Did everyone sound better in the early 90's?

[C1-ocaster]

All the guitar heroes used to use Marshalls? As mentioned Zakk still does so not sure that is the only factor.. in fact, it is kind of silly. I would say a heck of a lot of artists used ADA-MP1 preamps and they sounded pretty awesome too! I'll tell you what i think happened.

1. They stopped boosting. Take a jcm800 or plexi that is just crunchy and add a boost. Tighter and cleaner than preamp fizz.

2. Higher gain amps mean less reliance on pedals which means more fizzzzzzzzzz

3. Players got older and decided to fight the guitar less so they upped the gain by starting with a gained out fizzy amp and adding more pedals which compressed the tone further.

Not everyone sounds like shit. Nuno still has good tone, Demartini does, Vinnie Moore does, Shenker does... some guys just get lost in effects like Zakk did and go crazy on the phaser, vibe,and chorus. Also don't forget that a lot of them lose not their chops, but their phrasing. This can make anything sound crappy really fast.

I find pedals sound fizzier than real tube amp gain.
The 5150 III, 6505+, and even my Eggy Vengeance have a much more growling distortion with greater articulation than nearly all solid state based distortion pedals.

 

[Shark Diver]

All the guitar heroes used to use Marshalls? As mentioned Zakk still does so not sure that is the only factor.. in fact, it is kind of silly. I would say a heck of a lot of artists used ADA-MP1 preamps and they sounded pretty awesome too! I'll tell you what i think happened.

1. They stopped boosting. Take a jcm800 or plexi that is just crunchy and add a boost. Tighter and cleaner than preamp fizz.

2. Higher gain amps mean less reliance on pedals which means more fizzzzzzzzzz

3. Players got older and decided to fight the guitar less so they upped the gain by starting with a gained out fizzy amp and adding more pedals which compressed the tone further.

Not everyone sounds like shit. Nuno still has good tone, Demartini does, Vinnie Moore does, Shenker does... some guys just get lost in effects like Zakk did and go crazy on the phaser, vibe,and chorus. Also don't forget that a lot of them lose not their chops, but their phrasing. This can make anything sound crappy really fast.

I find pedals sound fizzier than real tube amp gain.
The 5150 III, 6505+, and even my Eggy Vengeance have a much more growling distortion with greater articulation than nearly all solid state based distortion pedals.

I believe he is referring to clean boost rather than distortion pedals.