The Secret Pedal Behind Tom Scholz's Boston Guitar Tone

I've been listening to Boston since I was young. I mean, the album came out the year that I was born, so it's safe to say that I've heard this album my entire life. I've always been a fan of Tom Scholz and have always loved his playing and song writing. The other thing that I've always loved is his guitar tone. There is something unique about it, and no matter how many times I try and replicate it, there is always something missing.
That it until now. I recently came across an article talking about how Tom used a Seamoon Fresh Fuzz. The article did not mention how and when it was used, so I spent a few days listening to isolated guitar tracks until I heard it. Not just once, but multiple times over different tracks. So, I got in touch with the folks at JHS and they sent out their Berkley from the Legends of Fuzz series, and the whole video came about very quickly.
‪@threebananasamps‬
I'm a Stringjoy artist, and play their set of Broadways on all my Electric guitars.
I play the 10/13.5/17/28/38/50 on all my Gibson and Epiphone. I play the 9.5/13/16/26/36/48 on my Strat and Telecaster.
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* The JHS LoF Berkley was provided in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I was not paid to make this video. Any opinions shared are my own.*
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𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒:
0:00 Rock N Roll Band cover
0:42 Tom Scholz rig and tones
6:06 JHS Berkley through clean channel
8:49 JHS Berkley drive channel
11:55 Proof in the pudding
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[@TheToneLounge]

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[@jmsdeco]

Hi ! I have some info that might help you. I own a lot of the Rockman line ( sustainer, chorus - delay , eq, soloist, x100 power soak and three way footswitch) As much as i love the Rockman's, the original Boston guitar sound (which Tom called "mars" because the marshal name plate broke and only "mars was left on the amp) has more bite to it. His Les Paul went into a clean signal preamp. Then into the MXR six band EQ pedal. These are Tom's settings on the EQ ( i have a picture of Tom's EQ). 100 is just below zero. 200 is just below zero . 400 is +9. 800 is +18. 1.6k is just below zero. 3.2k is +9. The EQ went into the heavily modified maestro echoplex ( the hyperspace pedal) Tom's rig was stereo which was very rare in the mid 1970's. Both the chorus and delay were wet on one side, dry on the other. I don't know the settings of Tom's Marshall amp. Also, P90 and the Dimarzio super distortion pickups are a huge part of the sound. Lastly, Tom rolls off the pickup volume a lot for different sounds. . For that dist rhythm sound turn down to around 8. Overloud THU 's plugin version of the Rockman sustainer/chorus-delay are 80-85 % there. I've tested them against my rockmans.

[@TheToneLounge]

Thank you so much for the information. I'll be trying to replicate this with an all analog rig very soon.

[@georgebarry8640]

Exactly!!! I read somewhere looong ago (probably in the 1975 or 6 guitar player interview) that Tom traded a 6 pack of beer for a fuzz pedal that became a part of his sound. He didn't say what pedal it was...but now my ears tell me it was a C moon. WAY COOL!!!! I have wondered for years. Tom said at the time he modded it (!!!). Not sure if JHS figured out what mod Tom did...but Tom apparently had a modded C Moon Fuzz pedal into the MXR 6 band and a Marshall super lead etc etc In all of this its easy to forget 1) the songs were brilliant, 2) the performances were stellar and 3) The audience was willing to embrace and celebrate this music (like as in they actually paid for it whereas Spotify pays artists .038 cents for their content....yeah, look it up...and other streaming platforms also pay about the same. I know I release music to all these platforms) . So it's the perfect storm...and we were lucky have it!!!

