Finding my tone.

[gush]

I bought a 5150 half stack new back in 1994 as a reward for not smoking for one full year, I'm still a non smoker.

I played that amp for a really long time but let it go probably three years ago or so. I'd always played with higher gain so that amp worked for me.

I started working with a band recording tracks just before getting rid of that 5150. After really listening to the first song I did tracks for, I realized I needed a tonal upgrade and that's been a really deep rabbit hole.

I've listened to a ton of videos from players and amp builders. People like Grissom can just pull some incredible tones out of their amps and it just drives that desire for better tone even more.

I just listened to another video of the prs HDRX 20 head and that thing sounds so good and it's incredibly affordable.

The two amps I'm using the most right now are jcm800 studio head and mesa stiletto. Both great amps but I'm not 100% happy. The jcm800 is just to harsh and brittle, the Stiletto sounds good but I don't lust for it.

I love the marshall super lead tone but that is an expensive endeavor.

HOWEVER....I had a super lead with both cabs back in the 80s and I think I have an opportunity to buy them back. 100 watt head and two basket weave cabs. I WANT that rig back just not sure how soon it will be available. I'm confident I have first dibs but how long is the question.

I'm giving serious consideration to the HDRX 20 for now and would probably move the mesa and jcm800.

I have put together several 4x12 cabs for more tonal possibilities but would probably get rid of most of them depending on how the prs head responds to each of them.

I have owned a couple of prs heads but didn't quite bond with them but I did play the HDRX 20 last year at a dealer. Great little amp and I really wanted to pull the trigger but I decided to wait till these were out in the field for a while to see how they hold up.

 

[László]

I bought a 5150 half stack new back in 1994 as a reward for not smoking for one full year, I'm still a non smoker.

I played that amp for a really long time but let it go probably three years ago or so. I'd always played with higher gain so that amp worked for me.

I started working with a band recording tracks just before getting rid of that 5150. After really listening to the first song I did tracks for, I realized I needed a tonal upgrade and that's been a really deep rabbit hole.

I've listened to a ton of videos from players and amp builders. People like Grissom can just pull some incredible tones out of their amps and it just drives that desire for better tone even more.

I just listened to another video of the prs HDRX 20 head and that thing sounds so good and it's incredibly affordable.

The two amps I'm using the most right now are jcm800 studio head and mesa stiletto. Both great amps but I'm not 100% happy. The jcm800 is just to harsh and brittle, the Stiletto sounds good but I don't lust for it.

I love the marshall super lead tone but that is an expensive endeavor.

HOWEVER....I had a super lead with both cabs back in the 80s and I think I have an opportunity to buy them back. 100 watt head and two basket weave cabs. I WANT that rig back just not sure how soon it will be available. I'm confident I have first dibs but how long is the question.

I'm giving serious consideration to the HDRX 20 for now and would probably move the mesa and jcm800.

I have put together several 4x12 cabs for more tonal possibilities but would probably get rid of most of them depending on how the prs head responds to each of them.

I have owned a couple of prs heads but didn't quite bond with them but I did play the HDRX 20 last year at a dealer. Great little amp and I really wanted to pull the trigger but I decided to wait till these were out in the field for a while to see how they hold up.

I found that putting NOS tubes in my Mesa amps made them go from 'I'm not sure' to very satisfying amps. The PRS amps are my faves, but it's nice to have other choices. I also have NOS in the PRS amps, but those were more lovely-sounding in the first place.

Anyway, I'd try NOS in the amps I have before moving them. You can always keep the tubes for a different amp if you decide it didn't work.

 

[gush]

I found that putting NOS tubes in my Mesa amps made them go from 'I'm not sure' to very satisfying amps. The PRS amps are my faves, but it's nice to have other choices. I also have NOS in the PRS amps, but those were more lovely-sounding in the first place.

Anyway, I'd try NOS in the amps I have before moving them. You can always keep the tubes for a different amp if you decide it didn't work.

Good Idea . I can try that in my jcm first and see if I like the results.

 

[JasonE]

I found that putting NOS tubes in my Mesa amps made them go from 'I'm not sure' to very satisfying amps. The PRS amps are my faves, but it's nice to have other choices. I also have NOS in the PRS amps, but those were more lovely-sounding in the first place.

Anyway, I'd try NOS in the amps I have before moving them. You can always keep the tubes for a different amp if you decide it didn't work.

