Randy Rhoads Tone Challenge

lll

lll

Banned
Well-known member
RR is the next on my list of tone-cloning, but I just haven't had the time to make a video yet (2.5 businesses plus my wife's).

So, I propose a Randy Rhoads tone challenge for anyone interested.

How close can you get?

Myself, I'll be focusing on the 1st album (Blizzard).

Now, maybe we won't have anyone participating, maybe we will... but I'm throwing it out there.

If you are participating, post below. If you already have something made, post below. And it would be great information for all to have if you explain how you got there.

Naturally, ISOs of the original guitar tone do not count.

Original backing instrument (drums bass etc) ISOs can be used as well as your own backing track.


There is no time constraint.

EDIT: Uploaded some clips. Gonna finish vid later.

Goodbye To Romance Solo:
https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-rhoads-test-gtr

Crazy Train:
https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-rhoads-test-ct

I Don't Know:
https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-rhoads-test-idk

Revelation - Mother Earth:
https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-rhoads-test-rme

Suicide Solution:
https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-rhoads-test-ss

Here's Mr. Crowley interlude & 2nd solo:

https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-rhoads-test-mc-solo-2
 
I did the solo to flying high some time back and got in the ballpark..like bleacher seats. :LOL: :LOL:

I'd love one day to get my hands on a jmp and throw an mxr + in front of it and go to town...one day
Randy is without a doubt my all time favorite guitarist.
Awesome Thread!

 
I've got a battery operated Epiphone tiny little toy. Nails RR. His album tones sucked. I was at a RR tribute thing a few years back where they actually have his amps and people play through them. My boy Phil X for example. Anyway the amps in person are stellar. He wasn't never recorded right.
 
Huge part of Randys tone was his speakers. Altecs FTW!! Pretty much any older marshall with an mxr distortion+ will get ya there in spades with those speakers. :thumbsup:
 


Ive heard many Players try to pull off Randy, some really good but nobody has what Randy had.

That tone died in 1982'. :no:
 
CP5150":3hsmam5e said:
I've got a battery operated Epiphone tiny little toy. Nails RR. His album tones sucked. I was at a RR tribute thing a few years back where they actually have his amps and people play through them. My boy Phil X for example. Anyway the amps in person are stellar. He wasn't never recorded right.
Click to expand...

That may be your opinion, and it's yours so it's valid.
But millions of fans and millions of album sales on BOO and DOAM
may most definitely contradict your views.
Again, your opinion versus huge numbers in fans, albums and replication of tone all around the world.

And as far as people playing through his amps..I have personally visited the Rhoads family while Delores was alive, stayed with them for some time and can tell you that RR'S gear is kept locked down. His concord came out very briefly some years back and his polka dot v for filming.
 
The note for note articulation, the speed, dexterity, complex shapes, modes, phrasing, harmonies & melodies is what set Randy's playing apart from everybody else in 1981 & 82.

There were many sloppy fast players but hardly any with his precision.

And then after his death the Neo-Classical guitar/Metal thing really took off to where everybody started doing it.
 
Many folks rip on the BOO and DOAM tone, but I find nothing wrong with it. It's just a high gain Marshall sound.
 
8len8":2j3eban3 said:
Many folks rip on the BOO and DOAM tone, but I find nothing wrong with it. It's just a high gain Marshall sound.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. I never understood all of the criticism of his recorded tones. His lead tones were multi tracked several times and sounded massive. His rhythm tones were good old MXR boosted Marshalls. RR did no wrong. :rock:
 
I feel that the album tones were definitely underwhelming compared to his live tone. Blizzard of Ozz I would agree sounds like it just wasn't mic'd properly to capture his playing. Diary is much better and the guitars sound beefier to me. None of those compared to his live tone though. For me, that is where it was at. He sounded HUGE live on any of the bootlegs you listen to.

