Brand prejudices

  • Thread starter Thread starter BDuncan
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romanianreaper said:
See, those are my go-to ?

Just curious, what gear do you play thru? I'll he honest, for hard rock and metal, Fender doesn't feel or sound right for that music. I know people have done it but I'd rather grab something else.

As far as Marshall goes, I honestly haven't owned a Marshall in years. It has been 5150-III and Friedmans. I think I like the Marshall tone.
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As for guitars I play many brands, but they are all "metal" types with floydes/edges and dark-looking cosmetics.
Rectifiers are my favorite amps but anything in the high-gain 6L6 realm would do me fine,,,,,although I do have an original VHT D60 too.
Even a good solid-state amp with a distortion pedal in front will make me happy, as long as it's through a good cab.

I have no hate at all for the big three brands, but I've always felt they left us dark-metal players behind, but I can't blame them either for staying with what got them to the top to begin with.
 
dave74 said:
I'll take this chance to knock the holy trinity of gear brands,,,,,,Gibson, Fender, and Marshall.
Just not for me.
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I like Gibsons. I'm starting to like Fender (just not with vintage-voiced single coils). I have a Marshall cab which I like. I wouldn't mind a JVM. But I don't think I'd ever be happy playing through a JCM 800 or a Plexi which is what people romanticize, I think.

Neither Gibsons nor Fenders look particularly Metal, TBH. Gibsons have the tiny frets and Fenders have the round fretboard. Both have got pretty lousy upper-fret access by today's standards (at least on Strats, Teles, and Les Pauls), but personally, there's kind of a stupid notion that I like about playing those for Death Metal, LOL.

romanianreaper said:
Just curious, what gear do you play thru? I'll he honest, for hard rock and metal, Fender doesn't feel or sound right for that music. I know people have done it but I'd rather grab something else.
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I have a Fender Strat and a Squier Esquire that I've modded to sound deceptively heavy.

The 9.5" fretboard is somewhat off-putting, but the neck profile is just standard mid-thin-ish, which is kinda like the default go-to for Metal. The frets are actually bigger than Gibsons too. Honestly, if you get a Strat with hums and a 12" fretboard, they're already pretty Metal-ready off the get-go. You just gotta be willing to put up with the un-Metal aesthetics which I kinda dig, TBH.
 
Rex Rocker said:
But I don't think I'd ever be happy playing through a JCM 800 or a Plexi which is what people romanticize, I think.
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I don't blame you. A plexi or other 100 watt Marshall can be a demanding amp to play. Any of the high headroom amps show every flaw in your playing. Add efficient speakers to that mix and all your guitar sins are revealed in real time. That means you either win big or you sound like a total scrub. Not much in between. I don't know why I torture myself with big iron when I could be playing some spongy low watt quitter rig for five people who won't remember tonight come tomorrow at some low rent dive bar outside downtown. I find if you can stick the watts it means money since nightlife areas are dominated by noise and if I can get heard I will get customers $$$$. I made full use of 100 watts tonight so it can happen to you too!
 
VonBonfire said:
I don't blame you. A plexi or other 100 watt Marshall can be a demanding amp to play. Any of the high headroom amps show every flaw in your playing. Add efficient speakers to that mix and all your guitar sins are revealed in real time. That means you either win big or you sound like a total scrub. Not much in between. I don't know why I torture myself with big iron when I could be playing some spongy low watt quitter rig for five people who won't remember tonight come tomorrow at some low rent dive bar outside downtown. I find if you can stick the watts it means money since nightlife areas are dominated by noise and if I can get heard I will get customers $$$$. I made full use of 100 watts tonight so it can happen to you too!
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Maybe. but I don't think it's just that. It's just that it's not the high-gain amp that we're all used to nowadays. Both are REALLY loud, a Plexi even moreso, especially if you want to get the gain going. And at that point, the low-end is not really voiced modern where it's broad and dynamic. Nor is the EQ like what we're used to today, especially for heavy music.

I don't mean to be pretentious and say amps nowadays are "better", because so many iconic sounds were recorded with Plexis. But keep the context too: How many iconic Death Metal tones were recorded on Plexis?

Honestly, the one Plexi tone that I consider the "apex" of Plexi tone (VH 1), I wouldn't say the amp isn't going all "spongy" at that point either. I don't play anything like Van Halen, honestly, but even he moved on from that one at one point.

I think that's where dave's coment was coming from. All brands are context-related. I'm not sure Marshall is the rebellious aggressive music brand that it used to at one point.
 
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Since I've got into assembling from parts, I have a REAL hard time buying any branded guitars. I've got a Warmoth Strat, a Musikraft/KNE "Demartini Style" and a Butala "naked beak 5150", and I don't have that much into any of them, and they all play and sound better than any other guitars of my past. Once in awhile I'll veer back into Gibson land, but that is never a long stay. I wouldn't be opposed to a MusicMan, but I have a hard time spending that kind of coin for no real reason. So I'd say, I have a prejudice against pretty much every guitar brand haha.

In truth, I'm pretty good with whatever guitar, I just don't fuck around with cheap hardware. I'd rather pay upfront for something good, same with pickups. I don't buy into the boutique crap. I can't justify spending more than Duncan asks, because they are my benchmark of good sounding pickups.
 
When I find something that works for me, I double down until I find something better.

I recently discovered EBMM guitars, now I have 5 (4 Kaizen 6 and 1 Majesty 6, may get another of each); my fav hardtails are Ibanez PS (I have 2 PS60, 1 PS120 and 1 PS10), and for floating trems, I like Jackson X series Rhoads with Duncan Blackouts. I have various other guitars for something different. I don't own or want Gibsons.

I prefer Marshall and Engl amps, but GASing for a Mesa JP-2C; really enjoying computer and software plugin rig.
 
I wouldn’t buy a copy guitar now but who cares? When I was in my 20s and 30s and didn’t have a lot of disposable income I played whatever I could afford. I loved my Greco LP and carpet covered Carvin half stack. Now I’m 54 and I have pretty much all the gear I could want. I was happy then and I’m happy now. If it works it’s good. Gear is fun but it isn’t as important as we all make it out to be
 
My only thing is to avoid things ever one will use because it becomes a too much used of a sound .
 
Techdeth said:
My only thing is to avoid things ever one will use because it becomes a too much used of a sound .
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I've gone in waves with this.

Then realised at times I couldn't get the sound I was after unless I used that gear everyone else was using..
Also thinking there's a good reason gear 'X' is so popular.

Then I'd break off and experiment with something different again
 
saxxamafone said:
I've gone in waves with this.

Then realised at times I couldn't get the sound I was after unless I used that gear everyone else was using..
Also thinking there's a good reason gear 'X' is so popular.

Then I'd break off and experiment with something different again
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there’s so many good amps that others don’t use that you can sculpt so get an original sounds that I just will stay away . Even my favorite tones that I truly love are ones people hate at times . I just love guys doing unique stuff .
 
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