Boston Content - Why Cant?

[glpg80]

you find any of those distortion amplifiers that Tom designed and built back in the 80's? he had a built in chorus effect that was insane.

i have seen ZERO, heard NONE, and know of no collectors of those amplifiers. why are they so hard to find or were they simply never sold off and Tom still has them?

i would love to play one

 

[Bob Savage]

I remember the Rockman and a load of 1/2 space rack gear but didn't know he had an amp.

 

[Hard&Heavy]

My buddy little b is collecting them and they are hard to find. What most people don't know is that the 2 cabs were not 4x12 cabs.The top cab was a 2 way mid and Horn and the bottom was a sub cab. Thats why guys back then could not get the sound he was getting unless they bought the cabs.

 

[Digital Jams]

Never heard of the amp, during the 80s my band's guitar player used the rockman right into the board and it sounded good for the time.

You can find the 1/2 rack chorus units all day on ebay and sometimes here.

 

[glpg80]

ive heard only 1 account on the radio story that involved one and it was an interview with someone. two very known records were recorded with modified ones - each record i cannot remember who or what albums but i remember being blindsided by the other band that used one in the studio and this was the interview, you had to find one to begin with they explained, and then be "in the in" to ask Tom to modify the amp's circuit - to get it close to what we are hearing with the gain/sustain that Tom was well known for.

i just wonder why out of all the music forums that exist not a single person owns one. no-one.

 

[glpg80]

My buddy little b is collecting them and they are hard to find. What most people don't know is that the 2 cabs were not 4x12 cabs.The top cab was a 2 way mid and Horn and the bottom was a sub cab. Thats why guys back then could not get the sound he was getting unless they bought the cabs.

im guessing the cabinets are even harder to find than the amplifiers

any chance you could get your buddy to take some pictures of the cabinets and the heads? could you then post some pics of them for shits n' giggles? its not well documented, as you can see alot of people dont even know they exist

that is badass that he is collecting them, he's the only person i know

and thats really awsome news on the cabinets - for some reason i think someone else mentioned this once before.

 

[FUZZboat]

I luv boston as much as anyone

but I still think Kansas Guitar Tone > Boston Guitar Tone

Just listen to "carry on"

 

[Hard&Heavy]

Sorry,I ment to say is trying to collect them he has done alot of research on them and if he can he will buy them. He has located some pieces.

 

[glpg80]

I luv boston as much as anyone

but I still think Kansas Guitar Tone > Boston Guitar Tone

Just listen to "carry on"

as awsome as kansa's tone is, there is this vibe that you get with Tom's core tone that is just damn near impossible to replicate. we all know the tribulations in how Boston was recorded to get the album tones - to me its as bad as the van halen tone as far as tricks and such.

i remember watching an 80's video too i think on youtube about Tom just getting out of MIT and working in a workshop carrying his LP into the bench, designing the amplifier as the interview goes on.

 

[glpg80]

Sorry,I ment to say is trying to collect them he has done alot of research on them and if he can he will buy them. He has located some pieces.

pieces?!

wow, just wow. i wouldnt even know where to begin. cheers to your friend if he gets a working model, im shocked

 

[Hard&Heavy]

I am sure that if he gets it all rounded up he will post some pic's of it because it's so hard to find.

 

[Bob Savage]

I luv boston as much as anyone

but I still think Kansas Guitar Tone > Boston Guitar Tone

Just listen to "carry on"

Two completely different but awesome beasts.

 

[FUZZboat]

I'm old enough to remember Tom Sholtz having problems reproducing
the "Boston Sound" live

IMO I think your chasing a "studio" tone when it comes to boston

rockmans were cool in the day - but sound "dated" by todays standards

as awsome as kansa's tone is, there is this vibe that you get with Tom's core tone that is just damn near impossible to replicate. we all know the tribulations in how Boston was recorded to get the album tones - to me its as bad as the van halen tone as far as tricks and such.

I haven't searched but I'll bet theres some kid on youtube right now nailing the "Boston Sound" using cheap modeling gear and unorthodox methods.

I guess now would be a good time to put my Rockman in the
classifieds

 

[King Crimson]

No special amps accept his pioneering of the Rockman Headphone Amp. In the early 80s Sony introduced the Walkman, Tom then a few years later applied the same basic idea to his creation, the Rockman headphone guitar amp.

 

[Atropos_Project]

There was definitely a rockman head / amp thing that was sold for a while... I do recall seeing one a very long time ago @ east coast music (when it was still open)

ah, here:

 

[Bob Savage]

Oh yeah, been a long time but the picture pulled out a couple crusty braincells and I remember that thing.

 

[King Crimson]

There was definitely a rockman head / amp thing that was sold for a while... I do recall seeing one a very long time ago @ east coast music (when it was still open)

ah, here:

One off. Rockman went into serious production. Beside, it's much more cool roller skating down Venice beach with a Rockman.

 

[Atropos_Project]

One off. Rockman went into serious production.

I disagree, these were production, but very low numbers. I'd also swear that there was one larger, that had a solid state power amp section on the bottom, and something like 4 1/2 rack space units stacked above it, all in a single head case... but I can't find proof of this currently.

edit.. it was the 500 Modular (I knew I wasn't crazy, lol

 

[Digital Jams]

I remember that picture from years ago, think it was posted at hcaf.

 

[Gainfreak]

I luv boston as much as anyone

but I still think Kansas Guitar Tone > Boston Guitar Tone

Just listen to "carry on"

as awsome as kansa's tone is, there is this vibe that you get with Tom's core tone that is just damn near impossible to replicate. we all know the tribulations in how Boston was recorded to get the album tones - to me its as bad as the van halen tone as far as tricks and such.

i remember watching an 80's video too i think on youtube about Tom just getting out of MIT and working in a workshop carrying his LP into the bench, designing the amplifier as the interview goes on.

Actually his tone is very easy to replicate if you know what you are doing. If you have any experiance with a parametric EQ you'll be able to get that sound but the way Tom went about getting that sound is Brilliant IMHO He managed to get a narrow bandwidth by using multiple objects in front of the amp. (talking pre-rockman here)

The Kansas tone and Boston tone are similar because of the EQ curve. The difference between the two is because of the Bandwidth. Boston had a narrow bandwith curve at 800hz and Kansas had a similar Bandwidth but not as Narrow.
A good analogy is the tonal difference between using a parametric EQ in front of an amp vs a regular stop box EQ. You can adjust the Bandwidth or Q on a Parametric EQ whereas you cannot on a Graphic.