jdgm Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Now then...there's been mention of old 8-bit technology lately. Let's remember those days of adventure a little more! As we all know, in the long-gone 1980s digital technology arrived in force. Rack units were suddenly all the rage and many guitarists ended up with refrigerator-sized racks stuffed with all manner of pre-amps and processing goodies. These 'early' digital units were mostly 4 or 8-bit, and at the time sold very well as we all thought they sounded incredible. Did you have an SPX90 for instance? Korg? ART? Ever lust after the A/DA pre-amp? You know where I'm coming from! Of course now they are worth very little but for all that they are still good devices and there are some incredible bargains to be had if you do a quick eBay trawl. But do they suck tone? Well,yes...A/D converters were in their infancy so to speak...but never mind that because there are some great sounds to be found if you are prepared to investigate. Some units always did and always will sound good, some don't. And how about rack pre/power amps? Got one? Or an analog effect rack with foot controller (Ibanez, MXR)? What say you? I haven't got rid of my racks yet so I'll start off. Top to bottom; Korg DRV2000 reverb, Yamaha (analog) Q2031 graphic - a wonderful eq, Yamaha GC2020B stereo comp/limiter, Ibanez HD1000 and the peerless Palmer Speaker Simulator. And some serious guitar processing power with this lot - Korg SDD2000 (my precioussss!!!) digital delay, Boss NS50 digital noise suppressor, Boss SE50 and SE70 multi-fx. Er yes, that's a record deck beneath. The Boss SE70 is possibly the most fully-loaded fx box ever - it has 40-second reverbs, delays, reverse harmonisers, vocoders, algorithms for almost every single Boss pedal, analog distortions, guitar synth, and an awful lot more - an incredible thing! What you got? What did you have? Regards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10K-DB Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 Does this count? lol Old MXR,,rocktron,,old tascam 424 4 trk! Roland graphic EQ,Tascam CD-RW900SL{for converting cassttes to digital}! 84' Kramer Stryker w/PAF Gibson PU in bridge,,Seymour Duncan Singleslot Double coils in mid/front spots. Digitech RP-10 floor processor effects{on shelf above rack,which I still employ even now} lol Hey it still has its uses,,but my 24 trk digital Tascam 2488 is awsome these days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaysEpiphone Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I had one of these back in the day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellion102792 Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Got this badboy right here 70's era, awesome sounding unit. I modded it to have a 100k pot for the delay instead of the stock 100 ohm pot to bring it past the 250ms max delay. Only prob with these old BBD circuits is once you stretch them past 350/400 or so the echo sound degrades. Still fun to play with and it can make some interesting sounds, spring reverb too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Great! All you need now is a superstrat with a Floyd and a mullet! While the stuff they're making today (like the newer TC and Eventide stuff, as well as the Axe-Fx) has more flexibility with all the multi-fx, presets, and MIDI options, you can't beat the early stuff. It may not be as flexible as the newer stuff, but it sounds better to my ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I have a circa 1980 Ibanez DM 1000 that I bought for the wholesale price at the time was $750 as the E-H Memory Man Deluxe I had sent through the store to be repaired under warranty had gotten lost. The DM 1000 at the time was the absolute undisputed king of the hill as far as rack mount delays went.Besides the usual echo,slapback/reverb settings you could get from it you could get incredible flanging with the really pronounced "Whoosh" than real in studio hand manipulated 3 tape deck flanging achieved.As well it had incredible chorus and doubling that were also of studio recording quality.All of these effects were infinitely adjustable and unbelievabley quiet with a signal to noise ratio that was practically unmeasureable.Friends of mine who played with another band used 2 of the DM 1000s to create and simultainulously use 2 different echoes such as one slow and one fast to give the most incredible echo effects I had ever heard,they also used flanging the same way causing absolutely other-worldly sounds.I use the same sort of set up now for songs like Jimi's Gypsy Eyes,House Burning Down and Burning of the Midnight Lamp and also for the very end of Voodoo Child (slight return). I don't thing that there's one effect either rackmount or pedal that would entice me to trade my DM 1000,as it is such an incredible bit of technology-even when compared with today's technology.What's crazy about it is-if you can find a good used one today,you can pick it up for as little as $150 or even less!!!That's according to the Vintage Guitar Price Guide too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Wow too far back for me to remember. We had a 4 track analog recorder that used a cassette tape (still have it somewhere). We recorded this and this on it. Bear in mind that we were about 14 years old (I know it sucks). Then I got Cakewalk 1.0 for DOS, which was a huge breakthrough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted September 21, 2012 Author Share Posted September 21, 2012 Yes that's the stuff! Scooter that Roland graphic is monstrous! And I remember what a rep the Ibanez DM1000 had - how I wanted one of those and I may yet pick one up someday. I never tried the Lex or Multivox but...here's what I'm talking about - if it still sounds that good (and some of 'em do), IMO it's not worth selling just to get an 'improved' software version or whatever. Racks are awkward, bulky, you have to get round the back to access the sockets but the old "if it ain't broke" adage really applies here. Always worth checking out and there are lots of bargains out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabba2203 Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 The Heavy Beast: I still have the Sabine tuner, the Hush Super C and the Boss GX-700. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 That's an incredible rack of Marshall roar that you have there Cabba2203,I imagine that you wouldn't swap that for a Behringer multi-effects unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabba2203 Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 That's an incredible rack of Marshall roar that you have there Cabba2203,I imagine that you wouldn't swap that for a Behringer multi-effects unit. The Marshall JMP-1 preamps and the two dual power amps are long gone. Sounded great, looked cool, too impractical for me to move! LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted September 22, 2012 Author Share Posted September 22, 2012 The Marshall JMP-1 preamps and the two dual power amps are long gone. Sounded great, looked cool, too impractical for me to move! LOL! Fan-tastic...cost a bomb at the time and splendidly over the top! What cabs were these things driving? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabba2203 Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 Fan-tastic...cost a bomb at the time and splendidly over the top! What cabs were these things driving? With this rack rig I was running 4 Peavey 4x12 cabs loaded with Sheffields. The black cabs with expanded metal grill, kind of looked like Mark series Boogie cabs. They sounded great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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