My buddy just got a fender....

Re: My buddy just got a fender....

Blackface Fenders are wonderful foundations if you want to use fuzz-boost-overdrive-distortion pedals. No argument whatsoever.

But there is *no* pedal that can transform a Deluxe Reverb into, say, a Mesa Mini-Recto (just to throw out an example). I don't know of a pedal out there that can turn a Pro Jr. into a Super Lead.

That said, a skilled player in a good cover band could definitely cover a lot of ground with a Twin RI and an MXR '78 Distortion.
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

That said, a skilled player in a good cover band could definitely cover a lot of ground with a Twin RI and an MXR '78 Distortion.


I used my Twin with a Carl Martin Plexitone and covered some decent early EVH tones. But it still sounded WAY better when I put that pedal into the blue channel, plexi-mode on my Bogner XTC Classic. ;)
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

Better for what? Playing country, jazz, or maybe old blues? Yup.

Better for playing any rock styles since the 1960s? Nope.


Are you sure you want to stick to that story?

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Mike Campbell (born 1950) most notable for his work with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers has used various Fender amps with the Heartbreakers over the years, including a '60s Twin Reverb, a tweed Deluxe, a blonde piggyback Bassman, and (currently) two Princeton Reverbs

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994), frontman of the grunge band Nirvana, used a Twin Reverb during the recording of 1989's Bleach and 1994's In Utero; he used a Bassman during the recording of 1991's Nevermind.

Trey Anastasio, guitarist for the jam band Phish, uses a modified Deluxe Reverb with two celestion greenbacks.

Tom Delonge, guitarist for Blink-182 uses two Fender Deluxe Reverbs

Billy Gibbons (born 1949) is a blues rock/hard rock musician most known for being the lead singer and guitarist of ZZ Top, have used various vintage amplifiers, specifically the 18-watt tweed Dual Professional and often uses several amps in different combinations to achieve desired sounds.

Eddie Van Halen (born 1955) guitarist and the of co-founder of Van Halen. Currently Fender is producing a signature three channel amplifer head called the "EVH 5150 III" and a matching 4x12" cabinet called "EVH 5150 412" both of which are available in black or white.

Josh Homme (born 1973), lead guitarist and vocalist in the hard rock groups Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures, uses (amongst a few other amplifiers) a vintage blackface Fender Bassman while performing live with Them Crooked Vultures.

Ted Nugent, during the height of his career in the 1970s, was known to use six Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers tied to six tall Fender speaker cabinets; in fact, Nugent once endorsed the Twin Reverb in magazine advertisements in that era.

Brian Setzer (born 1959) is the frontman for the rockabilly band The Stray Cats plays his vintage or signature Gretsch guitars through either a 1962 Bassman or a 1960 Princeton.[12]

GE Smith (born 1952) lead guitarist for Hall & Oates, Bob Dylan and the Saturday Night Live band, is a keen Fender collector and self confessed "vintage freak" have exclusively played his guitars through various Fender amplifers.

Stevie Ray Vaughan (born 1954) was an American blues-rock guitarist, whose broad appeal made him an influential electric blues guitarist. Vaughan famously used two 1964 blackface Vibroverb amplifiers that were heavily modified by Cesar Diaz. Vaughan was also known to use various blackface Super Reverb amplifiers.

Jack White (Born 1975) guitarist of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, uses original '70 era Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers with his three bands. He gets a very distorted but characteristic sound mixing his vintage amps with an Electro Harmonix Big Muff and some other distortion/sustain pedals.

Thom Yorke, vocalist of Radiohead, plays Twin Reverbs.

Johnny Marr, used Fender Twin Reverb amps exclusively during his time as the Guitarist for The Smiths.
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Looks like some folks might disagree.
 
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Re: My buddy just got a fender....

Better for what? Playing country, jazz, or maybe old blues? Yup.

Better for playing any rock styles since the 1960s? Nope.

????

Derek Trucks of ABB/Solo/etc played through a 65 Super Reverb

As of 2009 Pete Townsend of the Who have been using Fender Vibro-Kings

Warren DeMartini used a Fender Super Champ for the solos on Ratt's Out of the Cellar

Jeff Beck too...

JeffBeckAmps.jpg
 
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Re: My buddy just got a fender....

Blackface Fenders are wonderful foundations if you want to use fuzz-boost-overdrive-distortion pedals. No argument whatsoever.

But there is *no* pedal that can transform a Deluxe Reverb into, say, a Mesa Mini-Recto (just to throw out an example). I don't know of a pedal out there that can turn a Pro Jr. into a Super Lead.

That said, a skilled player in a good cover band could definitely cover a lot of ground with a Twin RI and an MXR '78 Distortion.



 
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Re: My buddy just got a fender....

Blackface Fenders are wonderful foundations if you want to use fuzz-boost-overdrive-distortion pedals. No argument whatsoever.

But there is *no* pedal that can transform a Deluxe Reverb into, say, a Mesa Mini-Recto (just to throw out an example). I don't know of a pedal out there that can turn a Pro Jr. into a Super Lead.

That said, a skilled player in a good cover band could definitely cover a lot of ground with a Twin RI and an MXR '78 Distortion.

Does it really matter if we can't turn X piece of gear into Y piece of gear? And does the inability to do so really mean that a piece of gear can't be effectivly be used for music outside of the percieved stereo type? SRV he used Marshalls for clean and Fenders for dirt. LPs and SGs were first used by a Jazz musicians Les Paul and Mary Ford. And the list goes on.

