Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

[Guitar Toad]

Please, what was his Les Paul Loaded with when recording Boston's Debute and After burner? Thanks guys.
Did he use P-90's in the studio for the 1st album?
And Of course most of his sound was Sholz engineered before going to Marshall stack too, is that right?
Were his pickups high output, or closer to standard PAF specs?

 

[JeffB]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

He used DiMarzio SUper Distortions

His sound was extremely engineered. Go read the liner notes and some old interviews. I can't even remember all the stuff he built to get his sound.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

IIRC, that guitar was an old goldtop, stripped to natural. The bridge pickup was a DiMArzio Super Distortion, screwed to the body with grommets, rather than mounted in the plastic mounting ring the usual way. I believe the stock cream P-90 was in the neck position, but I doubt he ever used it.

Amazing, all the inconsequential stuff we can remember after thirty years.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

IIRC, that guitar was an old goldtop, stripped to natural. The bridge pickup was a DiMArzio Super Distortion, screwed to the body with grommets, rather than mounted in the plastic mounting ring the usual way. I believe the stock cream P-90 was in the neck position, but I doubt he ever used it.

Amazing, all the inconsequential stuff we can remember after thirty years.

I think that info is correct: Dimarzio Super Distortion bridge and neck Gibson P-90. Lew

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

The following is an interesting commentary on Tom Scholz (I found it at RateItAll.com):

What do you thinK?

Tom Scholz may not have been original in his arrangement of a rock song: Rhythm Section backs up an amazing vocal section accentuated with some amazing solos. And even his lyrics in a lot of cases were not especially telling of anything significant; "I see my Marianne walking away"(whatever!). "I closed my eyes and I slipped away" (even more "WHATEVER"!!) And even that patented guitar sound was identical to the lead guitar sound on 'Suffragate City' (David Bowie). So what makes his hits so huge that they are still in such heavy radio rotation almost 30 years later? Why is it that most people regard Tom Scholz as some sort of Wayne Gretzky in the league of Music? Here's my take on it. In an industry of poor role models and shoddy musicians, Tom Scholz gave us someone even our rock-hating parents approved of and something musically that us 'Smoke On The Water' weaned musicians could aspire to; I spent years mastering every solo from the first album. In fact, I now get told that all my original solos sound like a cross between Boston and Alan Parsons; I'll take it! Don't forget, this guy was in his young 20's and traded a life of intelligencia and high standards to bring us his interpretation of rock and roll. And even at such a tender age, demonstrated such precision in instrumental performance, long before MIDI and digital quantizers could do it automatically. And maybe 'More Than A Feeling' is little more lyrically than a 'smattering' of words, but I feel uplifted every time I 'hear that old song they used to play'. And even if his guitar sound wasn't actually original, the way he recorded and used the sound was different enough to make legions of electric guitarists struggle to emulate it. I think that Tom's contribution to life and music is that he is a respectable guy, who brought respectable writing, playing and production to a genre of music that badly needed this; and still does. Like Wayne Gretzky, I think it'll be 'such a long time' before music sees another ambassodor as fine as Tom Scholz.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

Ironically for a "respectable guy" he didn't have any problems writing hit songs about smokin pot...

Heh...don't get me started on Boston and their hypocritical political correctness/politics :evil:

 

[pureoldsound]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

First this might help you with regards of the old Boston sound:

www.rockmancentral.com

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=5295

About Tom Scholz, well some say he is a genius for developing such sounds. High mids frequencies, massive amount of compression, the power soak, cranked marshals, which gave such thick articulate tone. Plus creating the Rockman line, sustainor, chorus, etc. Others say the guy is intolerable, ego centric, perfect scenario for a narcissist personality disorder….It’s my way or the highway type of thing…..

I consider the early Boston sound to be one of the best sounds ever created, or copied for that matter, on the history of Rock n’ roll. I am sure that sound has inspired a lot of musicians to seek it and try to emulate it, even though many do not admitted. Based on that first album another member deserves some recognition as well, Barry Goudreau. If you hear the song Forplay/Long time that was Barry’s sound and playing. I thought that specific sound to be unique and worth mentioning.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

...which gave such thick articulate tone.

Boston's guitar sounds are quite articulate, but thick? Maybe it's just a "different strokes for different folks" thing, but I dunno... even before I played guitar I didn't like his tone.