I have a Mesa Roadster with the 2x12 cabinet that was designed for it with V30's in it. I pulled the 6.6 Mesa tubes and put Groove Tubes EL34s in it and ran it that way for a good while. I liked the sound of the amp better. The amp has so much gain on tap that the EL34s cleaned that up a bit and tightened up the bottom end on it. I ran it that way for several years until one night at a gig I walked off stage to see how things were sounding during a song an got out in front of my amp and absolutely hated what I heard. It had such a fizzy grind to the top end that I couldn't stand. That was the last gig I took that amp to. I switched to a different amp and that sent me down the road of trying several amps until I found one I liked and I stuck with that for the next 8 years.

 

[László]

I have a Mesa Roadster with the 2x12 cabinet that was designed for it with V30's in it. I pulled the 6.6 Mesa tubes and put Groove Tubes EL34s in it and ran it that way for a good while. I liked the sound of the amp better. The amp has so much gain on tap that the EL34s cleaned that up a bit and tightened up the bottom end on it. I ran it that way for several years until one night at a gig I walked off stage to see how things were sounding during a song an got out in front of my amp and absolutely hated what I heard. It had such a fizzy grind to the top end that I couldn't stand. That was the last gig I took that amp to. I switched to a different amp and that sent me down the road of trying several amps until I found one I liked and I stuck with that for the next 8 years.

That happens so often, even in the studio, with any amp! We think we have a great tone dialed in, and live, then we hear it in front, or hear it on the studio monitors and wonder what the heck we were thinking.

I believe that the main culprits are:

1. When we're dialing in an amp, we're standing close to it, and the speakers are mostly being heard with our legs. We're not doing it within the area where the speakers actually project.

High frequencies are extremely directional due to their short wavelengths, and you have to be at ear level to the cone to actually hear it if you're in the near field, close. Obviously that's a problem.

So the mic picks up things you're not hearing, or you get within the cone yourself as you're farther back from the amp, and you can't stand it.

In live use, I'm not sure there's a fix for this, other than trial and error. It's obviously not safe to dial in an amp with your ears at speaker level. In the studio, I just put on headphones and hear what the mic is picking up; if I don't like it I dial the amp and/or move the mic around with the headphones on and hear how the sound changes.

Nonetheless, GT tubes aren't NOS; and in general I'm not a fan. And Mesas are very preamp-oriented amps. One problem with them is that preamp tubes tend to fizz and muddy up as the gain goes up. Some are much worse than others. Unfortunately, the Chinese tubes that Mesa tends to fit in amps are the worst culprits, in my experience. They tend to be all fizz and ringing. Just my two cents.

2. Speakers and cabs are crucial. I have an amp switcher, and can flip a switch to instantaneously hear how different amps sound at the same setting plugged into different cabs and speakers. As an example, the V30s in my PRS Big Mouth 2x12 Cab, are WAY different with the same amp, in my pine 2x12 ported DG30 cab with V30s. It's surprising. Then, too, an amp maker's taste in speakers and cabs may or may not be mine. The Fillmore sounds way better to me with the 212 made for the Cali Tweed than the 212 made for the Fillmore. The only difference is that the Cali Tweed cab comes with the Jensen Blackbirds.

I found that I hated the sound of my DG30 into the Cali Tweed cab, and love it into the two PRS cabs. The Blackbird speakers were absolutely wrong for the amp, and probably the cab was, too. Not knowing any better, I might have said I didn't like the DG30 amp. But with the right cab it's heavenly. Go figure!

3. The influence of the room on the instrument, whether electrified or acoustic, is huge. A significant part of what we hear in a room is the room reflections, creating comb filtering, standing waves, phase cancellations in the low end, and on and on.

Then there's the boundary effect: Put a cab on the floor, it's going to sound different than on a stand due to physics; put it in a corner, and it's even more different; put it in a corner against a wall, and it's different all over again.

We tend to figure out how to dial in our cabs at home, then get to the gig, and it sounds different. Of course, this is why the pros tour with their own mix people and do sound checks - every venue sounds different, guaranteed.

None of this means that you should love an amp you don't like, or that switching to a different amp isn't a great idea. Audiio's all one big electronics and acoustics experiment. We just have to be aware of the various parameters that affect what we're hearing.

