🔴 Other than Boston, Satch, and Def Leppard, other players that have recorded with the Rockman are Billy Gibbons, Jerry Cantrell, and Megadeth. Can you name some others and/or famous songs?? ALSO: I mistakenly claimed the UK brand, JHS (John Hornby Skewes) was not in business anymore. In fact they are: www.jhs.co.uk (Although the Rock Box is no longer in production)
I saw in a vid in Eddie Van Halen's effect rack in his 5150 studio , the 9.5" Rockman Sustainer unit an Equalizer uinit (on OU812 there are some songs that remind me of it )in this vid " Eddie Van Halen's Home Studio (1998) | You Had To Be There"
That was the thing back then, you can’t really crap on sounds that we’re cool at one time but were not cool anymore and something else became popular. I think the 80’s hard rock guitar sounds aged not bad. The songs are still amazing and we all still rock out to them.
Its almost like it was designed by an engineer who was a musician that knew exactly what sound he wanted and created a no fuss magic box to get that sound in a convenient preset package without all the hassle of a bunch of different pedals and amps to record with...............oh wait it was!😉😁🎸
And Then forgot to force the world to buy just 1 record player brand. There's THOUSANDS Of different brands playing Def leopard source material. There's THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of different versions of this video.
And remember, this was the '80s, and this is analog! Man made a rock and roll power amp the size of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That's impressive!
I had one of these in the 80's. I walked around high school - playing my Rockman X100 in my headphones - and just KNEW I was going to 'make it' someday. (I didn't - but still play guitar)
My buddy and I would walk through the neighborhood with our guitars and pignose amps...we had the same dellusions of grandeur. I too still fuck around with some new buddies now...still stink but we have a blast.
@@SEILLC Yeah.... thats the biggest problem for most musicians. Being constantly broke even with two side jobs. Been there and done that. Some are lucky and make it.... must be a nice view from the top, no doubt.
Yup. My brother had one and my brother in law. Instant Arena Rock 🪨 🤘 🔈. Making it in the entertainment business is overrated. The important thing is that you’re still playing. ✌️
The closest thing I think would be that Ryan Adams pedal (which has reverb, chorus and a booster in the same pedal). Unfortunately I have never heard of something similar to Rockman :(
Back in 1985, ESS out of California made a footswitch enclosure for the Rockman X100 at a cost of $300. You had to ship the Rockman to them and they would modify it for the footswitch and ship it back. I still have mine from 1985 and it still works. Played gigs with the Rockman for many years.
Search RU-vid for "rockman pedal"... there are two adaptations of the X100. One is American-made (I think!) and the other is Japanese (they call it "Goat'). It would seem that neither is reasonably cheap, but they do sound right.
Those tones are great, but they absolutely sound like the 80s. Some very different modulated sounds being used today by bands like turnstile. I love them all!
From WHAT? There's over 2 million players since def leopard began. Just last year there was 500 headphones. Do you expecte me to tryout 500 headphones and 64,000 PC's and 5000 TV's? I think You're full of shit mate.
Seems more like oogmeen needs a History lesson in music and engineering. There are sounds such as the "Rockman" or the "Prince" clean R&B sounds that musicians and producers spend 10's of thousands $$ on gear to try and reproduce or "improve" and still fall short every time. The reason DM said they still hold up today is because they do. You're just hearing a hacked-up bastardized version of it..
Yep I was in college as a guitar major on Long Island in New York City in the 80s and this fucking thing came out and I was blown away. I went out and bought it immediately. We used it inside the school all the time because he either had that or you had a pig nose amp little tiny ones
My wife bought me one, when they first came out... For my birthday. (Which coincidentally is today... 72 and still jamming) I think it was circa $180.00.... She handed it to me with a large smile and said "now you can play through the ear phones". It was a great sound.... And, It really loved to eat those AA's. After years of use/abuse it finally gave up.
@@MindsetMastery75 did you watch the video? 80's bands used it. us old farts remember rockman from the 80's. what don't you understand? there's a photo in the vid of the creator playing live with racks of ...rockman products behind him.
