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[DannyjoeCarter]

Howdy Folks!   Pull up a chair and I'll tell you a story.     
In the last few weeks since one of our forum members (Orkun) and I have been talking about the MP-1 and how I first came to own one back in the 80's when they came out, and my own nostalgia and personal romance with them it really got me wanting one again - so I've bought another one and want to share my story!   


 First off though, I did try to revisit this back in 2016-2017 where I purchased 11 ADA MP-1s during that time and as our own Rnolan proclaimed, I officially had the worst luck of anyone with them! At that time guys seemed to be emptying out their closets and just selling them on Ebay or Reverb and not even testing them out other than plugging in the power cord and seeing if they power up, but other than that - most did not or lasted only a short time. So with great hope the one I have just purchased will be a blast from the past and I can just simply play it and not have to repair it!   


Now for my back story:   Back in 1987 is when I first saw and heard the ADA MP-1, I wanted one so bad but it was $1200.00 back then for the MP1 and the midi foot controller, you could buy a car for that amount but I knew I had to have one! When I was at work I would always think about getting an MP1 and driving home it was the same thing - it was all I ever thought about! Plus all the WHo's Who of hot players were using them.
 
 I would day dream at work and any chance I got about owning an ADA MP-1 and a rack system but simply could not afford such a thing!
 Then a couple years later a close friend was hit by a drunk in a bad car accident and later got a huge accident settlement from lawyers, $100k ! And he had told me two months before his case settled he was getting that money and would buy me a full rack system! And he did!


  In September of 1991 he bought me the ADA MP1, the Mesa Boogie 50/50 rack power amp, and Alesis QaudraVerb GT, the Rocktron Hush/Exciter/Imager and a Marshall JCM 900 stereo cabinet! Which was the first cabinet ever that was stereo!

 I was in Heaven! Until I plugged it all in and it sounded TERRIBLE! I quickly figured out that you need to know how to hook it all up and how to adjust all the settings and about pre-delay mix, post delay, send, return and all that! Man I was overwhelmed and not real happy!
 But I was fortunate that a buddy who had toured came over to my place and gave the rundown and helped me hook it all up and then slowly I was finding my sound. It was a process and I had learned that Zakk Wylde on the first record advance with OZZY had an ADA rack system and all the effects but lost his tech who had set it all up - Zakk was clueless and sent it all back and sent for his JCM 800s.


 So I slowly tweaked and played and was finding a sound that I liked and was really enjoying this new process studio sound everybody was using! All the top notch producers like Michael Wagner and Max Norman were using the ADA MP-1 on their records and it became the sound of our genre of shred players and heavy metal! Plus Bob Bradshaw was the rack guru and building racks for every player under the sun!


 Friends would come over to my place or band rehearsals and Ohh and Ahh over my rack system and watch me do my thing, which my playing really came together during that time! It was not a problem to spend 12-14 hours a day practicing all the things I wanted to do and it happened to be at a time when I didn't have to work but about 3-4 hours a days so left tons of time for personal practice!


 So life was amazing with my now multiple rack systems! Yep I built 3 rack systems for myself and would help my friends build theirs. I was the guy here in Las Vegas to build you a rack! It was so much fun dialing in and creating all those presets and patches!
Then something terrible happened - GRUNGE!


 I have a dear friend that was during the early to late 70s in a touring Disco band and went everywhere and toured the world! His life was amazing until around 1979 when it was declared that Disco was DEAD! And he said literally over night disco-tech clubs were closing down and reformatting. And he was devastated! He actually got into construction and became an electrician.
 Well I felt something similar when Shred and Heavy Metal died. It was brutal! Almost over night metal was over in the main stream and Grunge took off! Within three months guys were selling their rack gear and going back to amps and pedals! It was strange because in 1988-91 I was spending over $1000 for an MP-1 and now I could buy them for $150 - $200!


 Well I hated Grunge and just about everyone here in Las Vegas hated me because I was still playing shred and practicing 10 hours a day and didn't plan on joining or starting a Seattle style band so I just stayed home and played and bought up rack gear for several years. I did this even into the early 2000s where I could anything rack for a couple hundred dollars.


