As a touring guitarist in the 80's my rig consisted of a Les Paul into a JCM 800 with a Boss EQ and a DM-2 Delay. The only big racks I was interested in were in the front row:)
When the steve lukather starlicks video came out, I, aged about 15 or 16, went and bought an emg 85. I still have it, it sounds nothing like a modern 85, and it absolutely rages.
I got a wicked Jackson 1 unit rack pre amp from the 80's. got 2 pre amp tubes and a button on the front that says SHRED! Couldnt ask for anything more in life!
I love how Michael Angelo also immediately runs through his signal chain and brags about being in stereo..... and then immediately goes into a seizure with a whammy bar.
Hands down one of the most entertaining videos I've seen in months!! Vintage gear, reaction shots and a healthy dose of grease!! Please do a part 2 RJ!!
Lukather's is the total LA session archetype. He was like the proving ground that so many others followed. I can't say that it was my favorite thing, but it is THE thing. Brad Gillis' tone on "Speak of the Devil" is insanely good. It has that stereo'd sound to it. The guys as Atomic Guitar Works in Phoenix were still installing the wireless units into his guitars within the last 10 years! They did the same for Joel when he was in Night Ranger. Michael Angelo can't have had as much bread as either of the other guys, hence the pedals. Side Note - remember when Vai came out with the 2-necked heart guitar in a David Lee Roth video? We were all like, Michael Angelo has GOT to be PISSED!!! Love this vid!
I did the studio set ups for Luke in the 80's and 90's. It was Bob Bradshaws fault... It was ever evolving.. We had issues often... Luke and issues don't mix.
These rigs are hysterical. Your reaction shots are great. I like this format and if you can find more topics like this, you should make more. Props for that Uncle Larry shirt.
Mr. Bouchard - I'm betting you've seen a few insane rigs in your time....Also some of the drum setups from the 70s and 80s could be pretty intense also.
At the height of my rig in the 80s, I had two 18 space racks full of processors, eqs, delays, reverb units, Dunlop rack wah system, and a midi switching system. Eight Peavey Butcher 4x12s, and eight Peavey Butcher heads. I had 10 guitars onstage, a Yamaha DX7 with soundbank, electric acousting on a seperate stand, and a custOM mini B.C.Rich Mockingbird mounted on a mic stand set up for slide. Damn, I really miss the 80s...
I absolutely LOVE Steve Lukather’s playing. He probably my all time favorite guitarist. But that little diddy he did at 8:45 is what we used to call a coke twitch. Kinda like a goosebump shiver. Hey, I’m not knocking him for it. It was the 80’s man! For many of us it was winter all year long. You know....always “snowing”. I remember watching this video when it came out and we used to laugh because all through it you would hear him do his “second wave sniffle”. So happy he (and a lot of us) cleaned ourselves up since.
Having started on guitar in the early 80s, this clip was really a scream! The vintage strat all hacked to bit to fit all this insane amount of stuff - wild! The Bradshaw gigs were insane! Over the top! Really loved the video - great choice! Very fun to watch and to remind us of the 80's excess.
I saw one in the 90s where Billy Gibbons said he goes on tour with a pretty minimalist rig, but at every stop he checks out the local pawn shops and guitar stores and by the end of the tour he's got all kinds of new pedals and guitars
In the 80th i used to play a Vintage Stratocaster through a Silverface Twin Reverb with a Rat, now i bought a Rocktron VooDu Valve, a Transistor Poweramp and a Hamer Special FM, greetings from Germany
RJ's reaction on micheal angelo's dive bomb is the face of my Filipino mom when I told her i dont want to be a nurse and proceeded to say "ar u stooped?"
We need more of these!! This was great. It brings back memories of watching the old 80s dudes rigs in the clubs growing up back in the mid 2000s. Made me want rackmounts and stacks...Now I'm getting ready to sell my 120w head and 4x12 for a 50w and 2x12. How times have changed.
Love this new format, RJ! Please do more. Michael Angelo's hair stole the show for me, but if I had to pick a favorite piece of gear it has to be the tri-chorus. I had the Keeley Dyno My Roto with a tri-chorus mode on it that instantly put me in the 80s, but now regretting selling it after watching this.
Ok, I was no star or an anybody, but my band did open for Slaughter once....My rig was simple...ADA MP1, Carvin power amp (solid state) a ART rack mounted multi-effects and a Carvin 4X12 cabinet. ..... my guitar was a left handed Kramer Nightswan....I still have the Kramer...though it's beat to crap and has a right handed Nightswan neck.....long story.....but started with my drummer tripping over my guitar during practice....