My then 16yo girlfriend bought me one for Christmas 1987 when I left for the Air Force. I had never heard of it before receiving it. I do remember it was back ordered as Christmas came and went but I eventually did receive this amazing box. LET ME TELL YOU, I came to depend on that thing to get me thru 4 years of the air force and beyond. I could play without disturbing anyone, keep in mind this was 1987 and the ability to play electric via small portable unit with headphones was unimaginable at that point. I plugged it into my dual cassette boom box to play when I wanted to hear it without headphones AND I could record right to cassette. The tones were satisfying and inspiring, I still have it but has long stopped working. It lived it's life to the fullest for sure!
Get it refurbed. Mine is getting all cleaned up at the moment. It's a specialized piece of gear, so things like capacitors rotted out. Well worth refurbing.
@@thomcat1969x His name is Dwight Baker. His email is b5amps@me.com. I opted to get the $85 refurb option & the $85 Embedded Power Supply (EPS) option. No more batteries. Altogether with shipping: $132.
Tom Scholz inspired me as a young guitarist to design and build my own amplifiers. It wasn't that my end product became as popular as Rockman but the process of my design, prototyping, tweaking, and constructing formed an incredible discipline for me. A hobby that was closely aligned with my guitar interests that kept me busy while others my age were out getting into trouble. I attribute these disciplines to my later successes while designing automation technologies used in both the manufacturing and in the equities trading markets. I also had a grandfather who was an electronics engineer who I used to visit and watch in wonder. Young people today all want to get rich and be like Elon. But instead of spending hours on TikTok dreaming they need to be seeking out mentors because without Tom Scholz and my grandfather I would never be where I am today.
@@HunnysPlaylistsI retired young. Now working hard to raise my young boys to become men. My previous companies I sold are not my legacy- my sons are. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be there for them everyday. :)
Back in the 80's, I had a Rockman Sustainor, Stereo Chorus, Stereo delay, and EQ in a rack case and ran direct into the PA. Our singer used the Distortion Generator direct. We had no amps on stage at all. This video brings back really great memories! The Rockman stuff sounded so great and you really couldn't make it sound bad. I wish I had kept all that gear!
@@clarkburr it's vintage now! I had a Pro co r2du. Double distortion . rack 1. Wish i had . i think they make something similar. Crazy prices for old stuff. They shld make it again. Plus a lot of that 80' s 90' s stuff is broken. The Rats were tuff. Built like a tank!
I bought the Bass Rockman back in 83 (perhaps), it was $95 and the Adaptor was $35 IIRC (which was pretty good money at that time). I don't know Shutz or someone else manufactured this thing called, the RackMan; which was a single-space, metal rack frame which you inserted your Rockman into - brilliant - for your steel rack. Once the Rockman hit the stores, and caught on, we started getting people trading the Power Soaks in - which we sold for the used price of $25. I audtioned for a band once, and those guys were so stunned when I showed up with only my Steinberger headless bass and a Bass Rockman (talk about minimalist!), and they said: "but, but, but, how are we going to hear you?!?!? I laughed and said: just D.I. me into the monitors... and they were blown away by the tone of this little black plastic box pumping out of the floor monitors LOL!!! I miss the 80s! AND YES, you could as you say "daisy chain" together Rockman units. I used to write this way with a guitartist (me with my Bass Rockman), both of us "chained together", and plugged in to a Fostex (2+2) cassette recorder. So simply, so effiecient, so good for writing!
I recorded an entire album with The Scene in Malden,MA back in the late 80’s using SRD 1/2 racks. Scholz was a household name in all the Boston Area studios. Guy is a genius. The Rockman is THE Boston sound - think “More Than A Feeling” for cleans and dirty sounds and that’s what you get. These were way years ahead of their time and they did it with ANALOG components no digital modeling which were amazing for players at that time. Scholz Rockmans were the quintessential headphone rig that you could literally plug into a PA directly and have this amazing studio quality sound - without being mic’d. If you cranked your input gain more you would get that super thick overdriven sound that Scholz was known for. It was truly an amazing piece of gear but also limited you because you sounded like Tom Scholz lol. Definitely worth having if you want instant 80’s cleans. Thanks for sharing this with us RJ. Proof that a lot of the analog gear from yesteryear still holds it weight even to this day.