[@shaft9000]

Copying someone's EQ settings do you no good. EQ is there to _compensate_ for variables in a specific situation - such as the room, specifically _where_ in the room the cabinet(s) can be placed that determines bass and other frequency boost/null propagation. Or you can get specific filtering such as the 'telephone' effect by cutting every frequency except for a boost from 500Hz-2kHz; this is basic sound design. Find YOUR sound, and run with it as you adjust to each scenario. Copying the masters can be instructive, but you'll get further much faster by trusting yourself that once it sounds good , it IS good, and that's **enough** for now. Let the mix engineer worry about the frosting on the cake. _The finished sound on the record is not necessarily going to sound at all like what's coming through your rig as you play._ If for example the player is Insisting on shoving 24-bit reverb (in preference to 20, 16 or even some 12-bit algos) through guitar amp speaker(s) - an amp that at best delivers a signal-to-noise of about 50 dB - it is one of the endless distinctions that a player can be distracted by.

[@robshrock-shirakbari1862]

It was said that back in the day he was using a 10-band graphic EQ, like the MXR or Electro Harmonix pedals. Those frequency bands are different than the 6-band MXR. So it depends on when your picture was taken as to the relevance. The 10-band frequency settings are 31 Hz, 62, 125, 250, 500, 1k, 2, 4, 8, 16k.

[@jonschwieb323]

That’s the sound! Never heard of that fuzz before, but it really seems like a key ingredient. Cool

[@TheToneLounge]

I'm convinced that it is a very important element to his tone. I have no idea why we never noticed that before.

[@user-yf3ns9bx6n]

Wow this is THE sound. It has that cocked wah phasing thing

[@TheToneLounge]

I think it gets closer to the original tone for sure. There has to be other things I've not accounted for, but I think that this type of fuzz is pretty crucial.

[@user-yf3ns9bx6n]

@@TheToneLounge yeah but it has that general texture and tonal focus

[@ALightShiningInDarkness]

30 seconds in...KILLER PLAYING AND TONES.

[@TheToneLounge]

Thank you! What did you think of the pedal?

[@ALightShiningInDarkness]

@@TheToneLounge It sounds fantastic, I'd never heard of that circuit/pedal and I was definitely impressed. You really hit it out of the park with these sounds, great work.

[@bigchrisgulley66]

Johnathan that sounds awesome bro! Can't wait to see what you do next. Great job man 😎

[@TheToneLounge]

@@bigchrisgulley66 Thanks Chris! More coming right up!

[@TheToneLounge]

@@ALightShiningInDarkness Yeah I'm pretty new to this pedal/circuit as well. I only found out about it because I was looking into this topic.

[@flyonwall360]

Years ago, I remember reading an article about how Scholtz recorded the first album. One thing that I remember about the article was that he was a sticker about voltage. He would always make sure that the voltage was clean and consistent. He also used his Power Soak distortion unit. The Power Soak enabled him to get the best performance out of the amp. I don't know if that helps, but I'm liking your videos.

[@TheToneLounge]

This is another thing that he has in common with Brian May!

[@dcdno_one2393]

To be even more accurate, Tom was a stickler for replication capacity. It drove him nuts that one day Mars would sound good and the next day not so. It was huge driver in developing the Rockman - consistent reliable sound.

[@geraldhartley]

Best rock guitar tone EVER! 😎

[@TheToneLounge]

100% agree with you.

[@zaturnneo]

Nice! Love some Tom Scholz content. I believe I read that part of the tone comes from the amps being pegged in the studio. Which explains that wall of sound with the layered guitars.

[@TheToneLounge]

His tone is rather complex and there isn't any heavily detailed information about how he achieved it either. Plus, there is a lot of contradicting info too, which makes this hard to narrow down.

[@DRose-rp1pi]

Thanks for this.! I was 15 when the first album came out. My friends and i were in a garage band playing hich school dances. This was most incredible sound we ever heard! I have never been able to reproduce Tom's distortion sound until l saw this. I just got the Berkeley. Man you weren't kidding about the volume pot being very sensitive! I haven't turned all the way down. But it's sounding very close. I have it going into mild overdrive, compression and then into a clean 1966 Ampeg Gemini I amp. I'm getting very close!

