Accept...... An 80's Classic!

  • Thread starter Thread starter espquade
  • Start date Start date
Greazygeo said:
I dunno, I have all that stuff. That tone just isnt there. The earlier stuff, sure.
Click to expand...
Right from the man's mouth....this interview is the Dinosaur Rock guy who bought that stereo 200w Marshall from Wolf.....

Question: Did you run the amps really loud in the studio?

Wolf: It changed over the years. In the beginning we had regular non-master volume Marshalls, and those were fucking brutally loud. You couldn't be in the same building with them. And they never gave us the warm, fuzzy distortion we were looking for. So we ended up using those MXR Distortion Pluses.

mxrD+.jpg


Question: That's funny because my very next question was: the old Marshall plexi you used on the early albums (Breaker, Restless and Wild, Balls to the Wall) created a sound that was a lot more "heavy metal" than say the typical "hard rock" plexi sound of AC/DC or Jimmy Page. How did you achieve that more metal sound?

Wolf: Right. That again was born out of necessity. If you cranked the Marshall all the way to 10 or to 7 or 8, you could use the Distortion Plus' Output control to regulate the Marshall's volume so that you could bring it down to a volume you could actually play with. In essence you have a master volume effect — the amp is still sweating, but you can control the volume. The Distortion control was set not all the way up, but almost all the way up. You can still do it today. The only bad part is you get a lot of noise. We always had to turn down the volume immediately if there was a break. I say "we" — whoever the other guitarist was at the time would use the same set up. We always kind of did that as a team. That trained me real well, and I still do it to this day, but with the advent of hush units you don't need all that stuff.



Maybe his Plexi is like EVHs in that it has a ton of natural gain...my 72 needs 2 boosts to get that sound but I haven't tried a Dist +.
 
Last edited:
Wolf was one of the first professional metal players to start using EMG 81s sometime in the early to mid 80's. Not sure exactly when.
 
SoooRad said:
The guitar sound on Metal Heart is real bench mark for me. Screaming for a Love Bite is a great easy test riff to see if a tone is good.
Click to expand...
Metal Heart is an incredible album, should have broken Accept into the superstar category.
 
“Question: That's funny because my very next question was: the old Marshall plexi you used on the early albums (Breaker, Restless and Wild, Balls to the Wall) created a sound that was a lot more "heavy metal" than say the typical "hard rock" plexi sound of AC/DC or Jimmy Page. How did you achieve that more metal sound?”

He puts that in parentheses so it seems he didn’t specify to Wolf what early albums he was talking about. Also musicians looking back are well known to gloss over what was specifically true for any one thing to give an easy catch all answer. Partly because they don’t remember..lol
My ears tell me that’s a JCM based tone on BTTW. I’m OK with being wrong and it could be they just had a producer/engineer who had a certain way of recording it, but it just sounds IMO too together and rich to be a distortion + on a plexi.
 
thegame said:
Wolf was one of the first professional metal players to start using EMG 81s sometime in the early to mid 80's. Not sure exactly when.
Click to expand...
You can see them in the Balls to The Wall Video. I am thinking he switched to them after Restless and Wild. Been awhile since I listened to that though. Might have been on that one even.
 
Racerxrated said:
Right from the man's mouth....this interview is the Dinosaur Rock guy who bought that stereo 200w Marshall from Wolf.....

Question: Did you run the amps really loud in the studio?

Wolf: It changed over the years. In the beginning we had regular non-master volume Marshalls, and those were fucking brutally loud. You couldn't be in the same building with them. And they never gave us the warm, fuzzy distortion we were looking for. So we ended up using those MXR Distortion Pluses.

mxrD+.jpg


Question: That's funny because my very next question was: the old Marshall plexi you used on the early albums (Breaker, Restless and Wild, Balls to the Wall) created a sound that was a lot more "heavy metal" than say the typical "hard rock" plexi sound of AC/DC or Jimmy Page. How did you achieve that more metal sound?

Wolf: Right. That again was born out of necessity. If you cranked the Marshall all the way to 10 or to 7 or 8, you could use the Distortion Plus' Output control to regulate the Marshall's volume so that you could bring it down to a volume you could actually play with. In essence you have a master volume effect — the amp is still sweating, but you can control the volume. The Distortion control was set not all the way up, but almost all the way up. You can still do it today. The only bad part is you get a lot of noise. We always had to turn down the volume immediately if there was a break. I say "we" — whoever the other guitarist was at the time would use the same set up. We always kind of did that as a team. That trained me real well, and I still do it to this day, but with the advent of hush units you don't need all that stuff.



Maybe his Plexi is like EVHs in that it has a ton of natural gain...my 72 needs 2 boosts to get that sound but I haven't tried a Dist +.
Click to expand...
The Distortion Plus has a very distinct sound, almost like a fuzz with the dist set high. I hear it in the early albums but not Balls to the Wall. I do hear the EMGs though.
My plexi is a gainy one. But using a dist plus with it sounds not like that.
 
thegame said:
Wolf was one of the first professional metal players to start using EMG 81s sometime in the early to mid 80's. Not sure exactly when.
Click to expand...

It was right after he went to a Kiss concert and heard Vinnie Vincents RR with the 81 in the bridge...
He has mentioned it somewhere and I asked him and told me the same...
 
Greazygeo said:
The Distortion Plus has a very distinct sound, almost like a fuzz with the dist set high. I hear it in the early albums but not Balls to the Wall. I do hear the EMGs though.
My plexi is a gainy one. But using a dist plus with it sounds not like that.
Click to expand...
Who knows; maybe he had a modded one....or maybe there's another boost in his chain he's not mentioning...
 
Racerxrated said:
Who knows; maybe he had a modded one....or maybe there's another boost in his chain he's not mentioning...
Click to expand...
Just listened to Restless and Wild, Balls to The Wall and Metal Heart in my studio. I would say that the first two are the Dist + with the main difference being the EMG's and better production on Balls to the Wall. Metal Heart I dunno....lots of layers of different guitars going on for sure.
 
wolf put up some videos showing how to play some of their iconic riffs/solos.
even he struggles with the fast as a shark solo. Hes the man.
nice trick shaving all the hair on your head as to not show that you're a grey haired old man. i hope i look that good when i'm 100 :ROFLMAO:
 
That FAAS solo is one my all time favorite solo’s. The harmony sounds incredible.
 
My first concert back in 1984 was Ozzy with Accept opening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top