I know, as I guess any Zep fan does, that Page used a Tele on Zep 1 with a small overdriven amp. When he started using Les Pauls, I think he overdrove them by using the Echoplex preamp into the amps- Marshalls? Live -very loud.
Reproducing that at home- OK.
Source?
What I hear on the various pressings is differences in emphasis- the Classics, particularly the 45s (I only have Zep 1 and IV on Classic 45) have detail galore, but are a tad bright to my taste- very much a modern sound. The UK of III is pretty yummy, as is the UK of II (both early plums, my III is a Peter Grant credit so it is a very early one, my LZII not a first UK, probably a second). Everybody likes the US RL of II which does kick ass, but the plum of II is underrated. For 1, which I probably have the most copies of-- though I don’t have a Turquoise first, I have an early one with essentially the same lacquer info--it is bested by both the ’74 US Piros remaster and a Japanese third pressing, which is pretty impressive. The Piros is very ’of a piece’- cohesive, in the sense that it all fits together- it doesn’t have the bass power or punch of Zep II, but overall, it and the Japanese pressing are currently my preferred copies- nothing seems over emphasized. I don’t really want to shell out the bucks for a Turquoise LZ 1, but if anybody has directly compared one to some of the other Zep 1 pressings, I’d be interested in their impressions.
It’s too bad the Zep catalog wasn’t better recorded.