Jake E Lee's tone was ahead of it's time on The Ultimate Sin

jchrisf

jchrisf

Well-known member
I'm sure I've heard a song or two from The Ultimate Sin back in the 80s but I don't remember it. Thanks to streaming music I've been revisiting some bands I didn't pay much attention too back in the day. Right now I'm going through Ozzy's albums and was blown away by Jake's Ultimate Sin tone. It was ahead of its time. What was he using? KILLER album!

On a side note... Iron Maiden is like a fine wine.. they just get better with age.
 
Fantastic album although some people do not like the chorus and polished 80's sound of it. I think the tone was more or less the same as always, his old NMV plexis pushed with an OD-1 and JB (or JB2 possibly). Cabs who knows, could have been G1265's or even G12T75's at that point. but I think the JBL is also associated with him.

If it was JCM800's he would have run them the same way, cranked and then the OD-1 pushing it.
 
Found this, not sure how definitive it is but more or less echoes what I wrote above but in more detail ( I was wrong about JBL but ballpark sort of tone )

The following is what Jake E Lee used for the recording of The Ultimate Sin.

For pickups Jake used two Dimarzio SDS-1 and an Seymour Duncan Allan Holdsworth prototype hum.

For his amps, he used a 1977 Marshall 100 watt head (stock) and a Marshall 50 watt head (circa 1964) with a straight Marshall 4X12 cab with EV speakers. Jake normally doubles and triple-tracks all his rhythm parts (Rock'N'Roll Rebel had four). All of the solos on The Ultimate Sin were played through the Marshall 50 watt with the exception of "Killer Of Giants", which was performed with an old Rockman and a Rat distortion pedal.

Jake used an array of Boss units, including: CE-3 Chorus; BF-2 Flanger; DM-2 Delay (rhythm); (2) DD-2 Digital Delays (lead); GE-7 Eq; SCC-700 computerized pedalboard; and a Variac (set between 90 and 1100) . The two digital units are set as follows; one for slow leads and a lot of delay; and one for normal leads with just a touch of delay.

Jake used a Boss OD-1 Overdrive to boost his Marshall amps and eliminate an unwanted low frequency when he cranked the bass control on his Marshalls. On the Boss OD-1, Jake turned up the Drive to approx. 9 o'clock and the Level to maximum.

Jake used Fender .121 picks. His string guage was .009; .012; .017; .026; .036; and .048.

The clean parts during the verses on "Shot In The Dark" are a 1957 Fender strat through a Roland Jazz Chorus amp.

The acoustics on The Ultimate Sin were an old Martin steel-string and a cheap nylon string which "happened to stay in tune".
 
yeah...my fav Ozzy record, along with No Rest. Funny how ozzy hated that record. He thought it was garbage. That was a good time for metal during that record. We had Ultimate Sin, Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time and Priest's Turbo. Kinda that chorus sound on guitars, but these are actually my favorite albums by all these artists.
 
I was a Sophmore/Junior in high school when that came out and wanted a sparkly cape, Chuck Taylor's and a blue Charvel after that album came out. 😍😍😍

The tones were great but the sound production sounded a bit dull. I still have the album from high school. The songs are so great on that with killer riffs.
 
The ultimate sin tour was prolly the loudest concert I’ve ever seen except maybe G&R paradise city. . Mayhem days..
 
There are some very cool Jake riffs on The Ultimate Sin, but the production on that record is a major downer for me. It's got the Ron Nevison treatment and is sonically VERY similar to other records Nevison did at that time (Kiss Crazy Nights and Heart's mid 80s records). I didn't like the sound of any of those records. Just something about the drums and the overall production/engineering that really ruined it for me.

It's a total bummer and a shame because Jake played so great on that Ultimate Sin record.
 
I read years ago that he also used an Eventide harmonizer set one cent off pitch to create a fat almost chorus like sound. I don't know if he just did this live or also did it in the studio.
 
It's a great sounding album IMO. Definitely of its time, but a great example of that time.