One thing I have noticed over the years is the lead work on those two albums. There are times where it sounds to me he didn't have time to craft a good solo or maybe he was the type of guy that needed more time to write something that really popped because sometimes you will hear these really shitty solos that are a couple of dives and some shrill vibrato. Live however, it sounds like he had had more time with the music and does some really awesome aggressive fills and leads that are not on the album. This often happens when a guy passes away in his prime though, we tend to romanticize the player and his impact more. Hard to say whether he would have evolved much or just gone deeper into classical. Either way, still a bitchin player and one of my faves so I continue to enjoy what I can find from him.

The tone for me is super distortion or stock gibson pups with MXR+ and a Marshall opened up. Maybe a slight mid hump boost from an EQ and some chorus.
 
ElectricVoodoo":26c4kexv said:
I did the solo to flying high some time back and got in the ballpark..like bleacher seats. :LOL: :LOL:

I'd love one day to get my hands on a jmp and throw an mxr + in front of it and go to town...one day
Randy is without a doubt my all time favorite guitarist.
Awesome Thread!

Click to expand...
Dude you killed that solo.
Love your playing. :rock:
 
ElectricVoodoo":3c5lmbc6 said:
CP5150":3c5lmbc6 said:
I've got a battery operated Epiphone tiny little toy. Nails RR. His album tones sucked. I was at a RR tribute thing a few years back where they actually have his amps and people play through them. My boy Phil X for example. Anyway the amps in person are stellar. He wasn't never recorded right.
Click to expand...

That may be your opinion, and it's yours so it's valid.
But millions of fans and millions of album sales on BOO and DOAM
may most definitely contradict your views.
Again, your opinion versus huge numbers in fans, albums and replication of tone all around the world.

And as far as people playing through his amps..I have personally visited the Rhoads family while Delores was alive, stayed with them for some time and can tell you that RR'S gear is kept locked down. His concord came out very briefly some years back and his polka dot v for filming.
Click to expand...

When I was a teenager, my friends and I loved those albums. Then the internet was invented and I found out the guitar tones sucked.
 
Beyond Black":28ydpoh9 said:
8len8":28ydpoh9 said:
Many folks rip on the BOO and DOAM tone, but I find nothing wrong with it. It's just a high gain Marshall sound.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. I never understood all of the criticism of his recorded tones. His lead tones were multi tracked several times and sounded massive. His rhythm tones were good old MXR boosted Marshalls. RR did no wrong. :rock:
Click to expand...
:rock: Think of the time..other than VH and a few others when Blizzard was recorded it was just another average tone. Not my favorite but I've always liked Diary's tone. Even after coming here I still like that tone. Again not in my top five or even ten but I enjoy the hell out of a boosted cranked Marshall tone. That upper mid bite and cutting top end is the shit.
 
Kapo_Polenton":1dipyknm said:
I feel that the album tones were definitely underwhelming compared to his live tone. Blizzard of Ozz I would agree sounds like it just wasn't mic'd properly to capture his playing. Diary is much better and the guitars sound beefier to me. None of those compared to his live tone though. For me, that is where it was at. He sounded HUGE live on any of the bootlegs you listen to.

One thing I have noticed over the years is the lead work on those two albums. There are times where it sounds to me he didn't have time to craft a good solo or maybe he was the type of guy that needed more time to write something that really popped because sometimes you will hear these really shitty solos that are a couple of dives and some shrill vibrato. Live however, it sounds like he had had more time with the music and does some really awesome aggressive fills and leads that are not on the album. This often happens when a guy passes away in his prime though, we tend to romanticize the player and his impact more. Hard to say whether he would have evolved much or just gone deeper into classical. Either way, still a bitchin player and one of my faves so I continue to enjoy what I can find from him.

The tone for me is super distortion or stock gibson pups with MXR+ and a Marshall opened up. Maybe a slight mid hump boost from an EQ and some chorus.
Click to expand...

I do agree with you that his live tone was much better. One thing that I also believe he used to use live was a doubler that might have been used through the PA system because many guitar players didn't know how to use effects post distortion. Maybe the technology wasn't available at that time like a good effects loops, dummy loads and W/D/W systems. I also think that he used more than just a slight mid boost on the mids using 500Hz and 1000Hz to get that thick tone.
 
