Fender amps why the love??

Sassafras

timmysoft said:

Clean is for pisswimps.

play with all the gain and stop trying to fool yourselves that clean is classier.

clean tones are ballbag, all the gains are king. Do you want to be a ballbag or a king? 

Have you heard The Tone King on youtube?
I'd rather be a ballbag.

A_T_W

professorben said:

menamestom said:

Another thing about Fender amps, they are synonymous with open back cabinets, great for a big open sound.  If you want a tight directional sound with good chug  you're on a loser straight away.  If you we're for example looking at the Supersonic as a more modern option it would be wise to audition the head and closed back cab as opposed to the combo.

I'm not trying to make a Fender amp do the metal thing, I have a big Mesa set up that does that perfectly. 

Im trying to get an understanding of why they are so popular. 

I mean you have been given all the reasons you need to understand that though. They sound "good" (subjectively) for playing types of music that you aren't a fan of. Many people like those genres and so Fenders are popular with those people.

I've never wanted to try an LP for myself, just does't appeal at all. But they obviously sound great for classic rock, so it's not hard to understand why they're popular if lots of people want to play classic rock. Hardly any hidden secrets or tricks, they just do things that you don't like and don't do the things you do like.

professorben

Sassafras said:

timmysoft said:

Clean is for pisswimps.

play with all the gain and stop trying to fool yourselves that clean is classier.

clean tones are ballbag, all the gains are king. Do you want to be a ballbag or a king? 

Have you heard The Tone King on youtube?
I'd rather be a ballbag.

Yep. 
Average

timmysoft

All the gain, all the time. If you don't then you've got issues.

REAL MEN PLAY ON 10

EdGrip

Here's my two all-time Youtube favourites. Could listen to them all day. 

koneguitarist

professorben said:

Gassage said:

I hve found this thread very interesting as it reveals that one man's drink is another man's poison big time.

Now, I'm not taking the moral clean signal high ground here, but my route to finding amps I like is basically the clean. If the clean is great, then I can sort everything else and make it dirty.

If it's shite I can't make it sound good clean, and for me, all the sounds I want are in the clean-breakup range (with the occasional drive pedal.)

@jpfamps - I have a book on Fender's amp developments. In the preface it notes the book is 250 pages long and it jokes that if Leo had used all of the prototypes that didn't make it into productiuon, it would have filled those 250 pages alone.

The thing is, when is a circuit a new circuit? Half of Leo's ideas were evolutions rather than revolutions*



(* I'll do it before someone else does- the only amp thing that truly was a revolution was the Vibratone....see, Leslie joke done.)

Very interesting. 
Amps live and die by the drive sound for me. 

if an amp has a killer drive and a terrible clean I'd prefer that over an 'ok' drive and a stunning clean. 

I do use clean tones, but I'd say 90/10 split, so it doesn't make sense to worry about the clean tones so much. 

I'm with @Gassage on this, there are enough OD or distortion pedals to get your dirty sound from anything, it's a case of mixing and matching for right combination. A valve amp to me only truly sounds like a valve amp around that cleanish breakup area which is where pedals struggle.
if Heavy distortion is your thing it doesn't really matter if amp is a transistor, digital or modeller amp as when it's in the mix, no one can tell. Boss OD always sounds really harsh with fender amps, so many great pedals out there though. 

p90fool

koneguitarist said:if Heavy distortion is your thing it doesn't really matter if amp is a transistor, digital or modeller amp as when it's in the mix, no one can tell. 

 This is simply not true, it's just that your ears are not acclimatised to the nuances of it unless it's a sound you really like, just like all tenor saxophones sound the same to me, whatever their price. 

They're clearly not, but I just don't care. 

Chalky

EdGrip said:

Here's my two all-time Youtube favourites. Could listen to them all day. 

Both good, but the Tweed 5e3 is superb. That's the one I would like.

professorben

p90fool said:

koneguitarist said:if Heavy distortion is your thing it doesn't really matter if amp is a transistor, digital or modeller amp as when it's in the mix, no one can tell. 

 This is simply not true, it's just that your ears are not acclimatised to the nuances of it unless it's a sound you really like, just like all tenor saxophones sound the same to me, whatever their price. 

They're clearly not, but I just don't care. 

Exactly. 
Id say hand on heart, that the mid gain break up tones are the ones cheap to mid digital amps can nail,  the real high gain stuff needs to be Valve or very high end digital. 

Because I use high gain all the time, I'm more familiar with that. 

professorben

koneguitarist said:

professorben said:

Gassage said:

I hve found this thread very interesting as it reveals that one man's drink is another man's poison big time.

Now, I'm not taking the moral clean signal high ground here, but my route to finding amps I like is basically the clean. If the clean is great, then I can sort everything else and make it dirty.

If it's shite I can't make it sound good clean, and for me, all the sounds I want are in the clean-breakup range (with the occasional drive pedal.)

@jpfamps - I have a book on Fender's amp developments. In the preface it notes the book is 250 pages long and it jokes that if Leo had used all of the prototypes that didn't make it into productiuon, it would have filled those 250 pages alone.

