Tom Scholz Used An H910 In His Early Studio

[lll]

So I was watching this vid on Tom Scholz...

I've seen it before many times. But this time I noticed something:

Scholz had an Eventide (Clockworks) H910 Harmonizer in his early studio!

This unit came out in 1975... one year before Boston's record-breaking debut album appeared.

According to Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_(album)

Released August 25, 1976
Recorded October 1975 – April 1976

I made a screenshot and pointed out the unit in yellow (and an example in center). Original resolution is 1920x1080 (these hosting sites always shrink things

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, that is cool! I suppose the H910 was one of very few digital delays available in the mid 70s, even without considering the pitch shifting, so it probably found its way into a lot of studios.

 

[JTyson]

Cool stuff
I see a bunch of Klark EQ's in there too. That was an amazing sounding album

 

[lll]

Found another pic, this was supposedly taken Feb 1st, 1976, the day they signed with Epic.

Article:

http://parade.com/471863/nancyberk/...ourney-as-boston-celebrates-40th-anniversary/

This one's high rez if you click on image:

http://static.parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Tom-Scholz-and-Brad-Delp-by-Ron-Pownall.jpg

So, as far as I'm concerned, he used the H910 on the 1st album (as some rumors have stated).

Which explains a number of things like that massively wide chorus sound on a mid-70s album (unheard of really at the time).

...and why the SR&D Stereo Chorus has a similar makeup (slight pitch shift plus slight delay) and sound.

...and all his talk about "doublers" back in the day.

 

[Dave L]

I suppose there is some controversy about what´s used on that first album? Has Tom said he didn´t use a H910?

 

[iplayloudly]

I personally have a bunch of gear that never gets used.... just something to think about.

 

[lll]

I suppose there is some controversy about what´s used on that first album? Has Tom said he didn´t use a H910?

It's not that there's controversy, it's that nobody really knows how he did it (album tone) aside from the Marshall, MXR 6 Band and Super Distortion pickup.

In all the interviews I've read, he's never mentioned the H910 directly. But he has mentioned "harmonizer" as one of the components of his so-called self-made "doubler"; like so (date of interview Aug 1977

http://www.thirdstage.ca/boston/articles/newspaper-and-magazine-articles/640-overnight-success

Funny, how this old GP article echos my original
post:

"Probably the most obvious departure in the Boston sound from your run-of-the-mill heavy metal sludge is Scholz' thick, yet clear lead guitar lines, partially accomplished with the aid of a device called a doubler, designed by Scholz and a friend. "That's what we call it," explains Tom, "though doubler is kind of a misnomer. It does more than, say, an Echoplex or a tape delay that just gives you a repeat. We designed it to approximate the same sound as when you dub over a guitar part twice: it adds a pitch change to the time delay. You can build the same type of unit with commercially available devices, but I think that unless you were filthy rich, it wouldn't justify the cost. You would need a regular delay unit, a harmonizer, and an oscillator-nothing very complicated. Since we were broke at the time, and since the technology wasn't very complicated, we built our own. Because the doubler gives Scholz such a rich, heavy sound, Tom is the only one of Boston's three guitarists [the other two are Barry Goudreau on lead and rhythm and singer Bradley Delp on rhythm] to use the device onstage. "Anything more than that would get too messy," Tom explains.



To simulate the sound onstage that he gets on record, Scholz runs the guitar signal and the signal from the doubler in stereo, which duplicates, he says, "the old recording trick of using two rhythm guitars panned to the outside." The device, however, can be used in mono, and Tom describes that result as "sounding sort of flanged."



Aside from the doubler, which Tom states is used judiciously throughout the album..."

He could have very well been pulling the interviewer's leg by claiming to have "invented" a "doubler"; when all he was really doing was using the H910. When you combine "a regular delay unit, a harmonizer, and an oscillator", I think of a complete H910.

 

[petejt]

I just wrote a whole big post for this, and the web server crashed...

 

[petejt]

I think he made his own 'doubler' based on the H910.

See here:

 

[petejt]

I suppose there is some controversy about what´s used on that first album? Has Tom said he didn´t use a H910?

It's not that there's controversy, it's that nobody really knows how he did it (album tone) aside from the Marshall, MXR 6 Band and Super Distortion pickup.

