In 1984, the “Round and Round” music video featured a cameo from Milton Berle — legendary American comedian, veteran of vaudeville and early television, a man whose career stretched back to the 1910s — who appeared in drag alongside the members of Ratt. In a visual era defined by bands in makeup, big hair, and spandex, this was still somehow the most visually arresting element of an already arresting production. But the actual musical achievement of “Round and Round” was Warren DeMartini’s guitar work — specifically a double lead section that he improvised essentially on the spot in the studio when Robbin Crosby decided he didn’t like his own solo and suggested DeMartini play the whole thing. “I pretty much did it right on the spot,” DeMartini told Guitar Player. “We ran through it a few times, and it sounded great.” What he came up with, extemporaneously, with Crosby watching, produced the defining guitar moment of one of 1984’s biggest rock hits, recorded through a Marshall Super Lead and a Fender Super Champ — a tiny, nine-watt practice amp — into an Orange cabinet with EV speakers. Sometimes the best tones come from the strangest combinations. And sometimes the flashiest guitar solos on the year’s biggest rock hit are improvised in the studio because someone else didn’t like their own playing. Rock and roll is frequently like this.
Warren DeMartini was born on February 16, 1963, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in San Diego, California — the specific Southern California surf culture that produced a generation of guitarists who absorbed Eddie Van Halen’s influence simultaneously through the records, the live shows, and the specific cultural air of a region where Van Halen was simultaneously local legend and global phenomenon. His primary guitar influence is unmistakably Van Halen — the choice of guitars (Charvel superstrats, Floyd Rose tremolos), the tonal approach (bright, articulate, with the specific slapback echo that DeMartini made his own trademark), and the general physical approach to the instrument. George Lynch’s picking technique and Michael Schenker’s vibrato appear in his playing as secondary influences — the Lynch influence most audible in the aggressive, defined pick attack, the Schenker influence in the wide, controlled vibrato that he applies to sustained lead notes. His less obvious influences — Robin Trower, Leslie West, Pete Townshend, as he has named them — are harder to identify in the recorded output, though the Townshend and West connections suggest a guitarist who understood the blues-rock foundation beneath the VH-inspired surface sheen.
He arrived in Ratt through Jake E. Lee’s departure — Lee left the band in late 1982 to join Ozzy Osbourne, and before going, he brought in his friend DeMartini as his replacement. DeMartini was nineteen years old. He drove from San Diego to Los Angeles with an electric guitar, an amp, and a cheap tape deck on which he had recorded rough song ideas. “I had chord patterns and riffs, but I didn’t know how to connect any of the parts,” he said. Within two years, the band would have the “Round and Round” single, the Out of the Cellar album, four consecutive platinum albums, and a place in the pantheon of 1980s Los Angeles glam metal. The nineteen-year-old with unconnected chord patterns and riffs became, in the assessment of the Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis, “arguably the tastiest of the 80s LA glam metal guitar heroes” — a designation that implies both his considerable talent and the specific environment (Ratt, LA glam metal) that constrained its fullest expression.
His nickname “Torch” — bestowed by Charvel and used in all FU-Tone promotional materials — reflects the specific quality of his lead playing: the brilliant, burning quality that comes from a guitarist who plays fast and accurately but also with genuine emotional heat behind the technique. The fire metaphor is appropriate because DeMartini’s best solos have a specific quality of combustion — not the cold precision of a calculatedly technical player, but the hot, intuitive urgency of someone playing from the gut as much as from the fingers. The “Round and Round” double lead, improvised on the spot, is the clearest example: it burns.
His gear across the peak Ratt years — the snakeskin Charvels, the Bloody Skull, the Jose-modified Marshall Plexi that George Lynch reportedly called “the finest and loudest Marshall out there,” the specific combination of Marshall rhythm amplification and Fender Super Champ lead amplification that produced Out of the Cellar’s definitive guitar tones — reflects the same combination of Van Halen-inspired instrument choices and idiosyncratic tonal solutions that characterized the best LA guitar players of the era. The Seymour Duncan RTM (“Rattus Tonus Maximus”) pickup that bears his name — developed years later in his continuing Charvel signature relationship — captures the specific tonal character he developed through those years in a single, deliberately named device. “Rattus Tonus Maximus.” The name is also, in its way, perfect.