 

[Closed Eye]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

The following is an interesting commentary on Tom Scholz (I found it at RateItAll.com):

What do you thinK?

Tom Scholz may not have been original in his arrangement of a rock song: Rhythm Section backs up an amazing vocal section accentuated with some amazing solos. And even his lyrics in a lot of cases were not especially telling of anything significant; "I see my Marianne walking away"(whatever!). "I closed my eyes and I slipped away" (even more "WHATEVER"!!) And even that patented guitar sound was identical to the lead guitar sound on 'Suffragate City' (David Bowie). So what makes his hits so huge that they are still in such heavy radio rotation almost 30 years later? Why is it that most people regard Tom Scholz as some sort of Wayne Gretzky in the league of Music? Here's my take on it. In an industry of poor role models and shoddy musicians, Tom Scholz gave us someone even our rock-hating parents approved of and something musically that us 'Smoke On The Water' weaned musicians could aspire to; I spent years mastering every solo from the first album. In fact, I now get told that all my original solos sound like a cross between Boston and Alan Parsons; I'll take it! Don't forget, this guy was in his young 20's and traded a life of intelligencia and high standards to bring us his interpretation of rock and roll. And even at such a tender age, demonstrated such precision in instrumental performance, long before MIDI and digital quantizers could do it automatically. And maybe 'More Than A Feeling' is little more lyrically than a 'smattering' of words, but I feel uplifted every time I 'hear that old song they used to play'. And even if his guitar sound wasn't actually original, the way he recorded and used the sound was different enough to make legions of electric guitarists struggle to emulate it. I think that Tom's contribution to life and music is that he is a respectable guy, who brought respectable writing, playing and production to a genre of music that badly needed this; and still does. Like Wayne Gretzky, I think it'll be 'such a long time' before music sees another ambassodor as fine as Tom Scholz.

You just made me a Boston fan.

On a final note, "Suffragate City" is a bad@$$ jam.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

You just made me a Boston fan.

On a final note, "Suffragate City" is a bad@$$ jam.

When driving in the car it's hard to do better than crankin' an old Boston tune on the radio!

What would his stuff sound like if he played a standard strat through all of his processing?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

I feel about Boston the way I feel about the Eagles.

I liked them at first, because that sound was fresh and new at first.

But any music that heavily produced and overdubbed lacks soul and the feeling of a group of people getting off on each other in a moment captured in time, and so ultimately it's kind of jive and contrived - even though there's obviously alot of talent involved in producing something like that.

The reason music of the 50's and 60's holds up so well, whether it's Johnny Cash or old Motown, is because the quality of the music is high and also because you can hear the players and singers getting off on each other, exciting each other and responding to each other, and the recordings capture that moment in time.

That quality is missing in most heavily produced, heavily overdubbed projects, IMO, and it's one of the biggest things wrong with the music of today and why I don't listen to rock and pop music much anymore.

I listen to jazz, blues, bluegrass, etc.

That said, I still dig the heck out of the Beatles...especially Sgt Peppers! :laugh2:

Lew

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

^^^ yeah, what he said

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

I grew up listening to Boston. They part of my youth growing up/life way back when. I like Boston's sound.
I don't like most modern stuff though.
Ya, what you guys said too, Except I like Boston
As for the Eagles, Take It To The Limit on one of my all time favs. FWIW

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

So what makes his hits so huge that they are still in such heavy radio rotation almost 30 years later? Why is it that most people regard Tom Scholz as some sort of Wayne Gretzky in the league of Music?

Because we, as listeners, never get enough of what angry bees in a box sound like.

Growing up in Boston the band was always regarded as much of a hometown-hero as the aforementioned Gtrenzky is to his current hometown of Los Angeles.

We were deluged with it as "classc rock" when the same formulaic garbage was being fed to us ad nauseum and called "hair metal".

What stuns me is the reputation that the band has...well....I mean what reputation Tom has because he's really the band now, isn't he? But anyway what stuns me is what their reputation will garner in the world of modern music. When virtually every last music commentator and critic called their second to last release "more of the same laughable garbage" they STILL were granted the right to do another release after that.

