This was submitted by formerlib.
How is it that I have never heard of this group. Per formerlib, the lead guitarist, Michael Schenker is the brother of the rhythm guitarist of the Scorpions.
This was submitted by formerlib.
How is it that I have never heard of this group. Per formerlib, the lead guitarist, Michael Schenker is the brother of the rhythm guitarist of the Scorpions.
The other incarnation of MSG was the Mcaully Schenker Group. Both were excellent.
I saw M Schenker with UFO late 70’s when they were touring with AC/DC. I was a young fellow working at a hotel restaurant/bar adjacent to the civic arena, so a lot of bands stayed at this hotel. The hostess was a cool chick and she did a “Welcome UFO/ACDC ” message on the little easel/chalkboard you would see upon entering the restaurant, complete with a flying saucer and bolts of lightning. i remember some of the band dudes coming in and being impressed by the message
Trivia: The Scorpions current drummer James Kottak used to be married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee’s younger sister Athena Lee, who is also a drummer. That also makes her ex-sister-in-law to Heather Locklear and Pam Anderson
Oh yeah Kottak also spent a month in jail about this time last year in Dubai for drinking alcohol without a license, “insulting Islam”, and for being a naughty boy
Michael Schenker and his brother must have practiced together.
Here’s another classic Schenker that originally came out on his 1980 solo debut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTMbt6WIx30 Prior to that he had played on the Scorpions Lovedrive album. More trivia…his newest band, Temple of Rock, includes original Scorpions members Herman Rarebell on drums and Francis Buchholtz on bass. My all time favorite guitar player, he actually ‘borrowed’ older brother Rudolph’s guitar while he was at work and when Rudolph found out how well he played, actually paid Michael to teach him! Michael says he is totally self taught, he just ‘explored’ and did what felt natural. Amazing.
At 18 he was already a guitar god. These self taught dudes, like Steve Howe of Yes, really piss me off! I’ve been reading some stuff about this guy. He runs his guitar through a wah wah pedal, even though he doesn’t use the pedal, as an equalizer and to get the sound he likes.
Try different wah-wah pedals if you can, and search for the sweet spots. You can get a sharp tone with nice definition and sustain. I use phase shifters and flangers similarly: by turning down or off the sweep you can still get the tone of the effect and the boost from the pre-amp as well. When you do it right, no one will know it’s an effect and they’ll assume it’s the amp or the guitar. That’s one of the methods Eddie Van Halen used to get that great sound on the first album; on some songs you can detect the sweep of the phase shifter. It took me several hours, but by tweaking my effects, guitar, amp, and picking with a coin I got pretty close to Brain May’s sound as well
I remember on the first album how much sustain Eddie got on his guitar on most of those songs like he had on Running With Devil. I remember reading that Brian May and his father built one of his guitars by hand.