Is it the Bad Times now?

Well, I suppose that’s it then. Robert Plant re-posted a beehivecity.com article on his website confessing that he had his bollocks cut off in an accident years ago, and that’s why he has no interest in any type of music resembling the powerhouse that was, and apparently never will be again, Led Zeppelin.

Okay, not exactly – and I feel bad even kidding about that when it comes to one of the absolute kings of rock, but I AM DISAPPOINTED.

Here are the relevant parts of the article:

Now 62, the lion-maned wailer has resisted the $200 million temptation of a full Led Zeppelin reunion tour in favor of a deeper exploration of the Americana style and sounds of his Grammy-winning Raising Sand album with Alison Krauss.

Plant says he feels further away from heavy rock than he ever has – even going to see Them Crooked Vultures made his ears bleed. [Wear earplugs, Robert!]

Plant looks delighted to have found a versatile band that isn’t expected to ape Zep and which shares his current passion for pre-rock musical forms. Jimmy Page isn’t going to get that phone call any time soon.

In a way, that’s not really news: We all know he resisted a Zep reunion, and that Jimmy, JPJ and Jason Bonham auditioned various substitute singers but eventually gave up. I now wish they didn’t because the thought of no more Zep frankly sticks in my throat like a bone from a particularly bony northern pike.

I’m going to have a hard time getting over it. Because here we have the creators and pioneers of a hugely great and influential musical form, three of four lions, possibly past their prime (we don’t really know) yet still potent, and even though they’re alive and in good health and all still playing music, we’ll never see them again. Seriously?

The Beatles are gone but the Stones aren’t too proud to do it. Sabbath has done it, and the boys even got a new drummer and different singer for Heaven and Hell. Further down that path, Priest is doing it. In other words, it’s not as if the Zep guys are pushing up daisies like Tchaikovsky. They’re still here! Still playing music! And they all STILL PLAY ZEP SONGS, just not together.

They even still get along.

WTF?!

I get the whole “artistic development” thing, and “moving on to new things” or whatever. I even get that Robert probably doesn’t have the range he once did. But I don’t get having such a huge impact on rock music, literally millions of people wanting to see and hear the band (just do an album for F’s sake!) and turning a blind ear to it all.

Ah crap. I don’t know if I can make a compelling argument about why he SHOULD do it, at least at this late hour, but I strongly feel that he should – would it really be that bad?

Or at the very least, Pagey should bang out some riffs that’ll slam into and wash over us like those giant waves off Oahu. That would be glorious.

Why not play it with the fellas?

12/10/07, London’s O2 Arena. Ah well.

Jimbo in '73.

F the iPod, my brothers. Nothing sounds as good as blasting tunes out of speakers, particularly in the car. I don’t know what it is – the enclosed space, the audio engineering, the proliferation of high-end audio stuff in vehicles…. Don’t know and don’t care. The bottom line for me is that when I crank tunes in the car, it’s frickin’ awesome.

For the last couple of weeks my favorite has been the one and only “Black Dog” of the Zeppelonius bros. It is the bone-crushing sound of rock and roll. Tone everywhere. Wood! The guitar riff is amazing, the singing riff is cool, the bass part very cool (listen to it!) and the drums – forget it. Immense, powerful. We might even say, “pachydermic.”

Don’t know why recordings these days don’t sound nearly that huge, or why everyone isn’t trying to make them sound that huge. Maybe we need to put the English back in charge of rock.

Anyhow, do yourself a favor and crank the Blackest of Dogs in your bestest of wheels. And while you’re listening, bear in mind that the maestro, Jimmy Page – who as everyone “knows” went from using small Supro amps in the studio to Marshall Super Leads – apparently did not use an amp on “Black Dog.”

No amp.

Seriously.

Check this out, from a May ‘02 interview of Led Zep IV producer Andy Johns by the Universal Audio webzine. Here’s the applicable part:

Andy: Would you like the “Black Dog” guitar tone story?

UA: Absolutely – which Led Zeppelin album was that? [Doh!]