@@JPTyler lol...no...he and I were the main writers in the band....he did pay for a new neck...but like an idiot, at the time I replaced the original with an ESP neck...I should just have replaced it with Kramer....well the neck I got wasn't to scale...so it created more of a mess...years later a friend found an original neck from some comp that must have bought left over stock from Kramer...he ordered it for me as a gift...but it was right handed...
George Lynch is a toolbag. He had a fit, berated, publicly humiliated and generally abused his stage crew, threw down his guitar and walked out of a show, because he was having a technical difficulty with his rig. He still owes me $23.
I have a Boss katana head and 2x12 cab, with a tuner and crybaby wah in front, and a GAFC footswitch to turn my chorus/flange/delay/reverb on and off. No rack required
Luke with that Valley Arts guitar and all that grease, not to mention the killer opening jam he played on his Star Licks lesson was so badass! Fun video R.J. nice to relive the golden years, I think my back still hurts from hauling my rig around back in the day!
I bought my first electric guitar rig in 1991. It was all rack stuff, but it was actually pretty compact and simple. I had an ADA Microtube 100 power amp, a Rocktron mAXE preamp and an ART DR-X multieffects processor. I had two ADA vertical half stacks with 50 watt Celestions in them (2X12 in each one) and I ran the whole thing in stereo. That was my bedroom practice rig, lol. About 10 years later I added an ADA MP-1 that I bought used. The first time I went to a guy’s house to jam I brought the whole rig with me. The 4 rack units were in a road case, and it weighed about 85 pounds all together. As the drummer and bassist helped me to haul everything down to the basement they looked at me like I probably needed a drug test, lol.
Seen MAB right before Covid and he can still play extremely well. I used to run some rack stuff back then (Fender Super 60, Digitech 256XL, ect...) then went back to combos. My first Rivera M60 4x10 was mindblowing, but that was early 90s. Now I'm back to small Fender Princeton Reverbs and a couple pedals like back in the 70s. Full circle I guess...
11:45 Those Korg Modular pedal boards are so ridiculously 80's that I have to have one. I do think the idea of being able to move effects around in order is something that was a great idea back then.
I keep telling myself to pull out my old ‘80s rack, but I also keep forgetting to do it.😂 Most of what’s in it are stereo, studio effects that can also be used onstage, but it does have two guitar-specific effects: an old Rockman in its somewhat rare rack mount. The other is a Digitech GSP-5 that I bought to use in the band I was in while stationed in Korea. The latter truly has all the “sounds of the 80s” guitar tones, but that Rockman just has that “Boston tone” that Tom Scholtz created. It’s not only unmistakable, it’s unavoidable when you plug into one. SO much fun!!
My Rig,,, Soldano and Bogner pre amps,,, VHT - 2150, Marshall center dry amp,,, 3-4x12's Ground Control switcher. Rev 7,,Rocktron multi effects, Tri Stereo Chorus, Rane mixer, All of this crap to do a gig for no money,,, and carry it all up 2 flights of stairs when I got home. Crazy. Oh,, Lepard print, purple spandex and Aqua net.
This was the best video yet. I was instantly back just out of High School attempting to learn all I could about guitar, and totally remember watching these instructional videos. There was a really good Eric Johnson one (the 1st of a few) that had crazy cool hair as well as a good gear section. Thanks for doing these, they are great.
I loved 80s rock, but even back then I thought all the rack mounted stuff was unnecessary. Glad that grunge killed off most of that. Although if you look at the rig videos today, a lot of the big acts still have a lot of rack mounted stuff, usually shoved in the back somewhere for the guitar tech to switch in while the player is playing. Most of the local bands I saw in the 80s-90s didn't have a ton of stuff, pedalboards into a Marshall, mainly. So the rack trend didn't always creep down to the street level.
This was awesome! I still have my 2 1989 Westones with reverse headstocks that I airbrushed and played gigs with. Good times. This was awesome to watch. I had the George Lynch video for sure, maybe a couple others too. Remember those cassette tapes that broke down the guitar solos at half speed so you could learn to play them? I had lots of those, mostly Van Halen, and that was how I learned to play Eruption. I think I some for Dokken too. Great memories!
My first real guitar (the very first being a POS from Sears that my mother bought for me) was an Ibanez Roadstar II (RS-440) in dark red. After hearing Night Ranger, I knew I wanted a red guitar with a tremolo. So I paid $350 (in 1985) for a brand new Ibanez from Sam Ash Music in White Plains, NY. I didn't know it had a push/push knob to split the humbucker until my guitar teach reached over and pushed it. I guess that says a lot about the Sam Ash salesman. Anyway, the pickups were weak but the tremolo took a hell of a beating from me (trying to play like Brad Gillis) and it always stayed in tune.
