Michael Schenker has been playing a Gibson this past week

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shredi knight said:
Robin McAuley sounds exactly the same and every bit as good as he did in 1987. He's like the anti-Don Dokken/Vince Neil.
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Always wished they would’ve done another full album together and got Michael back to that good rock ‘n’ roll sound: The last one was 1992 self titled . Robins Black Swan project is really good
 
Jim_D said:
Great video - I notice this has the standard 60's/70's "triangle" control layout that the latest Gibson 80's ebony Flying V's do not have.

I noticed when MS moved to Dean that their new guitars made for him had the same triangle control layout - Dean V's traditionally had the three-in-a-row 50's style layout. I guess he likes to have access to everything just where his fingers want it to be!
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Hey, welcome to the forum! Any MS fan is a man of great taste so nice to have you aboard.

So I guess the Edwards connection is just wishful thinking on my part and I must have been misled years ago. That said, no regrets on my Edwards, it plays amazing. If Dean and Gibson don't work for him, maybe he can give Edwards a call 😀

You seem to know a lot about MS, any truth to the myth that his JMP's had a little tweak in the preamp for more gain? I remember Billy blades had apparently gotten one of his old amps in a trade and he said there was a tweak in the preamp but that he wouldn't reveal it. Maybe bullshit but always fun to bring up.
 
Schenker changed the way I thought a guitar could be played when I heard Phenomenon at age 16. Loved him ever since. Jens Kruse posted a picture on FB of one of his heads he was working on a couple of years ago when he was touring. He didn't say what he was doing to it though.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Hey, welcome to the forum! Any MS fan is a man of great taste so nice to have you aboard.

So I guess the Edwards connection is just wishful thinking on my part and I must have been misled years ago. That said, no regrets on my Edwards, it plays amazing. If Dean and Gibson don't work for him, maybe he can give Edwards a call 😀

You seem to know a lot about MS, any truth to the myth that his JMP's had a little tweak in the preamp for more gain? I remember Billy blades had apparently gotten one of his old amps in a trade and he said there was a tweak in the preamp but that he wouldn't reveal it. Maybe bullshit but always fun to bring up.
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Hello, Michael and Eddie are my favourite guitarists, but I know very little about Michael's amps, other than he liked 50 watt Marshalls and you often see that cool double-stack arrangement of a wall of two heads on two cabs in the 70's and 80's photos.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was a "little extra" somewhere as that opening riff on "Armed and Ready" just sounds incendiary and that was from the JMP and black and white medallion era. He had the lead tone on Obsession and Strangers In The Night, but he never seemed quite to have that same killer rhythm tone. Sure, there could have been some cool miking going on but I just don't know enough about amps and all the things that can be done with them to be very sure about it.

There is a shot of his amps in a Japanese guitar magazine that I have from the early MSG era, shot from the back. One of the amps has UFO stencilled on it so I guess he got to keep his gear after he left!

I have read somewhere that someone from his camp brought a head into a repair shop for a fix, and there was something improvised in the amp that they didn't want removing, like a foil cube or something? It was one of those things you read late at night, and then when you want to find it again you can't remember the journey that got you there! But I think that might have been a JCM rather than a JMP?

Plus there is the tale that the split-channel JCM-era amps had the diode-clipping lead channel inspired by his tone, and those are the amps he uses now.
 
I dig the binding on the neck but this axe should have a black pickguard.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Hey, welcome to the forum! Any MS fan is a man of great taste so nice to have you aboard.

So I guess the Edwards connection is just wishful thinking on my part and I must have been misled years ago. That said, no regrets on my Edwards, it plays amazing. If Dean and Gibson don't work for him, maybe he can give Edwards a call 😀

You seem to know a lot about MS, any truth to the myth that his JMP's had a little tweak in the preamp for more gain? I remember Billy blades had apparently gotten one of his old amps in a trade and he said there was a tweak in the preamp but that he wouldn't reveal it. Maybe bullshit but always fun to bring up.
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This Reverb listing has an ex-Schenker JMP Marshall https://reverb.com/item/36155309-marshall-jmp-50w-head-ex-michael-schenker-scorpions-ufo-1980-black which mentions custom circuit modifications, although interestingly it is stencilled "Viva" which was his sister's band!
 
Jim_D said:
This Reverb listing has an ex-Schenker JMP Marshall https://reverb.com/item/36155309-marshall-jmp-50w-head-ex-michael-schenker-scorpions-ufo-1980-black which mentions custom circuit modifications, although interestingly it is stencilled "Viva" which was his sister's band!
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Ahh, so close! I thought I was going to see a gut shot of the preamp ... I have always figured he might have had one to two resistors tweaked in that circuit. I have done that to one of my 2204 builds and it is pretty much there for his gain/tone in early MSG era before the 2205's. If you listen to his live stuff, it is clear that it isn't overly gainy. He works for a lot of his leads and digs in. The wah sucks tone a bit so I feel you lose a bit of gain with it in line.

Armed and Ready opening riff sounds like it is through a filter of some type which I think is the wah toe down but his tone knob backed off so he can take advantage of the push in the highs despite the tone suck of the wah. Lose a little to gain a little I suppose. Try it with a wah and report back.
 
Were the UFO SITN live dates [13-18.Oct 1978] recorded only on Gibson V's ? Always assumed this was the case.
 
I own a 1980 JMP 50-MS (1987) and the circuit is slightly different than a standard 1987.
Next time the amp is opened up I will post a photo if that will be helpful.

JJ
 
I don't know why.... but seeing him with a classic Gibson V makes me happy. I've always defended Deans, and I love my Cadillac, but him on this white V in these videos is just so much more Bad-A*s! Thanks for the update
 
just saw a [zoom-style] interview w/ m.s. linked from one of the online mags -
m.s. mentioned his #1 50-watt 1987 was borrowed from paul raymond's tech/roadie for the entire golden era + the early m.s.g. years. until the amp finally needed servicing [still don't know what year 1987 it was, but guessing '71 or '72 - makes sense] and the repair tech gutted the amp during the 'refurb'. schenker said the amp never sounded the same again, so he moved on.
one amp - one killer tone from 1973-1982
 
I bought one of those V's because of Schenker:

Screenshot_20241118_121808_Instagram~2.jpg
 
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