Randy Rhoads Backstage!

[Aristocat]

While listening to some of the Owens/Malmsteen collaborations on YT, I stumbled upon this chestnut.

Enjoy:

 

[Heritage Softail]

Thanks for posting that!

Live me some RR. What a great player. He had such melody and chops. Always like to see his clips.

 

[Aristocat]

Thanks for posting that!

Live me some RR. What a great player. He had such melody and chops. Always like to see his clips.

Randy brings me back to reality with his playing. His phrasing (even while shredding) was always so melodic and tasteful. He and Schenker do that for me all the time.

Wish the clip were longer though.

 

[Aristocat]

Even better. I think this may be apart of that earlier clip I posted. Skip to 2:45 for Randy.

 

[rupe]

Cool...that was taken out of the Texas Soundcheck footage. Makes you wonder how much stuff is out there that we haven't seen yet. One of the shows on the Diary tour was supposedly shot by a pro crew yet has never been released...not sure if that's actually true or not though.

EDIT: Aristocat beat me to it

 

[Aristocat]

Cool...that was taken out of the Texas Soundcheck footage. Makes you wonder how much stuff is out there that we haven't seen yet. One of the shows on the Diary tour was supposedly shot by a pro crew yet has never been released...not sure if that's actually true or not though.

EDIT: Aristocat beat me to it

Whoops .

 

[Heritage Softail]

The tone was very growling. What gear was he using?

Did he have modded Marshall's or just cranked ones?

 

[Aristocat]

The tone was very growling. What gear was he using?

Did he have modded Marshall's or just cranked ones?

I'm assuming because they're white and the year is 81-82 that they're definitely modded. Stock or not; the tone was sweet!

 

[metalmaniac93]

Randy was the best!! Too bad his life ended too short. This is a cool sound check that has been around for a while. Too bad there is not enough of this kind of stuff or so they say!!! If so, they need to release all of it.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

One wire mod straight from factory by MArshall hence the RR59 head but he also boosted the hell out of it with a distortion + which people often complain about sounding too metallic and rough. Well that's prob the real secret to his tone right there. You need the rasp and the one wire mod pushing the gain + the distortion plus + the hot pups (distortions i think) and there ya have it. I think Sarzo was quoted as noting that Randy played with a light touch and a lot of gain.

 

[steve_k]

That would have been shot only a month before he died, correct?

 

[Chubtone]

So ridiculously bad ass. He just gets me every time. That first long ascending and then descending run he does on there after the 2:50 mark or so, after he does the half dirty litle blues lick, is just so incredibly sick, it floors me.

I swear, I have sat around my house, rehearsal rooms, recording studios, gigs etc just trying to and thinking how I could sound more like Randy Rhoads in my playing and I just can't cop that guy. I will not give up though.

 

[phil b]

One wire mod straight from factory by MArshall hence the RR59 head but he also boosted the hell out of it with a distortion + which people often complain about sounding too metallic and rough. Well that's prob the real secret to his tone right there. You need the rasp and the one wire mod pushing the gain + the distortion plus + the hot pups (distortions i think) and there ya have it. I think Sarzo was quoted as noting that Randy played with a light touch and a lot of gain.

The real secret to his tone was his Altecs WITH the Distortion plus.... Theres no other speaker that sounds like those.

 

[ericsabbath]

the les paul had stock t-tops
he had dimarzios on the karl sandoval polka dot

 

[Greazygeo]

One wire mod straight from factory by MArshall hence the RR59 head but he also boosted the hell out of it with a distortion + which people often complain about sounding too metallic and rough. Well that's prob the real secret to his tone right there. You need the rasp and the one wire mod pushing the gain + the distortion plus + the hot pups (distortions i think) and there ya have it. I think Sarzo was quoted as noting that Randy played with a light touch and a lot of gain.

If you look at the After Hours footage close you can see Randy plugged into CH I. That's the un-modded channel.

 

[carlygtr]

Not a to discount the MXR 10 Band EQ in combination with the Distortion+, which IMO was the key to his tones, regardless if played thru modded or stock Marshalls.

 

[squank]

Not a to discount the MXR 10 Band EQ in combination with the Distortion+, which IMO was the key to his tones, regardless if played thru modded or stock Marshalls.

All true.

But even this cheap camera audio is still good enough to prove what great tone Randy had live. Studio engineers added that harsh metallic edge to his tone that everyone complains about.

He sounded incredible at the Coliseum in Houston in 1981 when I saw him.

 

[Bob Savage]

I swear, I have sat around my house, rehearsal rooms, recording studios, gigs etc just trying to and thinking how I could sound more like Randy Rhoads in my playing and I just can't cop that guy. I will not give up though.

Coincidentally, I've done the same thing except with Spongebob.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

The real secret to his tone was his Altecs WITH the Distortion plus.... Theres no other speaker that sounds like those.

Also true, but would he have taken those cabs on tour with him?

As for the after hrs stuff, as someone else mentioned here, CH 1 or CH 2 isn't a clear case of modded or unmodded as he might have jumpered the inputs and the production RR59 is just made that way to give you the best of both worlds. Regardless, EVH got some pretty heavy tones with a "stock" plexi so Randy with an eq pedal and disto+ with hot pickups would certainly be able to get that too.

Great player either way. Love that Tribute album. Chubtone in your judge and charvel clip there are a few lead riffs which reminded me of Randy so don't be too concerned, his influence can definitely be heard!

 

[Greazygeo]

The real secret to his tone was his Altecs WITH the Distortion plus.... Theres no other speaker that sounds like those.

Also true, but would he have taken those cabs on tour with him?

As for the after hrs stuff, as someone else mentioned here, CH 1 or CH 2 isn't a clear case of modded or unmodded as he might have jumpered the inputs and the production RR59 is just made that way to give you the best of both worlds. Regardless, EVH got some pretty heavy tones with a "stock" plexi so Randy with an eq pedal and disto+ with hot pickups would certainly be able to get that too.

Great player either way. Love that Tribute album. Chubtone in your judge and charvel clip there are a few lead riffs which reminded me of Randy so don't be too concerned, his influence can definitely be heard!

He had those cabs when I saw him in '82. Can't miss those dustcaps.

The 1959RR head (from the documentation) was copied from his amp. I have one of them. There's not a big difference in the two channels really. But in the live footage you can see only the CH I inputs being used.