Andy: That is the fourth one, the really, really big one. “Stairway To Heaven,” “Levee Breaks” and “Black Dog.” It sold about 18 million – something bloody ridiculous. Who would have known, you know? I had been trying to get this sound from Buffalo Springfield for a long time and I met Bill House [producer? engineer?]. He said, “Just put two 1176s in series.” He didn’t really want to let me know what “they” were. It was a direct sound and I thought that I knew what to do.

There were three guitars on “Black Dog” so I triple-tracked it. When I mixed it, these three guitars were down here and the rest of the tracks were up here. Since the sound was so loud, it gave me much more room for the other stuff. Anyways, he meant two 1176s in series, one of which has the compression buttons punched out, so it is like an amp. You hit the front of the next compressor really hard and make the mic amp distort a bit with the EQ – a bit of bottom to make it sing.

So “Black Dog” has a direct Gibson Les Paul Sunburst ‘52 or something [Page's '59 'burst], going right into the mic amps on the mixer, which is going through two 1176s, and it sounds like some guy in the Albert Hall with a bunch of Marshalls.

I couldn’t have done it without the 1176s. There is not another compressor that will do that because you can take out the compression stuff.

What?

The 1167 is a Universal Audio non-tube compressor with a built-in amplifier (I think). So not only was the “Black Dog” guitar(s) not through an amp, it was solid-state!

But does it really matter? As user rynugz007 said on a gearslutz.com thread about this stuff, Page’s “guitar tones are all over the place – Teles, Pauls, Strats, Marshalls, Supros, Vox, direct, room mics, close mic, etc. The consistency lies in the special sauce which is Jimmy’s technique, his ear and the riffs.

“If you have a great riff played by Jimmy Page it really would be difficult to make it sound bad. He has that raunchy, drunken bluesy thing going on in everything he plays that completely drips with vibe.”

Well said, sir!

Notable

These items are from a July ‘77 Guitar Player interview (Zep IV was released in 1971).

> He used Herco heavy-gauge nylon picks and Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings (9s).

> The interviewer asked: Do you think that when you went from the Telecaster to the Les Paul that your playing changed? Jimmy said, “Yes, I think so. It’s more of a fight with a Telecaster, but there are rewards. The Gibson’s got a stereotyped sound, maybe – I don’t know. But it’s got a beautiful sustain to it. I like sustain because it relates to bowed instruments and everything, this whole area that everyone’s been pushing and experimenting in. When you think about it, it’s mainly sustain.”

Behold the power!

Different version w/ Jimmy and Robert.

I was in no rush to get the movie (stupidly) because even though Jimmy Page was/is in it, the other two guys I’m just not fans of. The Edge I get – his playing is more like ambient sound, but it’s definitely his own thing. Jack White I may never get.

But PAGE! Page does things in the videos below that make me want to (have to) at least rent the movie. The $100K question is what he’s playing through because the geniuses who made the movie apparently didn’t think it was important to show that: I didn’t see the movie, but lots of people did and have said there are no specific answers.

But they’re wrong (sort of). Here’s what I could figure out. If I missed anything, please let me know!

Kashmir
> You can see Page’s rig clearly at the beginning of this vid.
> Huge pedalboard you can see at 0:23, probably the one my Pete Cornish. At 0:42 he steps on something on the left side of his board. It might be the “Mute” off, if the board photo below is still current.
> At 2:25 he steps on a phaser, which if the pedalboard description below is still accurate is an MXR Phase 90.
> At 2:31 you can see that the Orange head is on and a cord is plugged into the input. Not sure about the Hiwatt under it. I’m no Page expert, but it seems the Orange is the original single-channel AD30 and the Hiwatt is a custom-built amp made around 1970.
> At 2:51 and 2:56 you can clearly see two Echoplexes hooked up behind his chair. But these might just be for the Theremin (see vid below this one) – but there might be others for Page’s guitar signal (see pedalboard ingredients list below).
> The story of how the song came about is very cool. The more I learn about Zep, the more it’s apparent how integral Bonham was to the composition of many tunes.

