The Story Behind One Of The BEST Guitar Tones I've EVER Heard... 

Seems like whenever I tune into your channel your guitars are out of tune. Good grief dude, If you do tune them up before your videos and they still sound out of tune then you are probably pushing the strings down too hard. I don't know what to say, but it's almost impossible to listen to you because you are out of tune.

Congratulations that was officially the worst thing I ever heard in my life

Learn how to tune your guitar, or quit. You said you don't have any guitar endorsements 😂 perhaps you can start with a tuner endorsement 😂

While Def Leppard were recording in the 80's at the top of their game, with access to all the best of the best gear, they said that they still would good go back to using the Rockmans for the best sound

That’s crazy I’ve been using a Tom Scholz power soak since they came out I also have a Marshall power brake too, These are the original Attenuators.Its the best way to really drive a tube amp to the sweet spot.

Sounds great! BTW what pickups are on that SG? I can see the bridge pup is a Duncan. What model?

Had that one in the eighties. My 1972 Marshall Head survived six years with it.

He had them taped to the back of the cabinet? Damn man did he not have a long enough cable to stick those on top of the amp lol

I ran that version PowerSoak with my Blue Voodoo and people loved it. There was a sweet spot at 8 on the amp’s volume and the middle of the soak. I ran through the Sovtek 6L6’s with our schedule. I retuned the power section four times in three years. The secret is to make sure there is enough power reaching the speakers to still move them. I used the stock speakers in the Blue Voodoo cab, American Vintage I think?

Dang 250 dollars I’ve gotta keep my eyes open for one of those it looks like a bunch of those ceramic heat soak capacitors or whatever they are in the guts of it , but I know there’s more to it but I’ve seen people build their own attenuators with those block looking things in it . That old scholtz stuff was so ahead of its time, crazy some of the best guitar tones put to tape came out of rockman amps pretty much analog amp modeling before it was a thing. Probably my favorite tone I’ve heard on your channel but it’s all subjective though but with the cranked amp and the attenuator it sounded less compressed than what you normally get. Now put an SD1 between the guitar and the amp and you’re all set! When it makes you giggle after playing it it’s doing a thing.

Man .. tune that guitar please

One does not simply dime all the EQ knobs on a guitar or bass head.

Cool video, yes He is an amazing engineer, for sure one of the best ever for guitar related items. Thx for sharing your findings, if you allow me i have to say those nasty comment of some people regarding ''tuning'' is pure trolling. In today's world someone wrote such comment for God knows what reason and other trolls pick it up. IMHO you are in some places when i listened you are in tune, when you play A chord, D chord after 10'th minute it sound OK etc. If someone can't pick up that He or She don't hear well or they don't play guitar long enough to learn how distorted guitar sounds. Some places that you just slightly off IMHO is due to it is such guitar, there is no guitar that is perfectly tuned, that is why people in studios often use some ''tricks'' to tune it for chords or even solo parts on difrent part of the fretboard. There is a middle ground to make some sacrifice for live playing and for me that is tune. I guess that trolls today are usually part of a net, IMHO you dealing well with them, wish i have such good nerves and tackt as you do but i don't ☺, that is why i don't have YT chanel to be honest 😐. The Only video i've made is about design rip of, when one big brand ripped off my design for a guitar toll but i haven't shared it yet ☺ becouse i'm not sure is it allowed to mention the name of that company etc as i did in video. So i have to make a new one..I wish to say that making videos is a hard task.... For me the acnet of your video is about that cool Power Soak Attenuator and what sound can you get , and i like it, you did a GREAT JOB. I don't know about other people but i like the real sound of guitar like that, without to much post recording ''make up'', due the only way for me to hear well is like that. Honestly i like more a simple Iphone recording then some super HQ production becouse it will cover everything. I Wish you all the best in future work, for now i've saw a several cool videos on your chanel and i honestly liked them all, topics are good. So rock on and best regards from Europe.

Have one but never used it yet, going to check it out soon, don't have any big amps anymore, might try it with my ampeg reverborocket

I used to use a power soak,but it’s a resistive load,so I never liked the sound and feel…fast forward to today,there are much better choices in reactive loads now…I use mine in the shop for biasing and what not..I do still have my rock modules from back then that I use a lot…definitely the sound of an era for sure..

