The QSC 35 amplifiers made for the professional sound company Sound Image in the 1990s went to 11, as do amps from Soldano and Friedman. Marshall, the company that provided amplifiers for the film that the custom-marked knobs were applied to, now sells amplifiers such as its JCM900 (first sold in 1990) whose knobs are marked from 0 to 20. The Red Bull Racing team in Formula 1 refers its drivers over the radio to "Mode 11", which is an engine mode that unlocks the full power of the engine, encouraging the driver to challenge the cars ahead.Īs a consequence of the film, real bands and musicians started buying equipment whose knobs went up to 11, or even higher, with Eddie Van Halen reputedly being the first to do so. From time to time teams will use special phrases or keywords to describe the modes. Formula 1 Īll teams in racing have various modes and settings that they switch to depending on the necessary strategy of the race. Controls included a "Decade Switch" that went up to 11. Gibson Les Paul guitars with low- impedance pickups were outfitted with special controls designed by Les Paul himself. During a trial run with a reporter from Popular Mechanics aboard, a C&O engineer expressed his dissatisfaction with a local speed limit of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h), noting that he would "Sure like to be able to pull it back to eleven!" : 110, 252 The locomotive's cruising speed was 70 miles per hour (113 km/h), at which point the throttle was on "seven". The locomotive's throttle included eleven settings, ranging from one (idling) to eleven (full speed). In 1947, the Baldwin Locomotive Works and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway introduced the Chesapeake and Ohio class M-1 steam turbine locomotive. The use of "11" as a maximum pre-dates This Is Spinal Tap by almost forty years. Believing that this numbering increases the highest volume of the amp, he explains, "It's one louder, isn't it?" When Marty asks why not simply make the 10 setting louder, Nigel hesitates before responding blankly again, " These go to eleven." Other instances Prior examples Ĭ&O's No. 500 first went "up to 11" in 1947. While Nigel is showing Marty his Marshall guitar amplifiers, he points out a selection whose control knobs all have a highest setting of eleven, unlike standard amplifiers whose volume settings are typically numbered from 0 to 10. In this scene, Nigel gives the rockumentary's director, Marty DiBergi, played by Rob Reiner, a tour of his stage equipment. The phrase was coined in a scene from the 1984 mockumentary/ rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap by the character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest.