Guitarist- interesting article

IceCreamMan

In the august edition which i downloaded.

Article around taking 4 amps, 2 boutique, 2 run of the mill amps anddoing a blind test with 4 contributors to the mag,ppl who are knowledgeable about guitars, amps, etc.

One of the main things to come out of it is that whe listening to anotherperson playing it makes differences in amps smaller, less likely to be discerned compared to when playing one self....this makes sense.

Big thing too is the hit rate of correct guesses and that 3 of the 4 selected a non boutique amp as their favourite.

The test was not scietiific so one could poke holes in it but interesting nonetheless....

Keira-WitherKay

Funny you mention that but in last 2 weeks theres been a thread running very similar where someone posted recordings of real blackface fender clean amp and a few others from cheap to boutique and asked forum to work out which was which ...the goal was fender clean blackface tone .... And yes it was a jazz forum so no drive tones but a roland 80w cube XL fared very well ....

So yes if tweaked right some pretty budget gear can work well ....

bottledtone

What were the amps?

And I never really care about what 'others hear', since its the feel of the amp in response to your touch which is more important.
(Artist must feel free to express through equipment)
Something I asked on another world forum, "why buy boutique" and the number one thing was "support of a small passionate builder" followed by "build quality".... This I find interesting....

MikeM

bottledtone wrote:Something I asked on another world forum, "why buy boutique" and the number one thing was "support of a small passionate builder" followed by "build quality".... This I find interesting....

Strange.. I go boutique/custom to get exactly what I want...

IceCreamMan

The non boutique were a line 6 dt25 and a fender hot rod deluxe as i recall...could be mistaken the boutiques were a morgan ac20 and 3 monkeys....the fender cameout tops by the way....i guess the fender is a pretty high end amp anyway..

bottledtone

Mike wrote:
bottledtone wrote:Something I asked on another world forum, "why buy boutique" and the number one thing was "support of a small passionate builder" followed by "build quality".... This I find interesting....
Strange.. I go boutique/custom to get exactly what I want...

Yeah, that why I say interesting... It was "getting a more reiable Vintage remake" (which makes out that all boutique amps are clones or something) and "getting exactly what I want" around 3rd and 4th.
But build quality and components were the major issue all and all.

Tone is tone, so when someone feels they have theirs, its not really place for others to say theirs is better. There is a reason why so many amps exist, so that we all don't sound like clones of each other. And luckily there are even more options beyond tone to choose as well. That's why boutique works. To discuss the options with the guy that puts it together.