How did Metal guitarists boost solos in the 1980s?

[TheLoudness!!]

There were several bands that used modded Marshall's back then.

Higher output pickups started becoming more common then. Players started utilizing them to get more "oomph" from their tone.

I think of the Boss SD1 and Tube Screamer myself though.

 

[Matthews Guitars]

In the 80s, the golden age of Bradshaw rack rigs, and the advent of the modded Plexi, you can just BET that any player you ever heard of had a means to boost the signal for leads. In front it'd be a Rat or a Tube Screamer, in the loop it might be anything with a level control.

It wasn't so primitive in the 80s as you might imagine. No, not in the days where the Bradshaw rack reigned supreme!

Effects loops were added to Marshalls back in the 70s, maybe even some in the late 60s. Ritchie Blackmore had some of his Majors
modded with a form of effects loop that he'd run a tape recorder through, to give him a tape delay effect.

 

[Im247frogs]

Lead guitar mixed as loud as vocals - problem solved when the singer shuts up.

How often does that happen?

 

[Phony iommi]

This man knows^^^^^

 

[What?]

the problem with all the overdrives, boosts and eqs is that they don't do anything to cranked amp with no headroom so they most likely were using those for more distortion, not a solo boost. Sound guy most likely. Even the guitar's volume turned from 7 to 10 will not give you a boost loud enough for lead boost.

One way to do it is to dial the amp down a bit to leave some headroom. Use one pedal for rhythm, another for lead. If you want the true sound of the amp, this isn't going to do it though.

 

[thesunship]

How often does that happen?

Live 80s metal, vox and guitars sound pretty equal if you listen closely. Guitars are not overbearing, but certainly sharing the space with vocal. No doubt this is mixed with boosts for the solos in post production. I remember live mixes of that era being much more dense and it was often hard to hear the singer clearly.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

I don't know the answer but I'm gonna bet their sound man boosted their volumes for solos.

the problem with all the overdrives, boosts and eqs is that they don't do anything to cranked amp with no headroom so they most likely were using those for more distortion, not a solo boost. Sound guy most likely. Even the guitar's volume turned from 7 to 10 will not give you a boost loud enough for lead boost.

Exactly This.
We are talking huge bands playing stadiums. While they may add a boost for some OD or even switch amp heads, the sound man would be lifting levels up for solos and muting voc mics as applicable etc.
It is a big production and that would not be left up to the performers to determine.
Even I have played gigs where the sound man did this for FOH. I still boosted onstage for my own purposes.

 

[guitarbilly74]

For pro acts most of this stuff is done on the mixing board. These bands have dress rehearsals with their whole crew and have all the sound and lights mapped out or automated before their tour.

It's at the local/club level that you need to have this stuff figured out because you'll be working with house sound guys that don't know your music.
But at the pro level this is not an issue.

 

[79 2203]

Live 80s metal, vox and guitars sound pretty equal if you listen closely. Guitars are not overbearing, but certainly sharing the space with vocal. No doubt this is mixed with boosts for the solos in post production. I remember live mixes of that era being much more dense and it was often hard to hear the singer clearly.

I saw that tour twice in one week at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney Australia. No press pit or crowd barrier, my arms were resting on the stage and I was so close to the band I wrote my initials in Harris’s fogged up mirrored scratch plate.
They weren’t as distorted as many modern players think and they had plenty of mids and volume, so a little bump from the sound guy is all they needed for solos. Maybe a EQ pedal or boost just enough to pop in the mix.

 

[Marshallmadness]

I’ve been listening to Slayer Decade of Aggression stuff and their sound man absolutely turns up whoever is playing lead pretty loud and cuts the rhythm guitar back for a pretty big offset in volume.

I have noticed with the 2203 and 2204 amp that sometimes you have the tone dialed just right and the leads will still jump out in a mix.

 

[paul-e-mann]

For pro acts most of this stuff is done on the mixing board. These bands have dress rehearsals with their whole crew and have all the sound and lights mapped out or automated before their tour.

It's at the local/club level that you need to have this stuff figured out because you'll be working with house sound guys that don't know your music.
But at the pro level this is not an issue.

