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Re: multiple guitar amps



<< 3) Separation of a complex signal. Brian May's

wall of
> AC30s allowed him to send the different delayed
> signals from his tape echoes to different amps 
to
> avoid having them mush all together into mud. 
(This
> reason is the most applicable to us as 
loopers...)

It's probably also to get additional sounds, 
since the AC30 has both a cool overdrive and a
great clean sound, but it doesn't have multiple
channels, so if you want instant access to both,
you need two amps. I know people like Eric
Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughn had lots of amps on

stage, but it was for the variety.>>

Eric Johnson uses three sets (each with it's own
effects chain of amp that he switches between,
but I remember reading that Stevie Ray used
something four or five amps AT ONCE!!!! 

As for the Brian May setup, my understanding was
he used the three sets of AC-30's for his echo
effects. One set of amps (or at least one amp,
anyway) had his main guitar signal. Now, what
he'd do is he'd plug into a delay unit (in the
early days it was a customized Echoplex, but I
think he went digital later on), set for just one
repeat, about a second after the original signal.
He'd feed the dry signal from the delay into amp
number, and he'd feed the wet signal into a
second delay unit, set up the same way as the
first. The dry signal from delay unit two (which
would be the signal repeat from the first delay
unit) would go into amp rig number two, while the
wet signat signal from the second delay unit
(which would give him another repeat) would go
into the third amp rig. 

This allowed him to make each signal clearly
heard, and also allowed him to pan the individual
signals in stereo (though I don't know how much
he would have done that live, he clearly did this
on the studio version of Brighton Rock), instead
of turning into sonic mud, as someone else
mentioned. 

I've never heard of him using them to get
different tones (other than dialing in a
different tone on each repeat), though I suppose
it's possible. Someone mentioned once to me that
he used a wah wah pedal, saying that he used one
when he saw Queen in concert in 74. I had never
seen it mentioned in any article I had ever read,
but I had to concede if this guy was sure that he
saw May using one, he must have used one. 

Anyway, I always had the impression that his
overdrive sound came from a preamp pedal, which I
think he built himself. 

Another interesting point: someone mentioned Kiss
touring with empty speaker cabinets. In the
infamous Tom Snyder interview from 1979 (if you
ever saw it, you'd know why it's infamous, at
least amongst Kiss fans) Paul Stanley mentions
that in the early days, they did that because
they couldn't afford to have a big wall of real
amps, and that they'd have to tell the lighting
guys not to put a spotlight on the cabinets,
otherwise you'd be able to see a hole where the
speaker was supposed to be. I think once they
started making big money, they actually started
putting speakers in the cabinets (though
obviously they didn't actually plug in all of
them). Each of the times I saw them, it certainly
looked the cabs actually had speakers in them. 



=====
May you never thirst!
The Scuba Diver Presently Known As Chris

"What do you get when you give a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?"-James 
Earl Jones

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