Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

[JB_From_Hell]

Lots of today's cheap gear is pretty high quality (Boss pedals, Line 6 stuff, etc...). I could see pro guitarists using a Line 6 POD XT Live, or a Boss GT8, and could also see a guy like me using either of those.

I'm under the impression that there was a much greater division between pro-quality stuff and affordable stuff in the 80's. Am I right?

 

[jmh151]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

Yes.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

Well, There wasn't a lot of ultra-high quality stuff around. The boutique amp craze took off at the start of the 90s. PRS was very small fry when starting out, and it took a few years before companies started taking notice and lifting their quality.

MIA stuff from the 80s wasn't generally stunning quality, but certainly better than the mid-late 70s. Major US companies had to do this to retrieve their reputations after the 70s and compete against high quality MIJ stuff.

In terms of guitars, the intermediate stuff was pretty good quality. Ibanez were all MIJ and built well, Charvels were good MIJ guitars, and Squiers were good quality MIJ instruments. Kramers were assembled in the US from decent quality ESP parts.

Beginner and low/intermediate guitars were nowhere near as good as they are now. There was more use of plywood for bodies and the hand work was terrible. The first generation of MIK guitars were pretty awful, nothing like what you get out of Korean factories today.

The amp market was very different, too. There wasn't much in terms of a range compared to today. Marshall had bought out the 800 series, and I remember everyone wanting more gain. Solid state amps were everywhere, and most of them sounded pretty terrible. Of the solid state brands, Crate were popular because they had pretty high gain by the standards of the day.

Peavey was very much a solid state brand with a few valve amps, and definitely weren't the player they became since the classics and 5150. Fender were moving super 60s and red knob twins, which were an improvement over the later silverface amps.

The big news in the late 80s was racks and midi preamps like the ADA MP1. That was the super hot item. I saw so many MP1/SPX90/solid state power amp rigs.

So compared to now, the amp market was nowhere near as cool and diverse. there are so many cool options to tubae and non-tube players now.

For guitars, the difference is less clear. Quality standards are higher across the board now, but MIJ instruments were just as good then as they are now and far more affordable.

 

[Binnerscot]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I think Hot Grits covered it well. I remember the 80s, never enough gain, never having hot enough pups, finding a decent guitar was far and few between - no internet then to order high quality stuff that stores didn't stock much of (even now).

Metallica was raging and no could get enough gain to cop those sounds. Solid state was the only option on a budget for high gain. Crate was too brittle and Peavey was very midrangy. Marshall was the only thing out there and not cheap by a teenager's standards (except this little company Mesa, but they were so expensive for us young players and they sounded so good that we didn't understand them at that time - it didn't sound like what I heard on recordings?!) Ed's Brown sound was far more mystical and magical, it was still favored sound to attain, but we could only guess at how it was done or by reading little bits and peices in different magazines. I am still curious about that magical pickup he made.....I haven't tried the '78 yet.

How things have changed for the better in general...except Hamer doesn't make superstrats anymore!

The cheap stuff was garabage, the expensive stuff was decent but not as nice as today (more competition has upped the standards for high end gear)

It was a magical time that brings a tear to my eye when I think about how exciting it was to own a guitar in those days. Cheesy hair metal abounded everywhere, but so did great guitar players...we took the good with the bad!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

This is cool.... keep the stories coming

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I remember the rack stuff and power amps being the craze...Alot of us ran something like an Eventide unit or a Digitech,ART,Voodoo Valve rack units into tube power amps...I didn't have a huge condo type rack unit,but I did use a 4 rack space unit...Steve Lukather(Toto) had alot of guys sold on rack units and EMG active pickups also...

Bought my very first TS9 in 1983 and it was a way cool pedal for it's time!

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I'm under the impression that there was a much greater division between pro-quality stuff and affordable stuff in the 80's. Am I right?

I remember the division as being fairly large. Some of it is likely compounded by my own financial situation at the time.

High-end stuff was out there, but it was both pricey and rare. I remember PRS guitars being this gold standard of what the "best" was considered.

Amps were another thing altogether because there seemed to be this paranoid fear that we'd wake up and the last tube on Earth would have burnt out and that would be it for them. The push for solid-state gear was huge and I remember shops pushing some dreadful sounding amps.

But I also remember rack mount rigs coming out and a big part of the appeal was being able to buy it in chunks over time. The big entry-point was the ADA MP-1. I knew alot of folks that unloaded alot of random gear to get their rigs started with one of those.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I remember the division as being fairly large. Some of it is likely compounded by my own financial situation at the time.