I still think analog is a far superior sound quality at their most basic levels. I use digital gear like anyone because of the convenience too, but as soon as any signal enters the digital realm, it's immediately transposed to all 1's and 0's. In the 80's this difference was more than clearly audible to me, it was annoying as hell. Since then though the sound has become mostly just audible to me, not annoying at all really, because the steps between those 1's and 0's has been shortened, and so smoothed out. Still, like how photographs are pixelated, digital sound is also "pixelated" and you will never get a realistic sound wave because it's not a wave or a curve, it's essentially a stairway. I still very much prefer recordings done on reel to reel tape because of this (especially for acoustic instruments), and the sound of records as compared to CD's. Even the newly mastered albums have mostly been run through the digital realm, and therefore are no longer analog only. Still I use digital gear for recording myself. I've found most people don't really notice the difference anyway, even side by side. Plus for the convenience and far far less loss due to degradation, you can't beat digital. But my guitar rig is all analog, even my effects. I also prefer to run through analog tube mic preamps and compressors in the studio. For my ears, getting more of the old warm analog sound helps counter the intrinsically harsher sound of digital devices. I've also noticed that lots of people prefer that harsher digital sound too, witch I find interesting and say: go for it. If you like how something sounds, no one can say you're wrong.
I'm a Bostonian of a younger generation and growing up I was basically told Rockman stuff was great but it wasn't old enough to be cool yet. This was 20 years ago. They were so right 🤣
@@shawnmcvey7789 a lot of equipment back then defined THE sound of that era...and there was a lot of different gear. Pedals AND racks. As years went by, the way music had been recorded and mixed changed until a new “sound” came along. Fast forward years later, and it’s just something different for the younger generations because you guys are hearing it as if it’s new - but it’s been around for a long time. And I’m glad that analog gear is making a comeback. Digital is good for some things, but analog has a certain warmth to it you can’t get with digital and it’s no wonder why some of the most famous analog pieces of gear (Boss CE-1 and the Scholz Rockman for instance) are becoming more desired. We’ve also learned how to use them in different ways creatively in the signal chain and that also opens up many new ways of using them.
Yeah. It stopped me in my tracks. I play on the weekends with a buddy and we will do Hysteria occasionally, I messaged him and said we needed a couple of these. That is THE sound. So awesome.
Crazy man - I had a tascam 244, a 110 and a rockman (and a few pedals) - made a hell of a lot of music with that setup. Now I have a room full of top end gear and I hardly ever bother to use it. Wish I'd had it all then when I was younger and had the energy, but I'd still want a rockman :)
Actually, the original BOSTON sound use a marshall plexi full blast into the power soak Tom Scholz designed. It allowed him to record massive tones at very low volume. His guitar plugged into a preamp, then eq, then into the hyperspace pedal ( another Scholz invention he's never told how he built it) finally into the marshall. Scholz's live setup was also in stereo which was rare for the mid 70's.
@@jmsdeco There's no "actually" about it. I didn't suggest that Scholz used a Rockman to record the first album. Fans know it was a Marshall head into a prototype Power Soak and a close-miked cab. That said, the "normal" Distortion track IS a classic Scholz tone. The specific EQ that gives it almost a cocked wah sound, delay ... It's remarkable how Scholz was able to take the tones he'd crafted and put 'em into a little analog box. 🙌
my 80's HS era hard rock/metal band's guitarist had one, ran it it through our cheap sound system, sounded great for the time. A piece of advice though, if you going to use it, make sure that before you're on stage, and your keyboard player just did an epic opener, and you impressively jump on stage to do an equally epic windmilling Pete Townsend style power chord, that the power switch is turned to on.........
It's a bit crazy to go back and listen to Hysteria after listening to this Rockman demo. It couldn't be more clear that they were using the Rockman and it sounds amazing!!!
I bought one of these at the Guitar Center on Sunset in the early 90s, while I was working on the video for Def Leppard's, Let's Get Rocked, funnily enough. Still got it some where. Will have to give it another go now I have a new respect for it.
This is the best video I’ve seen on these units! Bravo! I bought one new when it came out and plugged my 1978 Les Paul custom into my cheap solid-state Peavey Bandit amp, and it sounded amazing! I always would play along with the album through the headphones with a friend listening on his headphones. It sounded like I was on the damn albums!