We usually do our own mix when we gig but at our last gig a couple weeks ago we had a sound man and he boosted our guitar solo volumes and mixed every song on the fly, needless to say it was our best sounding gig ever! Having a good sound man is critical if you want to sound your best!

 

[marshallmellowed]

We usually do our own mix when we gig but at our last gig a couple weeks ago we had a sound man and he boosted our guitar solo volumes and mixed every song on the fly, needless to say it was our best sounding gig ever! Having a good sound man is critical if you want to sound your best!

Yes, It can be a good thing, but on the other hand, if they're not familiar with the band, and who plays what, it can also be a bad thing. We typically run our own sound, and being a 2 guitar band that both play lead, we have our solo boosts in check. We played a venue last month where they had a house sound system and sound man. I told him in advance that we had the solo volumes covered, and that our volumes would go up a bit for the solos, and then back down after the solos. What happened was, when either of us played a solo, he would try and counteract our solo volume boosts and level the sound out. Then, once the solos were over, the rhythm guitar parts were too low, and he'd once again try and level things out. Kind of a mess, and we'd have probably sounded better running our own sound.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Yes, It can be a good thing, but on the other hand, if they're not familiar with the band, and who plays what, it can also be a bad thing. We typically run our own sound, and being a 2 guitar band that both play lead, we have our solo boosts in check. We played a venue last month where they had a house sound system and sound man. I told him in advance that we had the solo volumes covered, and that our volumes would go up a bit for the solos, and then back down after the solos. What happened was, when either of us played a solo, he would try and counteract our solo volume boosts and level the sound out. Then, once the solos were over, the rhythm guitar parts were too low, and he'd once again try and level things out. Kind of a mess, and we'd have probably sounded better running our own sound.

Yep we mostly do our own and have it covered on stage.

 

[Blake F]

Vintage gear does way better with the guitar's volume and tone knobs than new gear. Proved this playing with a friend in another state- he's a new gear + pedals guy and I'm mostly straight-in. He'd never heard a great sounding DRY Marshall. Blew him away. And he commented how 'usable' the volume and tone knobs were; said they were fairly useless or didn't sound good in his setup.

In working on nailing 70's Schenker tone, I've discovered that he did use FX loops in his amps but one of the key ingredients is a WEM IC300 tape echo. It's pretty interesting because it seems to impart boosted leads or compression without losing the crunch tone. He used a VERY good sounding Marshall 50 and appears to have mic'd a cab into the WEM echo, then out to a mixing board then out to the PA live, or recording gear in studio. I'm re-amping using my Fryette and this setup has way more lead gain while retaining crunch and you can just roll back the guitar knobs a little if it doesn't sound right.

 

[anitoli]

1980's, Cocain!

 

[bill0287]

I switched to a channel with a louder output volume setting, then used an over dive or compressor to push it harder.

 

[El Gringo]

Don't underestimate the usage of the guitar's volume knob(s) either. Metal is a bit outside my territory but lots of volume and tone twiddling in hard rock back in the day. The absence of a loop just meant FX were running in front. Yes, TBE's and all - never seemed a problem for Gilmour and countless others, at least; they found a way to make it work just fine. Also, multiple amps, one set this way, another set another way....

Took the words right out of my mouth into my fingers to type turn up the volume on your amp .

 

[El Gringo]

1980's, Cocain!

those were the days my friend !

 

[PelliX]

Vintage gear does way better with the guitar's volume and tone knobs than new gear.

Do you mean the design of the circuit or the circuits themselves?

Proved this playing with a friend in another state- he's a new gear + pedals guy and I'm mostly straight-in. He'd never heard a great sounding DRY Marshall. Blew him away. And he commented how 'usable' the volume and tone knobs were; said they were fairly useless or didn't sound good in his setup.

Pedals often detract from the usability of the volume control, often by buffers working in unfortunate ways. Can work the other way, too, though.

 

[JTM1963]

I've heard tell that Richie Blackmore used an echoplex as a preamp for distortion.
And didn't Angus use a dallas od box?

This was Blackmore's preamp for years with Deep Purple and the early years with Rainbow. It's an Aiwa tape deck.
Angus used a Schaffer-Vega wireless unit that became part of his sound and was used in studio during the recording of Back In Black.
Solo Dallas made a replica of the preamp in the Scaffer-Vega.
(Edited for typos)