[@LordLarryWho]

I just watched a 2 year old video here titled "Rockman Sound In A Pedal - GOAT Analog Distortion Generator Demo". I'd post the link, but KZbin seems to flag any comment with a URL in it as spam, even if it's one of their own links. It's a pedal that's pretty much a clone of the Rockman Distortion Generator half-rack unit. You'll notice that when he turns the notch filter on and off (the switch labeled Phase), that's the key to the Rockman sound, and possibly the legacy Boston sound on the first two albums. "Notch filter", aka: parametric EQ. I'm not sure who made those as a pedal back in the 70s, perhaps MXR? But, it would seem to me that you could expand your test with that Berkley pedal and your amp, by inserting a parametric EQ after the Berkley pedal. From that point, it's a matter of finding the center frequency, width, and dB cut. I'll just bet you that you can achieve that Rockman sound without any digital equipment. Of course, to get the full meal deal, you'd also need a compressor & gate pedal at the beginning of the chain like the Rockmans always have.

[@STRATMAN1969]

Oh man I don't think I ever clicked on one of your vids. so fast. He is and always will be one of my favorite guitarist, and tones ever. I love that secret sauce. Fuzz is my middle name, well no its not it's Berkeley😮 I think you can see where this is going. Sweeeet Wawawater. Lol.

[@TheToneLounge]

I've been wanting to make videos about Tom Scholz for years. Looking at the response to this video, I'll have to make more.

[@STRATMAN1969]

@@TheToneLounge I had one of his attenuator's just cuz I saw one come up for sale. That's the first thing he made I believe. So he could record a cranked Marshall in the basement where he wrote all of the first album. I sold it for gear that I would use more. But just having something he made was cool.

[@johnrogers2826]

Speechless! That was a fascinating journey. And the sound was incredible! What an album and I think you've nailed it!

[@TheToneLounge]

Glad you enjoyed it! Tom is still in my top 5 players. I love his tone and playing.

[@NegdoshaManido]

Always fun to get some more background on the historical aspects of our favorite guitarists and how they got their sound. I remember when Boston hit the scene back when I was in junior high. I was immediately a fan, and have remained so. I have a whole rack of the Rockman modules, and there is just nothing like 'em. Tom is a friggin genius. Another tone meister is of course the incomparable Dr. Brian May. An astrophysicist, no less. Amazing smart guys who also happen to be epic rockers. Great video, man. Rock on!

[@TheToneLounge]

Thank you! He and Brian May are two of my favorite players. I did an album many years back, and used both these guys as my inspiration for the leads on the album. We took a lot of inspiration from 80's movie soundtracks, notably Flash Gordon. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXKWhnysnb-SZ5Ysi=AMxOjGfq0YO-mTiy

[@michaelogden5093]

Wow, sounds great.

[@TheToneLounge]

Thanks Michael! What did you think of the fuzz?

[@lightinme217]

Very close my man!! Thanks for sharing this pedal. Just picked one up off ebay. I have the Rockman Sustainer I think this would add whats missing.

[@TheToneLounge]

If you get this, let me know what your impressions are. :)

[@Barflew1]

A Rabbit-hole.I'll be happy to follow you down.Good tone and playing.Had a couple buddys had the Rockman units,back in the day.They sounded great going into a Marshall.Looking forward to see where you go with this.Liked and subbed.

[@TheToneLounge]

Thanks for the sub! I'll be trying more stuff out very soon. Cheers

[@JimmyD718]

Sounds amazing!

[@TheToneLounge]

Right? It's such a cool pedal.

[@pcar928fan]

SUPER COOL! My FAV guitarist and guitar tone! Tom Scholz! Eric Johnson is my 2nd Fav! EJ is amazing! Saw him in Austin from the front row a few years ago when on his Ah Via Musicom tour!

[@TheToneLounge]

Tom Scholz has been in my top 5 guitar players since I started playing over 30 years ago. He's such a great sounding player, and writes some memorable leads too.

[@philf4086]

Great video! Keep in mind that when the first album was made, the Rockman didn't exist. That came later. All of the delay, chorus, distortion, and echo all came from individual units for album 1.

