Hi Michael Thank you for doing the video, The 80’s was a magical time, and I was lucky to work on some of most iconic albums of the era. Zakk was blast to hang and work with. That rack grew out of the power and volume he wanted to use live. We did use a combination of the GP-1000’s and custom heads for the album. By the time the tour started we had production M-1000’s for him to use. The Rack was very high tech for the time with custom switching, both for the heads, preamps and effects. The rack had to be lifted on side stage by a forklift, that is why it was coined by the crew “The Widow Maker” Thank you again.

"How did this work?" EMGs are how it worked. Those are essential.

"What else are you going to do, practice?" I lol'd hard at that one because its true.

This type of stuff is exactly why I love your channel, Michael. Your personality, gear knowledge and chops made it. Last sentence made me LOL’d

Greatest channel on KZfaq - taking me back man. I love how much fun you are having with all this; not just this video either. Awesome.

Ugh now i want all this rack gear. Y U Do Dis 2 MEH!

Michael, loving this video! It's a hoot watching you dialing this stuff in on the fly. I remember doing the same thing back in 1991 in a rehearsal room at 3:00 AM in the morning for a couple of days. I remember putting a BBE 462 in the loop of my M1000 goosing the 462 with the fx loop level controls on the amp. Once I got all the knobs dialed and got the amp to bloom (which was stupid loud, all the while running four 4x12's in stereo) it was absolute heaven. I remember driving home and not being able to hear my car running. My ears felt so warm and muffled from playing at those levels. I was able to completely crush my drummer at the turn of a knob. The bass player told me to stay out of his frequency spectrum. There was a small trailer park behind our rehearsal room. After a few days of playing at that volume, I got a visit from the residents expressing their feelings regarding my playing/noise. :)

Def has the “Grunge Face” going on there Michael. I love these videos where you show the equipment guys used back in the day and you absolutely nail the riffs. Thumbs up

I’ve been constantly watching the Zakk tones you made with Tinkertrain, Crazy babies, and Miracle Man. Finally we get a new video on it!!

Brother this was nostalgia on 10! Very fun videos! I dig your passion. Great stuff!

Man you were in the zone with that miracle man stuff!....sounded amazing Mike!..

Great stuff Michael, this is such an Iconic '80s sound. Crazy how low gain the preamp actually is, but it still sounded good. "What else are you gonna do? Practice?" Cracked me up ahahahahahaha

I like the fact that the Lee Jackson stuff isn't about getting the most crushing tone ever. I think it's refreshing to hear in this day in age.

Thank you for playing the riff to "Bloodbath in Paradise"....Oz opened with that when I saw Zakk for the first time (when he had long straight blond hair, NO beard). It was a glorious gig at the Meadowlands arena. Must have been 94 or so. You nailed the phrase and the tone. Thanks. Good stuff!

Hell yeah the spx 90 really makes it over the top which is right where I would want it🤘

Man hearing those riffs just took me way back. Good stuff.

It sounds incredible!!!

You said it Boss, now a days it’s so easy.... back in the day, it took a lot of work amd a lot of mixing this with that, a lil here and a bunch more there..... Now a days, you just download it and move the mouse. I’m old school and still dig the effort. The sound you got w the pre amp and Aphex was sweet. I still have my Aphex 204 exciter w/ big bottom and seeing you pull it out just made me want to run down to the studio and start plugin and playin all over again.... Really digging the videos and the more I watch the more that I’m getting into them. Keep rockin Micheal and I’ll keep tuning in...

One of the coolest, really liked this one!

great video. you do great demos on amps. thanks Mike.

love you bro, you are such a tone beast

The aphex really does define the tone on the record. That big bottom end really makes that tone shine, and also the exciter is clearly doing some midrange shifting too. It’s really one of those tones that when you take away one of the elements it falls apart

Awesome video, the Aphex is insane!

LMAO--You’re right, the 80s were a tough time to find the TONE in you head!!! But we made it work✊🏼

Love me some Zakk vids. Michael's profile packs nail that signature Zakk tone on the kemper. My most used profiles.

Dude, you nail the Zakk tone from the albums, playing as well BTW!