High-end stuff was out there, but it was both pricey and rare. I remember PRS guitars being this gold standard of what the "best" was considered.

Amps were another thing altogether because there seemed to be this paranoid fear that we'd wake up and the last tube on Earth would have burnt out and that would be it for them. The push for solid-state gear was huge and I remember shops pushing some dreadful sounding amps.

But I also remember rack mount rigs coming out and a big part of the appeal was being able to buy it in chunks over time. The big entry-point was the ADA MP-1. I knew alot of folks that unloaded alot of random gear to get their rigs started with one of those.

Yep the MP1 was a very hot item!

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I have a rack full of 80's relics! A problem with a lot of the 80's rack gear was that they usually did a number of things well but they only did one thing at a time. So you had multiple rack units and maybe only used two or three effects out of the 100's of presets available. So rather than having four or five stomp boxes you had four or five rack units. Also it was no fun trying to figure out how your going to control all that crap through midi. Because only one or two units could be used for a particular series of songs. That's why guitarists of the era had such huge racks!

 

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I came in right after the end I guess .... in 1991. But I had friends who were "in it" in 1989 and 1990. Yep, racks were definately it, you just HAD TO hit the club's stage with this box on wheels next to your cab with all these diferent lights in it going on and off and staying constant, green, blue, red .... That's why when I got my first well paying job the first thing I got was DigiTech 21/20 ... what a piece of dodoo that was ... My first is still with me, a plywood Kramer Barreta, that occasionally sounds awesome, $200 dollars on Sale in GC. Frets are a complete crap, started to develop dents by 3rd year. It was a great time, really great, you really had to have your stuff down to even be the first band on Weds night. No body was interested if you were "real," "different," "cool" or "honest" you either sucked or you didn't, you either good or not at all.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

What got me thinking about this was effects processors. I've noticed lots of big name guys use the Boss GT series processors. I had a GT-6, and it still seems kinda weird that pros use the same crap the rest of us do. I remember when I started playing (1992-93), my best friend had an Ibanez PT5, and I'd see ads for them in Guitar World, and think, "There's NO WAY that guy uses that piece of crap!"

On a slight tangent, isn't it amazing that so many of our heroes use the same $5 a set strings, the same $39 Boss DS-1, the same $10 strap....

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

My rig circa 1986 was

1983 American Strat
mid 80's MIJ single humbucker Strat
1955 Les Paul Special

MXR Distortion +
Rat
ADA Flanger
Maestro Phsse Shifter
Thmas Organ Crybaby Wah

1965 Deluxe Reverb amp

I can honestly say all of the equipment was good. Good stuff now, good stuff then.

 

[DesertRat]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

There's alot more diversity in available tones now for pretty reasonable prices. However, it's easy to lose (or never find) good tones in all the possibilities.

I remember seeing Alex Lifeson in the early 80's - the first time he was playing an ES335 into (i think) a Marshall and his tone was incredible, the next time he was playing a strat through a giant rack of stuff and his tone was sterile and anemic. Things have only gotten "better" since then.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

...Steve Lukather(Toto) had alot of guys sold on rack units and EMG active pickups also...

Oh god, yeah. EMG SAs and 81s were everywhere. Almost everyone I knew junked perfectly good pickups for EMGs back then. You couldn't move for strats with EMGs.

EMGs, stereo chorus, solid state...

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

Lots of today's cheap gear is pretty high quality (Boss pedals, Line 6 stuff, etc...). I could see pro guitarists using a Line 6 POD XT Live, or a Boss GT8, and could also see a guy like me using either of those.

I'm under the impression that there was a much greater division between pro-quality stuff and affordable stuff in the 80's. Am I right?

well let me add it up for you... going by my experience being a teenager in the 80's.... By the early 80's i was a huge Van Halen fan at young age... by 1987 i was playing rather well on an acoustic and a cheap assed 60's hagstrum electric bought at a garage sale for $25... I figured i wanted the VH style gear.... Or as close as i could get on the money i made....

I was in highschool and working part time.... making $3.45 Canadian an hour in a food stores stocking shelves and at a theme park in the summer.... After taxes, buying my bus fair to and from work and school, cokes and snacks with the gang i was not left with much... once in a while a movie... you get the point... i made a pact that i would save every coin i could to get a real Kramer....

Never made it... i ended up buying a plywood Kramer Striker and a Boss distortion pedal.... at a cost of over $600 with taxes and a case.. I found that bill last winter.. can't believe i still had the bill from the store...

Later that year i managed to save over $500 for a Marshall SS Combo... So basicly i paid $1100 or more for my rig and the axe was plywood... It fell apart after 2 years... I still have the neck but i smashed that guitar in a rage....