I have a cort guitar that HAD all the buttons on it with built in effects from the '90s, I think? Somewhere along the way, the electronics died, so it's wired like a normal guitar.
They were better magazines then. I have lots of 80s and early 90s guitar world and guitar player ,they are the best . I find them unreadable these days ,more+like coffee table books
I remeber that old advertisement/documentary video from VHS some shop (I think in California) did in the 80's. They were building these huge custom racks, based around Mesa/Boogie gear. They had all bells and whistles, some of them were as big as Gilmore's rig, some of them even had rackmount CRT monitors in them. Totally over the top but also totally awesome. I wish I was able to track that video down.
I remember somewhere between 1984 and 1987 Guitar Player magazine had a contest where you could win Steve Vai's rig. It included one or two guitars, a marshall stack, a Carvin stack and then two big 6 ft tall racks full of effects units.
"Aparently in the 80's, there were blue tigers.?.: I was there too R.J and yes..... there definitely were blue tigers. I love that Brad was on here. I freakin love that guy.
In the 1980's 70's strats were easy to come by. All the shredders routed them out for a humbucker and a Kahler or Floyd and/or painted them funky colors. When they ended up in music stores they were always pretty cheep. I picked up a '79 in 1986 that had nothing but a humbucker and a Kahler for $325. I still use it as my main guitar today, it's HSS and I had to have the neck redone as I wore it out but those guitars had some of the fastest necks ever made. So many brands like Charvel copied them. It's the reason why stock '70's Strats are so expensive and so hard to come by. Fender actually paid attention and started making Strats with humbuckers and better tremolos.
I still have a promotional sustaniac pack with a flexi demo record from 1989. This was before they had the drop in pickup. It was cumbersome and had a fat cable you had to run down the back of the guitar, down the neck and to the headstock.
In one of his interviews he goes more into the guitar. He got it in basically pieces and the original finish was sanded off. It wasn't some time capsule '62 Strat with original tags and a mint finish.
The 1st time I saw the Lukather video, on TH-cam, just for fun I dialed up overdrive, delay and chorus on my Roland Micro Cube GX, and, sure enough, I got a similar type of tone. Not as big and loud, of course, but still. Technology’s amazing.
LOL That was a fantastic video! I hope there's more to come! I mean, you should make it a series please! Bring back that phenomenal 80's gear and vibe!
Adrian Belew’s Electronic Guitar video is kicking around on a TH-cam, and that is probably the ultimate - even he calls the amount of gear in his setup ridiculous...
About 10 years ago I was going to the NAMM show and Michael Angelo Batio was on our flight. I didn't realize who he was, I just saw lots of 80's hair. We get to the baggage claim and as we're waiting for our bag, he heads over to oversized luggage, gets a case, sits it down right behind us and opens up the double guitar. Instantly we all looked at each other and went, "It's THAT guy!"
I've been away a few weeks and it's great to see that you've now passed 100k subscribers. I've been a fan since you only had about 25k. Congratulations dude, well done
In the 90s all this rack stuff got really cheap and it was a good way to get a great sound for a decent amount of money. I had two Marshall cabs, left and right, split through a rack. Nothing like what these guys had. Some kind of Alesis and an ART for effects. Lee Jackson preamp and a Mosvalve power amp. 180 watts or 90 watts per side. I still have most of it. I remember switching to a Fender Twin in college and thinking how much easier it was. It probably weight 90 pounds but it was still easier to deal with than all that other shit.
< i used a small rack with an a.r.t. nightbass and alesis quadraverb with a epiphone strat to 150w peavey back in the 90s/ this takes me back for sure/ thank you >
After all the digital processors in my rack(6'tall)they started making yet another unit to try n regain a semblance to the original analog signal.Geez/greaseey af.When you said it was expensive you're right,as Luke said.I was playing clubs and all my $ went into my gear.My wife didnt understand,lol!But that was the guitar sound on all the hits of the day and we were a cover band,so...I dumped it all later and only used my tube screamer for years.Best decision ever,lol
Theres just something about that Brad Gillis strat. Id love to see an in depth look at it with Premier guitar to see it in the state its in after all these years .
Trevor Rabin’s Star Licks video came out in the early 1990’s but contained the most in depth breakdown of a Bradshaw rig I had seen up to that point in time and also the first mention of Digidesign and Pro Tools I ever heard.
ADA MP-1 into an Alesis Quadraverb into a Marshall 9100 power amp. Somehow I had a Chandler Tube driver up front in case I needed more gain. Because it was the 80's and sure, why not more f***** gain.