In all the interviews I've read, he's never mentioned the H910 directly. But he has mentioned "harmonizer" as one of the components of his so-called self-made "doubler"; like so (date of interview Aug 1977

http://www.thirdstage.ca/boston/articles/newspaper-and-magazine-articles/640-overnight-success

Funny, how this old GP article echos my original
post:

"Probably the most obvious departure in the Boston sound from your run-of-the-mill heavy metal sludge is Scholz' thick, yet clear lead guitar lines, partially accomplished with the aid of a device called a doubler, designed by Scholz and a friend. "That's what we call it," explains Tom, "though doubler is kind of a misnomer. It does more than, say, an Echoplex or a tape delay that just gives you a repeat. We designed it to approximate the same sound as when you dub over a guitar part twice: it adds a pitch change to the time delay. You can build the same type of unit with commercially available devices, but I think that unless you were filthy rich, it wouldn't justify the cost. You would need a regular delay unit, a harmonizer, and an oscillator-nothing very complicated. Since we were broke at the time, and since the technology wasn't very complicated, we built our own. Because the doubler gives Scholz such a rich, heavy sound, Tom is the only one of Boston's three guitarists [the other two are Barry Goudreau on lead and rhythm and singer Bradley Delp on rhythm] to use the device onstage. "Anything more than that would get too messy," Tom explains.



To simulate the sound onstage that he gets on record, Scholz runs the guitar signal and the signal from the doubler in stereo, which duplicates, he says, "the old recording trick of using two rhythm guitars panned to the outside." The device, however, can be used in mono, and Tom describes that result as "sounding sort of flanged."



Aside from the doubler, which Tom states is used judiciously throughout the album..."

He could have very well been pulling the interviewer's leg by claiming to have "invented" a "doubler"; when all he was really doing was using the H910. When you combine "a regular delay unit, a harmonizer, and an oscillator", I think of a complete H910.

He could have very well been pulling the interviewer's leg by claiming to have "invented" a "doubler"; when all he was really doing was using the H910. When you combine "a regular delay unit, a harmonizer, and an oscillator", I think of a complete H910.

Or a Rockman Stereo Chorus/Delay. I tried to write that but Rig-Talk has crashed three times already...

I have the Chorus/Delay and it works differently to regular chorus effects, in a way. It uses a small set width of 4ms, and either 20ms or 50ms for the Pre-Delay. That what makes it sound unique for chorusing, particularly the Wide Stereo setting when used with a pair of speakers set wide apart. If you set the Speed quite fast (say 1Hz) it gets really choppy, and if you change it from Wide Stereo down to Mono & Equal Mix- that's what makes that over-processed "sort of flanged" cheesy 1980s cheap TV show theme tune type of sound. Or maybe Eddie Van Halen's late 1980s sound which was loaded with Eventides.

 

[Jayy]

The H910 RULES!! I absolutely love mine!

 

[Bronco]

The H910 RULES!! I absolutely love mine!

I just bought a UA Apollo Twin, and the first plugin I got was the UAD Eventide H910, a virtual version of yours. Wow, it is AMAZING...I mean, I think the Pitchfactor is great and all, but this is entirely different. Jayy, how much mix do you use normally?

 

[paulyc]

I love Scholz, but he's another slippery one like EVH, we'll never know the true story about any of it. The first Boston album sounds so much better than all the rest, and it waas finished in 1976...truly amazing.

 

[Jayy]

The H910 RULES!! I absolutely love mine!

I just bought a UA Apollo Twin, and the first plugin I got was the UAD Eventide H910, a virtual version of yours. Wow, it is AMAZING...I mean, I think the Pitchfactor is great and all, but this is entirely different. Jayy, how much mix do you use normally?

I haven't used the UA plugin, but from Youtube videos it sounds good. I have the pitchfactor sounds really good and close too on the H910 algorithm if I set everything up roughly the same, but the real H910 has a murky, funky, glitchy character that nothing else can really duplicate.

I usually use the H910 with my slaved and re-amping stereo rig. I have dry signal on both sides and mix in the H910 set to .99 into just one side at almost equal to the dry mix. It adds an awesome character to it. Here is a video of me demonstrating it in my stereo rig. It isn't good playing or a good recording, but you can hear what the H910 is doing. I play a couple of simple riffs dry and then with the H910 mixed in and I mix in the H910 heavier as the video goes on. It sounds awesome in person, much better than the video.

 

[lll]

The H910 RULES!! I absolutely love mine!

Niiice.

One of these days I gotta get my hands on one.

For now, VST plugin from Eventide does the trick.