No. 0591976·classic-rock·4 blocks
More Than a Feeling
Tom Scholz built More Than a Feeling's wall of guitar in his Watertown basement on gear he made himself. A 1968 Les Paul Goldtop with P-90s ran into a 100W Marshall (widely cited as a 1959 Super Lead Plexi) cranked into one of his homemade prototype Power Soak attenuators, plus a homemade compressor/sustainer and outboard EQ. The Rockman is a red herring — it didn't exist until 1982; the 1976 record is power-soaked Marshall plus DIY compression, heavily multi-tracked. The result is ultra-sustained, glassy, and impossibly layered.
BostonSignal path · input → output · 4 blocksLive values · Kemper Profiler
Guitar
Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (1968, P-90s — 1976 spec)
Pickups
P90
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Compressor
Search Rig Exchange for 'Marshall Super Lead Plexi' or 'power soak Plexi'
Plate Reverb
Compressor
← Scholz homemade compressor/sustainer
Sustain
7
Tone
5
Volume
5
Search Rig Exchange for 'Marshall Super Lead Plexi' or 'power soak Plexi'
← 100W Marshall Super Lead (power-soaked)
Gain
7
Bass
5
Middle
6
Treble
6.5
Presence
6
Plate Reverb
← Studio ambience (multi-tracking + EQ)
Decay
1.4s
Predelay
25ms
Mix
0.2
Engineer's note
File 059
Tom Scholz built More Than a Feeling's wall of guitar in his Watertown basement on gear he made himself. A 1968 Les Paul Goldtop with P-90s ran into a 100W Marshall (widely cited as a 1959 Super Lead Plexi) cranked into one of his homemade prototype Power Soak attenuators, plus a homemade compressor/sustainer and outboard EQ. The Rockman is a red herring — it didn't exist until 1982; the 1976 record is power-soaked Marshall plus DIY compression, heavily multi-tracked. The result is ultra-sustained, glassy, and impossibly layered.
— Tom Scholz
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