@@kospandx Whatever it was, it was a single rack Marshall power amp...I had the 9100 at some point, but it was't the first rack power amp I had..it's been a few decades...
My favorite rack gear are the racks I built myself, and still use to this day. A LOT of ADA gear with some Eventide, and Lexicon racks for their trademark effects, mixed with Rane SM-26 Line Level Mixers. I can go on, but this stuff will be showing up soon in videos
How about Tom Sholz racks and racks of effects? I know he is primarily thought of as a 1970's guitarist, but he did invent the "Rockman" and Boston was pretty popular in the 1980's with Amanda.
Stage volume was much louder back in the day making feedback more of a problem. The 80s was all about a million guitar players trying to catch up to Van Halen! Everyone running around with ADA pre-amps and hush units. When was the last time anyone worried about noise reduction? I had one of those blue rocktron things :D Good times. I could hardly afford a guitar, never mind a fridge to carry around with it.
Steve lukather definitely king of guitar racks 🤭 I've watched Toto on early 2000s and late 2010s. I've seen how Steve's rack shrinking from 2 refrigerator to half rack 😁
RJ totally Awesome So effects in guitars -- about 5vyrs. ago I had the pleasure of seeing the incredible Jose Feliciano in the front row-- he was playing ELECTRIC YESSSSSS- so you'd think one of the richest entertainers (Feliz Naxidad) would tour with two roadies a rack of guitars dozens of . ..blah blah .. .Nope ONE Electric ONE Acoustic on the electric ALL EFECTS WERE BUILT IN (he couldn't see effects on the floor ) so in the middle of 2nd electric song the trill is gone POP A String I was gonna run out to the guitar to hand him my trunk guitar--- but he wouldn't have used it as there was nothing built in --- whole remaining set Nylon --- and he was incredible Thanks for your vids
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As a touring guitarist in the 80's my rig consisted of a Les Paul into a JCM 800 with a Boss EQ and a DM-2 Delay. The only big racks I was interested in were in the front row:)
Really hope 9 more people like this.
There are exactly 69 likes on this top comment
As it should be
Mine was same lol.. had the eq which I also kinda used as boost and used chorus pedal I added delay later.
A solid rig for sure.
You want a medal?
When the steve lukather starlicks video came out, I, aged about 15 or 16, went and bought an emg 85. I still have it, it sounds nothing like a modern 85, and it absolutely rages.
"The higher the hair, the closer to God" is one of the best descriptions of 80s metal I've ever heard. 👏
Adrian Belew's gear rundown - I remember renting it! He goes through the effects, but also how he got his early 80s sounds...
Laughed all the way through. Badass playing by vanishing characters. Remember those racks and their mysterious lights.
I got a wicked Jackson 1 unit rack pre amp from the 80's. got 2 pre amp tubes and a button on the front that says SHRED! Couldnt ask for anything more in life!
I love how Michael Angelo also immediately runs through his signal chain and brags about being in stereo..... and then immediately goes into a seizure with a whammy bar.
Hands down one of the most entertaining videos I've seen in months!! Vintage gear, reaction shots and a healthy dose of grease!! Please do a part 2 RJ!!
Well said!!
Those big rack rigs are not only expensive, space hogs, but they weigh a metric f-ton! I couldn't be paid enough to hump that about!
80's rigs, amazingly, are still unsurpassed.
It was all about the hair! Everything else would follow 🎸
2 years later I still love this video. More REH and Hot Licks video reviews please!
Lukather's is the total LA session archetype. He was like the proving ground that so many others followed. I can't say that it was my favorite thing, but it is THE thing. Brad Gillis' tone on "Speak of the Devil" is insanely good. It has that stereo'd sound to it. The guys as Atomic Guitar Works in Phoenix were still installing the wireless units into his guitars within the last 10 years! They did the same for Joel when he was in Night Ranger. Michael Angelo can't have had as much bread as either of the other guys, hence the pedals. Side Note - remember when Vai came out with the 2-necked heart guitar in a David Lee Roth video? We were all like, Michael Angelo has GOT to be PISSED!!! Love this vid!
I did the studio set ups for Luke in the 80's and 90's. It was Bob Bradshaws fault... It was ever evolving.. We had issues often... Luke and issues don't mix.
These rigs are hysterical. Your reaction shots are great. I like this format and if you can find more topics like this, you should make more. Props for that Uncle Larry shirt.
And Uncle Larry himself at 0:27 doing a rig rundown. 🤓
Mr. Bouchard - I'm betting you've seen a few insane rigs in your time....Also some of the drum setups from the 70s and 80s could be pretty intense also.