Theremin

In My Time of Dying
> All three playing.
> Sounds like Jimmy is using a fuzz – but one isn’t listed on the pedalboard ingredients list below. Some have speculated it’s a
> Mic’d cab at 0:44 – I assume it’s Jimmy’s. Jack White is so “low-tech” he’s probably playing through the record player on the coffee table.
> At 1:12 you can see the Orange head on top of a Hiwatt head right behind Jimmy.
> The mic’d Fender behind the Edge at 2:31 presumably is being used by him.

Whole Lotta Love
> I would have sworn that Page was playing this on the neck pickup or at least the middle position, but it looks like bridge pickup only.
> At 0:45 you can see a Marshall plexi lit up and plugged into!
> He starts talking about a pedal, and at 0:52 we see what it is: a Sola Sound Tone Bender Professional Mk II.

Pedal Board Signal Path

Here it is, according to Pete Cornish.

Signal Routing:
> Guitars connected to Pete Cornish Input Selector and Line Driver (off stage) via Pete Cornish HD Guitar Cables

> Selected Guitar Signal to Effects / Amps Pedalboard via Pete Cornish Custom
Signal Cable Loom (Loom includes Amp Feeds and Remote Mute Control)

> Pedalboard Input – Unity Gain

> Emergency Automatic Mechanical Bypass to Output #1 in case of Power Failure

> Send / Return to Spare FX #1 with Bypass Switch

> Roger Meyer Voodoo Fuzz – Removed in January 1996 – Replaced by Amp Lead switch for 2 off Fender Tone Master. [At the time the board was built, JP was using two Fender Tone Masters and two Vox AC30s (original T.Boost model), according to Cornish.)

> MXR Phase 90 with Bypass Switch

> Yamaha CH-10Mk II Chorus with Bypass Switch

> Send / Return to Spare FX #2 with Bypass Switch

> Boss CE-2 Chorus with Bypass Switch

> Jen Cry-Baby Wah with Bypass Switch

> Digitec WH-1 Whammy + Pete Cornish Linear Boost 0/+20dB with Bypass Switch

> Send / Return to Echoplex EP3 (modified by Pete Cornish) with Adjustable Gain and Bypass Switch

> Linear Boost all Outputs 0/+20dB with Bypass Switch
> Master Volume

> Local and Remote Mute All Outputs

> 3 off Outputs to Amps - Output #4 added January 1995

> 115V Output to Echoplex [Interesting!]

Page's board (Pete Cornish photo, click to see it bigger).

Notable

> Unfortunately the clip of “Ramble On” from the movie was deleted from YouTube. I’m renting the flick just to watch it – great stuff.

P.S.

Since everyone doesn’t read every post, will append posts with this for a bit. C’mon fellas!

Doing a “keep the lights on and do more cool sh*t” fund drive. If you dig and look forward to WoodyTone, and find the info fun and valuable, please frickin’ donate! Options for a one-time $20 or $5/mo below. Gracias amigos! Vamonos!

$20 one-time

$5/mo recurring

These guys didn't need no stinkin' lessons!

Are music lessons/instruction vastly overrated? I’m thinking they are. I’ve read over the years how people “should” read music, know all the notes on the fretboard by name and all that stuff, but really? Does that really help you become a better musician with your own style? Or does it hurt….

I got thinking about this topic because of my young son, who is refusing drum lessons because his (current) heroes – John Bonham and Alex Van Halen – didn’t take lessons. Drummers that hear my son play think he’s a big-time candidate for lessons. But he keeps improving, and plays drums because he loves it, not because he has to like he does with piano.

So who didn’t take formal lessons on guitar? Just about everyone we to this day idolize: virtually all of the English pioneers, Jimi, SRV, EVH, Ace, Billy Gibbons, the Young brothers – pretty much all of the classic rockers on the categories list at right. All the blues musicians too, even “younger” guys like Joe Bonamassa. (I say younger because, unlike BB King, Muddy Waters, etc., Joe certainly had access to formal lessons if he’d wanted them.)

