yea dude, but thing is...not alot of people have access to these boutique amps, y'see? we here in the US, of course, have access to them...but MOST people don't...so what you're basically saying to everyone here is ..."none of you have great tone because none of you have these oh so great boutique amps that i have" and "none of you are exposed because you haven't heard my oh so great boutique amps" well....good for you, dude...what? do we start worshipping you and your amps now?
comparing hot cabs with a soldano is just plain f%$%'n stupid really...but see, you don't need to spend $3000+ bucks on an amp to get a great sound...there's alot of "normal" priced amps out there that will deliver the goods just the same...you make it sound like your boutique amps are the be all, end all of all amplifiers....i got news for you, they're not!
what i don't care for is amp snobs like you who think that your uberschall's and shiva's and matchless amps are the only access to great tone...sure they're great amps...i'll give you that, but you can get great tone from mid priced amps as well...i think about 99% of these people will agree...
now about cutting my fingers, that's just real bad analogy man...that would be equivalent to turning the amp's eq off...not changing the tone...y'know what i do when i wanna change the tone? I PLAY WITH THE EQ OF THE AMP! THAT'S WHAT IT'S THERE FOR!
you can change your tone with tubes, speakers, guitars, picks, strings, etc etc....effects....these are all true...these will probably cost you a few hundred bucks...
but guess what? even if you shell out a car's downpayment's worth for your so called boutique amps, you're still gonna buy the above mentioned items! that's just plain ridiculous...
if you're touring the world as a musician... $3000 is a piece of cake...but other than that...making that decision is just borderlining on either pure excessiveness/plain s t u p i d i t y...
btw, before you dismiss this as an envious outcry...i'll be the first to tell you...it's not...i have all the gear i need...its total cost is probably less than the cost of one of your amp's grille cloths...but it sounds great....BECAUSE I SAY SO...
Markflo,
When I talk about equipment, I am assuming the baseline is that you already have tone in your fingers. So, dont skew the topic. The topic is: If I play on a Korean Hot Cabs amp versus a Soldano SLO100, there will be a tonal difference very much in favor of the Soldano. Period. Thats the message.
Now since you mentioned that tone is in the fingers, so if you want to change tone, what do you do now? Cut off your fingers? You don't. You either change guitar, guitar parts, amp or effects.