Classic Rock Tone Tips

Volume

In the 60's & 70's, guitar players got their sounds by turning their amps up really loud. Below are the wattages of some of the iconic amps from the Classic Rock era;

Fender Deluxe Reverb = 22w

Vox AC30 = 30w

Marshall JTM45 = 35-45w

Fender Super Reverb = 40w

Marshall 1987 = 50w

Fender Twin Reverb = 85w

Marshall 1959 = 100w

Marshall Major = 200w

Keep in mind, these amps were popular in a different time. Acts were performing in huge venues, including arenas and stadiums, through primitive PA Systems.

The sound of these amps cranked is amazing, but completely unrealistic at home or in a small venue. Noise control will arrive before you finish your first set - gig over!

These modern times require a modern approach to getting those classic sounds at realistic and useable volumes.

Bedroom vs. Stage

You will find that the sound you dial in and sounds great at home won't work very well when you rehearse or perform with a band. At home your sound isn't competing with other instruments and frequencies. In fact, if you were to set your amp to sound good playing with a band, then took your amp home and didn't change any settings, you would probably find the sound very unpleasant.

Most players will use too much bass, distortion, and/or effects such as reverb and delay at home. In isolation this sounds cool and makes it easy and fun to play.

However, when you play with a band, you realise that more distortion equals more compression, and too much compression makes your "sound" small. Your bass frequencies are going to 'compete' with the bass player, creating a muddy sound. Your high frequencies are going to be negated by the drummers cymbals. Reverb is an effect that was originally used to recreate the experience of playing in a larger space when recording in a small recording studio. When you are playing in a larger space, you no longer need the reverb effect - there will be natural reverb in the room! Also keep in mind, Marshall amps didn't feature reverb until 1982.

The best way to be heard in a band situation is to accentuate or boost your mids and back the gain off, and minimise the reverb. Listen to a band like AC/DC - you'll be surprised how little gain there is, especially on Malcolm's rhythm guitar track.

If I am playing with a band, my ideal is to set my 25w valve/tube amp so that it is on the 'edge of breakup'. By rolling down my guitars' volume, I can achieve a relatively clean sound. When I want to play some crunchy rhythm, I roll my volume back up and hit the strings really hard. If I want more gain, I'll hit a boost or drive pedal with the volume turned up and the drive down low. This gives me my three essential sounds for playing classic rock; clean, crunch, solo

I would generalise and say that amps rated at more than 20w (such as a Fender Deluxe Reverb) are performance or stage amps, and amps that are less than 20w are better suited to studio or practice environments. Having said that, I have often used 15w amps such as a Vox AC15 or a Fender Blues Jr. when playing with a band. However, in this situation I do find that I need to mic the amp.

Of course, this all depends on how much clean headroom you require for your sound. Small wattage amps don't have the same range of dynamics as a larger amps.

Marshall-In-A-Box Pedals

A great alternative to a loud Marshall amp is to use a Marshall-In-A-Box (MIAB) pedal. You can get use them to get some very useable tones at a realistic volume.

Below is a list of MIAB pedals I have had some experience with, but there many, many more. An * indicates that I actually own the pedal.

Keep in mind, there are a range of Marshall amps, so be sure of what each pedal seeks to do.

These are some of the benchmark models, in the order they appeared;

JTM-45 - Eric Clapton during the Bluesbreakers era

Plexi / Super Lead / Super Bass - Classic 70's Rock: Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Kiss

Modded Plexi - Van Halen

JCM-800 - the 80's Metal amp

Silver Jubilee - Guns N' Roses

The Pedals

Amp-In-A-Box Pedals

Obviously, I have focused on the Marshall amp sound here, as it is ubiquitous with Classic Rock. However, other amps play a big role in the history of recorded guitar sounds; Fender, Vox, Orange, Supro, etc. You can Amp-In-A-Box pedals for all of the major brands!

Boosts for Solos

If you have ever tried to use a boost pedal with an overdriven amp to make your solos louder, you will probably have gotten frustrated. The problem is that the boost pedal needs clean headroom to get louder. If the amp is already overdriven, you will just get more drive and compression, but it won't get louder... in fact, it can become a mushy mess!

One of the Benefits of using a Boost pedal after a MIAB pedal is that you can actually boost the volume, as long as you still have sufficient headroom in the amp.

You can put a boost pedal before an MIAB pedal, but it will have a similar effect to putting it before an overdriven amp - it will get more distorted, but it won't get any louder.

By putting a boost before and after, you can have the best of both worlds; more volume and/or more overdrive.