7:42 “we have it real easy nowadays to get a good tone … to get any kind of tone back in the day was just brutal” Michael you are so right. I (and many people I talk to) remember trying to get great tone and thinking “Is my gear the problem? Do I need another pedal? If I dialed it different would it sound amazing?” On that note if you are looking for video ideas: “Squeezing the best tones from consumer level gear from the 80s and 90s”. For example: a digitech multifx in front of a 1990 solid state peavey, or whatever. No one could do a better job than you of making a cool video out of classic gear like that.

I was so happy when you profiled this, Michael |m|

Awesome video man! I literally look online EVERY DAY to see if one of the M-1000's come on the market. Dream amp.

I didn’t think you were gonna nail it. 🤘🏻

That was awesome!!!

Tf? How am I not already subbed to you? Changed that real quick.

Thank you for these cool rack videos. Two questions: 1. What is the SPX-90 Symphonic patch? Hall Reverb? Any chorusing or delay going on? 2. What preamp would you choose to add some 1959 and 2203 vibe to a Tri-Axis setup?

I totally had both the preamp and the head in the early 90’s ... I dumped them as they didn’t have near the ‘gain’ I needed. Thanking for putting together my teens years you wizard!!!! You know way too many NRFTW riffs!!!!- but soundtrack of our lives haha! Awesome!!!!

best channel Ive stumbled on since "Best Pizza of NJ"

Awesome videos man. Are you running the Aphex in the FX loop or the front of the amp?

Really enjoy these zakk demos. As for the tone you are about 85% there. The EMGs clarity and output make up the rest of the tone as the pickups in your guitar don't slam the amp as much and are voiced differently.

Omg that preamp! Quadruple tracked would be dead on with EMGs in that Les Paul!

Love it... take me back!!

Great tones!

Great content! I would love to see some retrospection of John Sykes tone on WS '87 and Blue Murder stuff. Cheers!

This is the type of video I push the like button before watching the video...

I jumper the all tube effects loop on my Lee Jackson xls-1000 to get that come alive sound at much lower volumes. It really has that cranking the output stage sound.

I've always wanted to do this myself!

Michael Nielson, I enjoy watching your videos.

Amazing job recreating these tones Michael. Question - digital modeling aside, do you think it’s possible to recreate these types of tones using modern equipment (say a modern versatile head such as an EVH and the right effects pedals) or is it necessary to chase down this obscure (and aging) hardware?

The circuits are clearly different with these two, you're right about that. The head was his response to rack gear quickly falling out of trend and ADA MP-1 practically killing GP-1000 sales. You're right about the evolution as well, a lot of the component values are tweaked and there's additional components. The design is quite different in general. Probably due to the fact that a lot of people modded GP-1000 for more distortion and bass response, as well as to tone down the nasty high frequencies. The result of increasing distortion was issues with oscillation and the stability of the amp in general (even the circuit board created issues when increasing gain, amp modders suggest, people have to be said to even cut the board in pieces to separate them before modding or rebuilding it). So in M-1000 he had addressed these issues apparently, there's coupling caps between gain stages or grid stoppers with bypass caps. I think he increased the gain in every gain stage pretty much. Yada yada. To skip the technical stuff, he basically just improved the design as you assumed AND he also moved the tone stack after the first 3 or 4 gain stages (depending on if you used stage I or II), where as in GP-1000 the tone stack was right after the initial gain stage. The schematic implies that there's 3x 12AX7 for the gain stages. The first one is stage I and II, then there's the second tube both sides used for gain, and then there's the third 12AX7 for Hi-Gain, only one half used. So with all the extra gain options it has 3 tubes with 5 stages of gain. Then there's a fourth 12AX7 responsible for driving the effects loop send and return (so more gain available with send and return level controls). That's pretty hot, given that GP-1000 has 3x 12AX7 where there's 4 gain stages, both halves from two first tubes used for gain and the third one is used for output amplification. A notable thing is though, that the first version, the 87 models, didn't have three tubes like 88 models, but only two, so there's that difference in those as well if you want to get really down to it. The preamp also evolved throughout its lifespan and apparently the components were tweaked along the way, for a bit more distortion and bass response as well. The XLR connections disappeared between 87 and 88 models as one hint, some had covered holes and later 88 models had a chassis without those holes at all. Personally I found a huge difference between the output 1 and 2, because at some point he changed a cap in one of the outputs to provide more bass. So it really depends of the time of production how the sound was exactly. I think your Fryette helped the GP-1000 with bass response somewhat. I believe that's why guys liked to pair it with something like VHT 2150 and KT88 power amps in general, they had more oomph to compensate the lack of it in GP-1000. And often some similar exciter than you had here, like Rocktron enhancer limiter exciter whatever. You also get quite a different response from SP-1000 as well depending on if you connect 4, 8 or 16 ohm speaker of the same kind (like a JCM 4x12" with 1x4 ohm or 1x16 ohm inputs, clearly different). To me the mid shift was massive changes in tone in GP-1000 (well to begin with it does switch between capacitors that cover quite wide range of mid frequencies). It actually was something that depending on the pickups/guitar made it unplayable, honky or sweet singing leads. It worked well as either correcting mid hump to sit somewhere better or added a hump in some pleasant frequencies. Treble you couldn't turn above like 2 o'clock or it got nasty and bass was difficult to dial in, a lot was still the choice but the pull was debatable. The bass control pulled should emphasize the frequencies below 72 Hz so quite a deep switch! Barely even reproduced by guitar speakers! The treble control pulled you should get some extra above 7 kHz! Once again quite an extreme zone perhaps. No wonder they're so subtle, that's way above many presence controls I think. The tone stack outside the mid-shift was pretty much overhauled for M-1000 on top of the position of it. Do you ever get the LEDs to light up in the SP-1000? I couldn't get them to light up at reasonable volumes, they do work, but it's not a quiet solid state power amp. I really appreciate all your great nerdy amps from the sexy eras and the videos about them. On this video I prefer the GP-1000 for its weird raw character. It's a weird balance though, my theory is that you should be able to crank a bit on the master control as well to make the third tube hotter, but it gets numbingly loud if you want to include the power amp more than the minimal touch. But let's be honest I have no idea how people got the album sounds they got with these amps, like the Stone albums sound nothing like these two. They sound sweet.