 But at one point I had found a few like minded Metal-at-Heart style friends and we decided to form a band regardless if five people showed up - we were gonna do our thing! It didn't last because clubs here in Vegas flat out refused to feature Metal bands or non alternative bands so I couldn't keep a line up together.
 It was during this time though at the last gig I did with my band a friend of mine joined with us as our rhythm player and just brought his 1982 JCM 800 100 watt with just an Ibanez Tube Screamer and blew my rig off the stage! His stage volume was not loud but his tone was so thick compared to mine I had to turn everything up and then my solos were so thin and buzzy!


 Well that band broke up and I didn't even play for a month which is not normal for me. It was at that time Paul Gilbert joined Laney and I thought those were cool at the time and started selling off my rack gear, including my ADAs because I did plan on putting another band together and not having the club sound men give me a hard time about using a rack system - which they did!
 I quickly moved on from the Laney amps and got into the Peavey XXX Series and a year later sold everything for my Marshall JVMs.


 Now 16 years later I want an ADA again! So there's my story for those that like to read novels, don't flame me for it, some Folks like to read personal tone quest history like this, I know a couple will! 


 All the best - Dannyjoe

[rnolan]

Hey DJC, no flaming here my friend  , interesting read.  I always found I get could get all the tones I wanted from (originally) my MP-1, then later (and now MP-2s).  I do remember getting blown over on stage once (volume wise) by a Boogie.  My story was moving from a '73 Marshall 50w which I liked and used for years but couldn't get a lead boost (no master vol or channel switching) to the MP-1, basically 128 Marshalls all at different volumes.  More recently I got the Marshall out for a run, it hummed so I had the caps fixed and then compared it to MP-1 I'd bought.  The MP-1 was soo much better IMHO and way more versatile.

[Orkun]

It's a really good story of yours Brother! I really enjoyed reading it. 

Sadly grunge destroyed everything about the real rock. I hate everything about grunge, alternative, indie and other things, from their guitar tone to lyrics. But I'll always keep my 80s rock and metal soul with me 

[DannyjoeCarter]

It's a really good story of yours Brother! I really enjoyed reading it. 

Sadly grunge destroyed everything about the real rock. I hate everything about grunge, alternative, indie and other things, from their guitar tone to lyrics. But I'll always keep my 80s rock and metal soul with me 

Hey Orkun thanks for reading this! And yes it was an adjustment for all of us during that time and a rough one! And sadly the ADA MP-1 was caught up in that change as well and was the key symbol of a rack system was and became what wasn't cool anymore. Yeah that time sucked. I'm glad though to be here amongst a handful of players that have returned to it!  [size=78%] [/size]

[rabidgerry]

Great story DJC!!

I too have/had a bee in my bonnet about grundge.  However as time has went on I learned to hate the genre of music less and be more disappointed in people instead.  It's their flittering tastes and super fickle nature that can have be the cause and then the sheep mentality to boot.  It's the same with all trends unfortunately and I'm sure they said that when heavy metal came along too.

No I feel there is no rat race anymore with the latest thing type trends because people into certain styles of music can now connect via the internet so they will never feel like they're the only ones. 

Talking from personal experience I was getting into heavy metal in the 90's when it was so uncool to be into it.  However I found a few people like me ad basically from day 1 I was used to going against the grain so it never felt any other way to me.  Thankfully continental Europe always maintained a love for metal etc so it never really died at all.  Mind you the mutations of genre probably piss me off the most as I'm sick of the new rat race regarding "most extreme".  It's total bullshit and the heaviest point was reached by  death metal in the early 90's IMO.  Anything else after that is just a new configuration of noise.  I'm old school and stick to NWOBHM, Heavy Metal, and Thrash and Speed metal and heavy rock as those all still feel related organically those sub genres.

Anyways enough of my yackin'

I wanna know why you want an MP1 when a 1982 JCM 800 100 watt with just an Ibanez Tube Screamer blew you away?  Curious to that unless you can now usurp that with an MP1?  Just curious about that in case you have the same cycle happen you and same epiphany later on about amp heads and stuff.

