Studio Innovators: Tom Scholz | Techniques, Tricks & Legacy

Tom Scholz is best known as the guitarist and musical mastermind behind the ’70s arena-rock juggernaut Boston. But did you know that he recorded nearly all of Boston’s chart-topping hits as a one-man band in his DIY basement studio? Or that he enjoyed an equally impressive career as an engineer and inventor? This article will plumb the depths of Scholtz’s multifaceted studio creations.

The BeginningEarly CareerThe Difficult First AlbumMore Multi-Platinum SuccessA Prolific InventorStudio Tips & TricksAn Armada of AxesTape-sliced Drum LoopsHeavenly Acoustic GuitarsReel-to-reel Note Bending

The Beginning

Donald Thomas Scholz was born on March 10, 1947, and raised in the Toledo suburb of Ottawa Hills in Ohio. Scholz was a prodigious child with a penchant for music and mechanical and electronic devices. He showed promise as a classical pianist from a young age and spent a lot of time disassembling — and customizing — everything from go-karts to model cars and airplanes.

Scholz was one of the top students at Ottawa Hills High School, where he also played varsity basketball. After graduating high school in 1965, Scholz attended the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering.

Early Career

After Scholz graduated from MIT, he worked as a product designer at Polaroid, where he built, among other things, a product called the “instant movie camera.” Working a simple nine-to-five job allowed Scholz a lot of spare time, in contrast to the demanding workload of a graduate student. “I couldn’t believe all of this free time I suddenly had,” Scholz writes on Boston’s official website. “My work day actually ended at 5PM!”

With excess free time, Scholz reignited his passion for music. Though he already possessed an extensive classical repertoire due to his piano studies as a child, Scholz began exploring the world of rock music, especially guitar-centric music from the likes of the Kinks, the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck, and the Who. Scholz was so inspired by the music he was hearing that he taught himself to play guitar.

Once he became proficient on the guitar, Scholz built a recording studio in his basement, mainly using equipment of his own design. He then began crafting demos, some of which eventually surfaced on Boston’s multi-Platinum debut album in 1976.

The Difficult First Album

Scholz toiled in his home studio for six years, submitting his demos to unresponsive record companies until he finally gained the attention of Epic Records. It’s been reported that Epic was Scholz’s last attempt at getting a record contract and that he was going to quit music if he was unsuccessful.

There was immediate friction between Scholz and Epic, though, as Scholz felt that his basement-recorded demos were of sufficient quality for commercial release. On the other hand, the record company wanted the album recorded in a professional studio with professional engineers and producers. Scholz’s solution was to bring aboard established producer John Boylan, whose job it was to keep the label happy while Scholz continued working in his home studio.

When Scholtz was finished recording, he ran a snake through his basement window to a rented remote truck. The tracks were transferred from his studio’s Scully 284-12 1-inch, 12-track machine to a 2-inch, 24-track 3M M79 deck, which was what the pro studios were using at the time. Boylan then took the tracks to Los Angeles for mixing, and he and Scholz split the producer’s royalty fifty-fifty.

When it was all said and done, the final release of Boston’s debut album, save for the song “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” and a handful of vocal overdubs, was recorded in Scholz’s basement. Considering the album’s eventual 17-time Platinum status (and that was in 2003!), it’s safe to say that Scholz made the right decision. In fact, the album is most likely the most successful “amateur” recording ever created!

More Multi-Platinum Success

Ever the perfectionist, Scholz was reluctant to release a follow-up to Boston’s debut until he was satisfied with the recording. Nonetheless, pressure from the record company prompted the release of Don’t Look Back in 1978. Scholz was reportedly so unhappy with the album that he waited eight full years to release the band’s third album, Third Stage, and even then, he only relented because Epic Records filed a lawsuit against him!

Despite Scholz’s qualms about Boston’s subsequent albums, Don’t Look Back enjoys a seven-time Platinum status, and Third Stage, including the band’s highest-charting single, “Amanda,” eventually went four times Platinum. Boston also released the Platinum-certified Walk On in 1994 as well as Corporate America in 2002 and Life, Love & Hope in 2013. Boston’s 1997 Greatest Hits compilation also enjoys a multi-Platinum status.

A Prolific Inventor

After the release of Don’t Look Back, Scholz used his earnings to fund Scholz Research & Development, Inc. (SR&D), to pursue his other passions: engineering and inventing. During the company’s 14-year tenure, Scholz designed and manufactured several revolutionary music technology products, many of which were way ahead of their time. As a prolific inventor, Scholz has amassed over 30 patents during his lifetime, the proceeds from which he has donated mainly to charity.

SR&D’s first offering was called the Power Soak. Initially released in 1980, the Power Soak was the first guitar amplifier attenuator ever to be produced commercially, enabling guitarists to crank their tube amps to the point of saturation while maintaining a reasonably low volume level. The Power Soak went through two more iterations, dubbed Model II and Model III, released in 1981 and 1992, respectively.

Note: You can occasionally find used Power Soak models for sale on Sweetwater’s Gear Exchange.

The Rockman was SR&D’s next triumph. Unveiled in 1982, the Rockman was a portable headphone guitar amplifier with built-in effects and an integrated amplifier simulator. The Rockman included Distortion, Edge, two Clean modes, and echo and chorus effects. The guitar tones produced by the Rockman were voiced similarly to those Scholz used on Boston’s albums, giving them a studio-quality sheen that sounded amazing through headphones.

