Sound Advice

By the mid-80s guitar rigs were more high-tech and stereo set-ups providing wide-panning modulation- and delay-soaked lead tones were commonplace. The Boss DS-1 distortion pedal provided drive tones for many, and Marshall JCM 800 and Mesa Boogie Mark series amps gave more drive than ever before. Metallica’s James Hetfield and Whitesnake’s John Sykes scooped out their amps’ midrange for era-defining metal tones. The decade saw the rise of the ‘SuperStrat’ – most typically based on a Strat-shaped body and equipped with high output pickups and locking vibratos.