Scott Murawski's 80's Guitar Rig

[Chuckles]

In the 80's we use to travel from NH to Lupo's, Living Room, Trinity College, etc. Scott is an amazing guitar player. Makes it all look so easy.

Now that raises some memories! I know the Creek had played Trinity in the '70s maybe a couple of times, but we had to drive up by UCONN to catch them (or at least up near Windsor Locks or something - can't remember the name of the club offhand). Anyway, I was Social Chair of DKE (Freak) at Trinity and I and a couple of fellow freaks put on that Trinity show in '86 ('86? )... freaks absolutely destroyed the student art space outside the Washington Room and the school tried to nail us for it... but they were the ones responsible for security - no flies on us!

What a great night... I used to have the recording - it's not on Archive... but I just hooked up with one of those other guys from DKE on FB.. maybe he has a copy. It was epic; and the opener was great too... Hot Acoustics, a husband/wife team with him on acoustic guitar and her on an electric violin. She was second chair in the Hartford Philharmonic, iirc.

Sorry... don't know a whole lot about Scott's rig at the time. But, that was a great memory jolter!

[ebick]

For me it was H.L. Wilfred's in Hamden, CT.

[brutusbuck45]

For us... it was the "oscillating floor" jam at The Old Country Warehouse in Roch-cha-cha, NY. Ahhh the memories... loved that place. Loved The Creek vibe when they rolled into town a couple times a year.

[Rusty the Scoob]

Hey folks,
It would be nice to hear from Scott. I was able to find this on the net. Not sure of the year, but he has the Ibanez.

Peace,

Gil

I believe it should be at 1997 or later based on Mike having his Modulus.

[petcat]

Ah, '81-'82. Living on the CT shoreline...New Haven, Hartford, Providence... Those were some awesome shows. This was from an outdoor gig with King Sunny Ade. I guess the sun must have been blue that day.
Since I've had time to think on it, That gig must have been between '85~'87

[jeffm725]

I grew up on Scott! Amazing player, one of my favorite guitarists ever! My first Creek show was in 1979 and I saw them at least 600 times through the 80's, most of them lived in my hometown (Simsbury, CT).
Anyway Scott was a HUGE influence on me and I have studied his gear through pretty much every era.

I have been lucky enough to sit in with Max Creek on a few occasions, Great band and FUN times.

Great old shot of Scott above, those homemade cabs on stage were the instrument cab left overs of the Creeks attempt at a mini Wall of sound in the late 70's/

One of the main interesting things about Scott as a player is that HE NEVER PLAYED TUBE AMPS, through most of the Creek days, he was a Solid State guy all the way. He only started using tubes on stage after Mike Gordon goaded him to a couple years ago.
Here is his rig Deal:
From 83 until 2005 Scotts guitar was a 1982 Ibanez MC350NT. (once in a while in the early 80's he would bust out a G&L Nighthawk instead of the Ibby. He has been playing a Langedoc since 05.
In the early to Mid 80's Scott 's guitar rig was:
Yamaha PG-1 Preamp into A QSC 1400 Power Amp into a 2x12 hard Trucker style Cab.
After the PG-1/QSC in the late 80's Scott Switched to a Yamaha solid state combo 1 x12.
He also would alternate the Yamaha combo with the GK head as mentioned above. The GK was his primary amp through the early to mid 90's
After the GK, Scott mainly used a Roland Jazz chorus JC120. After the JC120 he switched to a Line6 POD and used it with a FRFR powered speaker. He has been using that until Mike Gordon requested he try playing some Tube amps on the Mike Gordon tour.
Scott likes his base tone to be REALLY clean which what always led him back to Solid State, He DOES NOT care for tube breakup. He always preferred to get his dirt from his floor stomps in the 80's-90's and then his POD in the early 2000's.
His old 80's rig had some mxr (iirc) stomps and he got a fantastic auto-wah sound out of an Ibanez af-9.

His lead playing is just incredible, but people dont realize that he probably has Bob Weir style stuff nailed better than anyone in the country. Scott will tell you that he loved Europe of 72 era Weir as much as Jerry. David Gilmour is also a big influence.