Background: The San Diego Kid Who Drove to LA with Unconnected Riffs and Became Glam Metal’s Most Underrated Guitar Hero
The connection between Jake E. Lee and Warren DeMartini — the friend who replaced the friend in Ratt — is one of the more interesting personnel transitions in 1980s rock, because both players are graduates of the San Diego music scene who ended up at the center of two of the decade’s defining hard rock contexts. Lee went to Ozzy; DeMartini went to Ratt; both made significant music in their respective settings. And both have been recognized in subsequent decades as more genuinely accomplished than their commercial contexts always allowed them to demonstrate. The specific irony that DeMartini arrived in Ratt with unconnected chord patterns and riffs and left with four platinum albums, a signature Charvel guitar, and a legacy as “arguably the tastiest of the 80s LA glam metal guitar heroes” is the kind of rock success story that starts with a nineteen-year-old and a cheap tape deck and ends with a career’s worth of celebrated guitar work.
The Out of the Cellar album (1984) — the first Ratt album and the one that launched “Round and Round” — contains the specific guitar tones that defined DeMartini’s initial identity: the bright, articulate, somewhat thin (in the Dinosaur Rock Guitar assessment) sound of a Charvel superstrat through a Marshall JCM800 on rhythm, and through a tiny Fender Super Champ into an Orange cabinet for leads. The Super Champ choice was DeMartini’s own — he wanted to replicate the feel of his practice rig for the lead tone, and the engineer accommodated this by connecting the small amp to a single speaker in the Orange cabinet. The result is that all the lead work on Out of the Cellar — including “Round and Round” — was recorded through a nine-watt combo amp. This is one of rock’s better “you used what for that?” recording stories, in the same general tradition as Leslie West’s Sunn PA head, Duane Eddy’s buried water tank, and Dave Davies’s pencil-hole Elpico speaker.
By the Invasion of Your Privacy (1985) album, the tone had evolved considerably — DeMartini had acquired a Jose Arredondo-modified Marshall Plexi for the recording, and the result was “fatter and a lot warmer” than the Out of the Cellar approach. Jose Arredondo was one of the most sought-after amp modifiers in the LA hard rock community of the early-to-mid 1980s — the same amp tech whose work on Eddie Van Halen’s equipment is sometimes discussed in the Van Halen gear mythology. His modifications to Marshall Plexis typically involved increased gain, improved clarity, and better high-frequency response — the specific enhancements needed to make a vintage Plexi competitive with the purpose-built high-gain amplifiers of the JCM800 era without losing the Plexi’s fundamental EL34 character. George Lynch, who encountered DeMartini’s Jose-modded Plexi, called it “the finest and loudest Marshall out there” — a testimonial from a guitarist with extensive Marshall experience that confirms the quality of both the base amplifier and the modification.
The slapback echo that the Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis identifies as “one of Warren’s trademarks” — specifically, that “you can’t truly nail Ratt’s guitar sound without it” — is one of the more distinctive tonal signatures of any 1980s guitar player. DeMartini used heavy slapback echo on both lead and rhythm guitar, not just as a time-based effect but as a fundamental component of the guitar’s tonal character — the specific doubling quality of a short slapback delay (set to eighth notes in tempo, one or two repeats) gives his rhythms an immediate, present character and his leads a slightly wider, more dimensional sound than the dry signal would produce. This was added at mixdown or at the soundboard rather than at the amplifier — a production decision rather than a signal chain element — but its contribution to the specific Ratt guitar sound is as significant as any piece of physical equipment.
The Rig: Warren DeMartini’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
The Charvel Bomber was one of the two guitars DeMartini used to record “Round and Round” and the Out of the Cellar album — confirmed in his Guitar Player interview: “While cutting the song with producer Beau Hill, DeMartini used his Charvel Bomber and Bloody Skull models.” The “Bomber” is a custom-painted Charvel superstrat with an aircraft/bombing-mission-inspired graphic that reflects the customization culture of the San Dimas-era Charvel production, where specific customer guitars were hand-decorated with unique art that gave each instrument a personal visual identity. Like all of DeMartini’s Charvel instruments, the Bomber features a Floyd Rose tremolo for tuning stability, a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker (or a custom Charvel pickup) in the bridge position, and the alder body and bolt-on maple neck construction that gives Charvel superstrats their specific bright, articulate tonal character. The Bomber’s contribution to “Round and Round” includes both the rhythm tracks — recorded through a Marshall Super Lead — and some of the lead work that defined the song’s guitar character.