Hey Michael! One of these M-1000’s just popped up for $700, what do you think? Think I could get some Zakk tones with this and my Zakk OD pedal? Seems like an awesome amp

Hes right we def had to work for any kind of metal type of sound. Ada mp1 was another one that needed a few things on the chain to make it sound killer

Thanks for this Michael. This is the demonstration of what so many gear nerds don't understand: the sound quality of EACH item ALONE don't matter that much, until the OVERALL result is good! Fact: the GP1000 alone is just OK. Boss SD1 is a cheap OD. The SPX converters are taming the sound... and the aphex is some "artificial" make-up... but these all together are sounding so cool!

Kinds sounds like a Boss Heavy Metal Pedal!!🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽

The preamp sounds miles better than the amp itself. Yes, the EMGS would give more punch, as Richie Faulkner's sound is doing. My biggest respect, great viedo!

Hey Michael. Would you consider making a video about the differences between +4 dBu and -10 dBV with regards to FX loops in amplifiers? After ALOT of trial and error and reading a buttload of articles and watching videos, it became clear why my foot pedals worked fine in front of the amp, but seemed to sound like ass going through the FX loop. It also convinced me that "what was missing" was a "line level shifter" that could drop the FX Send's +4 dBu level going into my footpedals down to a managable -10 dBV that my FX pedals could work with. No bull...before I learned about the different line levels between FX pedals and "rack gear" (which FX loops were originally designed to work with) I actually burned out a chorus pedal (it still worked in terms of bypass, but it didn't modulate my signal anymore) and it damaged 2 other pedals that I had. I noticed that the FIRST pedal in the chain was the one that was damaged/no longer working/sounded like ass and that pedal's output "dropped" the signal that the other pedals in the chain could use...saving them from damage. Some amps come with a +4 dBu and -10 dBV switch...which is great. Anyways...I thought the "+4 dBu and -10 dBV " topic could be a good one for you to cover, as I'm sure there are a bunch of players out there wondering why their pedals don't really do what they're supposed to when they're going through their FX loops. And at the very least, you could save a bunch of guitarists alot of grief from damaged/no longer functioning pedals that need to be replaced. Your channel is awesome and thanks for all the great content you provide.

13:40 is where it's at!!!!!! Anyone know, did Zakk record dry then add the SPX90 later or did he record it to tape?

I had a love hate thing with my Metaltronix head, I sold it, but kept my Lee Jackson XLS 500 head... and just bought another XLS 500 head. These are the much improved, more gain killer tone version!

Will you ever be doing any vids with Ronnie letekro's tone and also criss oliva' s tone? Both of these guys got badass 80's tones!

