Anybody ever had the desire to stick with ONE brand of guitar/ amph?

[Katastrophe]

Well?

Guitar companies are becoming fairly diverse in their offerings these days, with some (Peavey, Vox, Fender, Ibanez) that offer everything a guitarist needs (various models/types of guitars, amphs).

Anyone consider just going with ONE brand for everything? It certainly simplifies the selection process, plus your brand tee shirts will match with your gear on stage. It's important to accessorize and coordinate.

[deeaa*]

Never even occurred to me. I suppose, if there were readily available brand entities, or had been in the past, why, I could have easily gotten such too.

But, to me it was always I wanted a Marshall, and Marshall doesn't make guitars :-)

Back when I was more active/still looking for gear to use, there weren't any Carvins or Peavey guitars here. Carvins I don't think anyone imports even now, they're really really rare here. Peavey is very marginal as well except for PA stuff. Fender I think is about the only real option there ever was, maybe Ibanez too in later days, but I don't think they really make much larger tube amps at all, do they?

Yeah, Fender is about the only thing I can think of a possiblity, and I do believe many folk music bands etc. played Fenders thru Fenders. But back when I could only afford a Fender amph I didn't play a Fender guitar but a Gibson...if I could change back the time, I'd put the gibson money towards a proper Marshall and get a Fender guitar instead :-)

[Tone2TheBone]

Sometimes mix and match is good. As long as they play well and sound good.

[Spudman***]

Only if it was a sponsorship deal. There is so much good stuff out there I'd hate to limit my choices.

On the flip side - it might be nice to have just one brand to keep it simple.

[Ch0jin]

Well?

Guitar companies are becoming fairly diverse in their offerings these days, with some (Peavey, Vox, Fender, Ibanez) that offer everything a guitarist needs (various models/types of guitars, amphs).

Anyone consider just going with ONE brand for everything? It certainly simplifies the selection process, plus your brand tee shirts will match with your gear on stage. It's important to accessorize and coordinate.

Back when I was in the home electronics world, what you've brought up was a subject Marketeer's were/are very aware of. Using branding and design to imply that brand X TV will work best with brand X VCR to encourage brand loyalty.

Unless, as is the case with a fair amount of CE goods these days, pairing two like branded products results in extra functionality, many CE vendors have some kind of proprietary "link" system to enable a HDD Recorder and TV and perhaps an amp to communicate with each other and use one remote control for example, then there's probably no technical reason to keep everything with one brand.

In the drastically simpler world of guitars and amps, I see no reason whatsoever to use all one brand unless that happens to be the best combination for your taste. As it happens though, I'll bet there are a heck of a lot of Fender guitars paired up with Fender amps because the end result sounds great, more so than keeping it all Fender.

[Jimi75]

I have tried the Fender/Fender combination, but it didn't work well for me. I'm with deeaa here, would be great if Marshall built great guitars, too :-)

[sunvalleylaw]

I have a Fender/Fender combo. I like it fine, but I am not stuck with it, nor would I want to be. One of my favorite sounds ever is a strat into a Marshall.

[Jimi75]

One of my favorite sounds ever is a strat into a Marshall.

You name it. The single coils of a Strat seem to cook way more harmonical with a Marshall than with a Fender amph. I also think that you can get the full potential out of single coils better with a Marshall type of amph than with a Fender type of amph.

Think Jimi and his Plexi, Band Of Gypsies sound 69/70's Jimi sound that's among the best Marshall/Strat sounds I've ever heard.

[sunvalleylaw]

The Fender/Fender combo I would like the best is a strat into a late 50's Bassman. But of course that is what Marshall based some of its sounds/designs off of. I like my Brown Concert 4x10, that is one step off the Bassman too, but that strat/marshall sound is sweet. I never quite connected with the blackface or silverface sound, other than SRV's sounds with that gear.

But all that said, I would not want to limit myself to one brand.

[Brian Krashpad]

Only if it was a sponsorship deal. There is so much good stuff out there I'd hate to limit my choices.

^This.

[oldguy]

Anybody ever had the desire to stick with ONE brand of guitar/ amph?

Yeah, Fender...... didn't work out in the real world, though.

[markb]

Fender + classic Fender is OK by me as long as I can stick something like a RAT in front.

[street music]

You know , I have ask that question many times when I was working a show and I have been doing so for 19 years. I always found the remarks of it just doesn't sound the same unless you combine this amp with this guitar. So, alright I have only been playing or learning for nearly 6 years but if you are all tuned to the same tuning and you can get crunch or grid, blues or clean out of a good amp, doesn't it come down to personal opinion???? I know that each year I pay extra to have a backline on our stage so that bands can plug and play and it keeps the stage acts moving. We usually go with a great bass rig and a couple of FENDER Deville and either a Vox AC15 or a Marshall, and I have noticed that the Fender will almost always get used by every act. Yes, I can notice difference in the clean tones on most amp settings but when a guitarist brings in all the peddles does it really matter what amp he plugs into?

[DeanEVO_Dude]

... Yes, I can notice difference in the clean tones on most amp settings but when a guitarist brings in all the peddles does it really matter what amp he plugs into?

