SCORPIONS !

[Tone Slinger]

This group has ALWAYS inspired me. From way back ('70's, '80's, '90's. millenium, RIGHT NOW !).

Melody, power, tone, and defiance, this group had it (as well as some 'HOT' f***ing album covers )

I liked the Uli era (very INTENSE inner being/alternative vibe with SHRED) as well as the Jabs to current sound (Jabs ABSOLUTLY has the honour of having played ONE of the BEST guitar solo's of ALL TIME in 'Rock You Like A Hurricane' !!!

Klaus Meine has power , range and melody (still does..... at 63 ) , and Rudolph Schenker writes very effective, direct and to the point riffs (thats where it all starts ) Francis Bucholz has/had one of the best rock/metal bass tones around and Rarebell knocked the hell out of the bass and snare !

I mention all these guy's (well, up to when Francis left ), Michael Schenker and Rudy Lehnner (I think I spelled that right ?) too.

[garbeaj]

I actually prefer the "Greatest Hits" era of the band starting with Jabs, but I draw the line at World Wide Live. I just can't get with "Winds of Change" or that cover of "I Can't Explain" from the Hearin' Aid project. I love the '83 US Festival performance, lots of live stuff from that peak chart performance era.

My absolute favorite Scorpions track is "Still Loving You". It is their "Purple Rain"...incredible song.

I know the hipsters love Uli, and I do like some of his stuff and Michael Schenker...but I confess, I love the early to mid 80's Scorpions above all other eras of the band.

[chrisom]

Right on, Gearbeaj- World Wide Live was the apex IMO too. The 2 or 3 LPs leading up to that were aural nirvana. I was disappointed too when "Winds of Change" came out. They did have one more ass-kicker on the soundtrack to that movie with Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo and Mick Jagger- "Freejack". "Hit Between the Eyes". Liked "Can't Explain" too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0jtXTgM3cA

[stef]

My favorite

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVmXv-dD80[/youtube]

[cebix]

Blackout is my favourite album. The riff in the title track is so simple but so powerful.

[chrisom]

Same thing with LAFS album. I was doing maintenance work on a school playground in "the hood" one summer in the early to mid-eighties, when some kid in the neighborhood cranked the stereo in his house across the street LOUDLY. I was thinking My God! What is THAT?!! It was incredible. As soon as the singing started, I knew it was Scorpions, but had only heard their radio singles. It was "Bad Boys Runnin' Wild". I went out and bought the LAFS album immediately and jammed it for weeks and years to come after that. Good Days...

[NY Chief]

Sorry boys, I'm with TS on this one. Early Scorps the best - Virgin Killers, In Trance, Fly to the Rainbow...even Lovedrive if you like bubblegum (and yeah, GREAT LP covers )

[Mats A]

They had a very special unique guitar tone. I know they often used a wah wah on for solos. But even their rythm tone is very unique. How did they get it?

[chrisom]

European Marshalls run on 220 volts at 50 cycles per second, instead of 120 volts at 60 cycles per second. Dokken's George Lynch related in an interview oncehow much better Marshalls sounded in Europe than in America... Or it could be something mentioned in a Scorps interview they called "Transformer Killers"... Don't know exactly what those were...

[Tone Slinger]

I read that they carried around thier own power generators when they toured over here. I think they used a wha set to a fixed position quite often. Not sure how they were able to do that while still retaining a tone that wasnt so obviously being 'wha wha filtered' ?
You could place the wha inbetween the bottom left input and top right, while having your guitar plugged into the top left input. Havent tried it, but maybe it would give that wha type midrange attack, but in a more subdued way ?

In the 'Matthias Jabs' thread,someone posted that he (via another forum where Jabs himself posted) used his 1978 50 watt Marshall top for everything up to the late '80's. Jabs said it is totally stock except for a 'Transformer Killer'. I'm still not clear as to what that is.Maybe he meant that he RUNS it stock, except for the use of a Transformer Killer(which would be indicative of a attenuator).

[Mats A]

There is Concert footage where one can see Jabs switching on the wah wah for playing a solo and then switch it off. Playing chords with a wah wah on sounds quite terrible i think. One can also see that only the upper left input (high sensitivity high treble) on the Marshall is plugged in.

[garbeaj]

Actually Michael Schenker's tones were really the ones that were shaped by the wah-wah as a notch filter...well before Matthias Jabs...