On the flip side you have schooled musicians like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and others (Rhoads somewhat) who do have their own styles – but when it comes to groundbreaking and pioneering playing, bands and tones, those hyper-schooled guys are in the minority.

Most of the axe-slingers we idolize to this day basically learned on their own.

Now, in saying that I’m well aware that they learned by copping licks aurally and/or visually; by jamming with people; and maybe by a neighbor or whoever showing them a bar chord. And some might have had a solid musical foundation elsewhere (e.g, piano). But when it came to making their mark on the guitar world, it was all ears and eyes – mostly ears. No formal teaching. No scales, modes, inversions, whatever.

These guys didn’t need no stinkin’ lessons – they had ears!

Those guys learned time, groove and feel before they learned their ‘over the top’ chops. The converse seems to be the norm nowadays.
- User “Tone Slinger” on the metroamp.com forum

This incidentally is why I find guitar tabs both humorous and completely unnecessary. Humorous because they are frequently wrong, and completely unnecessary because learning by ear is where it’s at – even if someone is tone deaf, the eyes can be a backup. I think tab also encourages younger players to rely less on their ears, which definitely is a bad thing.

Sure, learning on your own means you probably will get some things “wrong,” but therein lies unique style, doesn’t it? (Including right-hand technique – I’m thinking of Jeff Beck and EVH in particular.) Plus you might actually end up learning more that way because you’re self-motivated – you might even be motivated to learn some theory:

I was self-taught, so being in the studio, playing jazz one day, rock the next, then Top 20 tripe, I had to learn how to read music to do the job. But that was a huge step forward, because I realized that once you could read music, you could write it too. [He didn't mean that in the notation sense.]
- Jimmy Page

I remember being convinced to take guitar lessons in high school by some guit-playing buddies. I was already in bands, but figured what the heck. At least the teacher wasn’t theory-centric. But he wanted me to learn the entire Zeppelin catalog. I said no way – I was all about EVH, Rhoads and Lifeson at that point. So that was that.

I guess part of me might wish I did learn the entire Zep catalog back then, but I eventually got there and really wouldn’t have traded the journey – which is why I’m backing my son not wanting to take lessons right now. He doesn’t want to learn what a friggin’ paradiddle is. He wants to play stuff that inspires him.

Who am I to say that’s bad? That’s what all the rock stars did!

And we’re not talking Beethoven here….

I’m basically self taught from listening to records. I was heavily influenced by Hendrix and Pete Townsend of the Who…Jimmy Page was a big influence as were Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, particularly the Cream era.
- Alex Lifeson

I pride myself on thinking outside the box, and I’m probably like that because I’m not a schooled musician. One of the reasons people may think I have a unique style is because I’m self-taught and make mistakes— or I do things in a way that, if I’d been taught by a teacher, they would’ve corrected. To me, there are no rules, and there never were.
- Ace Frehley

Notable

One last thing: A foundation does help, specifically 88 keys’ worth. Piano seems to be a common reference for all musicians. Here’s just one example:

I guess I am [self-taught]. My dad taught me the chords on a ukulele banjo, a George Formby style, so I had a little idea of what chords were, and I had piano lessons, which were really pretty crucial to me. I think five years piano lessons, so I got to understand what music…what is inside music, what makes it tick melodically, harmonically, rhythmically and whatever. But as far as guitar, yeah. I just listened to people that excited me and those people were…James Burton, Hank Marvin, Les Paul, and then Jimi Hendrix kind of blew my world apart.
- Brian May

Joe Walsh isn’t a tone king, he’s a tone emperor. A couple examples: He insisted that Jimmy Page take (buy, whatever) the Les Paul that became Jimmy’s No. 1. And he hooked Pete Townshend up with what to this day is one of Pete’s favorite rigs. (More details on both of these below.)

I’m sure there are more unreported examples, but the bottom line is that Walsh has GREAT ears…which is why it might be surprising to learn that one of his favorite amps is the solid-state Roland Cube 60. Yes, solid-state!