[@TheToneLounge]

100%! There is a lot of contradicting info about what was used on the first album. I wish I could know for sure.

[@BillDerBerg]

why do digital modeler profiles have so much gain and compression BUT still don't have any musical sustain? 😂

[@LordLarryWho]

Barry Goudreau had the same sound on his solo album. I'm still waiting to see if he will reply to my email asking what he used since he couldn't possibly have been using any Rockman gear at that time.

[@afterstars]

Nice video. I thought you mentioned you were going to show the hyperdrive pedal. I’ll poke around at your others. Thanks!

[@TheToneLounge]

I don't have a hyperdrive. The pedal I was referring to is the Fernweh from JPTR FX. It has a feedback option that can do a similar thing to the hyperdrive.

[@afterstars]

@@TheToneLoungeVery cool. Thank you. Your other videos are great as well!

[@neechee5150]

The so called hyperspace pedal is an Echoplex tape loop echo machine that Tom modified.

[@BenCDaugherty]

Hey man! A few years ago, I had a little email conversation with Barry Goudreau about what gear he used on foreplay Long Time (he played guitar on those) he said he was using a Marshall fuzz into a fender champ for the solos and cocked wah tone :)

[@TheToneLounge]

Very interesting. I had never heard that. Thanks for sharing.

[@justaregularrobloxplayer5678]

I emailed him as well few years back, still have the emails, and said the exact same thing. Marshall Supa Fuzz with his SG with Dimarzio and the little fender champ. I always thought the Tom may have used a fuzz, listen to the beginning of rock and roll band.

[@danieltambasco528]

Awesome, covering Tom Scholz - he's from my hood. Really proud of Boston rockers! It was a great music scene until Corporate bought up the entire music scene including all radio stations and making music homogeneous across all the markets - killing any local music scenes like the ones that existed in Boston, even through the 80s. I bet that mode button is a buffer, because that's how exactly my MXR classic 108 fuzz reacts, gets brighter and louder. It's not a very useable tone, unless you have a really dark guitar and cable signal loss - and you don't want a really fuzzy tone, it's more like overdrive distortion - less fuzzy.

[@TheToneLounge]

I love Boston! I grew up on their music, so naturally I have a special place in my heart for them. The Mode switch might be a buffer, I really can't say but that would make sense.

[@ARRITDOR]

It sounds very close but to me is missing the airiness or spaciousness of his tone (if that makes any sense). I'm not sure what pedal would even do that? I may try to put the JHS in front of my Tonex with Marshall and Rockman captures and see what happens...

[@user-mi9rl7eu9h]

I name Tom Scholz as master and commander. Failure to show no love to the rest of the band is a criminal act. We can never afford to make that mistake.

[@afterstars]

Do you have a video on the hyperspace pedal? Poked around but couldn’t find it. Thank you.

[@TheToneLounge]

It's not a hyperspace pedal, it's a delay pedal that feedback in a similar way to the hyperspace. It's the JPTR FX Fernweh.

[@75YBA]

Craig Anderton made the “Tube Sound Fuzz” as well, which is the Hot Tubes and Red Llama circuit.

[@TheToneLounge]

That makes two of his circuits that I dig.

[@aaron2709]

If you get tired of Fresh Fuzz, try my pedal: Stank Fuz

[@rcjward]

I’m not hearing it out of that pedal. To my knowledge, for the original Boston distortion sound, Tom used a slave setup occasionally with a cocked wah pedal, pre and post graphic eqs, and possibly an old Vox tone bender with a defective transistor. The key to the overall sound was an attenuated Marshall 100W plexi style amp (down to a small signal line-level voltage) slaved into a relatively clean Ampeg amplifier. He probably still utilized a Celestion-populated Marshall cab but it’s not entirely clear that he didn’t mic an Ampeg cab.

[@TheToneLounge]

It's all speculation on my end, I could very well be wrong.

