Hi Dave! I'm sure we've chatted before. I agree Scholz was a tone chaser - like that comment. I do hear some early "Rockman" tones creeping in on Don't Look Back album specifically beginning at the 30 second mark of the title song where Tom is playing arpeggio - tone is clean-edge sounding with chorus - very nice. As I understand it too, Tom, in order to fight the CBS lawsuit, was forced to generate an income after them freezing his album royalty payments - although he had probably already produced versions of various products for his own use (studio and live), the situation caused necessity for income to be the mother of invention. Essentially, he probably considered the Sony WALKMAN headphone radio/cassette player and the popularity it had at the time to the 'spectator,' and thought, why not - a ROCKMAN designed with the 'performer' in mind. I was 16 in '82 and actually called SR&D to talk with Tom. Operator said he was busy - I have no idea what I would have said had he come to the phone. I was into the ROCKMAN products so much - even to this day I remember the 1560 Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA address. Ha! I met Brad and Barry at an RTZ show in '91 in Houston. Brad approached me from about 30' away. We talked for 15 minutes. Barry's tone live was THE missing link in Boston's live shows after he left. Plus, his reckless abandoned style of playing was a perfect compliment to Tom's smooth melodic style. Here is a bit of MY Boston story for you to enjoy: zero528.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/boston-and-the-rockman-affect/

a spectrum analyzer has helped me pin point and match frequencies of tones I want to achieve or match. I think it’s mostly eq that = tone , vs compression exc. it’s in the frequency numbers regardless of the amp.

Thanks Dave.

I love messing around with all my pedals, and I have a lot of them, but when I plug into my Rockman rack, it takes me to another place entirely. I have nothing else like it. It's funny, I remember a buddy of mine went to a Boston concert, either for the "Boston" or "Don't Look Back" album. I don't remember for sure. He said: "It sucked. They didn't sound anything like the album!" Case in point I guess, about the difference between the recording and the live performance. When Brian May endorses a piece of equipment like a pedal or one of his BMG guitars, he always says something like: "Yeah, this will help you get my sound, but now use it to make something different and new. Use your imagination, and make it your own." I appreciate that about him. Thanks for the video, David. Rock. On. : )

Outstanding video! I couldn't agree more about your comment around 9:20 LOL! Also, your explanation about the tones achieved on the albums vs what you get live is absolutely spot on. Engineers typically eq all the instruments to give space and identity to them within a mix. Playing a guitar track from an album in isolation will reveal a lot about the eqing used to make the record sound good as a whole. Getting that same guitar tone recipe live is entirely different. Lastly, I see the XP212 to your right. You truly are a blessed man.

I think it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are recording and trying to reproduce particular songs, then chasing the particular tones from the records can make sense, though it can be very frustrating in the case of Boston since Tom used so many different tones. And so much of it also comes down to recording technique as much as it is the tone. If you are playing live and you want to achieve the same tones as the record, again, go for it. The downside is that each record, in the case of Boston, had different tones, so as you play through it, the tones might not mesh well from song to song. Or as a cover band, that can mean trying to get a wide variety of different tones. Then there's the other approach for live playing.... just get a great rock tone and have fun playing! You can add some variation here and there as needed.... a little extra gain on this part or maybe using a stomp for that part, but you don't have to stray that far from your base tone. And I think that's what David is getting at here.... the Rockman creates a great rock tone as a base, and you can tweak it to your particular taste. In the end, whatever you are using your (and your audiences) ears will get used to it and it will sound "normal", unless perhaps someone else is playing with you with different gear that has a different tonal profile. It's only when directly compared to another tone that we tend to start choosing which sounds "better", and even then, that can change depending on the music being played. A fuzz tone may sound great for "Satisfaction" from the Stones, but not so great for a Metallica tune!! Good to see you back online, David... best wishes!

Hey Dave! What are your thoughts on the Rockman guitar compressor rock module? I was thinking of swapping out the distortion generator to the guitar compressor. Thanks.