How To Get Authentic Randy Rhoads Tone

Kapo_Polenton said:
Maybe a necro bump but this was worth it. That replica live board is awesome! I saw your work on another forum but had not seen the finished product. I think you could market that. Many a nut would love to have one of those.

Question for you, at what point did his Marshalls get the one wire or cascaded mod? Would he have been using those fairly early on or was he just cranking the high treble channel. With a D+ and EQ, there is plenty of gain on tap with just an unmodded NMV. I was thinking of grabbing an 80's D+ that is for sale near me but they get terrible reviews and most people tend to use other OD's in their place.
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found a dude on facebook with three of his model stacks all cabs loaded with altecs. Of course he has them priced sky high.
 
paulyc said:
Because he constantly made threats against other members and was a basically a Nazi sympathizer, that might have something to do with it ? He started RT Freedom, or whatever the fuck it's called...
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ahhhh...I probably did ban him then...lol....there's been so many....
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
At this point it is probably simpler just to load the amp and use an Altec IR.
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Please dont use an Altec IR. LOL You really dont need a ton of stuff to cop Randys sound but that speaker is the main ingredient.
Heres something close with an Altec. The most expensive thing there is the speaker. LOL

 
phil b said:
Alnico. I dont think they ever made it in a ceramic.
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Art Thompson from GP Magazine would debate that, which is why I asked, his contention is that Randy used the ceramic version of this speaker, all I know is the Alnicos are WAY more common. I have 4 of them, never even seen a ceramic.
 
paulyc said:
Art Thompson from GP Magazine would debate that, which is why I asked, his contention is that Randy used the ceramic version of this speaker, all I know is the Alnicos are WAY more common. I have 4 of them, never even seen a ceramic.
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Well, he can debate it all he wants but they never made his speakers in ceramic. His was the Alnico series. This was according to his brother Kelly from like 1993. The Alnicos are more common and they supposedly used ceramic in series 2 according to a post on the web, but nobody has ever seen or had them. I had 16 Altec Alnicos back in the day when I was chasing his tone seriously. Its the Freq. response that you should be concerned with. Thats whats gonna get you the RR sound. Plus Randy was using Altecs in the early days of Quiet Riot, which would have been Alnicos for timeline. Bill from Great Plains audio is a great source of info for dates. He would probably know better on when and if the series 2 ceramic came out and the numbers they made.

Edit: There is also a Series 2 on Ebay and that is Alnico. I think Art is mistaken, but if he can provide proof then I'd believe it. I think Kelly would have known for sure though. Also check this link on the Altec brochure. Nothing about cerramic. 417-8h spec
 
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phil b said:
Please dont use an Altec IR. LOL You really dont need a ton of stuff to cop Randys sound but that speaker is the main ingredient.
Heres something close with an Altec. The most expensive thing there is the speaker. LOL

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That was fuckin awesome. You NAILED it. 🤘
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Maybe a necro bump but this was worth it. That replica live board is awesome! I saw your work on another forum but had not seen the finished product. I think you could market that. Many a nut would love to have one of those.

Question for you, at what point did his Marshalls get the one wire or cascaded mod? Would he have been using those fairly early on or was he just cranking the high treble channel. With a D+ and EQ, there is plenty of gain on tap with just an unmodded NMV. I was thinking of grabbing an 80's D+ that is for sale near me but they get terrible reviews and most people tend to use other OD's in their place.
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Paul Marshall, Jim Marshall's son remembered Randy visiting the Marshall factory in Milton Keynes, England in early 1980. The head is a 1979 4-input JMP with the serial number on the FRONT. Danny Thomas (engineer) at Marshall stated his friend Phil at Marshall is the one that did the modification to the amp.

Settings I've seen basically show the D+ cranked which gets that fir and fuzz on the top end and volume to say 11 o'clock and nominal, HOWEVER, did find a photo with Randy and D+ pedal (outside the pedalboard) in front of him and it was dialed in just the opposite as a boost! The D+ sounds like shit with low gain and rolls off frequencies and sounds like crap, so I think the former is how he dialed it in along with the EQ as a mid-boost, the cascaded JMP....he had a LOT of gain on tap and used later on in the DOAM timeframe and live tone.
 
phil b said:
Well, he can debate it all he wants but they never made his speakers in ceramic. His was the Alnico series. This was according to his brother Kelly from like 1993. The Alnicos are more common and they supposedly used ceramic in series 2 according to a post on the web, but nobody has ever seen or had them. I had 16 Altec Alnicos back in the day when I was chasing his tone seriously. Its the Freq. response that you should be concerned with. Thats whats gonna get you the RR sound. Plus Randy was using Altecs in the early days of Quiet Riot, which would have been Alnicos for timeline. Bill from Great Plains audio is a great source of info for dates. He would probably know better on when and if the series 2 ceramic came out and the numbers they made.