The Charvel Bloody Skull was the other primary guitar for the “Round and Round” and Out of the Cellar sessions — the second instrument confirmed in the Guitar Player interview alongside the Bomber. The Bloody Skull’s graphic — a blood-red skull design that reflects the same custom art tradition as the Bomber — made it one of the more visually distinctive Charvel instruments of the era. Like the Bomber, it features the Floyd Rose, JB or custom Charvel pickup in the bridge, and the San Dimas-era Charvel construction specification. The Crossed Swords variant is also documented in DeMartini’s recorded work — for the Invasion of Your Privacy album, a Charvel with Crossed Swords graphic was specifically noted, possibly with a Dan Armstrong pickup in the bridge: “for that record I might’ve had a Dan Armstrong pickup in the sword. I never wrote that stuff down back then.” This casual acknowledgment of using a Dan Armstrong pickup — a relatively unusual choice — and not keeping records of it is characteristic of the practical, music-first approach that defines the better 1980s guitar players.
The guitar most closely associated with Warren DeMartini’s visual identity — the one that appeared prominently on MTV when Ratt was in heavy rotation during the early-to-mid 1980s — is the Charvel with a real snakeskin finish. This instrument, made from actual snake skin applied to the guitar body, is one of rock’s more elaborate and literally organic finish choices. The visual impact on the small screens of early MTV was considerable — a guitar covered in actual snakeskin, in the hands of a guitarist who looked, as the Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis notes with admirable deadpan, “more like a chick than Uncle Milty did in-drag” in the “Round and Round” Milton Berle video. Charvel eventually reproduced this guitar in the Warren DeMartini Dinky Snake signature model — using high-quality faux snakeskin rather than the real thing, which is both more practical and ethically less complicated. The specific tonal character of the snakeskin original matches the other Charvel superstrats: bright, articulate, with the Floyd Rose’s tuning stability and the JB humbucker’s aggressive bridge tone.
Charvel’s Warren DeMartini signature range translates the specific visual and tonal identities of his classic personal Charvel instruments into production and custom shop models. The primary signature line includes four distinct graphic models: the Snake (real-faux-snakeskin finish, replicating the iconic MTV-era guitar), the Crossed Swords, the Bomber, and the Blood and Skull. The Snake model features the most comprehensive specification: alder body, bolt-on quartersawn rock maple neck with 12″-16″ compound radius maple fingerboard, Seymour Duncan Custom Warren DeMartini RTM (“Rattus Tonus Maximus”) humbucker in the bridge, a single-coil Duncan Quarter Pounder at the neck (on the Snake), and Floyd Rose Original tremolo. The single-volume control reflects DeMartini’s minimal-controls preference — one knob, maximum volume, no tone control. The other three models (Crossed Swords, Bomber, Blood and Skull) feature a simplified specification without the neck pickup — just the RTM humbucker, the single volume, and the Floyd Rose. Custom painted by artist Dan Lawrence, each model in the custom shop range carries the visual legacy of the original instruments with the added quality of Charvel’s modern production standards.
The Seymour Duncan RTM — “Rattus Tonus Maximus” — is Warren DeMartini’s signature pickup, designed with Seymour Duncan to capture the specific tonal character he developed through the Ratt years. The name is perfect in ways that transcend marketing: “Rattus” references Ratt, “Tonus” references tone, and “Maximus” promises the maximum of the foregoing. The actual pickup is described in the Charvel documentation as a “Custom Warren DeMartini RTM humbucking bridge pickup” — a custom-voiced humbucker with the specific output, midrange character, and attack quality that DeMartini requires in the bridge position of his signature instruments. Earlier in his career he used Seymour Duncan JB humbuckers — one of the most popular bridge humbuckers in rock history — and the RTM represents the evolution of that general specification into a pickup specifically voiced for his tonal requirements. The Dinky Snake’s additional single-coil Duncan Quarter Pounder at the neck provides the brighter, more articulate tones for cleaner passages.