[@rcjward]

@@TheToneLoungeI don’t think it much matters as long as it works for your ears.

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

a good advertisement for the JHS pedals - sounds good - one of many functional fuzz / overdrivers in the world.

[@TheToneLounge]

Yeah it is quite the crazy good pedal.

[@christiantaylor4027]

Good work man. that ain't easy. Must be a labor of love. Always loved that tone too.My bro would share his rockman with me sometimes. The sound you have is better than a rockman. The rockman is cool tho. Cool with headphones. Rock on!

[@TheToneLounge]

I've been trying to recreate this tone since I started playing guitar. I get closer and closer, but can never pull it off 100%.

[@jackolson8775]

I always thought it was simple to get Toms tone. Unplug from your rig, plug into an AM radio, turn up all the way. Simple 😂

[@TheToneLounge]

If only it were so simple 😜

[@alexdeleon7135]

A preset on Rocktron's Voodoo Valve had Tom's tone done very well.

[@TheToneLounge]

Oh that's cool. I'll have to keep an eye out for this one.

[@eddiejr540]

Sounds really good…I’m not a fan of fuzz but that Berkeley sounds fantastic!!

[@TheToneLounge]

Yeah, when used as a boost it is really damn good.

[@grizz1887]

I own the Vox vt 40x and got Tom's tone. Missing is the Equalizer pedal to get it 100%. That is definitely what is needed to help get the rest of his tone.

[@TheToneLounge]

His tone is very tricky. We can all get closer, but never quite nail it.

[@grizz1887]

@@TheToneLounge Big bucks to get his actual tone for sure.

[@jamesparker1063]

k...when you get done with this project, see if you can figure out THE next "Holy-Grail" Tone: Ernie Isley's lead tone, on "Who's That Lady" (pts 1,2)"!! 🙂....

[@TheToneLounge]

That could be a fun challenge! :)

[@lorenbush8876]

I think it sounds good , it sounds close enough I think , thanks.

[@TheToneLounge]

You are most welcome.

[@aaronwoltz3027]

I went down a rabbit hole and thought about getting a nice BOSS delay and a X/Y axis foot controller. I think it can be done

[@TheToneLounge]

Let me know what your findings are, if you do this. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[@formercakid]

On some songs there was fuzz (ex. "Party"), others no fuzz. Early pictures of his pedalboard show generic no name stomp boxes which most likely were made by him since he was a genius engineer. Probably used existing fuzz circuitry modified to get his secret sauce.

[@TheToneLounge]

Yeah, it's a matter of paying attention to when his tone is more gained up. It took a long time before I noticed the differences in his tone.

[@wesmitchem825]

Didn't he build his own effects and start the rock man line after that.him using a seamoon fresh fuzz would make sense they went on to be ada so maybe he worked with them to develop his own effects boxs

[@TheToneLounge]

Yeah, he did start Rockman. Seamoon became ADA? I never knew that. Tom is a genius and has one of the best guitar tones ever.

[@RMartin631]

You're missing the half cocked wah. I could get the Scholtz sound with a Marshall VS100H with the matching cabinet. Use the 2nd overdrive channel with the gain adjusted to taste, the lows turned down to 3 and mids and highs at 50%. This amp let you dial in as much or as little of the loop as you wanted. I put a vintage Vox V847 wah-wah cocked half way in the loop and dialed it in at 50%. I really regret selling that amp.

[@nasticanasta]

Brian May has a similar tone, how I get them is a Flanger locked into a spot on the sweep, this is sort of like what others did like Mick Ronson, I used to do this and sometimes do, find a spot on a Wah pedal and leave it there. Really quite easy to get these tones using these pedals. But I never liked "fizzy" distortion, too many guys I knew playing in town use that high distortion tone, they are noisy if you ask me, I don't want to hear the amp humming that loud

[@TheToneLounge]

I agree with you there. Brian May and Tom Scholz have very distinctive guitar tones that seem to be in a similar sonic spectrum.

