More Than a Feeling guitar tone
Boston · Tom Scholz
Boston (debut LP, Epic, 1976)
smooth saturated classic-rock rhythm and singing-sustain lead
The rig Boston used
Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.
Guitar
Gibson Les Paul Goldtop
Amplifier
Marshall Super Lead 100 (plexi) with Scholz Power Soak attenuator
Cabinet
Marshall 4x12 with 25W Celestion Greenbacks
Microphone
Shure SM57 (close) plus room
Signal chain
The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.
Get this tone on your rig
Pick your amp or modeller and we’ll build More Than a Feeling for it — with a preset file you can load, not a list of knob positions.
Why we think this is right
The electric guitars on 'More Than a Feeling' are Tom Scholz's home-studio rig: a Gibson Les Paul (Goldtop) into a cranked late-'60s Marshall Super Lead 100 (plexi) tamed by Scholz's own prototype Power Soak attenuator, into a Marshall 4x12 with 25W Celestion Greenbacks, meticulously multi-tracked in his Watertown, MA basement. Premier Guitar's Scholz rig rundown and long-running Guitar Player interviews document the cranked-plexi-plus-attenuator method (which later inspired the Rockman). A subtle MXR phaser features on some layered parts. The famous 12-string intro is acoustic and is excluded here; this is the featured electric chain. Scored high because the Les Paul / cranked-Super-Lead / Power-Soak / Greenback story is well documented, with the exact pickup mod the main uncertainty.
Sources
- Premier Guitar - Rig Rundown: Boston's Tom Scholz
- Guitar Player interviews with Tom Scholz (1977 onward) on the Power Soak / cranked-Marshall method
- Documented history of the Scholz Power Soak attenuator and Watertown basement studio
- Boston debut LP production lore (Epic, 1976)