Great stuff, so cool to see info like this reach the masses so thanks for covering it. Regarding Def Leppard and the Rockbox, it was apparently the clean sound of the main riff on the Hysteria track, according to interviews with Rick Savage and Nigel Green.
I was playing the Grand Ole Opry in the 80s. My dear friend Jimmy Capps was staff guitarist and most of his life he did about 500 sessions a year. Someone loaned me a Rockman for about a week. I took it to the Opry. Jimmy played through it . His comment was tha it was $50,000 of recording equipment in a small box. We loved it and at the time and attempted to get that sound through an amp. We were unsuccessful. What current Rockman would be the closest to the original? What a great vid. A great modern review of a classic. Thank you so much!
For ages, the cornerstone of my guitar tone was a Tom Scholz power attenuator (before he even came up with the Rockman brand). I used it to get actual power tube overdrive out of my 4x10 '59 Bassman without blowing out my eardrums. Dude's a genius.
I've long wished a pedal maker would make clones of the Rockman X100 effects. Having just the Chorus/Echo would be an awesome pedal. But I'd also be open to a multistomp with everything from the X100 unit. Def Leppard Hysteria at your feet.
If you want to hear a pedal that I consider being a near clone of a X100 you should definitly put an ear on Strymon's DECO if you already didn't . Based on analog tape lag to create effects, you can't get a setting combining chorus and echo together, but still it's a killer pedal and it blows everything out when it comes to stereo with its wide stereo mode.
@@thierrythierry1013 Thanks for the recommendation. There are a TON of pedals that will get 80s type sounds. But there aren't any pedals that are actual clones of the X100 Chorus/Echo circuit that I'm aware of. I'd love to see the circuit cloned in a modern, accessible format.
I checked a few times last year, and you could pick up the half rack mount units of the Chorus and Echo for about 1K each (!) on Reverb. But recently I've seen refurb units around 200-300 bucks.
I had a couple of these in the 80's. I was introduced to these by my friend whose dad (Paul Ahern) managed Boston. My friend had one of the first ones, given to him by Tom Scholz. You have to be careful with the input/output jacks. They can become unstable after a while, like a loose input on a guitar. I used to run these through an amp and would tape down the cables before they met the inputs to keep them from moving. Otherwise, I had no issues with these units and used them throughout the 80s/early 90s. This video brought back a lot of memories. Thanks for posting!
The real secret to the Rockman X-100 was the belt clip, along with the fact that it could fit into the inside pocket of an acid-washed Levi's Jean Jacket, preferably one covered with a back patch portraying a cover image from "Appetite for Destruction..."
Dude, I had an original Rockman back in the day...why isn't anyone making these things today? I have no idea what happenned to my Rockman. Too Bad what a great thing!
There are several quality headphones amps that sound amazing for 20 to 40 dollars. Effects and everything... They probably would be all the rage in the 80s and early 90s
The Rockman is still made by Dunlop. It's not at all the same sounds. But cool for just hearing thru headphones... and the Dunlop are less than 100 bucks.
Damn. I owned one of the original Rockman back in the day and don’t know what became of it. After your video down memory lane I’m crying to have it back!😩
Thanks for this review! Ive owned the X100 since 1985. It lived in my guitar case with a pair of Sony Walkman headphones so I could practice anywhere. In ‘87, (i was 19) I bought an early ‘70’s 50 watt Marshall head and 4x12 cab. I was frustrated with any of the “master volume” mods that I’d experienced, and plugging the X100 into the Marshall gave me the crazy cranked sustain and distortion I wanted at volumes that kept me from getting kicked out of the clubs I was playing in. It really is a wonderful box with a personality all its own. It still sits on top of my desk (with tons of other stuff). I use it sometimes with a Radial XTC to bring parallel distortion into my mixes. Drums, bass, guitar, synths- all a lot of fun. Similar to how I use my original Sans Amp, but with that unmistakable ‘80’s character. It has a special place in my heart, all these years later! Thanks again.
Tom Scholz was Boston. He played everything on the albums except for the vocals by the great Brad Delph. After the success of the first album, Tom had to quickly hire touring musicians to create the impression that Boston was an established group.
@@jonathansmith2710 not entirely true, Barry Goudreau played most of the solos on the first album, I believe he played all of the solos on the song Longtime.
@@Lance37a Yeah this simply isn't true. Scholz had all of the songs completed in their entirety (demo stage) before he had even brought in any other musicians, save for Jim Masdea on drums and then the added vocals by Delp. Goudreau would double some of the solos on the recordings, but they were all created and played by Tom Scholz. He still plays all of his solos, to this day.
The Rockman employs an MN3007 and MN3011 chip to produce the chorus and stereo delay, respectively. The MN3011 was an unfortunately shortlived chip, initially developed by Panasonic/Matsushita to provide solid-state reverb emulation using 6 different non-harmonically-related "taps" to mimic early and late reflections. It could provide "stereo" by feeding the different taps to separate output channels. It didn't find its way into all that many commercial products, with only a few known standouts, like the DOD FX-45 Analog Reverb, the legendary A/DA STD-1 Stereo Tapped Delay (that Allan Holdsworth used), and several Gallien-Kruger amps. My sense is that designers didn't know how to tame it and make it sound more natural. Plus, before they learned how to do that, digital reverb got much better, much cheaper, and small enough to easily displace the MN3011 from the landscape.
As a guy who owns a guitar pedal company that uses an MN3007 a lot, those are some BEEFY chips. They have as much headroom as you want to feed them. With just AA batts for power, I'm guessing an MN3207 would still sound exactly the same. MN3011 I've never found an exact replacement for. It sounds amazing to be sure, but I never thought it was the greatest. tl;dr - yeaaaah, these rockmans definitely have the goods!
@@rude_tech Some folks make a big deal of the differences in headroom between the 30xx and 32xx series. There IS a bit of a difference, but I don't think enough to warrant the perceived differences. Panasonic also briefly made the MN3214, as part of the lower-voltage 32xx series. It had 1024 stages, like the 3007 and 3207 (and unlike the 3328 stages of the 3011), but with 5 taps instead of 6. There were precious few commercial music products incorporating it, and I've never actually seen any listed for sale anywhere (though I assume some guy in the Akihibara has a few). There are plug-ins to emulate the STD-1, but I can't find any RU-vids showing off the real physical deal. Jeorge "Mr. Huge" Tripps sent me an MN3011 some years back, and I keep meaning to build a sort of "reduced" STD-1 in a stompbox with it. But yes, remarkable how well the Rockman nails those '80s sounds. Or maybe NOT remarkable if that was how they were originally produced!
@@markhammer643 For sure. 9v (3207) vs 15v (3007) isn't a big deal when you are dealing with guitar outputs of... what, 250-500mV with humbuckers? I'm about to go down a youtube rabbit hole on these STD-1s. There goes monday 😅
Wow, thanks for the info! I always thought the GK had similar reverb as the Rockman echo. When I asked in stores about analog reverb they said that didn't exist.
Took me back to my First Studio, wrote and recorded many songs with that plastic box, Many fun times to say the least, Thank you for the blast from the past I am most grateful
Thanks R.J.! NEVER owned one but saw them in the wild. Clean 2 is SO clean you could eat off of it AND see your reflection in it. All these years I have been curious to hear how this sounds - thank you for a great demo (as always)!
I still have the Rockman soloist I bought new in the eighties (Yes I'm old) Still plug it into the interface and reminisce now and again. It's "That" sound!
I love the Boston sound, but the Hysteria album is exactly where I jumped ship with Def Leppard. The sound of the whole album was way too studio processed. But to be fair, Rick Allen had to switch to digital drum set and sound, so their sound automatically underwent a fundamental change. They essentially became a pop-rock band for the girls at the point. The Pyromania album was their pinnacle as a solid rock band, but the rawness of the first two albums was great.
