[Fwd: Re: About Jimmy Page's Amp Setup]

[Scott Flaherty <zoso@xxxxxxx>]

Tim and Eric,
Your information about Page's setup was greatly appreciated. I've been
studying Jimmy's setup since I first saw Zeppelin in Boston in 1969. At
the time, Page was using the psychedelic 1958 Telecaster. His amplifier
setup consisted of three Rickenbacker Transonic amplifiers. Curiously,
Page appeared to be using a black-faced Fender amp as a pre-amp feeding
into the Rickenbacker amps. I believe it was a 100w as it was large. As
for the model, it's a mystery to me as I haven't seen another like it.
For pedals, Page was using a Vox Wah-Wah, and what appeared to be either
a Coloursound Tonebender or the Sola Sound model. In my mind, there is
some mystery to this as Jeff Beck reputedly used the Sola Sound model as
well. To further confound the issue, Beck's live guitar sound (circa
1968-69) was very similiar to Page's sound at the time. Now I've heard
for years that Beck used a Coloursound model, although there were
advertisements in the late 60s listing Beck and Page as endorsers of the
Sola Sound Tonebender. Page also used a Vox Tonebender in conjunction
with the Sola Sound/Coloursound Tonebender.
Sometime during the 2nd American tour, Page switched to the Marshall
100w Lead setup, although he retained the pedal setup, I remember this
from the spring Tea Party show in Boston (in the early days, it was easy
to get oneself close to the stage at a Zeppelin concert, hard to believe
but true). Page achieved a very heavily distorted sound for his Les
Paul, which he had begun to use during this tour.
The reason that I've wondered about the fuzztone used during the summer
1969 tour is that the same sound was achieved by others such as Richie
Blackmore (Space Trucking), Joe Perry (One Way St, Mama Kin), and Eric
Clapton (Cocaine). So I don't believe that the Marshall's were modified
to produce the distortion. I guess that I'll never know for sure.
At any rate, thanks Tim for providing the info regarding Jimmy's later
setup, your comment about the Orange amps and the theremin makes sense.
Please if anyone has anything to add, please do so!!
							An Aging Hippie