The thing is, when is a circuit a new circuit? Half of Leo's ideas were evolutions rather than revolutions*



(* I'll do it before someone else does- the only amp thing that truly was a revolution was the Vibratone....see, Leslie joke done.)

Very interesting. 
Amps live and die by the drive sound for me. 

if an amp has a killer drive and a terrible clean I'd prefer that over an 'ok' drive and a stunning clean. 

I do use clean tones, but I'd say 90/10 split, so it doesn't make sense to worry about the clean tones so much. 

I'm with @Gassage on this, there are enough OD or distortion pedals to get your dirty sound from anything, it's a case of mixing and matching for right combination. A valve amp to me only truly sounds like a valve amp around that cleanish breakup area which is where pedals struggle.
if Heavy distortion is your thing it doesn't really matter if amp is a transistor, digital or modeller amp as when it's in the mix, no one can tell. Boss OD always sounds really harsh with fender amps, so many great pedals out there though. 

But by this logic you end up on some never ending wild goose chase of dirt boxes, where as within 10 seconds I can hear if an amp has what it takes or not. 

Valve amps around that clean to mid gain tone are the same as digital and I guess SS to a degree.

Its only under high gain conditions that you hear the harmonic complexities and compression of valve amps. 

A clean/crispy JC120, Twin, Katana all sound the same to me. 

But a cranked 5150/Engl/Boogie/Deizel etc all have a different sonic stamp. 

Cos it's what I listen to all day everyday. 

MartinB

professorben said:

Valve amps around that clean to mid gain tone are the same as digital and I guess SS to a degree.

Its only under high gain conditions that you hear the harmonic complexities and compression of valve amps. 

A clean/crispy JC120, Twin, Katana all sound the same to me. 

But a cranked 5150/Engl/Boogie/Deizel etc all have a different sonic stamp. 

Cos it's what I listen to all day everyday. 

Hmm, a lot of players who spend their time around that clean to mid-gain region would say the opposite, and often presume that the higher gain stuff is where SS and lower-end modellers do a reasonable job.  I don't know what to make of that, except that we probably all make generalisations about the kind of sound we seldom use. 

professorben

MartinB said:

professorben said:

Valve amps around that clean to mid gain tone are the same as digital and I guess SS to a degree.

Its only under high gain conditions that you hear the harmonic complexities and compression of valve amps. 

A clean/crispy JC120, Twin, Katana all sound the same to me. 

But a cranked 5150/Engl/Boogie/Deizel etc all have a different sonic stamp. 

Cos it's what I listen to all day everyday. 

Hmm, a lot of players who spend their time around that clean to mid-gain region would say the opposite, and often presume that the higher gain stuff is where SS and lower-end modellers do a reasonable job.  I don't know what to make of that, except that we probably all make generalisations about the kind of sound we seldom use. 

I might have been mildly trolling you to make a point but a lot of what I said I believe. 

Yes horses for courses. 

robinbowes

professorben said:

I might have been talking bollocks to make a point but a lot of what I said I believe. 

Yes horses for courses. 

FTFY.

professorben

robinbowes said:

professorben said:

I might have been talking bollocks to make a point but a lot of what I said I believe. 

Yes horses for courses. 

FTFY.

Oh yea of little faith. 

bbill335

ICBM said:

bbill335 said:

I think the 100w Bassman head is very similar to the Sunn Model T (the doom/stoner amp that isn't vintage orange/matamp)

No, not really.

I guess I shouldn't believe everything I read on forums!

Sassafras

High gain all day everyday sounds like a recurring nightmare I have.

timmysoft

Sassafras said:

High gain all day everyday sounds like a recurring nightmare I have.

If you don't high gain then the world will become a vanilla place and vanilla is boring AF

PolarityMan

professorben said:

MartinB said:

professorben said:

Valve amps around that clean to mid gain tone are the same as digital and I guess SS to a degree.

Its only under high gain conditions that you hear the harmonic complexities and compression of valve amps. 

A clean/crispy JC120, Twin, Katana all sound the same to me. 

But a cranked 5150/Engl/Boogie/Deizel etc all have a different sonic stamp. 

Cos it's what I listen to all day everyday. 

Hmm, a lot of players who spend their time around that clean to mid-gain region would say the opposite, and often presume that the higher gain stuff is where SS and lower-end modellers do a reasonable job.  I don't know what to make of that, except that we probably all make generalisations about the kind of sound we seldom use. 

I might have been mildly trolling you to make a point but a lot of what I said I believe. 

Yes horses for courses.

Horses make pretty poor distorted tones when you crank them and the animal rights guys end up all over your ass.

PolarityMan

Sassafras said:

High gain all day everyday sounds like a recurring nightmare I have.Chugchugchugchugga weeeeee chugchug

ToneControl

My experience with amps when I changed my approach from being the "victim" of what shops choose to stock, and started searching online for the top-rated amps

Many fender and marshall amps in shops are mediocre

Everyone should make themselves familiar with the top 20 or top 50 all-time-best-rated amp designs

Then, to answer the OP - Fender have more of these than anyone else, hence the love