Techdeth
RESIDENT ROCK PROFESSOR
What gear were they using. Especially what they boosted their Marshall’s with and eqs . Or even mods . I know they used Marshalls but never went down the rabbit hole of Ratt
7704A
Well-known member
What is in those cabs? It's hard to tell from here, but to me the size of the dust cap along with the white logo on them reminds me of EV's, which I believe he used on Out of the Cellar.
ccn
Well-known member
That intro to " Lay it down" is one of the best tones ever imo .
Techdeth
RESIDENT ROCK PROFESSOR
ccn
Well-known member
Spongy ? I have no idea what the spongy sound is but if that's what it is, I like spongy and I definitely need more sponge .
WarHed
Active member
I know it's not a SLO since they came out in ~1986, but Mike was installing that circuit in modded marshalls in 1985. For example:https://reverb.com/item/76960-marshall-soldano-modded-jcm800-1985-black-rare
I speculate because I can pretty much nail that tone with my SLO and a greenback...
I speculate because I can pretty much nail that tone with my SLO and a greenback...
E
ewill52
Well-known member
Wonder if that reverb is the Yamaha unit or a big studio plate?
hammered
Well-known member
Except for the slide work on All Or Nothing the SLO wasn’t used on a Ratt album until 1999s self titled
thegame
Well-known member
Thought it was Laney amps pushed with Furman parametric EQs?
Kapo_Polenton
Well-known member
Laney Pro Tubes were for endorsement or for live shows for a tour. I had one and gutted it to make a PTP 2204. It was bloated and fizzy with it's " gain mods". That def is not the sound.
The sound is Superlead through Furman PQ3. That simple. No secret sauce, no early Soldano, no special pedals. Straight Marshall /EQ/ Guitar with JB and killer hands and excellent mic placement. That's invasion. Out of the Cellar was a small Fender ( always forget which) through a Marshall for Warren's leads that they loved the sound of.
Most of those RATT albums are Superlead though. Warren had a bunch and they would cycle through them and always end up on the same one or two which they'd have Crosby play through as well. Soldano's hit around Reach for the Sky and Detonator. Also fine tones. Warren just had great tone period. Love his playing style.
Today, it's a mix of SLO or Diezel I believe.
C
cragginshred
Well-known member
C
cragginshred
Well-known member
I believe they used the Laneys like Dokken due to precious vintage gear being lost or damaged on tour. I just watched a Tone talk podcast with Dave Friedman Lynch and Pilson where they said they 'flirted' with Laney during the Tooth era. 
I saw Ratt headline on the Out of the cellar tour with Whitesnake opening as they had not become famous yet. Ratt had stacks of Laney and I remember that I had never heard of them, but they sounded good. It was the 1st time I had heard pinch harmonic wammy bar dives. Warren did it all night.
.gif "guitar :m17:")
I saw Ratt headline on the Out of the cellar tour with Whitesnake opening as they had not become famous yet. Ratt had stacks of Laney and I remember that I had never heard of them, but they sounded good. It was the 1st time I had heard pinch harmonic wammy bar dives. Warren did it all night.
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
Warren used his favorite early 70s Superlead for most of the Rhythm tracks of the first 3 albums. This amp was also the one Lynch tried to ‘borrow’ by lowering it out the bathroom window of Warrens house, when he was visiting. He also used a Fender Champ for the lead tones on Out of the Cellar. The Laney stuff was used on the road but not in the studio.
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Wayniac3
Well-known member
I thought he used a Fender Champ for that? Or was that Out of the Cellar?
TotallyRadGuitars
Well-known member
When I was first starting out, Lay It Down was the #1 song in my mind of what I wanted to sound like. Just killer tone. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but it's one of the reasons the first Marshall I ever bought was a TSL, with the built in reverb and bass rolled way down, I thought (and still think) it does a damn good Ratt impression.
From what I've read, the Laney's were never used on recordings, and even live they were just backups at best. I have had both an 8-knob AOR and the 6-knob Pro-Tube and unmodded at least, there's no Ratt tones in them to my ear. They have a distinctly fuzzy gain tone especially on low palm mutes - like the D's in Lay It Down - that would make them easy to identify. Bass heavy, or fuzzy/loose bass, are certainly not terms I'd ever use to describe Ratt's sound.
The usual story is that there was one late 60's Superlead that just had a crapload of gain, but was really quiet. Then there was a metal face super lead with less gain but louder. I've heard people say they were both unmodded, but then the next sentence is that they ran the 60's SL preamp into the 70's SL power amp. These amps didn't have effects loops or line outs so at least *something* had to have been modded along the line, I mean, there's no way they ran a speaker output into the next amp's input. Right?
Anyway, as usual there's a bit of mysticism around it but here's what I think, and to be clear I have no insider info so this is just speculation: I think it was a 70s Super Lead modded with Zener's which is what made it quiet, and he turned the bass knob either completely off, or nearly off. Possibly boosted with something from the time, like a DOD250, Parametric EQ in front, Space Echo in front above unity gain, or a combination of them. It sounds absolutely sick recorded, but kind of meh "in the room," which is why if you listen to videos of them playing live around that time, it's good sounding but it's not quite the same ultra-sharp tone from the record. Remember that intro has a high pass reverb sound on it which is really distinct, plus delay, and double/stereo tracked.