The Charvel instruments DeMartini used across the Ratt album sequence — Out of the Cellar (1984), Invasion of Your Privacy (1985), Dancing Undercover (1986), Reach for the Sky (1988), Detonator (1990) — varied in specific configuration while maintaining the fundamental Charvel superstrat approach. The Frenchie (a dinky-style instrument), various kamikaze-shaped instruments, and the named signature models all appear in the documented playing history. His WoodyTone interview confirms specific album-by-album instrument usage: the Crossed Swords with a JB (or possibly Dan Armstrong) for Invasion, the Jose-modded Plexi starting from Invasion, the same Plexi through Dancing Undercover, and its last use on “Nobody Rides for Free” from Detonator. This album-by-album documentation of instrument and amplifier usage is unusually thorough for a player of this era and reflects DeMartini’s genuine engagement with the specific tonal history of his recordings.
Amps
The rhythm guitar tracks on Out of the Cellar were recorded through a Marshall JCM800 2203 — the 100-watt Marshall head that was the standard professional hard rock amplification choice of the early 1980s — through Orange cabinets loaded with 200-watt EV (Electro-Voice) speakers that DeMartini had bought from Robbin Crosby. Orange cabs with EV speakers produce a different frequency response from the standard Celestion-loaded Marshall cabinets: the EV’s high-efficiency design has more treble extension and more physical volume for the same input power than most guitar speakers. The combination of JCM800 and EV speakers gave the Out of the Cellar rhythm tracks their specific, slightly bright, aggressive character.
The most surprising amp in this series since Ted Nugent’s eight-Fender-Twin setup is the amplifier responsible for all the lead work on Out of the Cellar — including the “Round and Round” double lead solo improvised in the studio. It is a Fender Super Champ: a nine-watt, Class A combo amplifier with a single twelve-inch speaker. The Marshall Forum analysis confirms: “the engineer hooked up his Fender Super Champ to one of the Orange cabs using just 1 speaker — yes, all the lead work on Out of the Cellar is a Fender Super Champ.” DeMartini wanted to replicate his practice rig’s feel for the lead tone, and the engineer found a way to do it by connecting the tiny combo to the large cabinet — using the EV speaker’s efficiency to provide the necessary acoustic volume while the Super Champ’s valves did the overdrive and tonal work. The Super Champ’s Class A circuit produces a specific quality of natural saturation — warm, harmonically complex, with a particular quality of breakup that larger, more powerful amplifiers don’t replicate. That this specific character, through one speaker in an Orange cabinet, produced the most celebrated lead guitar work on Ratt’s breakthrough album is a piece of recording history worth preserving.
From the Invasion of Your Privacy album (1985) onward — through Dancing Undercover (1986) and into Detonator (1990) — DeMartini’s primary lead amplification was a Marshall Plexi modified by Jose Arredondo, the Los Angeles amp technician who worked on equipment for several LA-scene guitar players and whose modifications to Marshall Plexis were specifically valued for increased gain, improved clarity, and better response. DeMartini’s WoodyTone interview describes purchasing the Jose-modded Plexi “just after the Out of the Cellar tour and before the Invasion of Your Privacy album” — the specific acquisition moment that divided the two distinct tonal eras of his Ratt recording career. He also describes a specific engineering drama with the amp: “Jose told me that something had happened inside one of the trannies — a seal had worn away, causing it to arc, so every third time we turned it on it would blow something up. He was able to inject it with something to solve that problem.” The repair worked; the amp continued to be used through Detonator, with its last documented appearance on “Nobody Rides for Free.” George Lynch’s assessment of this specific amp — “the finest and loudest Marshall out there” — is the kind of peer endorsement that requires no additional commentary.
The Guitar Player interview confirmation that DeMartini ran “through Marshall Super Lead and Fender Super Champ tube amps” for the “Round and Round” recording establishes the Marshall Super Lead’s presence alongside the JCM800 in his Out of the Cellar rhythm setup. The Super Lead is the vintage, non-master-volume 100-watt Marshall head — the same Plexi-era design that powered many of the classic British and American rock recordings of the 1970s, here deployed in 1984 for one of that year’s biggest commercial rock hits. Running between the Super Lead and the JCM800 for rhythm tracks gave DeMartini flexibility in tonal character across different sections of the album.
