Ronnie Montrose

Mentioned in the July 31, 1982 issue of Circus.

"The most exciting thing that's happened to me in a while is the invention of the Gillis Wireless Switcher. I was talking to (inventor) Greg Gillis. saying it would be great it there was a switching system the size of a deck of cards that you could attach to your guitar strap—something with a calculator keypad that would transmit to all the switches on your rack. That way you would never have to have any foot pedals on stage. A week later he called me up and said. 'Come and get it.' I hit the ceiling. It was a dream come true. He took a nebulous idea of mine and I saw it realized in a week! It looks like a badge on my guitar strap with an antenna coming out of it. I have eight switches in there and a master clear button. Among Ronnie's effects are a modified Moog string filter. a Moog Phaser. two Lexicon PCM 41's. a Dyna-Mite Limiter Gauge and a Vocoder.

"The Moog String Filter resulted from Moog taking an orchestra and analyzing the waves of the string section. They built this into separate filters. The idea was good. but they never completed the design. It was very noisy and didn't resonate properly. You couldn't control the range of the filter. I tore it apart. put in DBX cards to quiet it down. and used a blend pot on the ranges rather than on off switches. I'm now able to dial in a very sweet tone.

"I'll always continue to experiment with new things. But after all is said and done, the fail-safe I utilize is my talent as a guitar player. When all else fails. I plug directly into the amp and do what I do best, which is play the guitar. Everything else is embellishment."

Mentioned in the July 31, 1982 issue of Circus.

"The most exciting thing that's happened to me in a while is the invention of the Gillis Wireless Switcher. I was talking to (inventor) Greg Gillis. saying it would be great it there was a switching system the size of a deck of cards that you could attach to your guitar strap—something with a calculator keypad that would transmit to all the switches on your rack. That way you would never have to have any foot pedals on stage. A week later he called me up and said. 'Come and get it.' I hit the ceiling. It was a dream come true. He took a nebulous idea of mine and I saw it realized in a week! It looks like a badge on my guitar strap with an antenna coming out of it. I have eight switches in there and a master clear button. Among Ronnie's effects are a modified Moog string filter. a Moog Phaser. two Lexicon PCM 41's. a Dyna-Mite Limiter Gauge and a Vocoder.

"The Moog String Filter resulted from Moog taking an orchestra and analyzing the waves of the string section. They built this into separate filters. The idea was good. but they never completed the design. It was very noisy and didn't resonate properly. You couldn't control the range of the filter. I tore it apart. put in DBX cards to quiet it down. and used a blend pot on the ranges rather than on off switches. I'm now able to dial in a very sweet tone.

"I'll always continue to experiment with new things. But after all is said and done, the fail-safe I utilize is my talent as a guitar player. When all else fails. I plug directly into the amp and do what I do best, which is play the guitar. Everything else is embellishment."

"I’m also a huge fan of the Rocktron Intelliverb. It’s my favorite device ever—so intuitive and easy to use."

Mentioned in the July 31, 1982 issue of Circus.

"The most exciting thing that's happened to me in a while is the invention of the Gillis Wireless Switcher. I was talking to (inventor) Greg Gillis. saying it would be great it there was a switching system the size of a deck of cards that you could attach to your guitar strap—something with a calculator keypad that would transmit to all the switches on your rack. That way you would never have to have any foot pedals on stage. A week later he called me up and said. 'Come and get it.' I hit the ceiling. It was a dream come true. He took a nebulous idea of mine and I saw it realized in a week! It looks like a badge on my guitar strap with an antenna coming out of it. I have eight switches in there and a master clear button. Among Ronnie's effects are a modified Moog string filter. a Moog Phaser. two Lexicon PCM 41's. a Dyna-Mite Limiter Gauge and a Vocoder.

"The Moog String Filter resulted from Moog taking an orchestra and analyzing the waves of the string section. They built this into separate filters. The idea was good. but they never completed the design. It was very noisy and didn't resonate properly. You couldn't control the range of the filter. I tore it apart. put in DBX cards to quiet it down. and used a blend pot on the ranges rather than on off switches. I'm now able to dial in a very sweet tone.

"I'll always continue to experiment with new things. But after all is said and done, the fail-safe I utilize is my talent as a guitar player. When all else fails. I plug directly into the amp and do what I do best, which is play the guitar. Everything else is embellishment."

Mentioned in the July 31, 1982 issue of Circus.