The power amp will be adding too the overall tone of the amp too so it is not surprising the pre amp does not seem to have as much gain.

What would you recommend for some more modern short cuts to achieve a tone even somewhat similar?

I have a SPX90II and a REV7, they are great effects processors.

Do you have a favorite solid state power amp? Also have you ever tried the VL-1002 Lee Jackson designed?

Haven't found much talk around the internet about which cabs/speakers would be best for ZW tones, especially on No Rest for the Wicked. What do you think?

The real enchilada is an aphex aural exciter with the preamp into the power amp. Then run the head and preamp together. Zakk always ran two preamps together and then had a third set on clean. There was also an eq in his rack. When the head came out he had a head running with the preamps. The cabinets had Celestions on top and EV 12L’s on the bottom. The EV’s are also crucial to that sound. Must have the Aphex though...

Using a traditional rig to get Zakk's sound, where should I place an Exciter/Enhancer in the chain? (In the effects loop or after the distortion?)

Hey man! do you know how this one compares with the VL1002? are they similar? what are the differences? thank you!

I have heard that Ty Tabor uses the Lee Jackson pre-amp... I was actually digging that cleaner/tighter sound that you got a the beginning. It didn't sound like Zakk but thought that is was a very useable sound .... IMHO

I get some me stick for using a sonic stomp in my loop. But it's just sooooo much fun!!

Love your show so.... there’s one amazing pre amp I haven’t heard you talk about I use a kasha rock mod 2 it kills I’ve used mine 20 years I use that on one side soldano sp77series 2 on the other it’s eye opening

Subtle but noticeable, in my view.I actually liked some of the tones from the preamp + Power Station.

Damn fine job, son 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I am curious to know how you dissipate heat in your head cabinet. Do your amp heads get overheated in there? Looks really sharp.

Michael: "my dog is dumb,..ugh, you know." Me: "yeah, but i can see he still can bite."

Alexi used both of those power amps, and I wonder if Roope ever used the head since he used the cabs; both used MM-04s and sometimes combined with pedals to boost the signal.

Does the Lollar Imperials have that "stingy" "biting" top end? Almost like a Tele on Steroids?

Zakks rack looked like mission control,

Can you please show how to use Axe fx lll with your head amp and cabinet ?

Could you make a QC capture of the GP-1000?

The preamp has a tone similar to my 2 Peavey VTM-60 heads

Also if you ever get an emg try the 57 its so much crazily better than an 81 especially with the 24 volt mod 😈

What were the boys in Skid Row using the their first Album? A Randall maybe?

Still feeling the guilt from the Friedman Jake head - now you tempt us with some old school Zakk? I'll be on the couch this weekend for SURE! ☠

Preamp sounds like it should. Not 2020 hyper gain. Get Zakk on that guitar playing those Ozzy riffs and it would be nailed. EMG or not 😊

Is the reverb also comes from the SPX-90?

Wonder how much the EMG 81 and 85 Zakk runs helps it.

Hi Michael, I am wanting to know, did you run the Aphex through the loop on the preamp or did you go preamp out into the Aphex into the power amp?

Michael, what is the riff at 10:14 from? Sounds good!

I bet a Furman PQ-3 as a boost would sound great in front of that.

Michael , when will you make a vid about Steve Stevens set up on Atomic Playboys???

Any JEL profiles in the works?

" I CAN'T CONTROL IT! TOO MUCH GIRTH!!!!" Am I still on youtube?

Might be interesting to compare the M1000 to the amps he did with Ampeg (VL series) and Crate (Stealth).

I wish some one would make a SPX 90 Plugin!

Awesome!! How’d you connect the spx90 ? Mixer?

Michael, very interesting how you had to really work to get those sounds back in that era. Given today's gear, what would you do to try to re-create those earlier Zakk sounds?

paul gilbert also use this amp in late 80s with racer x

I was a Peavey man back then. I remember when the metal zone came out in like 90 or 91. I thought I really had something lol.

At first the logo font made me think that Metasonix had made an amp head which I can't even imagine what those tones would be, because, Metasonix.

Lol i remember when i use to see the magazines whit famous guitarist and the rack effects covered because they don't what nobody to copy them

You really should check out the Kasha Rock mod 2

Also how bout the groove tube trio

I wish he plays with MXR pedals and makes Randy Rhoads' sound from the Tribute album.