Jimmy Page and song remains same tone!

[Lefty Lou]

FWIW, I was at The Myriad in Oklahoma City in 77' for "The Song Remains The Same Tour". I was tripping and too out of it to remember specifically what amps were being used. I and a girlfriend were sitting in the upper tier back of the arena with binoculars.

I will say that even though I don't own a HiWatt amp, I have a clone pedal of Jimmy Page's modified HiWatt amp that he used at the Royal Albert Hall, and its a very believable pedal especially when using a Les Paul and a non Hiwatt amp.

This pedal is a clone of the Catalinbread RAH pedal made by ShapeShifter Pedals in the U.K. for around $80 delivered compared to the RAH pedal which runs around $180. I connected the SS pedal to my friends Fender SFSR amp with my Les Paul and was blown away by how accurate a representation of a HiWatt amp this pedal exhibited.

[garbeaj]

I know the pedal(s) you speak of, but nothing, in my opinion of course, sounds like Jimmy's Les Paul straight into his Custom Hiwatt stack. I've mentioned it before, but the Royal amp replicas are spot on. But it is such a specific sound that lasted very briefly during 1970. The Royal Albert Hall tones only truly happened on that one night. He continued using the Custom Hiwatt in 1970, but the tones were very different at the shows immediately following the RAH show on January 9.

[Lefty Lou]

I know the pedal(s) you speak of, but nothing, in my opinion of course, sounds like Jimmy's Les Paul straight into his Custom Hiwatt stack. I've mentioned it before, but the Royal amp replicas are spot on. But it is such a specific sound that lasted very briefly during 1970. The Royal Albert Hall tones only truly happened on that one night. He continued using the Custom Hiwatt in 1970, but the tones were very different at the shows immediately following the RAH show on January 9.

Something was said of the Royal Albert Hall performances about the live reel to reel recorders possibly being overloaded which was partly responsible for the overall product. One would tend to think overloaded recordings would have more effect on sound than venue size, number of people in the audience etc.

I will say this, and it's my own personal belief but, in an old interview with SRV he mentioned that he could come back to a venue after soundcheck and find his sound all out of whack. If you think about it when a concert begins, all the vendors and the utilities in the (venue/arena) are pulling electricity. In SRV's time I don't believe I ever heard anything being said about him using brownout generators or line conditioners, which affects overall voltage supply to amps i.e. bias of tube amps. No wonder SRV had hell with his sound and his amp settings.

[garbeaj]

I think these variables were not enough to change the sound to what it basically was at the RAH, but Stevie had a lot of amps, especially on the Soul To Soul/ Live Alive tour. I saw him 7 times between 1985 and 1990 and there were times when he had 6 or 7 amp set ups running more or less flat out and there were many mics and baffles, all kinds of stuff that could go wrong. Add all that to hinky electric problems that happen at nearly every gig...especially as often as he played strange venues (lots of outdoor venues, and unusual places like a riverboat in New Orleans that I know for a fact had problems with generator power, etc.) Then you add in how often he played live, especially during the Soul To Soul period, where you are setting up and tearing down loads of vintage gear...no question Rene Martinez and the techs before him had their hands full, not to mention the house sound crews...it's a miracle that he didn't have more problems!

[Lefty Lou]

I think these variables were not enough to change the sound to what it basically was at the RAH, but Stevie had a lot of amps, especially on the Soul To Soul/ Live Alive tour. I saw him 7 times between 1985 and 1990 and there were times when he had 6 or 7 amp set ups running more or less flat out and there were many mics and baffles, all kinds of stuff that could go wrong. Add all that to hinky electric problems that happen at nearly every gig...especially as often as he played strange venues (lots of outdoor venues, and unusual places like a riverboat in New Orleans that I know for a fact had problems with generator power, etc.) Then you add in how often he played live, especially during the Soul To Soul period, where you are setting up and tearing down loads of vintage gear...no question Rene Martinez and the techs before him had their hands full, not to mention the house sound crews...it's a miracle that he didn't have more problems!

I saw SRV on the Fire and Fury Tour w/Jeff Beck co-headlining in Dallas (great performance by SRV), Jeff's sound was too bottom heavy and when added to the off the wall licks he played (trainwreck). Fortunately the late great Cesar Diaz had something to contribute to Stevie to help him out during those times of trouble with equipment and venues.

FWIW I just remembered, I have a 60's to 70's straight front HiWatt cabinet that I bought from a friend years ago (in storage). I think the Fane/HiWatt speakers have the purple stickers on the magnets. Pulsonic Cones? 30 to 35 watts/per speaker?

[garbeaj]

Well it was really Rene Martinez who was in the road with Stevie, though Cesar worked on Stevie's amps in the early days.