8len8":1vzicnpo said:
Many folks rip on the BOO and DOAM tone, but I find nothing wrong with it. It's just a high gain Marshall sound.
Click to expand...

That is more than just a high gain Marshall sound though. Back then you couldnt touch Randys sound unless you had those Altec Speakers. They were responsible for that upper mid and top end bite The 417 8H has a freq. response from 60 hz to 8000 hz and is a very clean speaker. Thats one of the reasons Randy used those over the the stock Celestions that came in his cabs. Mic'ed on center and they will cut your head off, but back and to the side and they sound very smooth. There was a live bootleg called "Bats Head Soup" as well as the King Biscuit Flower Hour show that is a killer representation of his live tone. Much better than the Tribute album imo.
 
-Randy had a pretty basic, bare bones rig, pretty much what the consensus state-(did anyone mention the Flanger?)-only thing's missing?

-VARIAC's, Big ones too! set to the Marshall standard of 85-90 volts-
-Randy's-favorite & by far, most used, and probably his third most powerful tool, in his meager tool box-(guitar's volume control, always messing with it, I don't know the pot value, but I saw him play-YOU CANT KILL ROCK-N-ROLL-from the Marshall-clean beginning to the end, riding the volume nob, adding picking attack with more aggression to match the pace of the increasing volume-(and of course with it, came the DB's needed for the rise in gain)-pretty sure he only stepped on the MXR for the solo.

-RANDY'S GENIUS-it's his trade mark, and what really set him apart from the rest, it became a staple that other guitarist stole, stripped it down, to fit in between the riff, tapping & solo, GEORGE LYNCH probably stripped it down the most, to the its DNA but he kept the heart & soul intact, wish he kept on developing "IT",...... but no, George fell into the same trap as most, instead focusing on speed & the tapping technique.

" IT" is still alive and abused to the point its not recognizable, its been raided, anything of use stolen, body parts-harvested, kept alive by machines, and most valuble , the "IT". The HEART-&-SOUL,........ "IT" LIVES!!! RANDY'S "IT" FACTOR, well his biggest one, was his approach and introduction of Classical phrasing, and its roller coaster ride of extreme's, Classical is an old form of music, that doesn't have boundaries or limits, its ANTI-STRUCTURE, its ment to make you feel like you've been lifted to heaven,... Then it RIPS THE WINGS OFF & A TRIDENT THROUGH YOUR HEART SLAMS YOU DOWN PAST DANTES 7th GATE, welcome to hell..
-classical music has some very, dark & heavy guitarist's-(might wanna check some out, to give you a sample, that's a very fitting bridge from the MEL BAY guitar lessons you took, and then the frustration when you wanted to learn METAL, but instead, you were force fed Mary had a little lamb, DONT KNOW WHY THAT APPROACH DIDN'T WORK!!!! WTF!! -(BLACK SABBATH, every album contains a Classical sometimes acoustic guitar "filler" or two, ballads, just guitar,

-(TONY-FUCKIN-IOMMI GETS-&-HAS... "IT")-

-gotta go!! Steaks are on fire!! Beer's getting warm, & the woman is getting horny!!

-stay tuned kiddies!! more to come-
 
That MXR Dist+ wasn't just for solos. That thing was on all the time, save for if he turned it off for clean parts. Biggest factor in his tones were the MXR 10 Band EQ. Anybody ever used one, it was easy to dial RR tones, Glen Tipton (Judas Priest) tones. The first Ozzy record just sounds like an extreme EQ setting.
 
01-RANGEMASTER.jpg


Tipton & KK used Rangemaster treble boosters which cut thru like a mutha.

There were no ISP Decimator pedal/rack type gates in the late 70's/early 80's like they have now.

Randy always had alot of feedback.

The show in STL they did 1/2 way thru Randy had amp problems, got mad & pulled all the jacks out of the Marshalls & stomped off stage so im told.

I was on an Aircraft Carrier on the other side of the World, never got to see him live.
 
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