Sorry if I brought this to a place that no one wanted it to go. It's backlash from having to live in their backyard and put up with the truant hometown-heroes complex.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

Well, Boston was always in the love'm or hate'm department. I'm 41 so yeah, I was around for the whole "Boston" shebang. While I loved other bands of that era like Foreigner, Deep Purple etc... Boston's first two albums were the cat's meow for me from 1975 through 1980. Then I discovered Led Zeppelin. Boston then became like the chick that you still dig and don't wanna hurt, but the new chick is so hot you just gotta go! As a listener, Boston was IT, but when I picked up a guitar Led Zeppelin just took over. Rush also did the trick for me starting around 81.

Let's face it, there was so much good stuff going on back then you couldn't lose. Hendrix, The Who, Nugent. I could go on and on and on.

 

[Pepi]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

I'm guilty! I can play all there main hits to a tee. I loved them :burnout:

 

[philthis]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

you know I see nothing wrong with trying to write a good albumn. Infact as a listener I realy appreciate it when I like most every song on the albumn. I feel like the band realy tried to make thier music as high quality as possible wich means they cared enough or were good enough to do this. durring Bostons time period alot of bands would get signed and record off 4 songs and the rest of the songs were "filler" meaning -we didnt have anything so we just-****ed around in the studio to put 6 other songs togather. Tom Shultz may or may not be a likeable guy but the first albumns quality and songs were great for its day and still nice to listen to. I consider that albumn a classic.
It would have been nice to hear them branch out alittle on the second albumn though instead of sticking to the same formula even though that was a proven successfull formula for them to follow. Was that the fault of the band or Record company who they were signed with and still had the last word on the creative direction of the band? I dont know had anyone else heard anything about this? :beerchug:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

IIRC, that guitar was an old goldtop, stripped to natural. The bridge pickup was a DiMArzio Super Distortion, screwed to the body with grommets, rather than mounted in the plastic mounting ring the usual way. I believe the stock cream P-90 was in the neck position, but I doubt he ever used it.

Amazing, all the inconsequential stuff we can remember after thirty years.

Ya i was amazed when i saw a photo of his old LP that he uses in the studio..... Can't believe he stripped it but there is many of us who believe less finnish is better for tone so why not sand it off. The photo of the studio guitar i saw has the bridge Dimarzio and the stock P90. He has a second LP from the same year (68 i think) and only a few numbers apart. Both have extremely fat necks and Tom claims he can't play right unless the necks are huge lumber! The second LP he has 2 Dimarzios and has left the Goldtop finnish in place.


WhoFan

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

Boston tunes had good form, structure, great melodious leads and cool distortion. Their musical package was put together well and it connected with people. Sure you can dog the lyrics if you want to but most people who liked Boston liked the sound more so than the "message of the music". Rock and Roll is not noted for leading people to intellectual summits. Some is intellectually engage, i.e. Rush, but that certainly is not a criteria for good RnR, is it? I put Boston at least a couple notches above anything that came out the 90's.

As formulaic as Boston stuff may have been. It was well executed, Scholz is quite skilled with his Les Paul and sure made it sing. SRV wasn't particularly original, but he was a great player, packaged it well, and people loved what he did. He was highly skilled at playing the blues.Perhaps, Tom Scholz was an SRV of the 70's.

Was it Ozzy that said a good guitar player is a player who ripps off some notes so that listeners will say cool, but a great guitar player makes a kid want to pick up a guitar and learn play. Tom Scholz did that for a ton kids in the late 70's and 80's. It's hard to argue against that

I have no idea what kind of person Mr. Scholz is. I make no assertions that he is public enemy number one and model citizen. Just like most of the guitar players that I like for their guitar playing, I like for their skill. I do not wish or long to be like them. I am perfectly happy being little ol' me, Guitar Toad. Although, I wouldn't mind having the royalties rolling in off their recordings.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Boston: Tom Sholz Gear

I have a live Boston cd from Long Beach 1978..... It was a Radio Broadcast, i think King Biscuit Flower Hour aired it. Anyways i had read in interviews that Tom had made up some special homemade effects for him and the other guitarist on the first Boston tour, that took a lot of his time on tour to repair and keep them running right. There is an 8 minute verson of More Then A Feeling and the last half is a cool little jam. The effects are some sort of tape delay pitch shifting. I figure he must of made up a tape delay with some sort of wah wah type pedal to controll the pitch dives. The guitarists could also raise the pitches to extremes too...... It is a very cool effect! I guess the modern day pedal that is close is the Whammy pedal but it's still not quite the same.

WhoFan