Totally agree. Hysteria always bummed me out. Pyromania is a masterpiece of in your face Rock. It is one of the few albums that you don't find yourself switching tracks on, just press play & enjoy every song
@@dudejrryan From my perspective, Def Leppard's new-found popularity with Pyromania is what actually brought guitar back to the forefront. This was just before VH's 1984, before Motely Crue's Shout at the Devil. As much as Ozzy and Randy did their part, British New Wave and keyboards and other rock alternatives stuff was still ruling the day. In my neck of the woods, Pyromania inspired so many of my friends to pick up guitar. Pyromania gave real rock a new respect and prominence, which opened the flood gates for so many new bands, while putting the spotlight on already existing great guitar bands, like Van Halen. Essentially Dep Leppard reminded the world that rock still exists and is still relevant.
The first time I knew this equipment is using AmpliTube Boston effect and I fall in love with it. It feels like no matter the clean, overdrive, and distortion, it’s right there sound I need. I played played and played the sound, it gets me back to the beatiful 80s rock n roll age.
During my college years I use to own the entire collection of Rockman modules and MIDI module and pedal. They sounded ten times better than anything else at the time. Thanks for the video. It brought me plenty of fond memories.
@@qua7771 The Rockman is all analog so there has to be enough room for all the PCBs,transistors, opamps, resistors, capacitors, switches, jacks, etc... to not only create multi-stage preamp circuits, but also the chorus and delay/reverb effects. It is literally six analog guitar effect boxes in one box that is actually smaller than most guitar effect stomp boxes today. I'm guessing someone has already made a digital simulation plugin of the Rockman sounds that is nothing more than a few gigabytes of code.
@@jonathansmith2710 I don't think It would be a popular current production item. It's sort of a novelty. Back in the 80's people were used to crying a bulky cassette player. Now there are other options.
I found out quick that once you've played the Rockman amps, then you start noticing the sound in songs because its so distinct. Whitney Houston's So Emotional the solo was clearly a Rockman and Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins was definitely 100% Rockman. If you listen to the two AOR genre albums that Fastway put out, On Target and Bad Bad Girls, the whole album is very Rockman. Even Joe Satriani was caught using their rack gear from time to time
I had one - fully underrated, especially for its time. They have defintiely gotten more expensive! I had the adapter and everything. As a side effect, I learned all those Boston riffs. That power-on POP really takes me back. It's been a long time - GET IT?!
Absolutely one of the best ever reviews! This was the sound of my era from which morphed into other genres, most notably Pearl Jam, and my all time favorite, Alice n Chains. Definitely good times except for the drugs that were to kill off so many of my heroes. Like life, music needs to continually evolve, as we have all experienced what happens when life itself becomes stagnant, and it's not pretty. The future is just that; an amologaton of the past viewed in unique ways. Us dinosaurs aren't going down without a fight, which indeed is the imputess for the future. Live, Create, and take note of the lessons the past have to give you!
Still have mine - gigged with it into my amp through the early 90's...my bass player would always ask me to turn off the chorus but I loved it too much...sorry Steve
Using the headphone output is more hissy than if you use the Low Level Out for recording. I used mine for recording in the early 90s, and found it worked better that way. Also in the 90’s that hysteria sound was getting quite tired so I just used Edge with no chorus. Also try dropping your guitar volume even more on the Edge circuit. It sounds quite good with just a hint of breakup.
Got my first Rockman, a IIb, last week. Absolutely loving it! Back when these came out, they were just too expensive for me, a newly-wed landscape maintenance guy. Now, 40 years later, I finally have one! : )
There was a fairly popular local cover band where I grew up and I always wondered how come their guitarplayer sounded so good - like on a record. He had a Rockman. In a way, Rockman was a first guitar modeler. Scholz, who has almost 40 patents to his name, would work with freezing the frames of the soundwaves in his home-made gear to achieve consistency and then just transfered most of that into the little box. True, the Rockman could model only ONE sound but it could do it with pretty much any guitar :)
Oh man memory lane! I had one of these when I was first learning to play in the '80's. Bought it used from a friend, and all of a sudden I had my first taste with effects and distortion! It was my first amp. It was amazing, then it died, and I attempted my first mod and jumped one of the wires to get it working again. No idea what happened to it now, but I remember it fondly. Lots of practice time with it. Cool find RJ
Wanted to own one… at the time I couldn’t afford it. Now on reverb they’re 400.00 or better . Your first few notes of hysteria brought me right back to the 80’s !!
