British vs. American sound?

[Binnerscot]

Re: British vs. American sound?

Nowadays, we consider the Mesa sound to be "California" and it's almost embarassing, because so many Californians can't even stand Mesas, yet the rest of the world is enamoured by them.....and are bummed that they can't afford them. In our opinion, save your money.....don't even buy them! LOL

Aww, come on Joneser...that is a little harsh, they are the one amp company that I think really covers the whole spectrum pretty well.

You should try an Electra Dyne, sounds like it is something more up your alley than some of their more notorious amps.

 

[Chas]

Re: British vs. American sound?

I think it is more of a marketing type thing. To me a Tweed has a mid range sound so you cant say that is a British thing. Also I have a Vox that gets some nice clean sounds so you can't say that is an American thing. Did I just break a record for using the word thing?

 

[Mattr4president]

Re: British vs. American sound?

Huh. Well, I'm pretty much 100% German, so I guess I should sell my junk and start saving for an Engl or a Diezel, eh?

Actually, that's not a bad idea...

+1 Hooray German Engineering!

Seriously those things are beasts. They use EL34's and do not sound "British". It's all marketing, just use your ears. Generally I like 6L6's more then EL34's but then again I've heard plenty of EL34's i like (Engl). I just don't like the Marshall Sound.

 

[mwalluk]

Re: British vs. American sound?

Here's a modern comparison for ya..........

British - 80's hair metal bands
American - whinny emo/NU Metal bands

 

[Animal]

Re: British vs. American sound?

They both suck.

Nations with superior tone:

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[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: British vs. American sound?

It's more so what the amps are associated with. A lot of bands who's sound is associated with the British sound used British amps: Early Beatles, Zeppelin, Clapton. That's all Vox/Marshall domain. To me the best way to describe the difference is that the typical american sounding amps were bright loud fenders. Now, this is a generalization. But for me, when someone talks about a very "British" sound, they're usually generalizing the sound of the late 60's loud marshalls. Big, rude, and fat. It goes either way, to me. The Stones had very American sound while Hendrix had more British.

Also over the years, the lines have grayed. When saying US/UK people can also be referring to heavier distortion from a Mesa (US) to a Marshall (UK).

Of course, I may be wrong. But this is always how I perceived it. It's also a little hard to explain, seeing how none of it is written law.

Yeah i think this is dead on, I couldn't have said it better!