You can listen to Ed's unproduced, scratch-mixed outtakes. They are all over YT, leaked out of Sunset. His amp is very good, it is a very good tone. But the "fairy dust" was in Donn's "mix it like a vocal" technique that Templeman demanded. You put a lot of mids to tape, insuring the dynamics...
Okay.
I mean, I worked for Ed for a bit but okay.
The Boss EQ pushing could give whatever amount of gain you wanted. And turned down via the variac it gets squishy.
I love Ossie. I just disagree.
Chokes make a difference in feel.
Holy grail hunting has romanced men since the dawn of time.
All that said, a stock ‘68 will get you there. One with the out-of-spec mids pot will really get you there. One with a variac-styled voltage lowering capability and a decent PPIMV will do it without...
Conner is a very good dude. I have some stuff he cut and it is excellent. He responds to DMs on the Locke insta. The neck on the 5150 replica is Locke and is just perfect.