Tom Scholz

[g1]

On NPR talking about gear that he built etc:
Tom Scholz: Sound Machine : NPR

Surprised to see the debut Boston record was #12 all time on RIAA best selling list.
I was quite amazed at the sound they had when it came out, maybe not revolutionary, but for mainstream radio it was ground breaking. After that, the VH sound seemed a real stand out (to me), but since those two, nothing else has seemed to have a sound so outstanding from the rest (speaking of mainstream again).

[Mick Bailey]

More Than A Feeling still gets plenty of airplay and here in the UK a TV ad gave it a new audience a few years back. I wonder how close the live guitar sound was to the album back then? I never got to see them live.

I tried out some of the Scholz kit that appeared on the market a little later, but it never swayed me enough to buy anything other than a used Rockman.

[tedmich]

he also invented the power soak which allowed the Boston guitars to sound nice and sustainy and compressed without needing an iso chamber in the studio, and he also mentioned wanting to make a guitar that self tuned with the push of a button, many years before the silly Robo LP.

[big_teee]

Here they are More than 35 years later!

[bob p]

Thanks for posting the link. My only disappointment was that the interview was so short.

I remember reading an interview with Scholz way back when, where he said that he developed the Power Soak because he wanted to hear tube distortion without hearing speaker distortion. He liked the sound of a cranked marshall head, but hated the sound of the flabby Celestions when the head was being dimed.

[bob p]

Hey Terry -- did you notice the Mighty Mouse between the pickups on Tom Scholz's guitar?

[The Dude]

I remember when the first Boston album came out. I probably wore out close to a half a dozen 8 track tapes listening to that thing. The multilayered giant guitar sound blew me away. Brad Delp's vocals didn't exactly suck, either.

Any Tom fan already knows this, but I thought it should be brought up in the thread. Tom was also an engineer for Polaroid and it's been said that he had much to do with bringing to market the Polaroid One-Step. A brilliant fella to be sure!

[Mick Bailey]

I recently started to listen to Boston again and that guitar sound takes some beating. The composition, vocals and all-round musicality really makes it, though. They sure had the magic formula and managed to emerge over here in a very difficult time for a rock band, when disco had taken hold and almost nothing else other than novelty songs was getting any mainstream airplay.

[ron vogel]

More Than A Feeling still gets plenty of airplay and here in the UK a TV ad gave it a new audience a few years back. I wonder how close the live guitar sound was to the album back then? I never got to see them live.

I tried out some of the Scholz kit that appeared on the market a little later, but it never swayed me enough to buy anything other than a used Rockman.

They were dead on to the album sound when I saw them in the 80's...although; it was also a disappointment. Kinda boring...was looking forward to hearing some embellishment live. I saw them on a double bill with Steve miller...and I thought Steve Miller was kind of boring too.

[Regis]

Scholtz claims he pretty much played all the instruments on the first record, with the exception of Barry Goudreau on Foreplay/Longtime and the drummer on one other tune, I think. He posted a rant online some years ago about it.

Apparently before he went to that crappy Rockman setup his tone was a cranked Marshall, hot pickups in a Les Paul, and an MXR 6 band EQ.

[Jazz P Bass]

Regis.
Welcome back.

[Regis]

Regis.
Welcome back.

Thanks, I've been on a bit of a walkabout.

[Guitarist]

I can so relate to that man as I'm sure many of you can. The player, designer, writer, band leader and tonemeister—an inspiration to work harder! Good singers are out there still

[km6xz]

The power soak was in use long before in studios but he commercialized a common engineering practice so it is not quite accurate to say he invented the concept.

[tedmich]

he invented the volume controlled power soak!

Rockman.fr - Tom Scholz's Power-Soak Review