I was thinking a little bit more overnight and if I remember correctly the Binson includes some kind of tube preamp that adds its own color. The Binson also has a subtle detuning effect due to the spinning magnetic disk.

I’ve played around with clean boosts and compressors and gotten closer to Hank’s sound sometimes, though I’ve never felt like I completely nailed it. The EHX Black Finger is a really cool compressor if you’re looking for one.

Here’s a vid of some guy using a Catalinbread Echorec. Sounds good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDbyBCHXEXI

Holy cow that’s an amazing guitar.

As far as nailing Hank’s exact tone, now we’re down the rabbit hole. The good thing about Hank is he doesn’t seem to be too inflexible, and tries things like digital.

I know what you mean with the shrill highs and muddy lows. I think it’s a strat thing.

Don’t take me too seriously, I’m just a hobbyist who has never played out. Here is some stuff I’ve tried:

1) Strings – Probably like everyone else Hank used thick strings back in the day. I’m not going to do that because I like to bend without too much effort, but I’ve compromised with Ernie Ball Pure Nickel Hybrid Slinky strings. The top strings are like 9’s and the bottom like 10’s. This gives a little more spring in the low notes and makes stuff like those galloping parts in Apache a little easier to play.

2) Trem setup – I noticed my strat sounded more like Hank when I set my trem to float so that I could raise the pitch a half step as well as lowering it. Seems to have the right amount of give to it and a sweeter attack.

3) Amp/speaker – You might try changing the speaker. I know it’s not very Hank-like but I use a hemp cone Lil’ Buddy speaker when I’m playing in Madison Square Basement. It’s easier on my ears.

4) Capacitor/wiring mods – I hesitate to tell you to mess with your guitar, but if you have a really shrill bridge pickup you might consider wiring it into a no-load tone control that turns itself off when dialed up to 10. It can share this knob with the middle pickup. Also consider a 0.1 mfd capacitor if the one they have in there is some lower number.

Thanks for that tip about the Zoom G3. I’m going to look into that. I have a G3X.