In his later career and modern live rig, DeMartini has incorporated Diezel and Soldano amplifiers alongside his continuing Marshall preferences. Both manufacturers represent the premium end of high-gain boutique amplification — Diezel’s German-engineered, high-headroom character and Soldano’s American high-gain sophistication providing different tonal options from the vintage Marshall platform. The WoodyTone gear rundown mentions both Diezel and Soldano in his documented equipment, consistent with the evolution toward more modern, versatile high-gain amplification that characterizes many 1980s players’ later-career setups.
For live performance, DeMartini used Marshall 4×12 cabinets loaded with 30-watt Celestion speakers — the standard British guitar cabinet specification. The 30-watt Celestion (specifically the G12H-30 or similar variants) has a more aggressive, slightly rougher character than the 25-watt Greenback it replaced and the 65-watt G12T-65 that followed it — a quality described as “grittier” by some players, with a specific quality of harmonic content that suits high-gain hard rock and metal. The combination of Jose-modded Plexi and 30-watt Celestion 4×12 represents the peak of DeMartini’s live tone in the classic Ratt period.
Effects
The most distinctive tonal element in Warren DeMartini’s Ratt-era guitar sound is not a pedal in his signal chain but a production and live sound technique: heavy slapback echo, applied at mixdown or at the soundboard rather than at the amplifier. “One of Warren’s trademarks is the use of heavy slapback echo on his guitar — not just on leads, but on the rhythms as well. You can’t truly nail Ratt’s guitar sound without it,” as the Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis states. The specific slapback setup: delay time set to eighth notes in tempo with the song, one or two repeats. This creates the specific doubling quality that gives both the rhythm guitar tracks and the lead lines their characteristic sound — slightly wider, more present, with the immediate doubling of the original signal that is slapback’s defining property. The fact that this element was added at the board or in the mix rather than from a pedal in his signal chain means that recreating it requires access to the mixing stage, not just the amp settings.
The ProCo RAT distortion pedal appears in the Dinosaur Rock Guitar documentation of DeMartini’s signal chain — used alongside the Jose-modded Plexi for specific applications. The RAT’s hard-clipping, filter-adjustable distortion character provides an additional drive option that the already-modified Plexi’s natural saturation complements rather than replaces. Used at specific gain and filter settings, the RAT and the Jose Plexi together produce a more compressed, more defined distortion character than either alone.
The Guitar World 2010 tour rig documentation notes that DeMartini “sometimes uses a modified Boss SD-1 overdrive pedal live” — but “prefers not to use either” the SD-1 or the delay. This preference for minimal processing is characteristic of his fundamental approach: the guitar through the amp, with effects used as specific exceptions rather than permanent components of the signal chain. The modified SD-1’s warm, mid-boosting overdrive character serves as a boost for specific passages when the amp’s own gain is insufficient.
The MXR Carbon Copy analog delay also appears in the 2010 tour documentation — the compact, high-quality analog delay that has become one of the most widely used guitar delay pedals in professional contexts. The Carbon Copy’s warm, slightly degrading analog delay character provides the slapback echo effect in a live context where the mixing board approach of the recording era isn’t available. Again, DeMartini “prefers not to use” this pedal, confirming his fundamental minimal-processing philosophy.
All of DeMartini’s primary playing guitars feature Floyd Rose Original double-locking tremolo systems — the standard equipment for the Van Halen-influenced superstrat style of the 1980s LA guitar scene. The Floyd Rose’s locking mechanism at both nut and bridge saddle ensures complete tuning stability regardless of tremolo usage or playing intensity. DeMartini’s FU-Tone connection (the hardware upgrade company) suggests an interest in the specific performance improvements that FU-Tone’s titanium saddles and stainless steel springs provide to the Floyd Rose system — improved sustain, faster return to pitch, reduced string breakage.
The WoodyTone gear rundown lists Rotosound as one of DeMartini’s documented string endorsements alongside the Celestion speakers and other equipment. String gauge specifics are not comprehensively documented in available sources, but the general approach of a guitarist playing Floyd-Rose-equipped superstrats tuned to Eb (dropped D in some songs) suggests medium gauges appropriate for the drop tuning without excessive looseness or loss of tonal definition.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Warren DeMartini plays with the specific combination of Van Halen-inspired technical approach and genuine blues-rock feeling that characterized the best first-wave VH-influenced LA guitarists. His picking technique — identified by the Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis as showing the George Lynch influence — is precise and aggressive, producing a clearly defined attack on each note rather than the legato-heavy approach of some of his contemporaries. His vibrato — showing the Michael Schenker influence — is wide, slow, and expressively controlled, with the characteristic quality of commitment in each sustained note that Schenker’s best vibrato demonstrates.