I think you hit the nail on the head with the skilled player part. A skilled player usually can take a piece of gear and adjust it to fit whatever context he or she is working in. Now admittedly there are better tools for the job when it comes to SPECIFIC tones, but for overall tone/feel I believe that most gear can get you there. Want a great hard rock sound? I can see it easily being done with a Telecaster and a Fender amp. Might take a pedal, but it could easily be done. Want a great Tony Iomi early Black Sabbath sound? A Lanley, SG, and treble booster would more than likely be better tools for the job, but then again that is a specific tone.
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

????

Derek Trucks of ABB/Solo/etc played through a 65 Super Reverb

As of 2009 Pete Townsend of the Who have been using Fender Vibro-Kings

Warren DeMartini used a Fender Super Champ for the solos on Ratt's Out of the Cellar

Jeff Beck too...


LOL!

Why argue here? It's not like I'm saying that NO ONE has ever used a Fender for a great rock tone. Because I'm not and never did. But out of the box, for most players, the Fenders are gonna work better for the cleans and the Marshalls are gonna work better for the dirt. That's a FACT. During the 80s (when I grew-up and started playing), most rock guys either wanted or had a dual amp rig -- a Fender for cleans and a Marshall for dirt. That's how it was. Thankfully, today we have modern channel switchers that do a great job of putting both amps in one box. But the FACT remains that Fender's strength is clean to slightly broken-up, and Marshall's strength is slightly broken up to beyond.

As far as pedals go, I've had most of the ones that attempt to turn a clean circuit like a Fender into a Marshall and they do a pretty good job. My Carl Martin Plexitone is my favorite, but the original Radial Hot British was right there too. But when I compared the tones coming from the Fender Twin run that way and my Bogner amps... there was still quite a gap in tone terms for me. Didn't mean that I couldn't make the Fender setup work. But since I had the CHOICE of amps, I didn't choose the Fender setup for all-rock gigs. Not even close...
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

????Warren DeMartini used a Fender Super Champ for the solos on Ratt's Out of the Cellar

Simply not true.

In Fender's defense... my Blackface Fenders have a righteous distortion that need no boost pedals, overdrives, tube screamers, fuzz pedals or EQ to sound absolutely huge and just as powerful and "brown" as any Marshall and have a sound that rivals the best Plexis out there.

In Marshall's defense, Jimi Hendrix got some AMAZING clean tones out of his Marshall.
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

Simply not true.

I'm correct on this one. Straight from the source...

Warren DeMartini said:
Did you really use a Fender Super Champ to record the solo tones on Out of the Cellar?

Yes, a Fender Super Champ, and I disconnected the speaker and plugged it into an EV speaker that was loaded in an Orange cab. I had an orange cab with four 200-watt EV speakers – the thing weighed about a million pounds. We went directly into one of those speakers and mic’d that up.

Link to the interview

And see video 3
 
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Re: My buddy just got a fender....

LOL!

Why argue here? It's not like I'm saying that NO ONE has ever used a Fender for a great rock tone. Because I'm not and never did. .... ...


But you did state that Fenders don't work for rock made past 1960. That simply isn't true. It may be your preference to use Marshalls for dirt and Fenders for clean, but that doesn't mean they each can't be used effectively for tones outside of their stereotypes. That was the point I was making.



Red_Label View Post said:
Better for what? Playing country, jazz, or maybe old blues? Yup.

Better for playing any rock styles since the 1960s? Nope.
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

I'm correct on this one. Straight from the source...



Link to the interview

And see video 3

That blew my mind until I realized that I was thinking of the Fender Champ amp and not the actual Rivera designed Super Champ. I'm guilty of being a blackface snob and have been ignoring that phase of Fender's production.

Wow, they go for a s**t ton of money... more than the blackface Champs do.

My mind has been blown and I am grateful for it. Thank you.

mindblow.gif
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

That blew my mind until I realized that I was thinking of the Fender Champ amp and not the actual Rivera designed Super Champ. I'm guilty of being a blackface snob and have been ignoring that phase of Fender's production.

Wow, they go for a s**t ton of money... more than the blackface Champs do.

My mind has been blown and I am grateful for it. Thank you.

mindblow.gif

I can't take all of the credit. It was Jolly's thread that did it for me a few years ago.
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

I didn't know there were facts in preferences.

By stating the dreaded "FACT" word I was trying to assert that due to the OVERWHELMING preference of most players over the last 30 years for Marshalls for dirt work, and Fenders for clean work... that makes it pretty cut and dry what most people consider to be iconic in terms of tone preferences. You can argue that... but you'd be chasing your tail.
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

But you did state that Fenders don't work for rock made past 1960. That simply isn't true. It may be your preference to use Marshalls for dirt and Fenders for clean, but that doesn't mean they each can't be used effectively for tones outside of their stereotypes. That was the point I was making.


You're right. I did misspeak on that. Shouldn't have used such absolutes. There are no absolutes in "art". Fenders can certainly do OD tones and Marshalls can do cleans. Having said that, just like with other art forms, there are certainly industry standards that the vast majority of practicioners seem to prefer to adhere to. And not all of that is because of some group-think mentality. I don't prefer Marshall's OD tones to Fenders because Marshall has been the standard for that for decades. Honestly, if any of the Fenders that I've owned would have trumped any of the Marshalls (or Marshall type amps) that I've owned in the crunch or heavier departments... I'd have willingly and gladly used them for that. I've been through a few amps in my lifetime and have NO mindless loyalty to one particular brand at all. I just know what works for me and so many other players. Doesn't mean there aren't great players with great ears who don't have much different preferences. ;)
 
Re: My buddy just got a fender....

By stating the dreaded "FACT" word I was trying to assert that due to the OVERWHELMING preference of most players over the last 30 years for Marshalls for dirt work, and Fenders for clean work... that makes it pretty cut and dry what most people consider to be iconic in terms of tone preferences. You can argue that... but you'd be chasing your tail.

Umm... they are still preferences.... not facts....
 
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