 

[Gtrbldr]

I am very in leage with Les here. And tubes in a mesa make a BIG difference. Had a stiletto as well and put in philips blackburn NOS tubes and that made significant musical difference, less piercing highs, smpother gain Also: try it without the fx loop in the signal chain. Helps a lot as well.

For kicks: try an RFT preamp tube in V1. Little dirtier and lacks a lot of top end compared to the mesa tubes.

 

[JasonE]

That happens so often, even in the studio, with any amp! We think we have a great tone dialed in, and live, then we hear it in front, or hear it on the studio monitors and wonder what the heck we were thinking.

I believe that the main culprits are:

1. When we're dialing in an amp, we're standing close to it, and the speakers are mostly being heard with our legs. We're not doing it within the area where the speakers actually project.

High frequencies are extremely directional due to their short wavelengths, and you have to be at ear level to the cone to actually hear it if you're in the near field, close. Obviously that's a problem.

So the mic picks up things you're not hearing, or you get within the cone yourself as you're farther back from the amp, and you can't stand it.

In live use, I'm not sure there's a fix for this, other than trial and error. It's obviously not safe to dial in an amp with your ears at speaker level. In the studio, I just put on headphones and hear what the mic is picking up; if I don't like it I dial the amp and/or move the mic around with the headphones on and hear how the sound changes.

Nonetheless, GT tubes aren't NOS; and in general I'm not a fan. And Mesas are very preamp-oriented amps. One problem with them is that preamp tubes tend to fizz and muddy up as the gain goes up. Some are much worse than others. Unfortunately, the Chinese tubes that Mesa tends to fit in amps are the worst culprits, in my experience. They tend to be all fizz and ringing. Just my two cents.

2. Speakers and cabs are crucial. I have an amp switcher, and can flip a switch to instantaneously hear how different amps sound at the same setting plugged into different cabs and speakers. As an example, the V30s in my PRS Big Mouth 2x12 Cab, are WAY different with the same amp, in my pine 2x12 ported DG30 cab with V30s. It's surprising. Then, too, an amp maker's taste in speakers and cabs may or may not be mine. The Fillmore sounds way better to me with the 212 made for the Cali Tweed than the 212 made for the Fillmore. The only difference is that the Cali Tweed cab comes with the Jensen Blackbirds.

I found that I hated the sound of my DG30 into the Cali Tweed cab, and love it into the two PRS cabs. The Blackbird speakers were absolutely wrong for the amp, and probably the cab was, too. Not knowing any better, I might have said I didn't like the DG30 amp. But with the right cab it's heavenly. Go figure!

3. The influence of the room on the instrument, whether electrified or acoustic, is huge. A significant part of what we hear in a room is the room reflections, creating comb filtering, standing waves, phase cancellations in the low end, and on and on.

Then there's the boundary effect: Put a cab on the floor, it's going to sound different than on a stand due to physics; put it in a corner, and it's even more different; put it in a corner against a wall, and it's different all over again.

We tend to figure out how to dial in our cabs at home, then get to the gig, and it sounds different. Of course, this is why the pros tour with their own mix people and do sound checks - every venue sounds different, guaranteed.

None of this means that you should love an amp you don't like, or that switching to a different amp isn't a great idea. Audiio's all one big electronics and acoustics experiment. We just have to be aware of the various parameters that affect what we're hearing.

Cabinets and speakers make a huge difference. I ended up with an amp that is a hand built Vibrolux with mods. I put tilt back legs on it so it points upwards behind me. That fixed a ton of issues. It also has 10" speakers in it which have a different mid range response and a bit faster punch. I was able to dial in a sound I really liked and didn't have to tweak it a ton for the different rooms I have played in.

I have thought about selling the Roadster many times. I has basically been setting unused for about 8 years now. I put the original tubes back in it and was ready to let it go. I even listed it in a few places. The issue I had is everyone wanted the cabinet but nobody seemed to want the head. I was not going to split them up because this cab is built for this head and fits it well. I didn't want to sell the cabinet then get stuck with the head without the matching cabinet. I just decided that the only way I would split it is to sell the head by itself then make the decision on the cabinet. Nobody bit so I still have it.

 

[JasonE]

I am very in leage with Les here. And tubes in a mesa make a BIG difference. Had a stiletto as well and put in philips blackburn NOS tubes and that made significant musical difference, less piercing highs, smpother gain Also: try it without the fx loop in the signal chain. Helps a lot as well.