The Rockman sounded so good that guitarists began using it as a DI unit to achieve an instant glossy and produced sound in the studio. You can hear the Rockman in action on Def Leppard’s Hysteria, Joe Satriani’s Surfing with the Alien, ZZ Top’s Afterburner, David Gilmour’s About Face, and KISS’s Animalize, to name but a few. The Rockman has gone through countless iterations throughout its life cycle — the Rockman Bass Ace, Metal Ace, and Guitar Ace are still produced to this day and distributed by Dunlop. Furthermore, vintage Rockmans have become quite collectible, often commanding exorbitant prices on the used market.

Rockmodules were another SR&D release. First introduced in 1986, Rockmodules were professional-level rackmount guitar effects designed to capitalize on the burgeoning “guitar rack” trend. Several units were released, including the Sustainor and Distortion Generator amplifier simulators, as well as Instrument EQ, Guitar Compressor, Smart Gate, Stereo Chorus, Stereo Echo, and Stereo Chorus/Delay. MIDI Octopus and Dual Remote Loop units were also produced, making it easier for guitarists to integrate the Rockmodules into their rigs.

The Rise and Fall of Guitar Rack Effects

Interestingly enough, because Scholz’s Rockmodules were based on all-analog designs, they were deemed as less state-of-the-art than the competing digital units of the day (quite the opposite from what we see among today’s analog-obsessed gearheads), which led to them being discontinued in the early ’90s. That said, several guitar-based YouTube channels have highlighted these units over the past couple of years, leading to a renewed interest, not to mention a significant uptick in prices on the used market.

One of the most collectible offerings from SR&D is the PGE-2, a 2-channel, MIDI-programmable rackmount graphic equalizer. The PGE-2’s technical specs are off the charts, boasting 14 bands of premium, pro-studio-level sound shaping specially tailored to guitar. SR&D only created 99 of these units, and Tom Scholz keeps 10 of them in his personal studio.

The last products released by SR&D, the Acoustic Guitar Pedal and Ultimatum Distortion Generator stompboxes, were unveiled between 1993 and 1994 and failed to make a dent in the market.

Scholz sold Scholz Research & Development, Inc., to Dunlop in 1995.

Studio Tips & Tricks

Thanks to all the time he spent experimenting in his home studio, Scholz developed several interesting — and somewhat unorthodox — production techniques. Moreover, since Scholz is a hard-nosed analog adherent, his studio tricks are almost always performed in the analog domain.

An Armada of Axes

One of Boston’s signature sonic characteristics is its massive, multitracked electric guitar sound. Scholz initially achieved this effect by recording multiple passes of each guitar part and subtly altering the pitch of the successive tracks by varying the playback speed of a tape echo device. “With the second guitar being played at off-pitch and a different speed, that’s when I realized that I could do something really special with multiple tracking of guitars,” Scholz recalled during a MusicRadar 2013 interview.

On later Boston releases, Scholz obtained his trademark guitar sound using SR&D Rockman and Rockmodules units. It should be noted that once this sound caught on, other producers (especially those during the hair-metal era) replicated the “Boston effect” by using an Eventide Harmonizer to stack detuned guitar tracks.

Tape-spliced Drum Loops

On “Cool the Engines” from Third Stage, Scholz used drum loops. But he did it the old-school analog way — no digital sampling was involved. To create the song’s unique drum sound, Scholz reportedly recorded drum tracks and then spliced the recordings together bar by bar with a razor blade. Musician magazine later described the resulting effect as “a kind of analog drum machine that only a seasoned tape splicer would dare attempt.”

Needless to say, very few of us — even those of us who are analog purists — would try to create drum loops in such a manner. Thankfully, re-creating this sound in a modern DAW is not nearly as difficult!

Heavenly Acoustic Guitars

Many of Boston’s best-known songs contain gorgeous acoustic guitar parts. Many artists and engineers hold classic Boston recordings as benchmarks for how acoustic guitars should sound in a hard-rock arrangement. Surprisingly, Scholz’s method for recording acoustic instruments is pretty straightforward.

For starters, Scholz frequently layers 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars to achieve a lush, albeit articulate, sound. His go-to microphone is an AKG 414, which he compresses heavily on the way in. If he encounters too much noise, such as was the case during the intro to “Love Got Away” from Life, Love & Hope, then Scholz advises that he uses an Electro-Voice RE20 mic but, in his own words from that same MusicRadar interview, “just for the portion where the noise floor is an issue.”

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Reel-to-reel Note Bending

As an uncompromising analog tape devotee, Scholz is an expert at manipulating a reel-to-reel tape machine. One such example occurs during “Hitch a Ride” from Boston’s self-titled debut album. To attain the ear-grabbing, upward-bent note during the song’s epic organ solo, Scholz played around with the tape speed by placing his finger on one of the reels.

You Don’t Have to Be an MIT-trained Genius to Make Great Music

You don’t have to be an MIT-trained engineer with a genius-level IQ to find Tom Scholz inspiring. After all, he’s essentially one of us — a card-carrying home studio nerd. He loves tinkering with gear and creating music in his home studio just as much as you and I do. Writing this article has motivated me to spend more time in my studio. If you are feeling just as inspired but aren’t sure what gear you need to achieve the sound you’re hearing in your head, then call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700.
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