I think that seems to be the crux of this whole discussion in a way. What I mean is, the way most people use a distiortion pedal in front of an amp is to completely saturate the guitar signal, then amplifiy that distorted signal with an amp... I used to be that way. I must admit, since getting my Fender Princeton 65 (solid state, not tube ri), and my Windsor Studio, I have been using the drive channel or cranking the gain to get the desired overdrive/distortion tones, and using the effects loop to add phaser/chorus and the like.
It does seem that there is some myth or magic to using this amp or that amp... Lets face it, the electric solid body guitar, as we know it today, was "invented" by Leo Fender. The guitar most bought by today's beginners is a Fender Stratocaster clone, due prmarilly to the cost (can't get a Les Paul style guitar for $100). And with that name (Fender), came the amp heard around the USA in almost every genre of music ever recorded... Sometimes I think that the quest for a loud, "clean" tone, that was the quest of Leo, was partially to "blame" for the invention of the distortion stomp box! LOL

Peavey gets such a bad rap for their amps. I like my Windsor, it is not a clean amp, but it does sound very good. The Valveking amps can do the clean thing well, even rival the "chime" of a Fender. My Fender can do both, clean and chimey, and down right dirty and raunchy. On the guitar side, Peavey's offerings are not much different than most other companies' import offerings (sometimes rivaling the Mexico offerings from Fender), not to mention Peavey USA. It is true that the best stuff to come out of Peavey is the high power PA stuff, but they do offer the most complete line of musical instruments and instrument amplification (without re-branding) of any manufacturer, and price points to match almost any budget. Not to mention, their stuff is built rock solid (most of the time), so they last "forever."

Sorry if this is a little off topic, just wanted to express my thoughts...

[deeaa*]

Nah, now we're really getting somewhere with it!

Many people indeed get their tones from pedals mostly, and in that case it hardly matters what kind of amp they want to use, as long as it's in the ballpark.

Me, I use quite a few pedals as well, but they're on only a few at a time and the rest fully bypasses, and drives at like 1/5th etc...if I just plug them into any clean amp it sounds totally different.

So for me, the pedals are there to tweak the amp's sound. I'd say I get almost 50% of my amplified sound from the power tubes, and the rest is preamp/pedals. Thus for me having the amp with the right power and speaker is crucial - it sounds totally different when I simply lower the volume by 1/4 or something. Or if I play a strange (passive) guitar, it can sound utterly completely different too.

BUT I do know how to get the sound; I could go to a gig quite happy and knowing I'll get my sound if I know there's a JCM800 or 2203/4 there....and many other amps will do....I could probably tweak a Fender to be passable as well, but I doubt I'd get what I really want...or from an SS amp either.

But, anyhow, it's a question whether you really make your sound with pedals or such, FX or whatever, of if you have a more holistic approach where everything is a small part of the equation.

[ZMAN]

When I started back in the 60s the classic tones were Gibson/Fender. Or Fender/Gibson/Marshall. I chose the Gibson/Fender. It seemed like most of the blues guys in the 50s and 60s used that combination. When I restsarted playing guitar in the mid 90s I picked up a Fender Strat and a Fender amp. I found it was not working without pedals. Now I have All of the above and can mix and match.
Now with the modelling and effects boards you really don't need the actual amps. You can live in a virtual world. What will be the next thing emulation of HBs, and Single coils played on various guitars. Itr probably has already been done and I don't know about it.
Right now I am really into the Gibson/Marshal/delayed tone.

[wingsdad]

... What will be the next thing emulation of HBs, and Single coils played on various guitars. Itr probably has already been done and I don't know about it. ...

It has, Z....and probably better than the way my 6-year old Boss ME-50 does it. Among the presets in the 'Tone Modify' function on the ME-50, its substitute for a full-range Equalizer, are decent but not awesome ones to sim a Single Coil to a Humbucker, a Hum to a pair of Singles, and a Hum to 1 single. Thing is, you can do the same sort of things if you have a 10-band EQ pedal or unit.

As for this string's topic... I started in the 60's as a Gibson ES330/Fender Deluxe guy. I then added a Tele when I bumped up to a Tremolux, then a Bandmaster. I suppose I was inclined for a brief period to be mainly a Fender/Fender player. Moving on to the mid-70's, the Fender Strat became my go-to axe, but with a Peavey Mace tube amp, and it stayed that way. When I was primarily a bass player for a couple of years, it was with a P-Bass thru a Peavey SS amp/4x12 stack.

Overall, I've never been 'married' to a single brand of guitars/amps, simply because my gigging role was, and remained, best-defined (by me) as "Jack of All Trades, Master Of None," with Rhythm git the main strength, be it electric or acoustic, 6 or 12 strings.

[Tig***]

If I were to run the one MFG route, I'd say VOX would be a decent contender.
The new Varage II's have a huge variety of tones.

Plus a few other nice models.


And their amphs ain't bad...


Can't forget their wah pedals, either...

[otaypanky***]

"Anybody ever had the desire to stick with ONE brand of guitar/ amph?"


Yeah, and I've had some crazy thoughts regarding Cindy Crawford too ~~~
But that ain't gonna happen either