For kicks: try an RFT preamp tube in V1. Little dirtier and lacks a lot of top end compared to the mesa tubes.

I didn't try swapping out any of the preamp tubes. The Mesa I have is a 4 channel head. It honestly has more power than I will ever need again, although I can cut it to 50 watts on each channel.

 

[László]

For kicks: try an RFT preamp tube in V1. Little dirtier and lacks a lot of top end compared to the mesa tubes.

Yes! Also, I like the RFT in the phase inverter position. I think it smooths things out a little, and of course I have no idea why - but it's something I've noticed.

 

[László]

Cabinets and speakers make a huge difference. I ended up with an amp that is a hand built Vibrolux with mods. I put tilt back legs on it so it points upwards behind me. That fixed a ton of issues. It also has 10" speakers in it which have a different mid range response and a bit faster punch. I was able to dial in a sound I really liked and didn't have to tweak it a ton for the different rooms I have played in.

I have thought about selling the Roadster many times. I has basically been setting unused for about 8 years now. I put the original tubes back in it and was ready to let it go. I even listed it in a few places. The issue I had is everyone wanted the cabinet but nobody seemed to want the head. I was not going to split them up because this cab is built for this head and fits it well. I didn't want to sell the cabinet then get stuck with the head without the matching cabinet. I just decided that the only way I would split it is to sell the head by itself then make the decision on the cabinet. Nobody bit so I still have it.

The Vibroluxes can sound truly great; my son cut an entire album with one '63 Vibrolux that sounds amazing (at least, to me).

I actually like the sound of the Roadster head; it's very similar in some of its modes to the Trem-O-Verb I had for many years, which was a long-term #1 in my studio. It took an expensive Two-Rock stocked with NOS to put it in the #2 position, and at the time it was #1, I had at least a half dozen other amps to choose from.

I'd hang onto it. There may come a time that you return to it for certain things.

 

[JasonE]

The Vibroluxes can sound truly great; my son cut an entire album with one '63 Vibrolux that sound amazing (at least, to me).

I actually like the sound of the Roadster head; it's very similar in some of its modes to the Trem-O-Verb I had for many years, which was a long-term #1 in my studio. It took an expensive Two-Rock stocked with NOS to put it in the #2 position, and at the time it was #1, I had at least a half dozen other amps to choose from.

I'd hang onto it. There may come a time that you return to it for certain things.

My amp is actually a Marsh The Springfield and mine has the Overlord Mod (dumble circuit mod) in it. It is a little higher wattage than the Vibrolux. Mine has the Ragin Cajun speakers in it. The first time I heard the clean sound of the amp, I wanted it. It has this great creamy tone that is usable for so many things, especially with a small tweak to the tone knobs. Min has extra adjustability to it with some push pull pots on it. It really is a great amp.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the guy that builds them, Mike Marsh, lives within a 30 minute drive of where I live and a shop that is only a couple of miles from me sells his amps. If I ever needed any work done on it I could easily get the guy that built it to work on it.

 

[László]

My amp is actually a Marsh The Springfield and mine has the Overlord Mod (dumble circuit mod) in it. It is a little higher wattage than the Vibrolux. Mine has the Ragin Cajun speakers in it. The first time I heard the clean sound of the amp, I wanted it. It has this great creamy tone that is usable for so many things, especially with a small tweak to the tone knobs. Min has extra adjustability to it with some push pull pots on it. It really is a great amp.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the guy that builds them, Mike Marsh, lives within a 30 minute drive of where I live and a shop that is only a couple of miles from me sells his amps. If I ever needed any work done on it I could easily get the guy that built it to work on it.

Awesome!

 

[gush]

That happens so often, even in the studio, with any amp! We think we have a great tone dialed in, and live, then we hear it in front, or hear it on the studio monitors and wonder what the heck we were thinking.

I believe that the main culprits are:

1. When we're dialing in an amp, we're standing close to it, and the speakers are mostly being heard with our legs. We're not doing it within the area where the speakers actually project.

High frequencies are extremely directional due to their short wavelengths, and you have to be at ear level to the cone to actually hear it if you're in the near field, close. Obviously that's a problem.

So the mic picks up things you're not hearing, or you get within the cone yourself as you're farther back from the amp, and you can't stand it.

In live use, I'm not sure there's a fix for this, other than trial and error. It's obviously not safe to dial in an amp with your ears at speaker level. In the studio, I just put on headphones and hear what the mic is picking up; if I don't like it I dial the amp and/or move the mic around with the headphones on and hear how the sound changes.