Great video, it brought back a lot of memories. I have one of the original models, which I bought in the early 80's when I was in college in Boston. I saw it recently, buried in a box at the back of a closet; I'll have to dig it out and fire it up to see how it sounds after all these years. I was a big fan of Tom Scholz and of Boston, but I didn't understand or appreciate at the time the tremendous technology he had developed.
This was one of the greatest guitar-sound breakthroughs in history. It was introduced on Boston's 1st album, of course. I always wondered what Tom did to get that sound ... it sounded a lot like a guitar going through a backed-off wah, blended with a dry signals ... then processed downstream with the obvious effects ... reverb, chorus, and phlanging. Too many guitarists got hooked on the sound ... so, to me, they all sounded alike. It was overused, for sure. I resisted the trend and didn't buy the Rockman in any version. I just wanted to sound like me. Thanks for a great video ... secretly, I'd still like to buy one of the Rockmans ... may still do that.
Had that model when they came out and wish I still had it.Had almost every analog pedal and racks of digital guitar processors for gigs and recording since but always missed the compression and notably the chorus sound.Hats off to Tom!I lived in Beantown when the album came out!I even patched my Rockman through different amps but the distortion settings were too squashy n compressed.If I could've had true bypass I would've kept using it but that's what the half rack units were good for.Real good vid!
That was the bomb-diggity! It’s unbelievable how great those sound. Kind of a challenge to the effects makers of today to make something that great sounding. Tom was a genius.
I still have mine! Got it back in the 90’s. It was fried and my buddy was gonna pitch it so I got it for NOTHING. Gets better… I sent it in right before SR&D closed shop and they fixed it up as good as new and waved all charges since it took so long to fix, apologizing to me for their delay in service! Still blown away by that unbelievable customer service. So yeah I made out like a bandit and I still play through it all the time. Probably could use a recap but to my ears it still sounds sweet. Awesome little amp!
That is pretty cool, back in the day I used to use a Zoom 9002 that had very similar tones! I used to run that on the guitar strap with a wireless and a wireless headset mic (long before Michael Jackson!) :-)
Back in '92 I was looking at the Rockman and the sales guy showed me the Zoom. I bought it and used it for years. My oldest son borrowed it and it grew roots at his place. Same with my SG... lol.
@@mvyper Maybe. He had many other clips he composed for the show that are much more "guitar"-centered than "Crockett's Theme" so at least as likely for those.
I had a Rockman back in high school that my dad's boss gave me. I let a friend borrow it, and I never saw it again. Fast forward almost 20 years, and once I learned how interesting and unique this vintage box was, I called the old friend up, and he still had it! I promptly got it back, and it's with me again. It's a little scratchy sounding, but still works good!
3 years ago I knew a guy that did have it in a pedal form. it was a army green unit and he paid $400 for it AND had to get it fixed. My opinion after hearing it through my crate Club 50....it was worth the additional $200 to get it fixed.
@@jehjeh007 I would pay $400 for a modern recreation that is more reliable than the classic units...which is why I haven't paid $400 for one of the classic units! I keep waiting for a GOOD clone or recreation. I say good because I know there are several clones. I had an opportunity to buy a Nobels clone of the Rockman several months ago. But, upon trying it out in person, I found that there was a short in it somewhere. The circuit would disengage if it wasn't placed on a table in the correct position. It was awful!
Funny. My band's lead guitarist used a Soloist straight into the board for the lead parts on a song we recorded in the 80's. Sounded fantastic. So compressed and tight.
Abigail by King Diamond was recorded with a Japanese clone of the rockman boosted by a ts9 as once told me Michael Kenner, one of the guitarists on that album along with Andy LaRocque. I don't remember if it was the same for the next album "Them", but I guess so since the sound is almost identical...imo the only difference is the production.
Andy LaRochque is a very underrated guitarist. I've seen him in concert going all the way back to Them numerous times. He also played on one album with Death.
Tom Scholz said getting two registration cards for the Rockman filled out by Jeff Beck was one of the greatest thrills and achievements of his life. I still love the power soak, though bit bulky by 2020 stds, but genius is 1976. The excessive layering on Hysteria (not a dis, one of my favs) have lead many to joke that every guitar string had it's own track. Love the Lukather EMGs, you just got yourself a subscriber, we're definitely in sync here.
