Randy Rhoads Backstage!

[thiswaythatway]

300 hundred years from now when someone wants to see what a heavy metal guitar player was they should see a statue of Randy. And a young Hetfield as well.

Imagine Metallica in the early 80's with Randy on lead. OH, that would have been something.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

This just proves my own opinion that the true greats all built their chops on low gain amps off the shelf no mods or marketing mojo, just hard work and determination. Gain while fun is a crutch for those like myself that cannot play very well.

Don't forget the EQ pedals and OD's/distortions. These guys were playing with gain, just not built into the amp as much. External boxes. You need some gain to pull off Randy's licks. Lots of hammer ons and pull offs on those ascending and descending licks. That said, not the fizzy buzzy distortion of amps with 5 preamp tubes though. Just a good cooking low/med gain amp with hot pups and an OD. Simple. Their hands do the rest.

 

[Digital Jams]

This just proves my own opinion that the true greats all built their chops on low gain amps off the shelf no mods or marketing mojo, just hard work and determination. Gain while fun is a crutch for those like myself that cannot play very well.

Don't forget the EQ pedals and OD's/distortions. These guys were playing with gain, just not built into the amp as much. External boxes. You need some gain to pull off Randy's licks. Lots of hammer ons and pull offs on those ascending and descending licks. That said, not the fizzy buzzy distortion of amps with 5 preamp tubes though. Just a good cooking low/med gain amp with hot pups and an OD. Simple. Their hands do the rest.

Agreed to a point.

The feel playing a plexi design hit with line level or distortions is still much more stiff than today's buzz bombs, like the liquid feel of a boogie or diode clipped Jose type circuit. At leaast that is what I have noticed.

I do not know much about Randy's pups but I highly doubt they are the flame thrower stuff out today. Randy on a MK IV would have been retarded.

 

[carlygtr]

There was a tape of Randy giving a lesson from Pa floating around years ago. It's probably on YT. He was showing his licks and parts with a clean sound till they plugged a distortion pedal in, probably an MXR Distortion+

I played thru the 70's before high gain amps. You'd be suprised the damage you could do with humbuckers a Distortion+ and the MXR 10 Band EQ. You could go from Boston to Randy to whatever tone you wanted just by shaping the sound with the EQ

 

[rupe]

There was a tape of Randy giving a lesson from Pa floating around years ago. It's probably on YT. He was showing his licks and parts with a clean sound till they plugged a distortion pedal in, probably an MXR Distortion+

I played thru the 70's before high gain amps. You'd be suprised the damage you could do with humbuckers a Distortion+ and the MXR 10 Band EQ. You could go from Boston to Randy to whatever tone you wanted just by shaping the sound with the EQ

I still have a 2nd gen cassette of that seminar (I've also converted it to digital). He plugged in an MXR EQ pedal at one point...no distortion pedal. Coincidentally I was talking to somebody just this past weekend who was at that seminar and said that Randy was playing his Les Paul through a Marshall 1/2 stack at a pretty low volume.

 

[carlygtr]

There was a tape of Randy giving a lesson from Pa floating around years ago. It's probably on YT. He was showing his licks and parts with a clean sound till they plugged a distortion pedal in, probably an MXR Distortion+

I played thru the 70's before high gain amps. You'd be suprised the damage you could do with humbuckers a Distortion+ and the MXR 10 Band EQ. You could go from Boston to Randy to whatever tone you wanted just by shaping the sound with the EQ

I still have a 2nd gen cassette of that seminar (I've also converted it to digital). He plugged in an MXR EQ pedal at one point...no distortion pedal. Coincidentally I was talking to somebody just this past weekend who was at that seminar and said that Randy was playing his Les Paul through a Marshall 1/2 stack at a pretty low volume.

It's been so long since I heard it. OK, an EQ pedal. I used to use the Jap Boss DS-1 into the MXR 10 Band. Amp didn't even matter. I used a GK transistorized head and people couldn't believe it

 

[rupe]

There was a tape of Randy giving a lesson from Pa floating around years ago. It's probably on YT. He was showing his licks and parts with a clean sound till they plugged a distortion pedal in, probably an MXR Distortion+

I played thru the 70's before high gain amps. You'd be suprised the damage you could do with humbuckers a Distortion+ and the MXR 10 Band EQ. You could go from Boston to Randy to whatever tone you wanted just by shaping the sound with the EQ

I still have a 2nd gen cassette of that seminar (I've also converted it to digital). He plugged in an MXR EQ pedal at one point...no distortion pedal. Coincidentally I was talking to somebody just this past weekend who was at that seminar and said that Randy was playing his Les Paul through a Marshall 1/2 stack at a pretty low volume.

It's been so long since I heard it. OK, an EQ pedal. I used to use the Jap Boss DS-1 into the MXR 10 Band. Amp didn't even matter. I used a GK transistorized head and people couldn't believe it

No doubt...we definitely over-think this stuff these days. It simply doesn't take high end boutique gear to have great tone.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

+ a trillion on over thinking this stuff. Good gear helps but just because you have the exact same gear from guitar, effects to amps and speaker cabs as your idol of choice doesn't not mean you'll get the exact same tone as they do.

 

[thegame]

300 hundred years from now when someone wants to see what a heavy metal guitar player was they should see a statue of Randy. And a young Hetfield as well.

Imagine Metallica in the early 80's with Randy on lead. OH, that would have been something.

That blows my mind just thinking about it.