The specific quality that makes DeMartini stand out from the crowded field of 1980s LA guitar players is the musicality behind the technique: his solos tell small musical stories rather than simply demonstrating what his hands can do. The “Round and Round” double lead solo, improvised on the spot, has a beginning, middle, and end; each phrase resolves; the two voices interact in ways that are compositionally considered even though they were created spontaneously. This is the mark of a player who has internalized the blues-rock tradition deeply enough to produce coherent musical structures without planning them.
His rhythm playing is consistently underrated relative to the lead work that commands more attention. The Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis notes: “DeMartini has always been a strong rhythm guitarist. Warren and co-guitarist Robin Crosby were very good at coming up with complementary rhythm guitar parts.” The dynamic between DeMartini’s lead voice and Crosby’s rhythm foundation — sometimes doubled, sometimes complementary, sometimes combined — represents a more sophisticated two-guitar arrangement than the simple “one lead, one rhythm” division that characterizes less musically developed glam metal bands.
The “less processed than his contemporaries” assessment in the Dinosaur Rock Guitar tonal analysis — “less processed than George Lynch’s and Ozzy-era Jake E. Lee’s tone, warmer than Viv Campbell’s tone, but not nearly as warm or middy as any of the guys who were using Gibsons at the time” — positions DeMartini’s tone accurately in the spectrum of 1980s LA superstrat guitar. He’s in the middle of the brightness range, the warmth range, and the processing range — not the most extreme in any of these dimensions, but well-calibrated for the specific musical context of Ratt’s melodic hard rock.
How to Sound Like Warren DeMartini
The classic Ratt tone requires: a Charvel-style superstrat with a hot bridge humbucker (RTM Rattus Tonus Maximus or JB equivalent); a Marshall through 30-watt Celestion speakers (or the Invasion-era Jose-modded Plexi equivalent); and crucially, the slapback echo that is the most immediately recognizable element of the Ratt guitar sound. Set the delay to eighth notes in tempo, one or two repeats, and apply it to both rhythm and lead. Tune to Eb or dropped D for specific songs. Let the pick attack be aggressive and defined — the George Lynch influence. Apply the wide, controlled Schenker-influenced vibrato on sustained lead notes. Improvise the double lead solo on the spot when your co-guitarist doesn’t like their own playing. This last step requires a specific combination of skill and courage that no amount of gear advice can fully replace.
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Marshall JCM800 / Jose Plexi Gain | 7–8 | The Out of the Cellar rhythm tone is JCM800-level gain; the Invasion-era lead tone is the Jose-modified Plexi’s specific character — more gain than a stock Plexi but with the Plexi’s fundamental EL34 warmth intact. Aim for aggressive crunch with note definition preserved. |
| Bass | 5–6 | Moderate bass — the Charvel superstrat’s alder body is naturally bright; the EV-loaded cabs (Out of the Cellar) or 30W Celestion cabs (later) have extended treble response. Controlled bass prevents the bright setup from sounding thin at the bottom. |
| Mid | 6–7 | Moderate midrange — DeMartini’s tone is “less processed and warmer than Viv Campbell’s tone, but not as warm or middy as Gibson players.” The moderate mid setting is the middle ground between the brightness of the superstrat platform and the warmth the music requires. |
| Treble | 7 | Present treble — the Charvel superstrat’s natural brightness needs amp treble support for the specific articulate, pick-defined quality of DeMartini’s rhythm and lead attack. Not the maximum treble of a truly bright setup; present and defined. |
| Presence | 6 | Moderate presence for definition and cut. The slapback echo in the mix adds some natural dimension; the presence control provides physical definition in the direct signal. Moderate — the Ratt tone is not the aggressively cutting tone of some of DeMartini’s heavier contemporaries. |
| Master Volume | 7–8 | Push the master for natural EL34 output stage saturation. The Super Champ approach (for Out of the Cellar leads) provides Class A warmth at lower volumes; the Plexi approach requires the power stage working at significant output levels for the characteristic compressed warmth. |
