wixedmords
New member
Re: Hey, guys who were playing in the 80's....
This is totally from my perspective. A guy into the metal of that decade.
The 80's are really split into 3 parts. In the early 80's there was really Fender and Gibson in the guitar department, and Marshall and Fender in the amp department. There were very few mid-line, mid-priced products. There were decent Peavey and Yamaha equipment at the entry-level along with some borderline junk (IMO), Arbor, Memphis, Gorilla and such. Yamaha and Ibanez started to copy some guitars and got in legal trouble for it, but ESP took that to a new level. The early 80's is where you found the aftermarket companies such as Chandler, Charvel (early early), Mighty-Mite and others making hotrod parts for strats. This craze evolved into the superstrat craze of the early/mid to late 80's.
In the mid-80's (83'-84') we saw Jackson hit hard, really hard. The superstrat craze had begun. We also started to see an influx of the mid-priced lines with Charvel bringing in the Japanese models, and Ibanez, Yamaha, and ESP building Charvel style guitars. This is the beginning of the Japanese invasion into the economy and into guitar lines. The phenomenon promised cheaper guitars at near equal to US made quality. The mid-80's still featured Marshall and Fender amps, Marshall's were more prevalent, and Fender stuff faded a bit. The mid-80's also was the start of the modded-Marshall craze. On the low end, Crate and KMD amps were popular. Every kid had a Scholz Rockman running into some cheap 10-20 watt amp. Peavey amps seemed to outnumber every other low-end manufacturer. Lot's of guys had Peavey Bandit's.
The late 80's brought the tube scare as spoken of before in this thread. Some players were looking to simplify their gear with onboard effects, and some players went to rack setups with rack units that featured programmable effects and rackmount distortion units. Lots of tube guys went SS and those little GK amps were everywhere. I had one, and wish I never sold it. I might get one again someday. There was a slight fizzle in the superstrat craze as Jackson was sold and Kramer and ESP were in full copy mode of Jackson's designs.
Jackson's were quite a prestige guitar in the 80's. It took me a summer to save up for my San Dimas, but well worth it. I remember going to Daddy's at the time and there were the regular guitars, and always one custom Jackson on the end. One day I was able to walk out of the store with that guitar. It was a big thing for a teenager.
What I remember most from that time period is that there was expensive top-end stuff, and entry-level stuff. Much less choices in the middle.
This is totally from my perspective. A guy into the metal of that decade.
The 80's are really split into 3 parts. In the early 80's there was really Fender and Gibson in the guitar department, and Marshall and Fender in the amp department. There were very few mid-line, mid-priced products. There were decent Peavey and Yamaha equipment at the entry-level along with some borderline junk (IMO), Arbor, Memphis, Gorilla and such. Yamaha and Ibanez started to copy some guitars and got in legal trouble for it, but ESP took that to a new level. The early 80's is where you found the aftermarket companies such as Chandler, Charvel (early early), Mighty-Mite and others making hotrod parts for strats. This craze evolved into the superstrat craze of the early/mid to late 80's.
In the mid-80's (83'-84') we saw Jackson hit hard, really hard. The superstrat craze had begun. We also started to see an influx of the mid-priced lines with Charvel bringing in the Japanese models, and Ibanez, Yamaha, and ESP building Charvel style guitars. This is the beginning of the Japanese invasion into the economy and into guitar lines. The phenomenon promised cheaper guitars at near equal to US made quality. The mid-80's still featured Marshall and Fender amps, Marshall's were more prevalent, and Fender stuff faded a bit. The mid-80's also was the start of the modded-Marshall craze. On the low end, Crate and KMD amps were popular. Every kid had a Scholz Rockman running into some cheap 10-20 watt amp. Peavey amps seemed to outnumber every other low-end manufacturer. Lot's of guys had Peavey Bandit's.
The late 80's brought the tube scare as spoken of before in this thread. Some players were looking to simplify their gear with onboard effects, and some players went to rack setups with rack units that featured programmable effects and rackmount distortion units. Lots of tube guys went SS and those little GK amps were everywhere. I had one, and wish I never sold it. I might get one again someday. There was a slight fizzle in the superstrat craze as Jackson was sold and Kramer and ESP were in full copy mode of Jackson's designs.
Jackson's were quite a prestige guitar in the 80's. It took me a summer to save up for my San Dimas, but well worth it. I remember going to Daddy's at the time and there were the regular guitars, and always one custom Jackson on the end. One day I was able to walk out of the store with that guitar. It was a big thing for a teenager.
What I remember most from that time period is that there was expensive top-end stuff, and entry-level stuff. Much less choices in the middle.
