Where/when did "modern" guitar tone begin?

[Solarflares]

You seem to know what you are talking about, but this take is bad. If we are considering your scope, which is a lot broader than the others here, Robert Johnson deserves the title more than Jimi. He wasn't as prolific of a guitar player, but his sound found its way into everyone's sound. Robert Lockwood Junior, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Peter Green, Led Zeppelin, Gary Moore, Eric Johnson, and basically everyone ever to some extent.

My scope goes way back to Paganini’s Guitar Concertos. Oh to be a fly on the wall there.
Fernando Sor was a real badass, but I’ll bet ol’ Nicoli was a monster.
Robert Johnson was lucky to be recorded, but thank goodness someone did.
Yardstick, benchmark, or whatever. He deserves his place as a forefather of popular mainstream performance guitar.
Jimi took a lot from everywhere and everyone, paid his dues ten times over as a sideman, was a supreme showman, and controlled equipment that would have the hardest modern rockers in tears. A real bandleader. A prolific songwriter. A visionary of dreamscapes and true extremes of emotion, which he put into his music - when his peers were still writing songs about boy meets girl stuff, and fast cars.

 

[Mincer]

I'll take McLaughlin, Fripp, and Steve Howe.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Well, but for the topic this thread is on, EVH did have a pretty direct influence. He had the 5150 voiced to his taste. Like 50% of the people who have posted in this thread mentioned the 5150 as a tool used in "Modern" tone, which we haven't agreed on what it means, BTW. But the 5150 keeps popping up.

 

[Solarflares]

But the 5150 keeps popping up.

The 5150 was an affordable high gain amp. When alternatives were silly money. With an average age of 50 on this forum, I would imagine 50% of people actually owned one, or at least played one in their teens.
The Wolfgang guitar is likewise - affordable.
At that time (1993), to be able to have Eddie’s complete rig for $1000 was a dream come true for most.
I would imagine the glasses are quite rose-tinted looking back.
If people think that VH1 is a fantastic album, then by the same token they will claim the 5150 to be the best amp ever made, and the Wolfgang guitar to be the unsung hero of a bygone age.