[@BillDerBerg]

I dunno about the Berkeley Fuzz nailing Boston sound though not by itself at least

[@kidgloves2]

Why did I always feel like Tom used a treble booster into a cranked Marshall.

[@TheToneLounge]

Maybe it was rumored, or perhaps he stated it at some point?

[@neechee5150]

You did not cover a few of key things. Tom was very clear that his Marshall SLP was the heart of his guitar tones for the first record. In addition, Scholz is on record saying that all distortion pedals of that era were garbage and should be thrown away. Tom eventually released a product called the Distortion Generator. Scholz drove his Marshall SLP very hard to the point where the power tubes were clipping and compressing naturally on the first record. That was his goal. This was possible due to what Boylan described as a large variable resister from a theater lighting system. This was the early version of what would later become known as the Power Soak. The only time I have read where Tom admits to using the Fresh Fuzz is live on Brad Delps guitar. Perhaps you could direct me to a quote where Tom admits to using the Fresh Fuzz pedal in the studio on the first record. In addition,Barry is playing electric rhythm guitar on Foreplay, Long Time and Let Me Take You Home. Barry plays an SG custom. The huge power chords in Long Time are Barry and his SG. Sans the special effects guitar parts on Foreplay/Long time all of the lead guitar solos on Long Time are Barry and his SG custom. Barry also plays lead and slide guitars on Let Me Take You Home. This is documented in the litigation between Tom and Barry and in the post litigation liner notes of the 2006 Scholz remaster of the debut Boston record.

[@TheToneLounge]

Thank you for the additional information. It's very helpful, thank you.

[@MosheAlvarez]

It's RockMAN not Rockman. It's not a last name, its a ROCK-MAN! You're nailing the tones btw!

[@TheToneLounge]

Thanks for the correction. Cheers

[@waynegram8907]

You think Tom Scholz used the Seamoon Fresh Fuzz with the Fuzz GAIN turned dialed to 3 to 5?

[@TheToneLounge]

Really? I never thought to try it with that amp circuit. Thank for the idea.

[@BillDerBerg]

and all analog

[@androtekman6131]

I found a lot of mistakes in the Boston sheet music.

[@TheToneLounge]

A lot of the sheet music (from what I am told) has mistakes in them.

[@duckydrummer6331]

You’re just about spot on, although it might be a touch bassy. When you add drums, bass and vocals it would sound perfect.

[@TheToneLounge]

I'm getting closer, but you are right. It's not perfect. :)

[@SpaceAceScott]

Sounds real close w the Berkeley into Kemper but needs some chorus and echo on top!

[@TheToneLounge]

I'll be trying that next!

[@martydibergi5228]

Can someone not interview Tom???

[@TheToneLounge]

No idea. Looks like he hasn't done one in years.

[@jadreamer]

your one hot cat!

[@mlhm5]

It all started here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpKaeqyGgLqCrck

[@pablosixtyseven5028]

rockman

[@TheToneLounge]

yes

[@nextplanb1899]

Rockman copy?

[@TheToneLounge]

Sure

[@shaft9000]

A FreshFuzz is rare but hardly a 'secret'. Bootsy, Zappa, Eric Johnson and a few other players used it at points throughout the mid-late 1970s. It might _seem_ like a secret because rockers in general expect their guitar+amp to "be the sound" and tend to turn their nose up at fuzz - often to their own detriment - because the harmonic series produced in the sideband intermodulations aren't like tubes. Chords outside the dominant I-IV-V tonality "get ugly fast" due to those side-bands propagating + gain.

[@loudguitar]

Uhh...A Rockman maybe?

[@TheToneLounge]

Of course

[@geezberry8889]

ultra compressed tone. not my favorite

[@TheToneLounge]

Yeah, it's a specific kind of tone.

[@user-du1yk7uk9v]

The best Boston guitar tones are from their masterpiece Third Stage.

[@TheToneLounge]

I like all the tones they had over the years.