‘Go to eleven’: How the ‘Spinal Tap’ phrase lived on after the movie

Rob Reiner had a secret weapon on the set of “This Is Spinal Tap.”

The dialogue in the mockumentary centred around a fictional British heavy metal band was almost entirely improvised. But before they started rolling, director Reiner (who also played documentarian Marty Di Bergi in the film) talked to the art department about funny props that they could work into the outlines they had for each scene.

Over the next 40 years, one of those props became a symbol of rock hedonism and pure volume: the guitar amp that goes to eleven. “It’s just this crazy idea that we had of a band that’s so loud that they even want it to go past 10,” Reiner said in an interview with The Washington Post .

At the time, Reiner didn’t know the phrase “go to eleven” would eventually appear in amplifier ads, in ca