50 (backup)
Pedals: Dunlop CBM95 Mini Wah + Marshall ShredMaster + Boss DD-3T on Pedaltrain Nano
Strings: Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011

Influence & Legacy: Carrying the Delta Forward

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is, at twenty-five, already one of the most celebrated young blues guitarists in history. His influence at this stage of his career is primarily the influence of inspiration — he demonstrates to young people that the blues tradition is alive, urgent, and worthy of dedication. That Clarksdale, Mississippi, still produces guitarists worthy of their city’s tradition. That the chain from Robert Johnson through Muddy Waters through B.B. King through the Kings to Buddy Guy continues in someone born in the year 2000.

The documented connections:

Buddy Guy — The elder blues statesman who recognized Ingram’s talent, shared stages, and helped fund the debut album; the tradition of blues masters supporting the next generation continues through Guy to Ingram
Grammy Award (Best Contemporary Blues Album, 662, 2022) — Youngest artist to win in this category
The Rolling Stones, Hyde Park 2023 — Opening for the Rolling Stones represents recognition at the highest level of classic rock
Eric Gales — “He’s one of the guys I consider to be a big brother”; Gales’s blues-with-rock-style was the modernizing influence Ingram absorbed alongside the traditional masters
Samantha Fish — The feedback/knob-turning technique he adapted from Fish; the community of contemporary blues-rock artists learning from each other
The Delta Blues Museum — Where he was trained; his success is the museum’s most visible graduate; the institution that gave him the foundation, his instructors, and his name
The next generation of blues listeners — “The aim is always to get younger kids into this type of [older, blues] music.” Every young person who discovers the blues through Kingfish’s music follows a chain back to Robert Johnson, Son House, and the Delta soil that produced all of it

His teacher gave him the name. The Delta Blues Museum gave him the foundation. His mother enrolled him and died the year the debut album came out. Buddy Guy believed and helped. The color of the signature guitar is the color of the evening sky over the Delta where he grew up. Mississippi Night.

He is twenty-five years old. He has already won a Grammy, opened for the Rolling Stones, and designed a Fender signature guitar. He is already one of the most important young guitarists in the blues tradition.

He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The blues were born there too.

Tone note: “Unless a lick is integral to the song, I don’t really play the same thing twice.” This is the blues tradition’s improvisation philosophy in one sentence — and it connects Kingfish to every guitarist in this entire series who ever improvised. The blues is not a museum piece; it is a living practice of improvisation within a tradition. Kingfish playing in Clarksdale in the year 2000, learning at the Delta Blues Museum, playing gigs at eleven, winning a Grammy at twenty-two — this is the living tradition. The gear serves the improv. The improv serves the tradition. The tradition lives through the improv. This is how it has always worked. This is how it continues.

His teacher Bill “HowlNMadd” Perry gave him the name Kingfish at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His father showed him Muddy Waters on PBS at age five. His mother enrolled him in the music program and died the year his debut album came out. Buddy Guy believed and helped fund that debut. The Fender signature guitar is named Mississippi Night — the color of the Delta evening sky, and the color that represents his mother’s illness.

The Chertoff Custom Les Paul-style guitar that arrived one week before Germany when he was sixteen. He played the frets off it. Second set of frets now.

Through a Fender Twin Reverb ’65 Reissue, clean. The Peavey in honor of Mississippi roots. Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah cocked as a treble booster. Marshall ShredMaster at high gain. Boss DD-3T for delay and the spaceship effect at the show’s end.

Four pedals on a Nano board, small enough for a suitcase.

He is twenty-five years old. He was born where the blues was born. He plays like it.

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is the final guitarist in this series of 100 artists. From his Clarksdale, Mississippi roots, he carries forward the same Delta blues tradition that began with Robert Johnson and electrified through Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy.

Explore the complete GuitarGangsters series — 100 guitar legends, 100 complete gear guides, from Charlie Christian’s 1936 ES-150 to Kingfish’s 2022 Mississippi Night Telecaster Deluxe. The tradition continues.

