Hello,
Recently, I got the pleasure of recording a local guy who had a truely monstrous amp collection. The most amazing rock amp I've heard (I've heard nearly all the modern amps) was the '69 Small top 50 watt Marshall being played through an old cabinet loaded with 20 watt Celestions.
Usually, I use my own guitar cabinet which is an early 80's JCM 800 cab loaded with the 75 watt Celestions. Now, I find it extremely hard to go back to that cabinet. By comparison, the 800 cabinet is so harsh and so thin. I can hear so many magical sounds through the vintage Marshall head / cabinet that range from everything from Thin Lizzy to Van Halen to Lincoln Park.
I've been a hater of distortion pedals for years (unless for cool effects) but the local guitar dude had an Analog Man modified Boss DS-1 running for over an hour and I never knew. That amp is just magical.
It's so sensitive to different guitars as well, which I consider to be a huge plus in the studio.
I played on a Dual Rectifier the next day and the only thing I could think of was..... "JUNK!!!". Of course, the Rectifier is not junk, but there is something in an old Marshall that is not in a Rectifier. Then again, I'm not playing Nu Metal.
Just thought I would share my experiences with everyone. I'm sure most of you already have your rock guitar ideas down, but to anyone having problems with harsh high gain rock tones should look into getting different speakers.
Brandon
