mecca777

The sound of hard rock in the 80s was the A/DA MP1 Rack Tube Preamp; the Eventide H3000 Harmonizer cropped up entirely too much for my liking as well. The original Rat and Sansamp pedals were great 80s effects. And how about the Tom Scholz Rockman series of headphone amps? Instant ZZ Top in a box! Does anyone else remember the Rockman 100w head/combo thing with built-in effects, that had tiny speakers and could be split in two for true stereo operation?

My personal favourite piece of '80s gear that I miss like a relative was my much-abused BOSS DC-3 Digital Dimension chorus, the pale pink successor to the Dimension C made famous by Jeff Beck. I wish I hadn't sold it; it gave off a marvellous, metallic Cocteau Twins sound when the controls were maxed. Part of the attraction of BOSS pedals was having a pedalboard that looked like you'd dropped a bag of fruit pastilles.

As far as non-metal guitarists go, I love some of the quirky little solos on XTC's records. I don't know which member of the band cut the little Steely Dan-type interlude on "That's Really Super, Supergirl" from Skylarking, but they had mad chops. My all-time guitar hero, by the way, is Bernard Sumner of Joy Division and New Order.

Neilium

Holy smokes, I nearly forgot about the rack explosion that happened in the 80's. Damn near every guitarist I knew had the MP1 and Quadraverb, even well into the 90's. Usually what followed was a Roland JC-120 or an anonymous PA amp and a pair of those A/DA split stack cabs. I still question the merit of stereo guitar rigs, especially in the crappy bars I was frequenting then.

I remember how blown away everyone was by the Rockman, and I remember playing with two guys: one had the Rockman 100 watt you described, the other had one of those puny GK 300 watt barkers. These two guitarists sounded like angry bees. I think the explosive rise in value of vintage amps (even Fenders from the years of shame) had its roots in the Rockman and other buzzy sounding solid state amps of the era.

-neil

DarkBronzePlant

Weren't the "squeals" at the end of "Bang a Gong" just harmonics with a lot of whammy? Not the toughest thing in the world to pull off...

I agree that Andy Taylor got less credit than he deserved (probably one of the reasons he co-founded Power Station, a band he could actually let loose in), but in no way could he be considered one of the best.

Xeluan

I can't remember but has there been a "Greatest Guitar Solos" ever thread? It seems the logical extension of this one.

Kim o' the Concrete Jungle

Gated reverb. Especially as applied to snare drums.

Neilium

How horribly true.

-neil