| Slapback Echo (Critical) | Delay: 8th notes in tempo; Repeats: 1–2; Mix: 25–35% | This is the most important tonal element in the Ratt guitar sound. Set the delay to eighth note timing relative to the song’s tempo. One or two clean repeats. Apply to both rhythm and lead — not just leads. Without this slapback character, the rhythm guitar sounds like any other 1980s superstrat recording. With it, it sounds like Ratt. This is the element most often omitted by players attempting to replicate the sound. |
| Fender Super Champ approach (Lead alternative) | Volume: max; Tone: 6 | For the specific Out of the Cellar lead tone: a small Class A amp (9-15 watts) pushed to full output, connected to an efficient speaker. The Super Champ’s warm, naturally-saturating Class A circuit produces a different quality of overdrive from the JCM800. If you have a small Class A amp, try it for leads — you may surprise yourself. |
Influence & Legacy
Warren DeMartini’s influence on 1980s rock guitar is specific and genuinely significant, even if the commercial context of Ratt’s glam metal scene has sometimes obscured the musical quality of what he was doing. He was, in the specific assessment of the best available critical analysis, “arguably the tastiest of the 80s LA glam metal guitar heroes” — a designation that implies both genuine quality and a more limited commercial reach than that quality might have warranted. The four consecutive platinum Ratt albums demonstrate the commercial dimension; the specific guitar work across those albums demonstrates the musical dimension that the platinum counts don’t fully communicate.
The slapback echo approach — so characteristic of the Ratt sound that it can’t be separated from DeMartini’s contribution to it — influenced a generation of LA scene guitarists who absorbed the Ratt recordings as a primary reference. The specific combination of Van Halen-influenced superstrat approach with the slapback production technique created a tonal signature that was immediately recognizable and widely imitated. The “Rattus Tonus Maximus” pickup name is a small piece of legacy humor that contains within it the full story: the rat’s tone, maximized, named after the band. For the broader LA glam metal guitar tradition, see George Lynch’s parallel Dokken development at #30 — the guitarist DeMartini most resembles in musical ambition if not always in commercial outcome. The Jake E. Lee connection — the friend whose recommendation brought DeMartini to Ratt — is explored at Jake E. Lee’s gear history at #29. And the Jose Arredondo amp modification tradition that powered DeMartini’s peak recording years also appears in the wider context of George Lynch’s modded Marshall approach at #30.
He drove from San Diego to Los Angeles at nineteen with an electric guitar, an amp, and unconnected chord patterns. He improvised the double lead on “Round and Round” essentially on the spot. George Lynch called his Plexi “the finest and loudest Marshall out there.” The lead tone on Out of the Cellar was recorded through a nine-watt practice combo. His signature pickup is called “Rattus Tonus Maximus.” And Milton Berle was in the video. Everything about the Warren DeMartini story is exactly as it should be.
Frequently Asked Questions: Warren DeMartini Guitars & Gear
What guitars did Warren DeMartini use to record “Round and Round”?
DeMartini confirmed in a Guitar Player interview that he used two Charvel guitars — the Charvel Bomber and the Charvel Bloody Skull — for the “Round and Round” and Out of the Cellar recording sessions. Both are custom-painted Charvel superstrats from the San Dimas-era production, featuring Floyd Rose tremolo systems and Seymour Duncan JB (or custom Charvel) humbuckers in the bridge position. The Bomber graphic features an aircraft/bombing-mission visual; the Bloody Skull features the blood-red skull design that gave the guitar its name. The rhythm tracks were recorded through a Marshall Super Lead and JCM800 into Orange cabinets with EV speakers; the lead work — including the improvised double lead that became the song’s most celebrated guitar moment — was recorded through a tiny Fender Super Champ connected to a single speaker in the Orange cabinet.
What was the Fender Super Champ’s role in the Out of the Cellar recording?