Myself I use a Peavey Rockmaster as my main preamp but I also use MP1's.  Currently using an treble boosted MP1 at home but continuing with the Peavey Live.

I might bring the MP1 into my live rack this year though as a nice little change and give the Rockmaster a break.

[DannyjoeCarter]

Great story DGC!!

I too have/had a bee in my bonnet about grundge.  However as time has went on I learned to hate the genre of music less and be more disappointed in people instead.  It's their flittering tastes and super fickle nature that can have be the cause and then the sheep mentality to boot.  It's the same with all trends unfortunately and I'm sure they said that when heavy metal came along too.

No I feel there is no rat race anymore with the latest thing type trends because people into certain styles of music can now connect via the internet so they will never feel like they're the only ones. 

Talking from personal experience I was getting into heavy metal in the 90's when it was so uncool to be into it.  However I found a few people like me ad basically from day 1 I was used to going against the grain so it never felt any other way to me.  Thankfully continental Europe always maintained a love for metal etc so it never really died at all.  Mind you the mutations of genre probably piss me off the most as I'm sick of the new rat race regarding "most extreme".  It's total bullshit and the heaviest point was reached by  death metal in the early 90's IMO.  Anything else after that is just a new configuration of noise.  I'm old school and stick to NWOBHM, Heavy Metal, and Thrash and Speed metal and heavy rock as those all still feel related organically those sub genres.

Anyways enough of my yackin'

I wanna know why you want an MP1 when a 1982 JCM 800 100 watt with just an Ibanez Tube Screamer blew you away?  Curious to that unless you can now usurp that with an MP1?  Just curious about that in case you have the same cycle happen you and same epiphany later on about amp heads and stuff.

Myself I use a Peavey Rockmaster as my main preamp but I also use MP1's.  Currently using an treble boosted MP1 at home but continuing with the Peavey Live.

I might bring the MP1 into my live rack this year though as a nice little change and give the Rockmaster a break.

Hello Rabid thanks for the response!
Yeah I have a wall of Marshalls now, I use the JVMs which for me I like even better than the JCM 800s personally, and that really is my go to sound.
 However for recording there is a certain sound that the MP1 creates that is hard to replicate and thays what I'm looking for this current recording project. And I would not want to use the MP1 liveor a rack setup these days for reasons mentioned earlier. And it's also for my own nostalgia that I want another one.


 As for that Rockmaster that was a killer unit too!

[DannyjoeCarter]

Hey DJC, no flaming here my friend  , interesting read.  I always found I get could get all the tones I wanted from (originally) my MP-1, then later (and now MP-2s).  I do remember getting blown over on stage once (volume wise) by a Boogie.  My story was moving from a '73 Marshall 50w which I liked and used for years but couldn't get a lead boost (no master vol or channel switching) to the MP-1, basically 128 Marshalls all at different volumes.  More recently I got the Marshall out for a run, it hummed so I had the caps fixed and then compared it to MP-1 I'd bought.  The MP-1 was soo much better IMHO and way more versatile.

Hey R thanks for reading this!
Yeah I'm excited to get my MP1 and see what it sounds like after all these years! I'm actually going to an original Tom Scholz  Rockman too for another recoding project for its unique sound. So I'm revisiting a lot of these classic tones and sounds.


And you are lucky to be able to get all the sounds you like with the MP1!
Like I mentioned for live I love blowing the doors off places with the JVMs. I'm curious how my MP1 is going to sound into the front return of the JVMs with resonance and presence controls, but I will post a video when it comes for every one here! 

[Dante]

Cool story DJC!!

Lots of us were pissed that stompboxes were becoming the norm....and lots of Metal guys ran to Nashville, because it paid $$$ (notice all the downtune New Country?)

I have a story somewhere on here, I'll put a link in when I find it. Found it!

[DannyjoeCarter]

Cool story DJC!!

Lots of us were pissed that stompboxes were becoming the norm....and lots of Metal guys ran to Nashville, because it paid $$$ (notice all the downtune New Country?)

