Categories/Voicings of amps. Are there only 3?

[MadAsAHatter]

I was randomly watching this video about choosing the right amp. They were at a music store and I’m assuming the owner was talking about what he called the categories of amps. I maybe would have called it styles or voicing. Everything related to tube amps. So, he simplified it into 3 categories:

American Amps – Fender, Mesa and similar voiced
Low watt British – Vox and similar voiced
High watt British – Marshall and similar voiced

This felt like such a gross oversimplification. I never really thought about it before, but said to myself there has to be a broader range of amp categories than this. Then I tried to come up with more, but was hard pressed to do so. I only came up with 2 others: Low mid focused British like Orange amps which felt more like another sub category to high watt British. And German hi-fi like ENGL or Hughes & Kettner.

Are there really this few categories of amps in this regard? Is everything just out there really just a derivative or copy of Fender, Vox & Marshall?

 

[Racerxrated]

If you really want to oversimplify then you have only two….
American and British. 6L6 vs EL34/84.

 

[ClintN667]

Personally I try to get several flavors of amps. This is what I have basically gotten out using the Kemper, HX stomp and Quad Cortex...

I want a Marshall flavor, Mesa Mark, a 5150 type and a ksr instead of a Dual Rec. Also I would like to add an Orange. That would cover 99.99 of the tones I would go for. A Vox or Fender and that would be 100%.

It's like you have fender, slo, Marshall voicing and everything else is a derivative in my opinion. But I don't know shit so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[legend71]

In response to the original post, I think our ears as guitar players are kind of formatted to those sounds because that is what we have grown up listen to in popular music. Those are the tools that created many or most of the sounds from the 50s to now. In probably all genres of music too. It seems like most amp designers and digital type creators like Line 6 etc are all trying to offer their take on "traditional sounds" if not replicating them entirely. I am also not sure if innovative new sounds would be universally accepted here either or anywhere.

 

[Juggernaut]

German - Engl, Diezel