“We were playing so loudly, you could see that we were tiring people out”: Thin Lizzy's Scott Gorham on the development that changed the amp game forever

Thin Lizzy's Scott Gorham has revealed how, during the time they recorded the band's commercial breakthrough album Jailbreak in 1976, their amps didn't have a master volume knob. Therefore, Gorham and fellow Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson didn't even realize how loud they actually played, to the detriment of their amp mics as well as their hearing. 

“They were both the Marshall 100s. They didn't have the master volume at that point. And the microphones really couldn't take the heavy volumes, vibrating through the screens and all that,” explains Gorham in an interview with Guitarist. 

“Both of our playing in the studio really stepped up when Marshall came up with that master volume. So you could actually get the sustained sound that you wanted, but at a much lower level.

Great Guitar Albums: Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak (1976) as told by guitarist Scott Gorham - YouTube

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“There's so many times before that master volume came in that we were playing so loudly, you could see that we were actually tiring people out. You know, they wanted to get in there with it, but they've just been relentless. And you saw that from the stage, you know, but to be able to get the sustain, you had to turn it up. You know, I think that's part of my hearing problems.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Gorham recalls how Thin Lizzy's twin-guitar setup meant he could write parts that he couldn't necessarily play or were a better fit for Robertson, without having to sacrifice his overall vision for a song. 

“I did do a lot of the writing,” he remarks. “I actually wrote specific lead parts, because I wanted Brian to play it right, you know, in my head, I could hear and see him playing in those bits. I was never one to say, 'No, I have to do this.' That was never my intention at all. My whole thing was to make sure that hopefully the band sounded as good as it possibly could.

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak - John Peel Session - 12th February 1976 - HD Promotional Video - YouTube

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"What’s the one thing I still can't do today? Is it that damn double picking thing? The Dick Dale kind of thing. I've never been able to get that together. I can't tell you why there's no rhyme or reason why I can't do it. But and he's [Robertson] got that down perfectly.”

In a 2021 interview with Guitar World, Scott Gorham revealed how he fell out of love with Marshall amps for a decade after a tech blew up all four of his Marshalls.