No. 2081981·metal·6 blocks
Diary of a Madman
The most ambitious thing Rhoads recorded, and a tone that has to work clean and savage inside the same take. Producer Max Norman remembers him using the polka-dot guitar on essentially all the album's guitar tracks, into a 100-watt Marshall Super Lead with an MXR Distortion+ and a 10-band EQ pushing the midrange. There is no channel switch anywhere in that chain, so the classical-flavoured arpeggios and the tritone riff are the same amp with the guitar's volume doing the work.
Diary of a MadmanSignal path · input → output · 9 blocksLive values · Line 6 Helix
Guitar
Karl Sandoval polka-dot Flying V (1979)
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Deluxe Comp
Top Secret OD
10 Band Graphic EQ
Brit Plexi Brt
4x12 Greenback 25
70s Chorus
Simple Delay
Hall
Deluxe Comp
← Studio compression
Threshold
-26dB
Ratio
2.5:1
Knee
5dB
Attack
16s
Release
180s
Mix
35
Level
0dB
Top Secret OD
← MXR Distortion+
Drive
4
Gain
4
Tone
5.5
Level
7
10 Band Graphic EQ
← MXR 10-Band Graphic EQ
500Hz
3
1kHz
4
2kHz
3
Level
2
Brit Plexi Brt
← Marshall 1959 Super Lead 100W
Drive
7.5
Bass
5
Mid
6
Treble
7
Presence
6
ChVol
6
Master
10
Bias
5.5
BiasX
5.5
Sag
5.5
Hum
4
Ripple
4
4x12 Greenback 25
← Marshall 1960A/1960B 4x12 (white)
LowCut100Hz
HighCut6000Hz
Resonance
6
Level
0dB
Pan
0.5
Delay
0
70s Chorus
← MXR Stereo Chorus
Rate
0.5Hz
Depth
30
Mix
30
Level
0
Simple Delay
← Korg echo / AMS DMX digital delay
LowCut250Hz
HighCut4500Hz
Time
380ms
Feedback
20
Mix
15
Level
0
Hall
← Ridge Farm studio ambience
LowCut220Hz
HighCut6500Hz
Mix
18
Decay
1.8s
Predelay
25ms
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 208
The most ambitious thing Rhoads recorded, and a tone that has to work clean and savage inside the same take. Producer Max Norman remembers him using the polka-dot guitar on essentially all the album's guitar tracks, into a 100-watt Marshall Super Lead with an MXR Distortion+ and a 10-band EQ pushing the midrange. There is no channel switch anywhere in that chain, so the classical-flavoured arpeggios and the tritone riff are the same amp with the guitar's volume doing the work.
— Randy Rhoads
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