And State of the Art Back then, Bet the Cult had some Big stuff/Buck of Course, bet you had quite the Drum set then?
At the height of my rig in the 80s, I had two 18 space racks full of processors, eqs, delays, reverb units, Dunlop rack wah system, and a midi switching system. Eight Peavey Butcher 4x12s, and eight Peavey Butcher heads. I had 10 guitars onstage, a Yamaha DX7 with soundbank, electric acousting on a seperate stand, and a custOM mini B.C.Rich Mockingbird mounted on a mic stand set up for slide. Damn, I really miss the 80s...
Holy halfstacks batman. lol.
what u do with it all
I absolutely LOVE Steve Lukather’s playing. He probably my all time favorite guitarist. But that little diddy he did at 8:45 is what we used to call a coke twitch. Kinda like a goosebump shiver. Hey, I’m not knocking him for it. It was the 80’s man! For many of us it was winter all year long. You know....always “snowing”. I remember watching this video when it came out and we used to laugh because all through it you would hear him do his “second wave sniffle”. So happy he (and a lot of us) cleaned ourselves up since.
"I play 4 100 watt marshall stacks" ....just yes!!!!! Loved the video man!
Hilarious indeed. But Luke is still the man. Such a character and generational player and all around cool dude.
Lol. I don’t know who you are talking about??? He’s the biggest jerk in rock but totally awesome guitarist.
Having started on guitar in the early 80s, this clip was really a scream! The vintage strat all hacked to bit to fit all this insane amount of stuff - wild! The Bradshaw gigs were insane! Over the top! Really loved the video - great choice! Very fun to watch and to remind us of the 80's excess.
I saw one in the 90s where Billy Gibbons said he goes on tour with a pretty minimalist rig, but at every stop he checks out the local pawn shops and guitar stores and by the end of the tour he's got all kinds of new pedals and guitars
This is hilarious. Felt like I was watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Love me some mst3k
The new Crow was way better than O.G. crow IMO
Bring back the 80s! No more Helix and Kempers
Nothing is more 80s than a shitload of effects going through solid-state.
PLEASE MAKE MORE OF THESE
In the 80th i used to play a Vintage Stratocaster through a Silverface Twin Reverb with a Rat, now i bought a Rocktron VooDu Valve, a Transistor Poweramp and a Hamer Special FM, greetings from Germany
I didn't think I was going to like this topic but this video turned out to be one of my favorites.
RJ's reaction on micheal angelo's dive bomb is the face of my Filipino mom when I told her i dont want to be a nurse and proceeded to say "ar u stooped?"
This is by far one of the best vids out there … classic vhs videos w RJ commentary lmao such a brilliant idea …nobody else clda made this that fun !
We need more of these!! This was great. It brings back memories of watching the old 80s dudes rigs in the clubs growing up back in the mid 2000s. Made me want rackmounts and stacks...Now I'm getting ready to sell my 120w head and 4x12 for a 50w and 2x12. How times have changed.
Love this new format, RJ! Please do more. Michael Angelo's hair stole the show for me, but if I had to pick a favorite piece of gear it has to be the tri-chorus. I had the Keeley Dyno My Roto with a tri-chorus mode on it that instantly put me in the 80s, but now regretting selling it after watching this.
I’m all in for more rack content. I can’t wait for the “Get it off the floor” movement.
Ok, I was no star or an anybody, but my band did open for Slaughter once....My rig was simple...ADA MP1, Carvin power amp (solid state) a ART rack mounted multi-effects and a Carvin 4X12 cabinet. ..... my guitar was a left handed Kramer Nightswan....I still have the Kramer...though it's beat to crap and has a right handed Nightswan neck.....long story.....but started with my drummer tripping over my guitar during practice....
Annnnnndddddd you fired the drummer, right?😶
@@JPTyler lol...no...he and I were the main writers in the band....he did pay for a new neck...but like an idiot, at the time I replaced the original with an ESP neck...I should just have replaced it with Kramer....well the neck I got wasn't to scale...so it created more of a mess...years later a friend found an original neck from some comp that must have bought left over stock from Kramer...he ordered it for me as a gift...but it was right handed...
Having been a teen in the 80s I live for this stuff . It’s 1990 but I just bought a Boss SE50 half rack size stereo effects unit
You left poor Carlos Cavazo alone in the background
Bro no George Lynch!?! Great vid!
Part 2!
@@RJRonquillo Would be cool if you would include Brian May's Star Licks tape.