I could talk about Scott stuff all day, a great guy, and a friend who I wish I spoke to a lot more than I have the past 15 years.

[jeffm725]

I Anyway, I was Social Chair of DKE (Freak) at Trinity and I and a couple of fellow freaks put on that Trinity show in '86 ('86? ):cool:

Chuckles....SMALL WORLD...........My band (Shakedown) has played the Trinity DKE end of year bash every year continuously since 1992!
That frat is a ZOO! One of my favorite gigs of the year due to all the coed scenery (and how come the older I get, the better they look?)

Whats crazy is when I started playing that gig, I was just about the same age as the seniors, now when I play it they look at me like I am one of the parents! Getting old sucks.......

[jeffm725]

Ah, '81-'82. Living on the CT shoreline...New Haven, Hartford, Providence... Those were some awesome shows. This was from an outdoor gig with King Sunny Ade. I guess the sun must have been blue that day.

My assertion that he used the Yamaha PG-1 in the early/mid 80's bears out here as you can see the channel switcher floor pedal for the PG-1 Rack Preamp on the ground at the forefront of the picture

[EdHead]

JeffM - thanks for that detail, I've always enjoyed Scott's 80s tone. I've often wondered if Scott used a compressor back then to smooth out those awesome runs. In any case, I love to listen to those old tapes. Sorry to say I'm old enough to remember sneaking into the Inn Place, when Scott played the Travis Bean. Hard to believe they are still 'doing it well', 30+ years later.

[zambiland]

Hey Jeffm! Do you know Ravi and Grip? There was a crew from Simsbury that used to hang out during the Shockra days in the late 80s and early 90s. Others too, whose names escape me.

[jeffm725]

Edwin,
I know both those guys and especially Ravi was a good friend of mine.

[ppaul129]

Looks like maybe an Ibanez pedal in that picture?? Might be a compressor or an Analog delay. There is a version of Windows on archive.org that is just ridiculous, probably the best solo I have ever heard. Gave me goosebumps listening to it. The guitar in the beginning has a great clean/compressed sound that I must have!!

Glad so many of you guys have good memories like me of the old days seeing Creek. I think this is the most informative thing on the web about Scott's setup. Thank you all for giving the info that you had.

Funny, I had a JC120 when I played with Mike Gordon, and it never cut it for me to play Dead music. Great for Adrian Belew though...

[zambiland]

Edwin,
I know both those guys and especially Ravi was a good friend of mine.

I ran into Grip a lot when playing with Great American Taxi recently, but haven't seen Ravi in years. Some good times!

Did you know Bob "Claw Me Down" Smith? He seemed to be a prime networker in that scene in the late 80s and early 90s.

[jeffm725]

Looks like maybe an Ibanez pedal in that picture?? Might be a compressor or an Analog delay. There is a version of Windows on archive.org that is just ridiculous, probably the best solo I have ever heard. Gave me goosebumps listening to it. The guitar in the beginning has a great clean/compressed sound that I must have!!

Glad so many of you guys have good memories like me of the old days seeing Creek. I think this is the most informative thing on the web about Scott's setup. Thank you all for giving the info that you had.

Funny, I had a JC120 when I played with Mike Gordon, and it never cut it for me to play Dead music. Great for Adrian Belew though...

In that pic above, besides the Yamaha PG-1 controller it looks like there is a Boss OC-2 (Octave) and an Ibanez AF-9 auto filter, he used the octave to great effect during many open jams when linking songs (unlike 80's dead, the arrow ">" actually meant something in Creek shows. they would and could get from one song to any other song in a way that I have never heard another band do it. They would truly take their time during segues and gradually switch tempos and/or keys to accomplish the "goesinto").........as far as compression I always thought he may have used it, for some reason an MXR dynacomp rings a bell but I could be way off base there. He did use delay, he would use a very fast slap type delay on some of his rhythm playing and would use heavier delay on on some lead passages.

His 80's clean tone was just awesome.

I should stop guessing though, I am going to dig up his email and see if he will chime in.

[jdsmodulus]

After reading this thread, I went through some old boxes of tapes and found a bunch of Creek shows. I also found some Radiators and David Lindley. If anyone wants to trade, send me a pm.