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