It gets a reputation for being soft but I'm pretty sure The Ultimate Sin was the first Drop D song in Ozzy's library, and that riff is huge heavy.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Found this, not sure how definitive it is but more or less echoes what I wrote above but in more detail ( I was wrong about JBL but ballpark sort of tone )

The following is what Jake E Lee used for the recording of The Ultimate Sin.

For pickups Jake used two Dimarzio SDS-1 and an Seymour Duncan Allan Holdsworth prototype hum.

For his amps, he used a 1977 Marshall 100 watt head (stock) and a Marshall 50 watt head (circa 1964) with a straight Marshall 4X12 cab with EV speakers. Jake normally doubles and triple-tracks all his rhythm parts (Rock'N'Roll Rebel had four). All of the solos on The Ultimate Sin were played through the Marshall 50 watt with the exception of "Killer Of Giants", which was performed with an old Rockman and a Rat distortion pedal.

Jake used an array of Boss units, including: CE-3 Chorus; BF-2 Flanger; DM-2 Delay (rhythm); (2) DD-2 Digital Delays (lead); GE-7 Eq; SCC-700 computerized pedalboard; and a Variac (set between 90 and 1100) . The two digital units are set as follows; one for slow leads and a lot of delay; and one for normal leads with just a touch of delay.

Jake used a Boss OD-1 Overdrive to boost his Marshall amps and eliminate an unwanted low frequency when he cranked the bass control on his Marshalls. On the Boss OD-1, Jake turned up the Drive to approx. 9 o'clock and the Level to maximum.

Jake used Fender .121 picks. His string guage was .009; .012; .017; .026; .036; and .048.

The clean parts during the verses on "Shot In The Dark" are a 1957 Fender strat through a Roland Jazz Chorus amp.

The acoustics on The Ultimate Sin were an old Martin steel-string and a cheap nylon string which "happened to stay in tune".
Click to expand...
If the variac was set to 1100 VAC that explains it, mystery solved....
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Found this, not sure how definitive it is but more or less echoes what I wrote above but in more detail ( I was wrong about JBL but ballpark sort of tone )

The following is what Jake E Lee used for the recording of The Ultimate Sin.

For pickups Jake used two Dimarzio SDS-1 and an Seymour Duncan Allan Holdsworth prototype hum.

For his amps, he used a 1977 Marshall 100 watt head (stock) and a Marshall 50 watt head (circa 1964) with a straight Marshall 4X12 cab with EV speakers. Jake normally doubles and triple-tracks all his rhythm parts (Rock'N'Roll Rebel had four). All of the solos on The Ultimate Sin were played through the Marshall 50 watt with the exception of "Killer Of Giants", which was performed with an old Rockman and a Rat distortion pedal.

Jake used an array of Boss units, including: CE-3 Chorus; BF-2 Flanger; DM-2 Delay (rhythm); (2) DD-2 Digital Delays (lead); GE-7 Eq; SCC-700 computerized pedalboard; and a Variac (set between 90 and 1100) . The two digital units are set as follows; one for slow leads and a lot of delay; and one for normal leads with just a touch of delay.

Jake used a Boss OD-1 Overdrive to boost his Marshall amps and eliminate an unwanted low frequency when he cranked the bass control on his Marshalls. On the Boss OD-1, Jake turned up the Drive to approx. 9 o'clock and the Level to maximum.

Jake used Fender .121 picks. His string guage was .009; .012; .017; .026; .036; and .048.

The clean parts during the verses on "Shot In The Dark" are a 1957 Fender strat through a Roland Jazz Chorus amp.

The acoustics on The Ultimate Sin were an old Martin steel-string and a cheap nylon string which "happened to stay in tune".
Click to expand...
Must have been that OD-1 that made all the difference. I read somewhere that Jake liked to stand in the studio in front of his amp while recording. Said he got more inspiration out of having them amp hold him up.
 
Badlands rehearsal before the 1989 tour. You can hear how loud Jake's stage volume is. Amazing he is not fully deaf by now. Dave Friedman says Jake likes to play loud. I see him in 2019 and he was loud, his Friedman Smallbox was on 10...:p


The JCM800 starting having issues so he switched to this JMP.
 
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