Warren Demartini's amp(s) during 1989-1991?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paksu-aku
  • Start date Start date
Samhain said:
warrenamps.jpg

RatRig1.jpg


Frank Levi is responsible for those early RATT tones and they were Marshalls.
That link above to Dezels & DSL's is bogus.
Frank was on the road hired by the band first few tours to get those legendary tones.
SLO's weren't even invented at that point.
Frank also worked at East Coast SIR studios, later transfered to LA SIR to rework all the amps Caswell had worked on.
Everyone wanted Franks amps, not Caswells.
Don't know about 89-90 was RATT even a thing then ?
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What year are these pics from? 87? Are those Marshalls modded also?
 
The clips in the original post are Soldano SLOs. For the Reach for the Sky tour, he was using a Bradshaw system, which included various lexicon effects and Mesa power amps. The SLO was used to some extent as far back as 1988, during the recording of Reach For the Sky. Detonator is almost all Marshall.

The most pure SLO tone, without too much post production or much blending of other amps, is on the 99 self-titled record. That's about as close to in-the-room SLO tone as you can get, to my ears.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I honestly don't even really care. Every RATT album starting with Out of the Cellar has incredible tone. Reach for the Sky is such a frigging amazing album. I remember reading an article in one of these metal rags I bought as a kid where Robin Crosby was saying this album is the best they had ever done. It was going to melt people's faces it was so good (something along those lines) He was right, it totally lived up to the hype. I love everything about that album. Detonator is pretty bitchin too though. Warren's leads were so tasty. I can't name 1 solo where he ever sounds like he has mailed it in. Not one. Fits every time and finds the right notes. That's all in the head, you can't teach that.
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Agreed on killer tone on every album, whether Marshall or Soldano. If someone asked me for an example of my favorite 80’s Marshall tone, I’d put “Invasion of Your Privacy” on. That’s definitive high gain Marshall tone for me.
 
littleguitars said:
The clips in the original post are Soldano SLOs. For the Reach for the Sky tour, he was using a Bradshaw system, which included various lexicon effects and Mesa power amps. The SLO was used to some extent as far back as 1988, during the recording of Reach For the Sky. Detonator is almost all Marshall.

The most pure SLO tone, without too much post production or much blending of other amps, is on the 99 self-titled record. That's about as close to in-the-room SLO tone as you can get, to my ears.
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Crazy, I thought Detonator was full on SLO. I suppose he might have used them live and kept the Marshalls for studio work at that point though.
 
Rdodson said:
With a different singer/songwriting collaborator RATT could have been huge. But, as good as WDM is/was, I don't think he was THAT driven to be a star. Everyone I know who knows him says he's just a super-humble, nice guy from a good family. Pretty fish-out-of-water for RATT.
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Agreed. Sort of just wanted to play and never really seemed to be the guy to want to live the lifestyle or at least look like he was. Some people need that attention, he probably didn't care. Would have been happy playing blues at a truck stop and smoking cigarettes.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Crazy, I thought Detonator was full on SLO. I suppose he might have used them live and kept the Marshalls for studio work at that point though.
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From Warren's account way back then, he started recording Detonator with a different amp, but then a few weeks into recording, the Marshall he wanted to use was finally working again, and he re-did the tracks with that amp. He said he did use the SLO on the slide solo for the track, All or Nothing.
 
Warren recorded the lead tracks to first 2 albums {i believe} on a Fender Princeton that was modded maybe by Rivera not sure.
He also used a SD JB pickup with the Bass on all his Marshalls set at 0.00
 
Samhain said:
Warren recorded the lead tracks to first 2 albums {i believe} on a Fender Princeton that was modded maybe by Rivera not sure.
He also used a SD JB pickup with the Bass on all his Marshalls set at 0.00
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I thought it was a Fender Champ?

I remember those days in the 80's when you could see Ratt or Dokken at the Odd Fellows temple in Pasadena and all kinds of awesome guitarists would be in the audience....hmm...
 
