Big City Nights guitar tone
Scorpions · Rudolf Schenker (rhythm), Matthias Jabs (lead)
Love at First Sting (1984)
cranked Marshall high-gain rock rhythm
The rig Scorpions used
Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.
Guitar
Gibson Flying V
Amplifier
Marshall JCM800 2203 (100W)
Cabinet
Marshall 1960A 4x12 (Celestion G12-65/G12-30)
Microphone
Shure SM57
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 Big City Nights for it — with a preset file you can load, not a list of knob positions.
Why we think this is right
Scorpions' mid-80s Dierks-Studio sound is consistently documented as Gibson Flying V (Rudolf Schenker's signature rhythm guitar) and hot-rodded/HSS Strat + Gibson Explorer (Matthias Jabs) into cranked 100W Marshall JCM800 heads and Marshall 4x12s, boosted with a Tube Screamer-type overdrive for leads. Premier Guitar/Guitar World features on Schenker and Jabs and Dieter Dierks production notes agree on the Flying V + JCM800 + 4x12 core. The only real ambiguity is which specific overdrive/cab variant was used per track; the amp platform (JCM800) is not in dispute.
Sources
- Premier Guitar - Rig Rundown/features on Matthias Jabs & Rudolf Schenker
- Guitar World - Scorpions Love at First Sting gear features
- Interviews with Matthias Jabs and luthier Boris Dommenget
- Dieter Dierks / Dierks Studios production notes