Nice cleans?

[Mister Boston]

For me you can't beat a Strat through a Fender Twin Reverb. That's about the best clean there is. But I'm not wild about MOST Fender amps when they're over-driven, or when they're used with Les Pauls or other humbucker-equipped guitars so I doubt I'll ever buy one. Maybe a Bassman someday.

For cleans on both single-coil AND humbucker guitars I really like the Vox AC30 Custom Classic 1x12 I owned up until recently. I sold it a year ago to the rhythm guitarist in one of my bands; but that's a really sweet amp for the money. I find it's nice and sparkly and chimey with a Strat but handles those growly Les Paul lows pretty well too.

If you want to improve your clean tone regardless of whatever amp you're using; go out and get a Keeley Compressor.

[Eric***]

For me you can't beat a Strat through a Fender Twin Reverb. That's about the best clean there is. But I'm not wild about MOST Fender amps when they're over-driven, or when they're used with Les Pauls or other humbucker-equipped guitars so I doubt I'll ever buy one. Maybe a Bassman someday.

For cleans on both single-coil AND humbucker guitars I really like the Vox AC30 Custom Classic 1x12 I owned up until recently. I sold it a year ago to the rhythm guitarist in one of my bands; but that's a really sweet amp for the money. I find it's nice and sparkly and chimey with a Strat but handles those growly Les Paul lows pretty well too.

Vox seems to be a really popular answer -- I'll have to try me one of those.

If you want to improve your clean tone regardless of whatever amp you're using; go out and get a Keeley Compressor.

So...why is this? I've heard it before (actually, Tung mentioned it earlier as well), but what does compression have to do with tone? On an actual audio level, I only know a compressor to do the whole normalizing-of-the-level thing.

Keeping with the whole detailed-explanation theme of the thread, how does a compressor help?