Nonetheless, GT tubes aren't NOS; and in general I'm not a fan. And Mesas are very preamp-oriented amps. One problem with them is that preamp tubes tend to fizz and muddy up as the gain goes up. Some are much worse than others. Unfortunately, the Chinese tubes that Mesa tends to fit in amps are the worst culprits, in my experience. They tend to be all fizz and ringing. Just my two cents.

2. Speakers and cabs are crucial. I have an amp switcher, and can flip a switch to instantaneously hear how different amps sound at the same setting plugged into different cabs and speakers. As an example, the V30s in my PRS Big Mouth 2x12 Cab, are WAY different with the same amp, in my pine 2x12 ported DG30 cab with V30s. It's surprising. Then, too, an amp maker's taste in speakers and cabs may or may not be mine. The Fillmore sounds way better to me with the 212 made for the Cali Tweed than the 212 made for the Fillmore. The only difference is that the Cali Tweed cab comes with the Jensen Blackbirds.

I found that I hated the sound of my DG30 into the Cali Tweed cab, and love it into the two PRS cabs. The Blackbird speakers were absolutely wrong for the amp, and probably the cab was, too. Not knowing any better, I might have said I didn't like the DG30 amp. But with the right cab it's heavenly. Go figure!

3. The influence of the room on the instrument, whether electrified or acoustic, is huge. A significant part of what we hear in a room is the room reflections, creating comb filtering, standing waves, phase cancellations in the low end, and on and on.

Then there's the boundary effect: Put a cab on the floor, it's going to sound different than on a stand due to physics; put it in a corner, and it's even more different; put it in a corner against a wall, and it's different all over again.

We tend to figure out how to dial in our cabs at home, then get to the gig, and it sounds different. Of course, this is why the pros tour with their own mix people and do sound checks - every venue sounds different, guaranteed.

None of this means that you should love an amp you don't like, or that switching to a different amp isn't a great idea. Audiio's all one big electronics and acoustics experiment. We just have to be aware of the various parameters that affect what we're hearing.

I have several cabs to play with but I have a patch bay for ALL of my amp outputs so I can sit in my chair and switch amps and cabs without getting up.

I built a steel shelf thats bolted to my wall. All of my amp heads sit on their own shelf. Switching amps is as simple as pulling a cable out of one and putting it in another.....from my chair.


My old 5150 had a fizz on top that doesn't get noticed unless I'm at ear level or recorded.......that's why it's gone.

Out of all the cabs I have, 1960a G12T-75s, mesa convertible 4x12 and a 2x12 w/ 65watt creambacks sound the best.

I did spend some time recording with my spark amp over the weekend. Kind of an impressive little amp.

 

[Lewguitar]

Robben Ford talks about just that in this interview. About how sometimes in the studio his Dumble just doesn't deliver the tone that's appropriate and he has to buy an amp or rent something like a blackface Vibrolux-Reverb or something smaller.

He starts talking about recording and amp selection and "getting your sound" at about the 20:00 mark.

 

[László]

I have several cabs to play with but I have a patch bay for ALL of my amp outputs so I can sit in my chair and switch amps and cabs without getting up.

I built a steel shelf thats bolted to my wall. All of my amp heads sit on their own shelf. Switching amps is as simple as pulling a cable out of one and putting it in another.....from my chair.


My old 5150 had a fizz on top that doesn't get noticed unless I'm at ear level or recorded.......that's why it's gone.

Out of all the cabs I have, 1960a G12T-75s, mesa convertible 4x12 and a 2x12 w/ 65watt creambacks sound the best.

I did spend some time recording with my spark amp over the weekend. Kind of an impressive little amp.

I assume that for safety's sake you switch the amps into standby to do this; otherwise there's risk of blowing a transformer or injury.

At least, this is what my electrical engineer/studio tech told me years ago when I asked him to build me a patchbay like that, and he refused on the grounds of safety.

Switching signal to the amp input is obviously not a problem, it's the output that causes potential problems due to the power coming through the cable, and also the lack of a resistive load can blow a transformer.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I assume that for safety's sake you switch the amps into standby to do this; otherwise there's risk of blowing a transformer or injury.

At least, this is what my electrical engineer/studio tech told me years ago when I asked him to build me a patchbay like that, and he refused on the grounds of safety.