George Lynch is a toolbag. He had a fit, berated, publicly humiliated and generally abused his stage crew, threw down his guitar and walked out of a show, because he was having a technical difficulty with his rig. He still owes me $23.
@@springbloom5940 when did this happen??
@@johnmarshall3903
Probably around '94?
This is beyond entertaining. The commentary is gold!
I have a Boss katana head and 2x12 cab, with a tuner and crybaby wah in front, and a GAFC footswitch to turn my chorus/flange/delay/reverb on and off. No rack required
Luke with that Valley Arts guitar and all that grease, not to mention the killer opening jam he played on his Star Licks lesson was so badass! Fun video R.J. nice to relive the golden years, I think my back still hurts from hauling my rig around back in the day!
"The higher the hair, the closer to God". Thank you for the greatest reaction videos on TH-cam. Freaking awesome.
I love and use rack gear and pedals. It can be complex and modular/portable. Very overlooked these days.
I bought my first electric guitar rig in 1991. It was all rack stuff, but it was actually pretty compact and simple. I had an ADA Microtube 100 power amp, a Rocktron mAXE preamp and an ART DR-X multieffects processor. I had two ADA vertical half stacks with 50 watt Celestions in them (2X12 in each one) and I ran the whole thing in stereo. That was my bedroom practice rig, lol. About 10 years later I added an ADA MP-1 that I bought used. The first time I went to a guy’s house to jam I brought the whole rig with me. The 4 rack units were in a road case, and it weighed about 85 pounds all together. As the drummer and bassist helped me to haul everything down to the basement they looked at me like I probably needed a drug test, lol.
Seen MAB right before Covid and he can still play extremely well. I used to run some rack stuff back then (Fender Super 60, Digitech 256XL, ect...) then went back to combos. My first Rivera M60 4x10 was mindblowing, but that was early 90s. Now I'm back to small Fender Princeton Reverbs and a couple pedals like back in the 70s. Full circle I guess...
the world needs more of this!
11:45 Those Korg Modular pedal boards are so ridiculously 80's that I have to have one. I do think the idea of being able to move effects around in order is something that was a great idea back then.
I keep telling myself to pull out my old ‘80s rack, but I also keep forgetting to do it.😂 Most of what’s in it are stereo, studio effects that can also be used onstage, but it does have two guitar-specific effects: an old Rockman in its somewhat rare rack mount. The other is a Digitech GSP-5 that I bought to use in the band I was in while stationed in Korea. The latter truly has all the “sounds of the 80s” guitar tones, but that Rockman just has that “Boston tone” that Tom Scholtz created. It’s not only unmistakable, it’s unavoidable when you plug into one. SO much fun!!
I like the buttons and switches in guitar idea.
I have never watched you before but this was masterful! You have such a dry, sarcastic, and incisive sense of humor. Well done, sir!
My Rig,,, Soldano and Bogner pre amps,,, VHT - 2150, Marshall center dry amp,,, 3-4x12's Ground Control switcher. Rev 7,,Rocktron multi effects, Tri Stereo Chorus, Rane mixer, All of this crap to do a gig for no money,,, and carry it all up 2 flights of stairs when I got home. Crazy. Oh,, Lepard print, purple spandex and Aqua net.
Steve Clark's Gibson Les Paul XR-1, and the JCM 800 100WT - I've read that the JCM was modded, but I can't verify it. What a beautiful tone.
Those big rigs were real fun to play with every unit back then was amazing and we were always looking for more
This was the best video yet. I was instantly back just out of High School attempting to learn all I could about guitar, and totally remember watching these instructional videos.
There was a really good Eric Johnson one (the 1st of a few) that had crazy cool hair as well as a good gear section.
Thanks for doing these, they are great.
I loved 80s rock, but even back then I thought all the rack mounted stuff was unnecessary. Glad that grunge killed off most of that. Although if you look at the rig videos today, a lot of the big acts still have a lot of rack mounted stuff, usually shoved in the back somewhere for the guitar tech to switch in while the player is playing. Most of the local bands I saw in the 80s-90s didn't have a ton of stuff, pedalboards into a Marshall, mainly. So the rack trend didn't always creep down to the street level.