Rdodson said:
Ah, you young guys. :)

After Clapton toured with Mark Knopfler and he went to Soldano ('88), then Eddie did...everyone had to have one. Ed was pissed about how 0U812 sounded (really an issue with Landee not 12301). Eddie was a Clapton freak, like many of us my vintage were about Ed. Ed's SLO (probably his 2nd) is dated August 30, 1990. Let me see if I can find the receipt for the Ostrich (I believe his first)...yeah March 7, 1990.

Anyway, when 5150 came out and the 910 was so evident (it was on everything after VH1), the Ed guys wanted that as well.

Warren used superleads, although that first album is most probably a Paul Rivera Fender. Detonator is for sure SLO. The controversy is Reach for the Sky. The song to listen to is "No Surprise". Man, it could go either way. Sounds Marshall to me. However, "I Want To Love You Tonight" sounds SLO. But it is definitely different that the absolutely no doubt about it Detonator.

The one thing we can all agree on is Reach for the Sky, regardless of equipment, is just a great tone. "Way Cool Jr." was the hit, and you can hear Eventide all over that thing.
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Reach For The Sky started with Mike Stone and ended with Beau Hill because management hated the first recordings. I always thought the big difference in the tones had to do with who was working the desk and what was salvaged from the earlier takes.
 
sahlomonic said:
SLOs came out in 1987, but I don't remember reading about anyone big using them until at least a couple years later, which would place it in the right timeline.
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Mike mailed flyers out if you requested one ya know the phone with a cord on it. They were $1960 and he had big time user list on it from the beginning.
 
The laneys were 60`s Laneys /plexi not the AOR junk same with VH when he said he was using some laneys live.
 
Fusionbear said:
I thought it was a Fender Champ?

I remember those days in the 80's when you could see Ratt or Dokken at the Odd Fellows temple in Pasadena and all kinds of awesome guitarists would be in the audience....hmm...
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Thats it. Im getting old and so are these stories lol.
 
Samhain said:
warrenamps.jpg

RatRig1.jpg


Frank Levi is responsible for those early RATT tones and they were Marshalls.
That link above to Dezels & DSL's is bogus.
Frank was on the road hired by the band first few tours to get those legendary tones.
SLO's weren't even invented at that point.
Frank also worked at East Coast SIR studios, later transfered to LA SIR to rework all the amps Caswell had worked on.
Everyone wanted Franks amps, not Caswells.
Don't know about 89-90 was RATT even a thing then ?
Click to expand...
This shot is from the Dancin Undercover World Tour -- I read an interview with Robbin and he mentioned they bought all these Marshalls from EVH following their 5150 Live without a Net tour.
 
littleguitars said:
The clips in the original post are Soldano SLOs. For the Reach for the Sky tour, he was using a Bradshaw system, which included various lexicon effects and Mesa power amps. The SLO was used to some extent as far back as 1988, during the recording of Reach For the Sky. Detonator is almost all Marshall.

The most pure SLO tone, without too much post production or much blending of other amps, is on the 99 self-titled record. That's about as close to in-the-room SLO tone as you can get, to my ears.
Click to expand...
Agree with all of this. In the Guitar for the Practicing Musician following Detonator, he specifically mentions using his famed Super Trem with stupid-high plate voltage (they used to refer to it as "the Grenade"), and how he and Jon Bonjovi brought it to the Blaze of Glory studio to show it to Jeff Beck.
 
littleguitars said:
The clips in the original post are Soldano SLOs. For the Reach for the Sky tour, he was using a Bradshaw system, which included various lexicon effects and Mesa power amps. The SLO was used to some extent as far back as 1988, during the recording of Reach For the Sky. Detonator is almost all Marshall.

The most pure SLO tone, without too much post production or much blending of other amps, is on the 99 self-titled record. That's about as close to in-the-room SLO tone as you can get, to my ears.
Click to expand...
exactly... you can hear the difference when he went all SLO on the self titled album.... doesnt sound anything like detonator... that plexi was also used for the last time on the single nobody rides for free.... my all time favorite tone is what they got on dance.. 1986!
 
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