All the lead guitar work on Out of the Cellar — including the “Round and Round” double lead solo — was recorded through a Fender Super Champ, a nine-watt Class A combo amplifier that DeMartini used as his practice amp. The engineer connected the Super Champ to a single speaker in an Orange cabinet with EV speakers to provide adequate acoustic volume while preserving the small amp’s specific tone. DeMartini wanted to replicate the feel of his practice rig for the lead tone, and the Super Champ’s Class A circuit produced the warm, naturally-saturating sound he was looking for. The result is that the lead guitar character of Ratt’s breakthrough album — including “Round and Round” — came from a nine-watt practice amp rather than from the large Marshall stack used for rhythm tracks.
What is the Jose-modified Marshall Plexi and when did DeMartini start using it?
The Jose Arredondo-modified Marshall Plexi was the amplifier DeMartini acquired “just after the Out of the Cellar tour and before the Invasion of Your Privacy album” — making the Invasion recording the first time it was used on a Ratt album. Jose Arredondo was a Los Angeles amp technician who modified Marshall Plexis for various LA-scene guitar players, typically increasing gain, improving clarity, and optimizing high-frequency response. The modifications produced a Plexi that combined the vintage Marshall’s fundamental EL34 character with enhanced gain and articulation. George Lynch, who encountered this specific amp, called it “the finest and loudest Marshall out there.” DeMartini used it through Dancing Undercover and into Detonator, with its final documented appearance on “Nobody Rides for Free” from Detonator.
What is the Seymour Duncan RTM “Rattus Tonus Maximus” pickup?
The Seymour Duncan RTM (“Rattus Tonus Maximus”) is Warren DeMartini’s signature bridge humbucker, developed with Seymour Duncan and featured in all the current Charvel Warren DeMartini Dinky signature models. The name combines “Rattus” (referencing Ratt), “Tonus” (tone), and “Maximus” (maximum) — a perfectly constructed pickup name that manages to be simultaneously silly and accurate. The RTM is a custom-voiced humbucker designed to capture the specific tonal character DeMartini developed across the Ratt recordings — the aggressive attack, the midrange presence, and the overall brightness that suits the Charvel superstrat platform and the slapback-echo-heavy Ratt production approach.
Why is slapback echo so important to the Ratt guitar sound?
Slapback echo is the most immediately recognizable element of the Ratt guitar sound, applied to both rhythm and lead guitar rather than just lead lines. Set to eighth note timing relative to the song’s tempo with one or two repeats, the slapback echo doubles the guitar signal at a very short delay — creating a characteristic slightly wider, more immediate sound that is different from both dry guitar and longer reverb or echo effects. The Dinosaur Rock Guitar analysis is explicit: “You can’t truly nail Ratt’s guitar sound without it.” This effect was applied at mixdown or at the soundboard rather than from a pedal in DeMartini’s live or recording signal chain — making it a production decision rather than a hardware choice. For live recreation, the MXR Carbon Copy at appropriate settings provides a practical approximation.
How did Warren DeMartini end up in Ratt?
DeMartini’s path to Ratt ran through Jake E. Lee — his friend from San Diego who was in the band before leaving in late 1982 to join Ozzy Osbourne. Before departing, Lee recommended DeMartini as his replacement. DeMartini was nineteen years old. He drove from San Diego to Los Angeles with an electric guitar, an amp, and a cheap tape deck on which he had recorded rough song ideas: “I had chord patterns and riffs, but I didn’t know how to connect any of the parts.” The connection of those parts took close to a year after joining the band, but eventually produced the “Round and Round” riff and the Out of the Cellar album, launching four consecutive platinum Ratt albums and establishing DeMartini as one of the most celebrated guitarists in 1980s LA hard rock.
What is Warren DeMartini’s Charvel signature guitar range?
Charvel produces four Warren DeMartini Dinky signature models, each based on the specific guitars from his Ratt-era collection: the Snake (with high-quality faux snakeskin finish, the most comprehensive specification including both RTM bridge humbucker and Quarter Pounder neck single-coil, Floyd Rose Original, compound radius fingerboard, single volume control), the Crossed Swords, the Bomber, and the Blood and Skull. The latter three models feature only the RTM bridge humbucker without the neck single-coil. All four models feature Floyd Rose Original tremolo, Gotoh or Schaller tuners, and Charvel NOS brass strap buttons. The custom painted versions by artist Dan Lawrence represent the premium tier; Pro-Mod versions provide more accessible price points. Charvel describes the snakeskin guitar in particular as “two names synonymous with Southern California glam-metal majesty come together in a sleekly fearsome guitar.”