This is the guy who sounded KILLER with Marshall and Hiwatt heads through 4×12s, who obviously digs vintage gear and…is a tone emperor! Solid-state?!

There have been instances of tone fiends loving certain solid-state amps – though Joe Bonamassa’s (and BB King’s) love of Lab Series amps is the only one that comes to mind, and Joe doesn’t play live through those amps (but BB does). Maybe also Billy Gibbons using Marshall Valvestates as power amps. But mostly it’s tubes, for good reason.

Anyhow, here’s some of what Joe has said about these Cube amps through the years.

From an interview on the Boss website (Boss is a division of Roland Corp.) around the time of the Eagles reunion tour (2007?):

Roland: You have a small Roland Cube amp between your monitor wedges. How is that being used?

Joe: “That’s driving the talk box [used on “Rocky Mountain Way”]. The speaker isn’t hooked up – it’s driving the talk box. It’s an old 60-watt Cube — an orange one that’s been painted black.

“Those Cube amps are so great. I used to play with four of those in the early Eagles when Hotel California came out. In fact I used a Cube to play slide on “The Long Run.” I liked to stack ’em too. That’s what I did in the old days. I even made a stand so I had two and two stacked. The top ones drove the bottom ones. I’d like to try out the new Cube-60.

“I used to play a pair of [Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amps]. I used those when I played the second Us Festival [1983]. That was during the So What [solo] album. There’s film footage of that out there.”

[Boss/Roland noted that shortly after the interview, Joe received a new Cube-60, and Joe's manager said: "We took it to his dressing room and it’s a killer to say the least! Joe loves it big time." Bear in mind that that is the manager talking to the manufacturer, so maybe add a grain of salt....]

From a 1983 issue of Musician Magazine:

“Walsh’s onstage amplifiers include a Roland JC-120 driving two Peavey 4×10 speaker cabinets instead of its own enclosed speakers, a Mesa/Boogie Simul-Class combination amp also driving two Peavey 4×10 cabinets, and another Mesa/Boogie combination driving its own 12-inch Celestion speaker [undefined], as well as an extension cabinet also containing a 12-inch Celestion [ditto].

Here you can see the JC-120 on-stage at the ‘83 Us Festival – but it looks like only the Vox amps are mic’d.

Joe also used a Roland Micro-Cube amp backstage in his dressing room on the Eagles reunion tour.

Notable

Why this stuff was in Keyboard Magazine I have no idea – other than reusing content from its sister publication, Guitar Player – but here it is:

More on Page and Townshend

> “Walsh may have significantly altered rock history by giving his pal Jimmy Page a ’59 Gibson Les Paul sunburst—yes that sunburst, the one that became the Zepmeister’s number-one go-to guitar. ‘At the time, [Page] didn’t have that kind of money, so I gave him mine,’ says Walsh with typical modesty.”

> “After receiving an ARP 2600 synthesizer from Pete Townshend in the ’70s, Walsh reciprocated with what he called the Neil Young setup—a ’59 orange Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins model hollowbody paired with a ’59 3×10 Fender Bandmaster and an Edwards pedal steel volume pedal (the rig that would provide Townshend’s signature tone for most of his post-“Tommy” recordings up until 1993). One can only imagine the good karma points Walsh earned by such generosity!

Joe’s Favorite Gear

> “Walsh once told GP that his all-time favorite setup was a ’58, ’59 or ’60 Gibson Les Paul, a wah pedal, a tube-model Echoplex, and a pair of Fender Super Reverbs, and that he prefers a Les Paul with raised action for slide work.”

Joe Helps It Sound Good

> For the “it’s all in the hands” crowd: “Walsh performs his own mods, tricking out guitars and beefing up amps with countless tweaks that range from simply screwing down a stop tailpiece for increased sustain to switching capacitors in a Fender Twin to boost gain and treble response.”

I mention that because today’s post involves the cover interview with Joe, specifically the last question of the interview which was: “There’s a video on YouTube of Aerosmith jamming on ‘The Immigrant Song’ with Jimmy Page. What did you take away from that?”