Edit: There is also a Series 2 on Ebay and that is Alnico. I think Art is mistaken, but if he can provide proof then I'd believe it. I think Kelly would have known for sure though. Also check this link on the Altec brochure. Nothing about cerramic. 417-8h spec
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Randy's speakers were Altec Series II and there are pics of the inside of his cabs when Danny Thomas from Marshall got the ok to check out Randy's gear and amp for the tribute 1959RR amp. I'm not 100% on type, but believe they are Alnico.

As others pointed out...if you want to get as close as you can to his tone, you HAVE to have Altecs and spend the money. They are a part of the tone and with the aluminum cones are bright, do not break up like a Celestion, but there is this "glassiness" and "ghosting" of the notes that those speakers bring that no other fucking way will do it nor IR capture imo. You have to hear them in-person and you have to use THOSE speakers...period!

They speakers are 8 ohm and hooked up in series-parallel to give an overall impenda=ence of 8 ohms. Hope this helps!
 
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Equ1nox said:
Randy's speakers were Altec Series II and there are pics of the inside of his cabs when Danny Thomas from Marshall got the ok to check out Randy's gear and amp for the tribute 1959RR amp. I'm not 100% on type, but believe they are Alnico.

As others pointed out...if you want to get as close as you can to his tone, you HAVE to have Altecs and spend the money. They are a part of the tone and with the aluminum cones are bright, do not break up like a Celestion, but there is this "glassiness" and "ghosting" of the notes that those speakers bring that no other fucking way will do it nor IR capture imo. You have to hear them in-person and you have to use THOSE speakers...period!

They speakers are 8 ohm and hooked up in series-parallel to give an overall impenda=ence of 8 ohms. Hope this helps!
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We know that they were 4178H but if he was using them in the Q.R. days they would have been series 1. I dont think it matters if they kept the same specs though. When I spoke to Kelle way back when he had confirmed they were Alnico. I have never seen a 4178h in ceramic and in my dealings with Bill at G.P.A. there was never any mention.

I push these speakers hard for the R.R. tone because you dont even need the outboard e.q. or even a Marshall for that matter. Chorus, a bright amp with good gain and these speakers and thats it. In a pinch you can substitute the Altec for a JBL but I dont remember which model. That speaker was known for being extremely bright also. The Altecs upper range is 8k hz which is really hi-fi for a guitar speaker. I dont even use them in my everyday rig as my ears would bleed after like 20 mins. LOL. Hell, I tracked down all my Altecs before the internet which was a bitch to find. If you have any pics of series II in his cabs I would love to see them!
 
phil b said:
We know that they were 4178H but if he was using them in the Q.R. days they would have been series 1. I dont think it matters if they kept the same specs though. When I spoke to Kelle way back when he had confirmed they were Alnico. I have never seen a 4178h in ceramic and in my dealings with Bill at G.P.A. there was never any mention.

I push these speakers hard for the R.R. tone because you dont even need the outboard e.q. or even a Marshall for that matter. Chorus, a bright amp with good gain and these speakers and thats it. In a pinch you can substitute the Altec for a JBL but I dont remember which model. That speaker was known for being extremely bright also. The Altecs upper range is 8k hz which is really hi-fi for a guitar speaker. I dont even use them in my everyday rig as my ears would bleed after like 20 mins. LOL. Hell, I tracked down all my Altecs before the internet which was a bitch to find. If you have any pics of series II in his cabs I would love to see them!
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So really that Distortion + is a small part of the sound and can be replicated by anything close enough as long as you have the speaker. I run an EQ into a DOD grey spec into Marshall and it is already very close to my ears. The speaker is what is def missing though. I know the MXR adds some teeth to the sound but that altec IS the sound really.
 
Equ1nox said:
Randy's speakers were Altec Series II and there are pics of the inside of his cabs when Danny Thomas from Marshall got the ok to check out Randy's gear and amp for the tribute 1959RR amp. I'm not 100% on type, but believe they are Alnico.

As others pointed out...if you want to get as close as you can to his tone, you HAVE to have Altecs and spend the money. They are a part of the tone and with the aluminum cones are bright, do not break up like a Celestion, but there is this "glassiness" and "ghosting" of the notes that those speakers bring that no other fucking way will do it nor IR capture imo. You have to hear them in-person and you have to use THOSE speakers...period!

They speakers are 8 ohm and hooked up in series-parallel to give an overall impenda=ence of 8 ohms. Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Hey, can we get a demo of your pedalboard in action!! Through the Altecs.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
So really that Distortion + is a small part of the sound and can be replicated by anything close enough as long as you have the speaker. I run an EQ into a DOD grey spec into Marshall and it is already very close to my ears. The speaker is what is def missing though. I know the MXR adds some teeth to the sound but that altec IS the sound really.
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Considering the DOD 250 is a VERY close relative of a Douche + you're probably close enough.
 
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