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Songs that featured solid-state guitar amps
- Thread starter ElectroVibe
- Start date
There were a ton of death metal bands in the late 80s and early 90s who used solid state amps. Death, Obituary, and a ton of others come to mind. The Marshall Valvestate was very popular, as was a solid state Ampeg guitar amp (the particular model name escapes me). Using the solid state amps with a variety of stomp boxes helped them get that super-filthy OSDM tone.
I agree with Patrick Quilter on the subject of tube amps. He said something to the effect that tubes have some inherently nice qualities that do the lifting for poor engineering, but aren’t necessary for great tone. Tube tone is a very specific sound, but it’s hardly the only sound, or subjectively, the only good one.
I agree with Patrick Quilter on the subject of tube amps. He said something to the effect that tubes have some inherently nice qualities that do the lifting for poor engineering, but aren’t necessary for great tone. Tube tone is a very specific sound, but it’s hardly the only sound, or subjectively, the only good one.
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I dunno about "financial necessity" - stuff that made it onto records in those days was generally well financed. But if you're looking for a bad solid state sound pre-1980, I'll nominate Jimi Hendrix's use of the Fuzz Face.
A wall of Plexi Marshalls at his disposal and a license to kill with them, and still ... Fuzz Face.
Half the bassists who could afford them and none other than Jaco rocked the original Acoustic amps. Those were all solid-state. And they sounded great. The 360 and 370 series are still sought after for their tone.
Then there’s the legendary Roland Jazz Chorus. Still one of the standards which solid-state amps get measured against. You’d see those and the SWR SM-400 in a lot of places classy enough to furnish a backline in the 80s.
Then there’s the legendary Roland Jazz Chorus. Still one of the standards which solid-state amps get measured against. You’d see those and the SWR SM-400 in a lot of places classy enough to furnish a backline in the 80s.
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As mentioned earlier, the Rockman (developed by tom Scholz of Boston) was used on Boston records. I believe Yngwie used it on the first Alcatrazz album ("No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll") as well.
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When I think "solid state guitar amp" I think Ernie Isley on "Who's That Lady."
I'm obsessed with them as in my prior posting... I guess they used the larger ones, not the small cheesy instrument-walkmen?
Pardon, protect your eyes:
Back to the topic: I was the first to mention Nile Rodgers, so I'm aloud to engage in my allergic reaction to everything adult oriented rock, boston and boston headphone-amps...
John claimed those old Kustom amps had the best vibrato, but he used a Fender for most everything else. Probably a Twin Reverb, but I'm not sure about that, just guessing.
I guessed wrong. From the CCR Online web site: "John used Fender Vibrolux silver face with two 12" JBL , Fender Consert and Kustom amps, the Kustom amps setting on the Trem / Vib was always at one o' clock. Live it was the Kustom amps with double 2x15" cabinets. (JBL K(?) 130)"
The Roland JC120 was not a cheap amp.
I don't know about their recordings, but many bands of the late 60s, 70s and 80s used Kustom, Acoustic and Peavey solid state amps on stage for both guitar and bass.
I think that is the photo I was thinking of...thanks!
I am a solid-state Peavey guitar amp user myself, and what I like about them is the sort of greasy, sleazy crunch you hear on Skynyrd songs like "Call Me the Breeze" and "Simple Man." To my ear, the old hybrid heads' solid-state preamps have a similar sonic signature to the 80s solid-state amps. A lot of guys over on the Telecaster page talk up amps like Bandits for their clean channels and how they are "great pedal platforms," and I agree that they sound good clean...but I also like how they distort on the dirty channel (or the cranked clean channel, with a compressor pedal to add in a little pseudo "tube bouncy feel."
Hey, speaking of Crate...remember C.C. Deville and his kind of intense buzzy high-gain thing he did in Poison? Apparently that was achieved with a dual-amp recording approach...a Mesa-Boogie Mark II and a Crate G80XL combo. Those G-series Crate combos were everywhere around St. Louis in the late 80s; some of my friends had them. Their particular distortion texture is unmistakeable when you hear it, and Deville's distortion from the Poison days definitely sounds like that to me.
Peter Hook of Joy Division comes to mind: his style was largely borne out of circumstance. His first cab only cost him $15, and as he states in the video above, "It sounded like it cost $15, too." The speaker distorted so badly that playing on the lower parts of the neck wouldn't produce a clear tone. The only way to combat that was by playing higher up on the neck.
"My first amplifier I ever bought was called a Sound City 120—a terrible amplifier that at $150 was quite expensive at the time. And my speaker was a single 18"—I don’t know what make it was; it didn’t have any labels on it—that cost me $15. My first guitar was an Eko copy of a Gibson SG bass, which cost $50. And basically, the rig sounded awful.