Huh? Aerosmith jamming with Jimmy Page on “The Immigrant Song?” Never heard of it, had to check it out.

The vids are below, but first here’s the first part of Joe’s response to the question (edited for brevity) – which I found funny and revealing:

“I remember when we first started rubbing elbows with…the English guys back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I always asked them about their tone or I’d say, ‘How did you play that?’ They kept that stuff very close to the vest. They keep their tone secrets to themselves.”

I found that funny because it’s Joe Perry and they wouldn’t even tell him what they were using? It’s not like they had a million gear choices back then – which I guess might have been why they were so coy, like getting an extra 5 mph out of a race car.

It’s interesting because it’s possible that just like rock ‘n roll started with “the English guys,” I guess the rockstar secretiveness about tone started with them too.

Next in his answer, Joe talks about that “weird” chord in “The Immigrant Song:”

“For me, that chord has the kind of mystique that the first chord on a ‘Hard Day’s Night’ has, where you go, ‘How the hell – what chord is that?’ You can get close, but I don’t know anybody who really has it down. So I asked him. Jimmy was very much like, ‘You should play it the way you want to play it.’ On the one hand you could go, ‘Wow, that’s great. He wants me to play it my way.’ And on the other hand I thought, Well, he’s really not going to give that chord away.”

I include that part of Joe’s response here because it shows Jimmy’s secretiveness even with a fellow rockstar, and because you can see it happening in the first video below. Joe is clearly asking Jimmy, Jimmy seems to be showing him something and saying something, and also seems like Joe never really nails the chord – though Brad may be a different story….

Below are the videos but before getting into them I want to say this: Spend enough time on Internet forums, and you’ll run across people who say tone-chasing is a waste of time, it’s all in the player’s hands, etc. Bull. Yes, the player’s hands are a large part of the next. But if the rest of the tone chain – that hard-won gear knowledge – wasn’t important, don’t you think Jimmy and his fellow guitar gods would’ve had no problem spilling the complete and truthful details decades ago?

Take 1
> Joe, Brad at 3:45 learning chord from Jimmy.

Take 2
> Best take of the whole tune.

Take 3
> Working on the ending, shows Steven’s control of the band.

Word is the mighty Jimmy Page is going to do “something” musically this year, after seeing his attempt to get Zep II off the ground with a new singer fail, and watching John Paul Jones have fun with Them Crooked Vultures.

I can’t wait. I’m sure it will be good. Maybe even great. And it’s borderline criminal for a man of Jimmy’s obvious talent to be on the musical sidelines.

With that in mind, following are versions of Page music with and without Zep (notably the Coverdale Page band of the ’90s – yes Coverdale “sounds like” Plant), as well as:

> Page-Plant covering Coverdale Page; and

> Coverdale Page playing Whitesnake’s Still of the Night! I had NO IDEA Jimmy covered that tune.

Enjoy! But first:

Notable

Here’s what Jimmy recently said about the “future” (if there is one) of Zep: “You’d better ask Robert Plant what the future of Led Zeppelin is. Musicians can always play together but I don’t think you can go out with a band called Led Zeppelin if you haven’t got the original vocalist.”

Zep, Black Dog, 1973

Coverdale Page, Black Dog, 1993

Coverdale Page, Shake My Tree, 1993

Page-Plant, Shake My Tree, 1995

Still of the Night, Coverdale Page, 1993

Still of the Night, John Sykes, 1995

Still of the Night, Whitesnake, recent

Bonzo left and Alex right.

When you’re pondering how to improve your tone and playing next year, think about this: It’s inspiring to play with a good drummer. You might play differently, you might be inspired to new heights in riff-dom and all that could change your tone – much of which is in your fingers anyway.

Just ask Edward Van Halen, who never sounds “as good” (whatever that means – Ed’s great no matter what) when he plays with a different drummer. Check out the almighty YouTube if you don’t believe me.

How about Jimi playing with Mitch Mitchell? Clapton with Ginger Baker?

