I'm not really up with all the new gear, but I'd say Marshalls are probably overrated by today's standards. Some of the Bad Cats and the new Boogies are farking AMAZING, but they cost gazillions!! One of the best sounds I ever heard was from a guy using a 5150, but I think they only had 3 channels.

Here's my old beast, which is nearly as old as I am. Only cost me $700 in 1989!! I think Jimi Hendrix once pissed on it!!



I gave up trying to get a good sound out of it, so I had the preamp bypassed, bought a JMP1 preamp, then obviously just used the power stage of the head. Sounds good enough.

I never liked Fenders either, and I wondered what all the hype was about when I first started going to guitar shops. I know some of the new ones are more like Charvels than Charvels, but 'real' Strats have a too curved fretboard, the necks and bridges are too wide, the 1st knob is too close to the 1st string, and they usually sound crap, even with a Hotrails in there!!! And what's with the whole 25.5" scale length??!! I've never heard a good argument for it!! Don't even get me started on Telecasters....what a hunk of hard-to-play junk they are. But, you've gotta give old Leo credit for designing the bolt-on neck and a body that hasn't been changed in 50 years. The last I heard was that there's still a bit of debat over who exactly invented to solid body

I use to be an '80s/Vai guy, so I was right into U.S. Charvels and Jacksons. I've got an 'itzabitza' 1982-ish Strat headstock San Dimas Charvel (i would happily sell it for the right bike), a 1986 Texas bolt-on Jackson custom, and a crap Ibanez RG something that I used to take to hillbilly gigs. I bought the San Dimas off Jack Jones (name dropper ) for $2100 in 1992, which was too much, but after I saw Crossroads, and bought Eat Em and Smile, I was desperate to one like Stevie's



If anyone wants any grouse Charvel/Jackson links, lemme know.

There's also a few muso forums (too many teenagers), and some manufacturer-specific forums.