Throughout his time in the Scorpions, Uli Jon Roth was a Stratocaster loyalist. His devotion to the model led to his wildly innovative Sky Guitar, which has come to define every other era of his career since.
But as he reveals, early versions of the guitar proved too hot for many amps to handle.
Over the course of four studio albums with the German rock giants — from 1974's Fly to the Rainbow to 1977's Taken by Force — Roth put his Strat under the scalpel as he looked to get more out of his electric guitar's tone and performance. Early evidence of his tinkering is easily visible on the cover of his second Scorpions album, In Trance, via the extra-long whammy bar protruding from the bridge.
One thing he craved was more neck to aid his lead playing, as he “was always running out of frets at the top end.” Luthier Andy Demetriou added two additional frets to his Strat, which gave Roth what he was looking for. Temporarily, at least.
“That worked beautifully," he tells Guitar World. "I wanted to have the register like a violin, which is completely impossible on a normal guitar. With a Strat, because of the layout of the cutaway, there is a limit to how high you can place frets. You don’t want to jeopardize the position of the first pickup, which is vital.”
It was Demetriou who gave Roth the vision that led to the Sky Guitar.
“He said to me, ‘Look, I can build you any guitar you like.’ It was like a lightbulb moment for me."
Roth imagined the finished piece would have 38 scalloped frets, a teardrop shape that allowed uninhibited access to them all, and an ingenious placement for the bass pickup.
“When I drove home afterward, I kept thinking, Any guitar you like…"
His dream was to build the ultimate active pickup system — "which we called Mega-Wing," he says. "It had four coils, and originally it was able to switch from power humbucking to perfectly clean.”
Not one to turn down a challenge, Demetriou helped Roth turn his mad vision into a decibel-piercing reality. But with such lofty ambitions came teething problems: the longer the neck grew, the more difficult it was to house the Mega-Wing.
“I think it was Andy’s idea to put the pickups under the fretboard,” Roth explains. “I said, ‘How is that possible?’ He said, ‘It’ll be possible because it’s just wood, and it won’t take away from the sound.’
"Sure enough, he built the first one in the spring of 1983. It looked exactly as the Sky guitars do now, but the paint job was different.”
His prayers were answered. This guitar was a different beast.
“With the Sky Guitar, I can drive the amp. If it’s set to three to five, not 10, I can make the amp sing like there’s no tomorrow, straight from the guitar,” he says. “The guitar is like a Formula 1 car.
The original, he said, “had a gain stage of 80dB. You could blow up any amp with that.
"And I did!”
Some amps would put up a fight; others were doomed as soon as he flicked the switch. Each time, he learned the hard way.
“I blew up Vox AC30s, which lasted about half an hour, and Fender Twins lasted an hour,” Roth dictates, like he’s reeling off test results. “I jammed with Steve Morse once, and liked his 5150 amp, so they sent me two. They sounded great for about 10 seconds, then they were fried!”
Still, it was a learning curve for him, albeit a pretty costly one. Once the smell of cremated tube amps dissipated, he was able to reconsider the guitar’s firepower and how much was really necessary.
“I thought, ‘Maybe it’s not a good idea to use that gain stage to the maximum!’” he laughs. “I learned which amps were indestructible – old Marshalls Super Leads and the Blackstar Artist. When I play AC30s I don’t turn the gain up, and I make sure there’s enough headroom.”
“To produce a great guitar tone you need a lot of imagination,” he concludes. “You need to hear it inside yourself and want it. The process takes effort: it’s not easy – you need the right guitar and the right amp.”
As long as it can take the heat.
In related news, Roth's fellow Scorpions alumni, Michael Schenker, has told the story behind "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and the unusual role a gear-chasing Eric Clapton plays in it.