This was awesome! I still have my 2 1989 Westones with reverse headstocks that I airbrushed and played gigs with. Good times. This was awesome to watch. I had the George Lynch video for sure, maybe a couple others too. Remember those cassette tapes that broke down the guitar solos at half speed so you could learn to play them? I had lots of those, mostly Van Halen, and that was how I learned to play Eruption. I think I some for Dokken too. Great memories!
brad gillis doing that Zappa neck flick when he says something he is really proud of ..love it (4:22)
My first real guitar (the very first being a POS from Sears that my mother bought for me) was an Ibanez Roadstar II (RS-440) in dark red. After hearing Night Ranger, I knew I wanted a red guitar with a tremolo. So I paid $350 (in 1985) for a brand new Ibanez from Sam Ash Music in White Plains, NY. I didn't know it had a push/push knob to split the humbucker until my guitar teach reached over and pushed it. I guess that says a lot about the Sam Ash salesman. Anyway, the pickups were weak but the tremolo took a hell of a beating from me (trying to play like Brad Gillis) and it always stayed in tune.
I have a cort guitar that HAD all the buttons on it with built in effects from the '90s, I think? Somewhere along the way, the electronics died, so it's wired like a normal guitar.
That was great. Miss those days. Definitely need some Lynch in the next one
Love it! Total flashback for me as well. Now you have to cover Rockman by Tom Scholz!
This was a very nice video to watch
Ah I miss the simple days browsing the guitar magazines.
Yes! Dreaming of the day when I could buy one of those Mesas or one of the 5150's...
They were better magazines then. I have lots of 80s and early 90s guitar world and guitar player ,they are the best . I find them unreadable these days ,more+like coffee table books
@@Havanacuba1985 I haven't even seen the current magazines. But yes, the 80s and early 90s were great 👍
I remeber that old advertisement/documentary video from VHS some shop (I think in California) did in the 80's. They were building these huge custom racks, based around Mesa/Boogie gear. They had all bells and whistles, some of them were as big as Gilmore's rig, some of them even had rackmount CRT monitors in them. Totally over the top but also totally awesome. I wish I was able to track that video down.
I remember somewhere between 1984 and 1987 Guitar Player magazine had a contest where you could win Steve Vai's rig. It included one or two guitars, a marshall stack, a Carvin stack and then two big 6 ft tall racks full of effects units.
"Aparently in the 80's, there were blue tigers.?.: I was there too R.J and yes..... there definitely were blue tigers. I love that Brad was on here. I freakin love that guy.
In the 1980's 70's strats were easy to come by. All the shredders routed them out for a humbucker and a Kahler or Floyd and/or painted them funky colors. When they ended up in music stores they were always pretty cheep. I picked up a '79 in 1986 that had nothing but a humbucker and a Kahler for $325. I still use it as my main guitar today, it's HSS and I had to have the neck redone as I wore it out but those guitars had some of the fastest necks ever made. So many brands like Charvel copied them. It's the reason why stock '70's Strats are so expensive and so hard to come by. Fender actually paid attention and started making Strats with humbuckers and better tremolos.
I lo be 70's Strats. I don't care what the vintage experts say
Love
I still have a promotional sustaniac pack with a flexi demo record from 1989. This was before they had the drop in pickup. It was cumbersome and had a fat cable you had to run down the back of the guitar, down the neck and to the headstock.
Just picked up a Lexicon PCM 70, a Roland SDE 3000, and a Yamaha SPX - let the cheese flow!
In one of his interviews he goes more into the guitar. He got it in basically pieces and the original finish was sanded off. It wasn't some time capsule '62 Strat with original tags and a mint finish.
Dude, gotta love that "That's What She Said" joke!
Man , I lived that stuff !! This video took me back hard !! Loved it !! Thanks for the time machine moment !! Please do more like this ?!
The 1st time I saw the Lukather video, on TH-cam, just for fun I dialed up overdrive, delay and chorus on my Roland Micro Cube GX, and, sure enough, I got a similar type of tone. Not as big and loud, of course, but still. Technology’s amazing.
I usually think reaction videos are lame but this one was pretty funny and well done. Keep the funny coming!
Brad's guitar is probably the best guitar ever in all aspects of thinking period.
Really enjoyed this video, brings back memories of lusting after rack mounted gear. Please make more of this videos, cheers!
Alex Lifeson ventured into the edge of excess in the 80's with his refridgerator racks and custom speaker cabinets/ palmer speaker simulators...
LOL That was a fantastic video! I hope there's more to come! I mean, you should make it a series please! Bring back that phenomenal 80's gear and vibe!
No one does these types of guitar videos better
Adrian Belew’s Electronic Guitar video is kicking around on a TH-cam, and that is probably the ultimate - even he calls the amount of gear in his setup ridiculous...
Bro! That is slick how he has all the switches built in the body of the guitar!
Lukather starlicks is still my favorite! "the delay crossed" (stereo) 😁
Love the idea of effects switching with buttons on the guitar. I’ve always wanted to try a Livid guitar wing.
Wow. What a huge giggle. Marvellous video!
