5150's?
Mesa's? (especially the Triple Rectifier!!!)
Crate?
Peavey?
Alesis eq's?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
POD's!!!???
myohmyohmyohmyohmy.........
Slack, will you kindly get out of my head and quit posting for me damnit!!!
I am just not sure how to reply to Peavey, Crate, Mesa Triple Rectifier, and POD users. The only things I could possibly answer to them would suggest that they are deaf and wouldn't know a good guitar tone if it slapped them in the face.
Time and time again, a Marshall or Fender amp is the amp that makes people explode in their pants! For fun sometime, try out a stock JMC 60. If a bit thinner sound is desired with that jangly top end, try a Fender Classic Reverb with the stock 4X10's. Want thick beyond compare? An early 70's JCM 800 with two 1960 cabs with everything at 10!!!
I have found from mixing some of the worst musicians in the world that they want over saturation in volume and preamp because they cannot pull off their right hand chops with a sound that has "tone". They scoop out mids, increase preamp gain, process, blah blah blah to make up for one thing, the fact that they don't have any control with their right hand. Thus, the megawatt, over saturated amps become the norm. These types of player CANNOT deal with a sound that has "tone" because it screws up their picking. This is fact that I can prove over and over and over again. The need for 100+ watts is so that when the player scoopes out all the mids, so that the articulation of the guitar sound is lost and buried in mush, they need all that power to get up over drummers who play way too loud with very poorly tuned drums, and bass player who have 300 watt heads that they drive to clipping all the time because they TOO don't have any control over their right hand.
This is all nothing new. I played in my first band in 1982 and all the same bad tone, lack of control in technique was as evident then as it is now. Guys who use this crap approach are the ones that are always bitching about something not being right with everything OTHER than their approach.
I get to mix the occasion big time artist in many genre's of music. Without fail, Marshall and Fender is what they are playing through. Without fail, they don't use scooped out mids and too much saturation in the preamp. They have CONTROL in their playing, and realize that the guitar is a MIDRANGE instrument. The MIDRANGE and cleaner preamp is ESSENTIAL to mixing the guitar in a rock sound! Metal, thrash, whatever, it is a GUITAR. Over saturate the preamp, you get mush. Scoop the mids, you get mush with no volume.
You guys that like the scooped out mids, over saturated preamp sound, try moving about 40 feet away from your amp while playing. Now plug in a JCM 800 with possibly a pedal distortion at a moderate setting of distortion and listen from the same spot.
Also, try all this same stuff with your ear right at the speaker!!! HEAR what a microphone is hearing!!!
One perspective is what people hear, including those soundmen that don't know what they are doing......
The other perspective is what the mic is hearing.
Neither will sound worth a shit with shit gear. Both will sound great with good gear.
Without fail, almost any time you see a "named" guitar player playing some "off the shelf" model of anything, it has been modified! You don't have to believe this, but I KNOW this because I get to ask them! Mostly, if you can get them to be candid, they had their amp modified to sound like a Marshall or Fender! But an endorsement is an endorsement. The money involved is nice and the press helps sell CD's.
Slack, thank you for speaking so candidly, and with humor.
Ed