"The most exciting thing that's happened to me in a while is the invention of the Gillis Wireless Switcher. I was talking to (inventor) Greg Gillis. saying it would be great it there was a switching system the size of a deck of cards that you could attach to your guitar strap—something with a calculator keypad that would transmit to all the switches on your rack. That way you would never have to have any foot pedals on stage. A week later he called me up and said. 'Come and get it.' I hit the ceiling. It was a dream come true. He took a nebulous idea of mine and I saw it realized in a week! It looks like a badge on my guitar strap with an antenna coming out of it. I have eight switches in there and a master clear button. Among Ronnie's effects are a modified Moog string filter. a Moog Phaser. two Lexicon PCM 41's. a Dyna-Mite Limiter Gauge and a Vocoder.

"The Moog String Filter resulted from Moog taking an orchestra and analyzing the waves of the string section. They built this into separate filters. The idea was good. but they never completed the design. It was very noisy and didn't resonate properly. You couldn't control the range of the filter. I tore it apart. put in DBX cards to quiet it down. and used a blend pot on the ranges rather than on off switches. I'm now able to dial in a very sweet tone.

"I'll always continue to experiment with new things. But after all is said and done, the fail-safe I utilize is my talent as a guitar player. When all else fails. I plug directly into the amp and do what I do best, which is play the guitar. Everything else is embellishment."

Auctioned via Julien's in 2013.

A box of various electronics modified or built by Ronnie Montrose, including two Bogner RM pedals, switch box and five inputs, Direct boxes, footswitch, FX017 Wah volume controller, Matchbox Preamp EQ, Direct box speaker simulator MB-10, a microphone, and miscellaneous cables.

12 by 12 by 6 inches

PROVENANCE From the Collection of Ronnie Montrose

Used for doubling on Montrose, as stated by Montrose in a conversation recollected by The Les Paul Forum member Pope Budda in a July 5, 2013 post.

soulbrojcs said:

A couple'a years ago, Greg Martin and I sat on their tour bus with Ronnie after one of their shows, and he told us all about the Fender 3x10 Bandmaster he used on that first Montrose album. he made the comment that he really wished he had never gotten rid of it. he also showed us the way Jimmy Page showed him to play the into to Zeps "Whole Lotta Love". he was a REALLY nice guy.

I remember that like yesterday, Jimmy. Ronnie was one of the nicest humans ever, a big influence on me in the 70's.

As Jimmy said, Ronnie used an old tweed 3x10 Fender Bandmaster, that had been recovered, for the first Montrose album. Since his 1959 'burst was stolen at a Edgar Winter Group gig earlier, I'm almost thinking the first Montrose album was done with a newer Les Paul or another 50's 'burst? I always envisioned Ronnie having stacks of Marshall's in the studio for "Montrose," it was all done on that tweed Bandmaster! He also told me he used a Electro-Harmonix Big Muff on "Bad Motor Scooter" and a Ampeg Scrambler on "Make It Last." Ronnie said the trick to making the Scrambler work, was rolling the treble all the way back on pickups and turning the volume all the way up. I own an old Scrambler, this works!!! Other than that, Ronnie said it was straight into the amp. You can hear a Eventide H910 Harmonizer added in on the mix by producer Ted Templeman or engineers Don Landee and Stephen Jarvis as well, set on 1.01 or 0.99. That gave it that doubling slap sound on solos. Ever notice the similarities in guitar tones on the Doobie Brothers "China Grove" and "Montrose"? Both produced by Ted Templeton....

I really miss Ronnie, we got to be really good friends. We had many conversations about music, guitars, amps, influences, even jammed about 3 times. He wanted to produce a Rufus Huff CD, sadly we never got to do it. He's a BIG reason I play a Les Paul today, I know Jimmy feels the same way. His talent and spirit was undeniable. Anytime I need a good kick in the rear, I put on that first Montrose album!

Greg

I saw Ronnie Montrose with Gamma at First Avenue in Minneapolis. At the time it may have been called Sam's or Uncle Sam's before being renamed to the club that Prince played at - First Avenue. I was doing security and got to see the soundcheck and then the show from the front of the stage. Ronnie was using a vocoder and I'm thinking it was a Moog because this was the late 70s or early 80s. If you listen to Gamma 1 you'll hear it on the first song, "Thunder and Lightning," and if you listen to the last song on Gamma 2 you'll hear it on "Mayday." He had a guitar rack stage right where he was standing and I'm pretty sure the vocoder was in the bottom of the rack. He was having fun with it during the soundcheck. The link I provided shows Gamma from this time period playing Mayday and at about 4:38 minutes Ronnie is mouthing the Vocoder words but not into a mic that I can see. Pretty sure he was using a vocoder with his guitar and mic when I saw him.

Mentioned in a 1980s Artist Magazine interview with Melissa Bennett.

Now, Ronnie Montrose is "strictly solo," just a man and his instrument, not just a single instrument, but several; and he does all the work. He'll be using a Roland Micro-Composer MC4, a tool that is essential to any show he does, for running several synthesizers and working lights all from one pint.