I’ve got a simple device called a “hot box” that I bought a few months ago for like $30. It goes in the effects loop. You can dime the amp and dial in lower volumes. You should check it out! It doesn’t even require batteries. Great video as always!

I had one of those once upon a time. One of the very early ones. I ran a HIWATT Custom 50 through a 4x12 cab. A PEAVEY I think. It's great if your playing balls to the wall rock. Kinda makes it a one trick pony but it is a great sound.

Do you notice the “ elephant in the room is how out of tune your guitar is! Holy crap. What are you doing . That’s more important than your tone.

I have a Marshall DSL40C and to my ears it can kinda get into JCM800 territory but it sounds boxy without at least a 2x12 cab which I don't have at the moment, but this makes me want a Scholtz powersoak now so I can drive the amp I'm definitely going to build a 2x12 cab for myself asap seems to be a good starting point. Thanks for the video it was very helpful.

That Cinderella riff is giving me Wayne's World flashbacks

For the love of God tune that damn thing!!!

I really like hearing stories like this.

A while back I asked you about speakers and the difference between guitar and bass. You answered it’s not the speakers but the electronics and that you play guitar through a bass amp but you don’t want to play bass through a guitar amp because you risk damage to electronics. I fully believe that and am certainly not going to gamble. But, how do all these guys get away with down tuning, baritone etc? Are they just taking the risk?

i have an original sholz power soak; major ear saver with older tube amps without a master volume! LOL

I have an attenuator on my ampeq VL-1002. It's a really handy tool to have. I use the shit out of it.

Power soak, hard to come by, used have one & wish I still had it !

I own 2 that version and the og version, still using them

I have that same Power Soak!! Bought cheap too...$94

I had a Power soak hooked up to a Randall RG 80 back in the late 90's, and used a few modulations subtly in the background. The sound I got through the Randall was very much like The Violin like sustain and tone that Brian May gets from his AC30. I wish I had NEVER parted with that device ..or amp .. they were both phenomenal.

Tombiscan electronics wizard. I remember buying an original Rockman when they came out. expensive but worth every penny.

And the Marshal Pedal was born agian....Not music related: But I had a Scholz Recotron, it was for decoding the stereo signal from TVs back in the day, when it wasn't available or feasible....Tom is a smart guy and a great musician.

I just stick a pot between preamp out/in

Still have my old Altair Pw- 5 but rarely use it

NICE!!!

Love the "spinal tap" reference

Had one. Blow my Hiwatt power transformer. Robert love your channel.

the fact that you could stand in the same room with a marshall at full blast should have given you the answer immediately lol

I thought you were going to say, "it was the speaker cabinet tone wood".

i had a power soak in the early 80's .loaned it, never saw it again

Aren't attenuators pretty hard the amp?

Reminds me of my old 1990s DigiTech pedal.

This is basically what Eddie Van Halen was doing with the Variac.

That's awesome! You managed to get a sound that is nothing like Sholtz's sound in any way at all. The way you use an out of tune guitar is genius! Lol, Good God Robert...

Excellent Robert Jackson!!!!

The Power Soak is a POS. It’s just a resistive load. Sounds ok at a few dbs. But gets fuzzy and compressed if you take anymore signal out.

I do the same thing with my VTM120 but I don't use an attenuator because fuck FOH.

I don't care what they say, tubes just give off a ring, feedback that digital just cannot reproduce.

SWEET!!!

Varac!

Thas the first time I ever saw you get hard on-screen! LOL.

I have that very same power soak. I used it on an 80s JCM 800 and 1960 cab with no need for anything else. But when I plugged in my Ross distortion, DOD delay and dyna comp it was a clone of the Boston tone. Then I got an mxr chorus. I got married for a few years and sold or traded off that rig but kept the power soak somehow.

Beautiful big fat tone out of the gate. We can always tune her later

Daaammmm ! Brother rip it up ❤🎉 dude u are awesome!!!!

Horrible.

Cool, sounds great!

I can get a pretty similar sound out of my Helix with way less having to "work" for it. Just sayin