$1100 took forever to get together on $3.45 an hour!!! I gave up a lot of fun to save that cash and i got 0 help from the parents! Not only did they think guitars were a waste of money they didn't have any money anyways...

By the time i got to Grade 12 in 1988 i was working full time after school every night in a factory.... i thought $8 an hour back then was killer... I switched to midnights to get the extra $1.. at $9 an hour i thought i was going to finally get that Van Halen rig... Never happened... I ended up having to sell all my gear off to get some cash when i was in a bind and stopped playing for a few years...

You could not imagine a happier bugger when i begged borrowed and scraped together enought to buy a used and abuse Les Paul in the early 90's... Felt like i won the lottery....

saddly now since that hard time of having no gear i've gone the other way... now i have way too much

 

[LoFiBrian]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

my dad had good tone for the 80s and some of that gear still sounds amazing...

1977 Stratocaster and 1973 Tele Deluxe

Boss DS-1 and Boss CH-1 Chorus (Japanese Boxes)

Crate 50watt 1x12 combo always on the clean channel...He had his own SM57 because I guess clubs had horrible equipment...

(he said he'd barrow a SF twin from a friend if he was not playing in a bar/venue without a PA...but i suspect this was for volume and not tone issues.)

when i started playing he had alot of simple advice as far as tone and gear...

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I bought a San Dimas Charvel brand new for about $700. My buddy had one too. Some of the guitars were great, but the real good amps were harder to find.

We both hated our amps. he said we should take them up the mountain and just throw them off a cliff or something. It was always: " should I order a Boogie or buy a vintage Fender or Marshall used?" You could order a basic 1x12 Boogie from Mesa for about $500. Several guys did this. An older guy from the other side of mountain came and saw me play, and then came back and said: "you need this." He loaned me a metal panel JMP to gig with for awhile. That was great, and after awhile I tracked down a JCM800 combo for $500 used.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

This is a repeat of what folks have already said, for the most part...

My recollection of the 80s included lots of super Strats, active pickups, and rack gear like the MP-1 and Eventide harmonizers. Satch and Vai took it to extremes, and so many guitarists wanted that processed sound.

In the 90s, when I started listening to Phish, I paid less attention to rack gear and more attention to stomp boxes. Then I discovered the boutique craze and hopped aboard. I slowly replaced my rack effects with pedals.

Now, I'm looking at consolidating, sticking with a few choice pedals, a couple guitars, and a couple amps.

I'd like to feel I have a focus on style and sound, the way guys like Jeremy, Jeff (Virtual Kevorkian), and Neils (Rid) do. My problem is that I like to listen to and play so many different styles, which makes it more difficult to achieve that level of focus. (That's fodder for another thread, methinks.)

- Keith

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

In the 80's, there wasn't ANY cheap gear that was worth a damn.

My first rock amp was a freakin Gorilla... how SAD is that? And I moved-up from that to a little Marshal 1X10 solid state thingy that was better. But it still sucked.

For pro-level gear, you had Marshall and Fender. That's about it. If you wanted Marshall dirt and Fender cleans, then you had to buy both and lug them around and switch with a switchbox.

And then the rack stuff came along. I gigged/toured with an ADA MP-1 for many years because it was the best thing around. Rack effects weren't that great (unless you had the $$$ for a TC-2290 and Eventide H-3000). I had some ART stuff. Not that great. But the MP-1 was pretty good and I wish I still had it.

Guitars were the same deal. Cheap guitars sucked. Now, a guy can pick up a $200 ESP Ltd and a $200 Behringer modeling amp and sound as good or better than our racks of gear sounded back then. IMO. I tell students anymore how lucky they are to have the cheap gear that kicks ass.

 

[devastone]

Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....

I remember buying Marshalls, non-Masters and JCM800s used for around $400 in those days, I bought a TS9 for $35, sold it to a guy for $25, a few years later they were going for $300, DOH!!! It was relative though, I didn't have as much money then either. The "vintage" stuff now was "new" then, no, we didn't have all the boutique effects and amps then, but the regular stuff was pretty good. That was the days of the Ibanez 9 series effects, the MIJ Boss stuff, and the "cheap" guitars were made in Japan. I think maybe some of the stuff that was looked at as "cheap" in those days, especially the MIJ guitars (ESP made Kramers?, Squier Fenders) are regarded as quite good now.

That said, there was plenty of gargage out there too, but really, is a $99 new Squier really that good?

Yes, some effects have come along way, as said, most rack effects boxes in those days were either very expensive, or very cheesy digital sounding, but hey, it matched the spandex...