About 10 years ago I was going to the NAMM show and Michael Angelo Batio was on our flight. I didn't realize who he was, I just saw lots of 80's hair. We get to the baggage claim and as we're waiting for our bag, he heads over to oversized luggage, gets a case, sits it down right behind us and opens up the double guitar. Instantly we all looked at each other and went, "It's THAT guy!"
This is awesome. My buddies and I were huge fans of the Hot Licks videos back in the day.
Getting greased up to slide back into the 80s for a $10,000 reverb rig! Fun stuff RJ!!
I've been away a few weeks and it's great to see that you've now passed 100k subscribers. I've been a fan since you only had about 25k. Congratulations dude, well done
Ha! Ha! This was gold. I love rack shit & grew up lusting over it all in the magazines. I use a mix of some old school units & modern stomp boxes.
In the 90s all this rack stuff got really cheap and it was a good way to get a great sound for a decent amount of money. I had two Marshall cabs, left and right, split through a rack. Nothing like what these guys had. Some kind of Alesis and an ART for effects. Lee Jackson preamp and a Mosvalve power amp. 180 watts or 90 watts per side. I still have most of it. I remember switching to a Fender Twin in college and thinking how much easier it was. It probably weight 90 pounds but it was still easier to deal with than all that other shit.
mid 80's I was on stage playing keys next to a guy with a dual Mesa Boogie stack... still waiting for the hearing to return in my right ear
< i used a small rack with an a.r.t. nightbass and alesis quadraverb with a epiphone strat to 150w peavey back in the 90s/ this takes me back for sure/ thank you >
After all the digital processors in my rack(6'tall)they started making yet another unit to try n regain a semblance to the original analog signal.Geez/greaseey af.When you said it was expensive you're right,as Luke said.I was playing clubs and all my $ went into my gear.My wife didnt understand,lol!But that was the guitar sound on all the hits of the day and we were a cover band,so...I dumped it all later and only used my tube screamer for years.Best decision ever,lol
Theres just something about that Brad Gillis strat.
Id love to see an in depth look at it with Premier guitar to see it in the state its in after all these years .
Trevor Rabin’s Star Licks video came out in the early 1990’s but contained the most in depth breakdown of a Bradshaw rig I had seen up to that point in time and also the first mention of Digidesign and Pro Tools I ever heard.
ADA MP-1 into an Alesis Quadraverb into a Marshall 9100 power amp. Somehow I had a Chandler Tube driver up front in case I needed more gain. Because it was the 80's and sure, why not more f***** gain.
That can't be right: the 9100 was introduced in 1993. Was is perchance a 9005?
@@kospandx Whatever it was, it was a single rack Marshall power amp...I had the 9100 at some point, but it was't the first rack power amp I had..it's been a few decades...
My favorite rack gear are the racks I built myself, and still use to this day. A LOT of ADA gear with some Eventide, and Lexicon racks for their trademark effects, mixed with Rane SM-26 Line Level Mixers.
I can go on, but this stuff will be showing up soon in videos
How about Tom Sholz racks and racks of effects? I know he is primarily thought of as a 1970's guitarist, but he did invent the "Rockman" and Boston was pretty popular in the 1980's with Amanda.
Stage volume was much louder back in the day making feedback more of a problem.
The 80s was all about a million guitar players trying to catch up to Van Halen! Everyone running around with ADA pre-amps and hush units. When was the last time anyone worried about noise reduction?
I had one of those blue rocktron things :D Good times. I could hardly afford a guitar, never mind a fridge to carry around with it.
Steve lukather definitely king of guitar racks 🤭
I've watched Toto on early 2000s and late 2010s. I've seen how Steve's rack shrinking from 2 refrigerator to half rack 😁
This video is perfect in so many ways
This is an Epic Episode. Well done! The facial expressions during the whammy bar tantrum were PRICELESS!
RJ totally Awesome
So effects in guitars -- about 5vyrs. ago I had the pleasure of seeing the incredible Jose Feliciano in the front row-- he was playing ELECTRIC YESSSSSS- so you'd think one of the richest entertainers (Feliz Naxidad) would tour with two roadies a rack of guitars dozens of . ..blah blah .. .Nope ONE Electric ONE Acoustic on the electric ALL EFECTS WERE BUILT IN (he couldn't see effects on the floor ) so in the middle of 2nd electric song the trill is gone POP A String I was gonna run out to the guitar to hand him my trunk guitar--- but he wouldn't have used it as there was nothing built in --- whole remaining set Nylon --- and he was incredible
Thanks for your vids
This video was awesome! I remember every single one of these interviews “back in the day!”