And not least, ask Jimmy Page, who used to record John Bonham jamming in the studio and then craft riffs around that glorious playing and sound – Moby Dick being one example.

Listen to the following – a great beat, played by a master. (It’s funny to hear Robert Plant ask Bonzo what’s going on after Bonham presumably flubbed the beat before this recording started.) This is almost the entire drum track for “Fool in the Rain,” so don’t keep waiting for the music to kick in….

And what would you do if your drummer started pounding this out on the kit?

Yeah! I’m inspired!

Jimmy with his Transonic amps, 1969, Fillmore West

Jimmy Page: Les Paul and Marshall plexi.

Live, yes – mostly. Studio, no. And for Heartbreaker? Heck no, apparently.

As a former studio musician, Jimmy knew that different gear would give him different sounds, knew what combinations would give him some sounds, and probably loved to experiment to find those sounds (we’re talking different guitars and amps here more  than effects).

His use of a Fender Tele and small Supro amp in the studio is well-known. But he also used other amps and other guitars, some of which people probably have no idea about. Luckily, thanks to this thing called the Internet, we do know what Jimmy used on the song Heartbreaker, which has a unique-to-Jimmy guitar tone. Of course, I read it on the Internet and now you are, so bear that in mind!

The always-reliable (sarcasm) Wikipedia says that “Page…disclosed to Guitar World [likewise "always reliable"] that this song in general, and the a cappella solo in particular, was the first recorded instance of his famous Gibson Les Paul/Marshall stack combination.”

Wrong!

It’s possible that the unaccompanied guitar solo used that combo, but the song did not, according to Dan Torres “who was there [apparently hanging around?] during the recording sessions,” according to user Suproman77 at the vintageamps.com board (aka, Plexi Palace).

The thread was about Jimmy’s Heartbreaker tone, and there was some speculation that a solid-state amp may have been used.

Here’s what was posted and attributed to Torres:

“It would be really hard to get the exact sound again. The [solid-state Rickenbacker] Transonic amp  [Jimmy used] was not in good repair. I was not a tech then, I was a studio musician, but my guess is it was overbiased a ton, running red hot, and most likely with parts out of spec. The speaker is a little bit ‘ratty’ sounding, perfect for the tone needed.

“A couple of guitars were there, the ['59] Les Paul and the Telecaster – a lot is the Telecaster for that Tele bass string sound [not sure if this means Heartbreaker was recorded with the Tele?]. Both had new strings and awful light gauge.

“The amp was close-miced [with] a second mic about 12-18 feet back up and to the side. [That setup got] kind of an intentional ‘echo’ effect with the mics far enough apart to have some small delay between them [giving it a] huge sound yet an intimate ‘grinding’ sound from the close microphone.

“The amp’s tone was re-adjusted for the different sound on different parts of the song, mostly with just the volume control.

“The real trick to the sound is the ’space’ recorded there. The actual air in the room is captured by the spaced mics and somewhat by accident.”

He added that “the volume of the Transonic amp is not enough for a performance anywhere” – odd, considering I believe it was available in two versions, 100 watts and 200 watts.

There’s ample photographic evidence to support the fact that Jimmy and Zep used the Rickenbacker Transonic amps, including on their first American tour in 1969. But apparently they didn’t like them a whole lot on that tour because they apparently left the amps in the States when they went back to England.

Notable

> For a good rundown of all the amps Jimmy used, with photos, check out this link.

> Below is the semi-isolated guitar from Heartbreaker, found on this website.

Go get Adobe Flash Player!

Three vids: the first a short convo between Jimmy Page and Les Paul in which they discuss EVH; then a KILLER live solo of Ed’s in 1983; and of course, one of the best VH vids ever, “Unchained” from the 1981 Oakland show. I’ve seen it about 1,000 times and it still gives me chills.

And how about that pic above?

Enjoy the weekend.

Jimmy Page and Les Paul on EVH

Ed Guitar Solo, Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 16, 1983

Unchained Live, Oakland, 1981