I had one of the original units in the early 80's. I was playing in a cover band at the time and that was my rig, guitar into the Rockman and into the amp (it was a Marshall "master lead combo 2x12" solid state... It was what I could afford). I actually got lots of compliments from other guitar players on the tone. The experienced guys would always roll their eyes when they saw what I was doing.. lol. You can use the low powered output on the left for a mono line out to your amp. It is a stereo out but I used to use a mono 1/4" cable plugged in all the way and then pulled out one notch, the other end into the front end of the Marshall. It always worked flawlessly. I think I paid $199 for it. Spent a fortune in batterys though. Haha. Kinda wish I still had it....
I used one of these live for a few months back in the late 80's. I had specially made stereo leads to give the sound engineer two direct Di's to the PA from the headphone out. I then ran a mono i/4 jack to my amp for onstage. It sounded good but too processed and compressed for me. These units are a quick solution (impossible to get a bad sound out of it) but it is ''A'' sound. Very limited. And you needed a big 100 watts + amp onstage to really hear it. I once saw a guy use one live through a 2000 watt Crown PA amp through two PA speakers at ear level to hear himself. The 2 lead settings ,one for single coils and one for humbuckers did sound cool. Smooth as silk and sustain for days but 'small'. I stopped using it live and went back to pedals and a good amp. I had my big fat sound back. I used it at home to practice for years after that which for me was it's intended use. There were very few home studios back in the 80's. I knew a guy who bought the half rack live modules which cost a fortune but were as noisy as hell. A good amp, in my case Matchless, Badcat and Orange, boutique pedals, and good quality leads I haven't needed a noise gate in 10 years.
Back in the 80s I was in the Army, stationed in Korea. We had a band and got the privilege to open for a USO band. It was an outdoor event and I didn't realize that using my Rockman would be a bad idea. We went to do a sound check and the Rockman was picking up a Korean radio station. Fortunately, I had an MXR Distortion + and a Phase 90 as a backup. Good times.
Boston was my big album. It’s a great sound for recording because it leaves so much space. And Hysteria is not over produced. They found a sound that suited rock and this pedal was at the heart of it. Tom Scholz, what a dude.
RJ. There is a japanese company that reverse enginered the Rockman Sustainor half rack into pedal. Amazing pedal called the Goat Sustainor! It really sounds like half rack Sustainor complete with channel switching. I use one into Boss GT5 pedalboard then out in stereo to Carver stereo power amp into stereo 2/12 cab with Celestions G12 75s. Sounds great! Great job/ demos with your channel ! Keep it up
Thank you SO MUCH for demoing the Rockman with licks that were originally created on a similar unit. So many gear reviewers play their own riffs and licks. Not a fair or honest exposé of the gear on their part, IMHO.
JHS are not defunct. They are instrument distributor John Hornby Skewes, where the jhs comes from, in the UK. They have the ‘ Vintage’ guitar brand as part of their company.
I remember hearing that Tom Scholz used his invention, this little baddy, to literally plug direct into the console for the sound. A lot of the sound has to do with the incredible high quality of, and control of each and every system that went out the door. for a long time you had to wait to get one, lol. Boston blew up so big in the 90's, and that tone had so much to do with it. I don't think it's "dated" tho, it's just how you use it. Most people today would see it as a new sound...gd it, we're getting old! lol
I suspect that if you used passive pickups, the edge setting would have cleaned up even more than it did. It would probably take on that warmth that rolling back a guitar volume pot does, minus a treble bleed circuit, of course.
Tom Scholtz recommends a Dimarzio SuperDistortion for driving Rockman modules. I've found PAFs are ok, single coils very thin and higher output pups certainly do respond nicely with the X100.
I own this! My dad gave it to me knowing how huge a Boston fan I was at 15 (I still am). Time to dig it out and put more time into it. Thank you for the awesome and well done video! Side note; closest I got to seeing them live was when I was 14 outside Hershey Park stadium (halfway through Longtime). Standing outside the stadium for a few moments hearing there sound still puts a smile on my face. I kind of like that memory better than perhaps if I saw them and change any expectation I have for them.