FAQ: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram Guitars & Gear

What guitar does Christone “Kingfish” Ingram play?: His current primary guitar is the Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe in “Mississippi Night” — a deep purple/dark finish named for the color of the Delta evening sky (and chosen to raise awareness for an illness his late mother Princess Latrell Pride had). The signature model features an alder body, a roasted maple neck with V-profile, a rosewood fingerboard, two custom-voiced “Kingfish” humbucker pickups (“kind of a classic ’57 sound, but something more versatile”), a Tune-o-matic bridge, and medium jumbo frets. His previous primary was a custom Les Paul-style guitar built by Michael Chertoff — given to him at age 16, one week before playing in Germany — which he played the frets off (now on its second set). He also uses a Gibson Goldtop Les Paul as a third guitar.
What amplifiers does Christone “Kingfish” Ingram use?: In his current 2024 live rig, he switches between a Fender Twin Reverb ’65 Reissue (primary) and a Peavey Classic 50 (backup; kept in honor of his Mississippi roots, since Peavey is a Mississippi company). Earlier in his career he primarily used the Peavey Delta Blues 210 — a 30-watt tube combo with two 10-inch Celestion speakers and built-in tremolo, run clean with dirt from the pedalboard. He has also used a Fender Tweed Champ for specific recording applications (“I only used that setup for that song”). The Peavey’s Mississippi origins make it specifically resonant for a guitarist born in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
What pedals does Christone “Kingfish” Ingram use?: His 2024 live rig uses just four pedals on a Pedaltrain Nano board: Boss TU-3W Waza Craft Chromatic Tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah (CBM95), Marshall ShredMaster distortion, and Boss DD-3T delay. “I’m simple when it comes to pedals.” He describes the board as “small enough I could put in my suitcase.” He uses the wah in a cocked (fixed) position as a treble booster alongside the ShredMaster. The DD-3T’s delay is also used for the “spaceship effect” at the end of shows — turning all pedal knobs up for maximum feedback cascade. Earlier setups used MXR Sugar Drive, Way Huge Aqua Puss delay, and a stack of EWS Brute Drive, Tube Screamer, and Klon clone for the debut album recordings.
Why does Kingfish use the Marshall ShredMaster?: “When it comes to overdrive or distortion, I like it at high gain.” The Marshall ShredMaster — originally released in the early 1990s and associated with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood — is an unusual choice for a blues guitarist. Its hard clipping produces an aggressive, distinctly Marshall-character distortion that’s different from the vintage fuzz or smooth transparent overdrive more commonly associated with blues guitar. Ingram’s choice reflects his blues-rock orientation — the humbucker guitar, the big sound, the “blues-rock” approach he consistently describes. He runs it at high gain into a clean Fender Twin Reverb, producing the aggressive distorted tone for leads and solos.
What is the Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe?: Christone Ingram’s signature Fender guitar, designed to combine a Telecaster’s comfort with humbucker blues-rock power. He explained the concept: “I kind of always had a love/hate relationship with Teles over the years. So when we went to Fender about designing a signature model, I was like, ‘Okay, well, let’s do the best of both worlds, so I can have my Tele fit [but] also have my humbucker sound.'” Features include: alder body, roasted maple V-profile neck, rosewood fingerboard, custom-voiced “Kingfish” humbucker pickups (clean up with volume knob while delivering blues-rock crunch), Tune-o-matic bridge (inspired by Pete Townshend and Keith Richards’s humbucker Telecasters), medium jumbo frets, “Mississippi Night” finish (named for the Delta evening sky and his mother’s illness awareness).
What was Christone Ingram’s first guitar?: A four-string Esquire — a stripped-down version of the Telecaster with just one pickup — which he played at his first gigs at age eleven, going into an Ibanez amp while playing hill-country blues by R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Before that, his first “proper” guitar for learning chords and blues was an Epiphone 335 Dot received as a Christmas gift. His first truly significant guitar was the Chertoff Custom Les Paul-style instrument received at age sixteen, one week before playing in Germany — which became his primary for the debut album era and which he played the frets off.
How do I get Christone “Kingfish” Ingram’s blues tone?: Fender Kingfish Telecaster Deluxe or any humbucker-equipped Telecaster-style guitar. Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011 strings. Through a clean Fender Twin Reverb or Peavey Delta Blues — keep the amp clean; all the dirt comes from the pedals. Signal chain: Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah (in cocked/fixed position as treble booster alongside the drive pedal) → Marshall ShredMaster (high gain) → Boss DD-3T (delay). D’Addario Acrylux picks. The essential technique: “For me, I have to feel. I use my playing as an escape, so I use those [tough, personal] situations; just put them into my music and try to create something meaningful and soulful.” And: “Unless a lick is integral to the song, I don’t really play the same thing twice.” The improv philosophy is as important as the gear choice.