"
^Jimi Hendrix and the Fuzz Face...yeah, no kidding. Yuck. I want to like those because they are round and weird-looking, but to me they do not sound good.
If I remember correctly there's a bunch of stuff that used crappy sounding board distortion back then, if you can't that as solid state amplification. Reeling in the Years has that sound as I recall.
Not 80's or earlier... but Dimebag Darrell from Pantera and Kirk from Crowbar used Randall guitar amps. Dime switched to tubes later in his career but all of his notable work was solid state.
The attack and immediacy of heavy palm muting is pretty much unparalleled.
Also worth noting that a huge chunk of Cannibal Corpse albums in the 80s'/90's were done with a Crate GX series.
My guitar rig for recording/live consists of a pair of 80's Crate heads that, when pushed with a distortion pedal on the front end, actually sound fantastic. Just a touch of sonic maximizer in the front end lets it chunk without being flabby, and a 30 band EQ in the loop lets you dial that fizz out.
Its pretty funny that every show we play, I get snickers from dudes as I roll in some old Crates... but the payoff comes during soundcheck when they realize that these heads slay.
One of the high points was when a friend had his amp break a week before a show that we were both playing so I told him he can just use mine. Really cool getting to hear your own rig from the crowd and then hear it in the mix when they were playing their set. Even more fun was hearing that my old, cheap Crate sat better in the mix and sounded better than the other guitarists $3500 Mesa halfstack.
The biggest mistake crate ever made was not touting their solid state angle enough and not letting people know that these heads were best used in a rig with other gear. Everybody I know that rags on crate is of the "plug in a marshall and turn it up" variety. and they arent wrong... those marshalls are amazing amps... but the crates just dont do that straight out of the box.
Rant over..... solid state metal ftw
The attack and immediacy of heavy palm muting is pretty much unparalleled.
Also worth noting that a huge chunk of Cannibal Corpse albums in the 80s'/90's were done with a Crate GX series.
My guitar rig for recording/live consists of a pair of 80's Crate heads that, when pushed with a distortion pedal on the front end, actually sound fantastic. Just a touch of sonic maximizer in the front end lets it chunk without being flabby, and a 30 band EQ in the loop lets you dial that fizz out.
Its pretty funny that every show we play, I get snickers from dudes as I roll in some old Crates... but the payoff comes during soundcheck when they realize that these heads slay.
One of the high points was when a friend had his amp break a week before a show that we were both playing so I told him he can just use mine. Really cool getting to hear your own rig from the crowd and then hear it in the mix when they were playing their set. Even more fun was hearing that my old, cheap Crate sat better in the mix and sounded better than the other guitarists $3500 Mesa halfstack.
The biggest mistake crate ever made was not touting their solid state angle enough and not letting people know that these heads were best used in a rig with other gear. Everybody I know that rags on crate is of the "plug in a marshall and turn it up" variety. and they arent wrong... those marshalls are amazing amps... but the crates just dont do that straight out of the box.
Rant over..... solid state metal ftw
When I got my first guitar as a teenager, I used to run a Crate G10 practice amp as a preamp into the front of an old 10 watt tube PA amp. It sounded amazing for the 80's high gain sound. Sounded good clean too. The only problem was there was no good "on the verge of breakup" sound.
omg yes... the clean channel on the old crates was superb. They were a great starting point for that classic 80s metal clean tone with some delay and chorus
I declare "midrangier" to be the Talkbass word of the day.
I shadowed a recording engineer once, who was recording a local punk band. The band's guitarist came in with a solid-state Crate half-stack and once he was set up, started riffing nervously and cranking out that dense, intense high-gain buzz. The engineer muttered something about the amp sounding like an air hose and set up a little Fender silverface bass combo (Musicmaster Bass? It was kind of tall and had three knobs) next to it and took a second line out of the guitar kid's stereo chorus to feed it. The guitar kid looked pretty skeptical but later, in the control room, the engineer brought up the Crate's fader and then eased in a little of the "lightly crunchy" little Fender tube amp and BOOM. It sounded rad. The Crate was supplying the teeth and the Fender was adding some warm mids. Really cool technique.
yesss! Thats totally the way to do it. They can be awesome, but never just by themselves. I actually use an old washburn soloist distortion pedal in front of my crate excalibur.. gain on the pedal is all the way down, vol all the way up... and the gain on the head is at 3.5 with all eq at noon.
I think the main issue is that most other amps respond differently with the eq and gain on the head so when people go to try out a crate... they just dime the gain and push the bass a bit.
