The ‘80’s rack era has a reputation amongst some guitarists for being a very dark period in the history of the electric guitar. The corporate rock ‘n’ roll machine was at the height of its powers, solid-state amplification appeared to be on course to make our beloved tube amps obsolete, and guitars seemed to be getting pointier and uglier, with complicated, unseemly looking hardware—a far cry from the minimalist beauty of the Telecaster, or the shapely, Stradivarius-like contours of the Les Paul. On top of that, revolutionary advancements in digital technology were bringing guitar effects off of the floor and into garish, expensive, and sonically questionable rack-mounted digital processors. Professional guitarists could hardly be taken seriously without a Warren DeMartini-sized rack full of preamps, power amps, tuners, digital reverbs, and a variety of blinking, computerized effects processors. Showing up to a gig with a Fender Deluxe Reverb combo amp and a few MXR pedals would get one laughed off the stage in short order. These were dark times, and the swift, powerful backlash against this decade and everything it stood for, symbolized in popular culture by the massive and completely unexpected success of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, is still ringing in our ears today. Despite our painful collective memories of this era, we should not blindly jettison every artifact of it in rage and disgust. For modern guitarists, there are quite a few relics from the ‘80s rack boom that are still alive and kicking, and despite their reputation as ill-conceived, toneless monstrosities from the dark ages of the electric guitar, many of these units actually sound good and are very well made, useful tone tools. Best of all, some of these rack dinosaurs that were exorbitantly expensive, when new, can now be had second-hand for relative chump change. With this in mind, let us take a few moments to explore this tumultuous, complicated period in guitar history, and see if we can pluck out any useful fossils from the tonal tar pits of the Reagan era. Here is a fistful of rack effects that we should probably consider rescuing from the muck:
Alesis MIDIverb II
Alesis was a pioneer of affordable digital rack effects, and their original MIDIverb unit, released in 1986, was the first 16-bit digital effects processor to hit the market for under $1000. The MIDIverb II was a significant improvement on the original, and featured 100 presets, with all manner of reverbs (including gated and reverse!), flangers, choruses, and delays. None of the presets were programmable in any way, so the adjustability of each effect was limited to the input, mix, and output knobs on the face of the unit. Many of the MIDIverb’s presets sounded very good just as they were, however, and a few of them, such as the reverse and “Bloom” reverbs, are legendary due to their use by Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine on his band’s classic Loveless record. Working MIDIverb II’s can be snatched up all day long on the used market for $50 or less, and the aforementioned reverb presets are more than worth this paltry sum by themselves. Get one!
Yamaha SPX90
Yamaha’s SPX90 came out around the same time as the MIDIverb II, and like the Alesis processor, was a groundbreaker for its great sounds, useful features, and home studio-friendly affordability. Also like the MIDIverb II, the SPX90 has a bit of underground cachet due to its association with Kevin Shields, who used the SPX90’s reverse reverbs to sculpt ethereal, otherworldly guitar tones. The SPX90 had a big advantage over the MIDIverb in its fairly extensive programmability and ease of navigation. It also had an impressive array of effects, including stereo reverbs, phasers, flangers, choruses, echoes, delays, a noise gate, and even pitch-shifting effects. The SPX90 was a very popular and extremely well built effects processor, so there are plenty of them around on eBay and Craigslist, typically for $100 or so. At that price, everyone should have one.
Lexicon PCM 70
The name Lexicon is synonymous with reverb. Lexicon reverbs have been the gold standard by which all digital reverbs are measured since the late ‘70s, and even the most casual radio listener has heard these simulated acoustic spaces so often that they sound like familiar old friends. The PCM 70 is still considered a modern classic studio reverb, and was actually one of Lexicon’s early attempts at producing a more budget-friendly (meaning that it cost less than a new car) digital processor. It featured a cornucopia of splendid sounding ‘verbs, delays, and other time-based effects, and as far as guitarists are concerned, was famously used by David Gilmour (during The Division Bell Tour), The Edge, Warren DeMartini, and a whole bunch of other ‘80s pop metal shredders. The Lexicon PCM 70 is still a very useful and gorgeous sounding effects unit, and a used one in good condition can be had for around $500–600, which is a boatload less than the $2500 a new one would have sold for in the late eighties.
Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay
The Korg SDD-3000, released in 1982, was a fairly popular early digital delay unit, especially for studio use, and one of the few that can still hold its own against modern delays. Today the SDD-3000 holds a special place in many guitarists’ hearts due to its use by The Edge to create many of the distinctive, rhythmic delays on U2 albums and tours. Besides its musical, modulated delays, this processor was also notable for its warm analog preamplifier, which The Edge often used by itself, with the delay bypassed, just for its pleasing tonal coloration. An SDD-3000 on the used market will set you back about $750, but Korg just released a new version—in pedal form—that sells for about 400 bucks, and it supposedly features the same analog preamp and tasty delays, plus a wealth of additional features.
ADA MP-1
The ADA MP-1 MIDI-programmable tube preamp was a ubiquitous piece of gear during the shredder era, famously used by Paul Gilbert and Nuno Bettencourt, among many others. At its heart were a duo of 12AX7s, and its many tonal options included selections for tube distortion, tube clean, or solid-state, with selectable preset EQ points to replicate the equalization curves of various Marshall and Fender amplifiers. It also included a pretty happening analog stereo chorus. Of course, the MP-1 excels at hot-rodded eighties hair metal tones, but it can do a lot of other things as well, and actually sounds pretty great in front of a good power amplifier, or as a front-end for a home recording setup. The ADA MP-1 still has a devoted fanbase online, and seems to be experiencing something of a resurgence in popularity, but functional units are still widely available on eBay and elsewhere for $100–150 in good working order.
Many of the rack-mounted relics from the dark ages of the electric guitar were, and still are, utter pieces of garbage, and if seen on the street or in a pawnshop, should be dismantled and responsibly recycled straightaway for the good of humanity. As we’ve seen, however, a select few of these early digital processors are worthy of our respect, and deserve to be kept in service in studios, stages, and jam spaces across the world.