I have a story somewhere on here, I'll put a link in when I find it. Found it!

Hi Dante - I remember you! 


 Yes it was a very hard transition for me going from that slick studio to live sound then having to adjust to the new norm of a few stomp boxes, which I was never able to do!
And here in Vegas as I mentioned there were clubs that wouldn't even want to book you if you were a metal or shred band and playing rack systems! It was was I refer to as the Dark Ages!


 But I slowly moved away from racks and pretty much go straight into my Marshall JVMs although I love a nice digital delay which I do get from a pedal in the loop.
But this will interesting revisiting and seeing if there is a way to integrate my MP-1 into my JVMs! 

[rnolan]

Hey DJC, (But this will interesting revisiting and seeing if there is a way to integrate my MP-1 into my JVMs!) should be easy, MP-1 outs into 2 Marshall KVM returns, set MP-1 chorus to depth 100 and rate to 0, put your delay into the MP-1 loop... turn it up really loud  , should melt you (and anyone else within 1/2 a mile).  The only thing I'd want to add to that would be some stereo reverb, what does the KVM resonance do??  I've always been a bit confused that others here want additional presence (basically a 5k or 6k boost depending, some are 3k), I've always had plenty in MP-1 or later MP-2, so while my Carvin TS100 has presence knobs, I've never needed them.

[rabidgerry]

Hello Rabid thanks for the response!
Yeah I have a wall of Marshalls now, I use the JVMs which for me I like even better than the JCM 800s personally, and that really is my go to sound.

If only that was practical to have brought to gigs I would have built up something similar over the years using similar gear I use now.  I'd probably have a larger rack too.  I mean it was a nightmare trying to get a feasible flight rig but I did manage it.  Lets hope I get to use it at some point again.

As for the Grundge thing, wasn't Numetal even worse? 

[MarshallJMP]

Yes numetal was even worse 

Altough I have old marshalls and quite a bit of pedals I rarely use this setup and if I do only at home. I went into racks in '91 and never locked back, I always been happy with my sound. First I had an original mp-1, boosted with an Boss EQ later I went to the MP-2 and then to both MP-1 3TM for distortion, MP-2 for cleans.

[DannyjoeCarter]

Hey DJC, (But this will interesting revisiting and seeing if there is a way to integrate my MP-1 into my JVMs!) should be easy, MP-1 outs into 2 Marshall KVM returns, set MP-1 chorus to depth 100 and rate to 0, put your delay into the MP-1 loop... turn it up really loud  , should melt you (and anyone else within 1/2 a mile).  The only thing I'd want to add to that would be some stereo reverb, what does the KVM resonance do??  I've always been a bit confused that others here want additional presence (basically a 5k or 6k boost depending, some are 3k), I've always had plenty in MP-1 or later MP-2, so while my Carvin TS100 has presence knobs, I've never needed them.

 Well the Resonance adds a HUGE thickness and bottom end to the overall sound; it works the same as the Resonance control on a Peavey 5150 and the Presence control adds a sparkling top end to balance out the bottom end.
 The basically does, but with more, what the BBE Sonic Maximizer did back in the day, took away some of the thinness and gave it more girth.


But thanks for the suggestion R!

[DannyjoeCarter]

Hello Rabid thanks for the response!
Yeah I have a wall of Marshalls now, I use the JVMs which for me I like even better than the JCM 800s personally, and that really is my go to sound.

If only that was practical to have brought to gigs I would have built up something similar over the years using similar gear I use now.  I'd probably have a larger rack too.  I mean it was a nightmare trying to get a feasible flight rig but I did manage it.  Lets hope I get to use it at some point again.

As for the Grundge thing, wasn't Numetal even worse? 

 Oh yeah now days most clubs prefer you using a pedal board and not even having a cabinet and like to plug you straight in. I was able to build my Wall of Marshall mainly because everyone was dumping their amps for Fractals and direct in gear so I jumped on every deal I found - whether I get to use even a portion of it live though 


And yes the nu metal - how did we survive this period my friend? We'll see where music goes now but I'm grateful for all of you on this forum sharing all this information and stories!!