Switching signal to the amp input is obviously not a problem, it's the output that causes potential problems due to the power coming through the cable, and also the lack of a resistive load can blow a transformer.

I think is to what Les is referring -

 

[Longneck Tenon]

The Vibroluxes can sound truly great; my son cut an entire album with one '63 Vibrolux that sound amazing (at least, to me).

I actually like the sound of the Roadster head; it's very similar in some of its modes to the Trem-O-Verb I had for many years, which was a long-term #1 in my studio. It took an expensive Two-Rock stocked with NOS to put it in the #2 position, and at the time it was #1, I had at least a half dozen other amps to choose from.

I'd hang onto it. There may come a time that you return to it for certain things.

I have two Vibrolux Reverbs, although one is on loan to my son. Last year I bought a Supro Keeley Custom 12 that I run with the VR in a wet/dry rig. They complement each other perfectly.

 

[László]

Robben Ford talks about just that in this interview. About how sometimes in the studio his Dumble just doesn't deliver the tone that's appropriate and he has to buy an amp or rent something like a blackface Vibrolux-Reverb or something smaller.

He starts talking about recording and amp selection and "getting your sound" at about the 20:00 mark.

Here's what I loved and related to - wasn't the gear so much. Ford was talking about his connection to the music, the blues, and improvisation:

"You can play backwards, forwards, and upside-down, but if you don't have that personal expression in there..."

He's right. If you don't have that personal expression in there, it's just a bunch of empty BS.

Bono of U2 got it said a different way, but I think it means the same thing:

A star, lit up like a cigar
Strung out like a guitar
Maybe you could educate my mind,
Explain all these controls
I can't sing but I've got soul
The goal
is elevation.

To summarize: It's not the technique of how you say it, it's that you say it and mean it.

How many skilled rock and jazz players do we hear blazing their asses off that we (and the public) think sound pretty much formulaic, more of the same, and we don't really care about it? Personally, I find it boring, and pretty much why people don't listen to jazz any more. Formulaic improv over the changes, and so freaking what.

For me, what makes Ford great isn't that he has a ton of skills. It's that he uses those skills in the service of musical expression.

YMMV!

 

[Longneck Tenon]

Here's what I loved and related to - wasn't the gear so much. Ford was talking about his connection to the music, the blues, and improvisation:

"You can play backwards, forwards, and upside-down, but if you don't have that personal expression in there..."

He's right. If you don't have that personal expression in there, it's just a bunch of empty BS.

Bono of U2 got it said a different way, but I think it means the same thing:

A star, lit up like a cigar
Strung out like a guitar
Maybe you could educate my mind,
Explain all these controls
I can't sing but I've got soul
The goal
is elevation.

To summarize: It's not the technique of how you say it, it's that you say it and mean it.

How many skilled rock and jazz players do we hear blazing their asses off that we (and the public) think sound pretty much formulaic, more of the same, and we don't really care about it? Personally, I find it boring, and pretty much why people don't listen to jazz any more. Formulaic improv over the changes, and so freaking what.

For me, what makes Ford great isn't that he has a ton of skills. It's that he uses those skills in the service of musical expression.

YMMV!

All of the guitarists and musicians I love have that sense of going somewhere and you get to go there with them. What a gift.

 

[Lewguitar]

Here's what I loved and related to - wasn't the gear so much. Ford was talking about his connection to the music, the blues, and improvisation:

"You can play backwards, forwards, and upside-down, but if you don't have that personal expression in there..."

He's right. If you don't have that personal expression in there, it's just a bunch of empty BS.

Bono of U2 got it said a different way, but I think it means the same thing:

A star, lit up like a cigar
Strung out like a guitar
Maybe you could educate my mind,
Explain all these controls
I can't sing but I've got soul
The goal
is elevation.

To summarize: It's not the technique of how you say it, it's that you say it and mean it.

How many skilled rock and jazz players do we hear blazing their asses off that we (and the public) think sound pretty much formulaic, more of the same, and we don't really care about it? Personally, I find it boring, and pretty much why people don't listen to jazz any more. Formulaic improv over the changes, and so freaking what.

For me, what makes Ford great isn't that he has a ton of skills. It's that he uses those skills in the service of musical expression.

YMMV!

I'm with ya! Wasn't so much the gear as the music. That personal expression. Putting your own stamp and your own soul into it.