As for speakers, I really have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it was 60s greenbacks or blackbacks to further enhance the brightness, as opposed to something else from the time like a G12-65 or G12-80... but there's definitely a part of me wondering if he used something less normal, like Jensens, Fanes, Altec, McKenzie, or EV's. Kinda like how we have a bunch of cool speakers to choose from these days like Scumback, WGS, etc, there are quite a few speakers from that 70s/80s era that don't come up in conversation much anymore, but they definitely got used on stuff.
From what I've read, the Laney's were never used on recordings, and even live they were just backups at best. I have had both an 8-knob AOR and the 6-knob Pro-Tube and unmodded at least, there's no Ratt tones in them to my ear. They have a distinctly fuzzy gain tone especially on low palm mutes - like the D's in Lay It Down - that would make them easy to identify. Bass heavy, or fuzzy/loose bass, are certainly not terms I'd ever use to describe Ratt's sound.
The usual story is that there was one late 60's Superlead that just had a crapload of gain, but was really quiet. Then there was a metal face super lead with less gain but louder. I've heard people say they were both unmodded, but then the next sentence is that they ran the 60's SL preamp into the 70's SL power amp. These amps didn't have effects loops or line outs so at least *something* had to have been modded along the line, I mean, there's no way they ran a speaker output into the next amp's input. Right?
Anyway, as usual there's a bit of mysticism around it but here's what I think, and to be clear I have no insider info so this is just speculation: I think it was a 70s Super Lead modded with Zener's which is what made it quiet, and he turned the bass knob either completely off, or nearly off. Possibly boosted with something from the time, like a DOD250, Parametric EQ in front, Space Echo in front above unity gain, or a combination of them. It sounds absolutely sick recorded, but kind of meh "in the room," which is why if you listen to videos of them playing live around that time, it's good sounding but it's not quite the same ultra-sharp tone from the record. Remember that intro has a high pass reverb sound on it which is really distinct, plus delay, and double/stereo tracked.
As for speakers, I really have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it was 60s greenbacks or blackbacks to further enhance the brightness, as opposed to something else from the time like a G12-65 or G12-80... but there's definitely a part of me wondering if he used something less normal, like Jensens, Fanes, Altec, McKenzie, or EV's. Kinda like how we have a bunch of cool speakers to choose from these days like Scumback, WGS, etc, there are quite a few speakers from that 70s/80s era that don't come up in conversation much anymore, but they definitely got used on stuff.
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Racerxrated
Well-known member
Found this interview .....
Rumor is you had a grail [Marshall] plexi that you used to keep fans on in the studio because the plate voltage was so high. It supposedly blew every few hours. Is that true?
It is true. It’s a mid/late ’70s 100-watt. I used that amp on Invasion – I bought it just after the Out of the Cellar tour and before the Invasion of Your Privacy album. I used that plexi head with another, and on most of Dancing Undercover. Jose [Jose Arrendondo, the same Jose who may have worked on EVH’s pre-VH1 gear] told me that something had happened inside one of the trannies – a seal had worn away, causing it to arc, so every third time we turned it on it would blow something up. He was able to inject it with something to solve that problem. It’s [still] working fine. The last thing I used that amp on was on Detonator, “Nobody Rides for Free.”
He slaved his fav 70s SL into another one that had higher headroom...and doing that can also increase the gain because you are using the gain from BOTH Marshall power sections.
Rumor is you had a grail [Marshall] plexi that you used to keep fans on in the studio because the plate voltage was so high. It supposedly blew every few hours. Is that true?
It is true. It’s a mid/late ’70s 100-watt. I used that amp on Invasion – I bought it just after the Out of the Cellar tour and before the Invasion of Your Privacy album. I used that plexi head with another, and on most of Dancing Undercover. Jose [Jose Arrendondo, the same Jose who may have worked on EVH’s pre-VH1 gear] told me that something had happened inside one of the trannies – a seal had worn away, causing it to arc, so every third time we turned it on it would blow something up. He was able to inject it with something to solve that problem. It’s [still] working fine. The last thing I used that amp on was on Detonator, “Nobody Rides for Free.”
He slaved his fav 70s SL into another one that had higher headroom...and doing that can also increase the gain because you are using the gain from BOTH Marshall power sections.
TotallyRadGuitars
Well-known member
I've heard this before and would love to know the exact process. I mean, if you had a SL turned up loud enough to get gain from the power section, how did he use that signal through the next SL without blowing that one up? I know you could do it now with an attenuator, but the only attenuator I can think of from that era is the Tom Scholz power soak, did he use something like that to get the signal back to input levels? Or did he really just send speaker out from Amp1 into the input of Amp2? I'd definitely be too afraid to try that with one of my amps lol, that sounds like a recipe for blowing stuff up.