Eleven
(11): Nigels key to keeping Tap among Englands
loudest bands. In "This is Spinal Tap," he pointed out
to director Marty DiBergi that the settings on Taps Marshall
amps could extend beyond the standard 10 mark. Nigel: "You
see, most blokes will be playing at 10. Youre on 10, all
the way up, all the way up...Where can you go from there? Nowhere.
What we do, is if we need that extra push over the cliff...Eleven.
One louder." DiBergi: "Why dont you just make
10 louder and make 10 be the top number, and make that a little
louder?" Nigel (after taking a moment to let this sink in):
"These go to 11." In 1990, Marshall released its JCM900
amp, with the knobs going to 20 (GW2), although Nigel says the
company later gave him a special model that goes to infinity (complete
with the infinity symbolan eight on its sideand a
dial that keeps spinning around as if it were broken). (EW) The
company also makes faceplates for all of its amp models that go
to 11. In a 1984 interview, Nigel revealed that his Gibson guitar
pickups were modified to go to 11, as wellmeaning that with
both his amp and guitar turned all the way up, he could hit 22.
(GP) A T-shirt that reads "Goes to 11" is now a collectors
item because it sold so poorly immediately after DiBergis
film was released. Finally, a posting to the Internet group alt.fan.spinal-tap
by Ray Abbitt shed some light on the history of powered amps:
"Early Fender Champs (a small, low-powered amp, probably
intended for practice) had no controls except for a volume control
that went to 11. And from about 5 on up, they didnt get
any louderjust more distorted. A number of artists use them
for recording and some (including Neil Young) use them for live
performances. Most of us who are lucky enough to own one (mine
was built in 1953 or 1954) turn them up to 11 cause they sound
so damn good." Nigel's now famous phrase have even been recognized
by the Oxford English Dictionary.