Erniebong,
Just to clarify, I dont just THINK that the Peavey 5150 (1st edition) is inferior to the Soldano SLO100, I HEAR IT to be inferior.
In fact, I had the Peavey 5150 first way before I had a Soldano SLO100. Then I was able to get a Soldano Hot Rod 50 which was suppose to be designed around the SLO100s lead channel. I felt that the Peavey 5150 was still worth keeping because of its different voicing. But, with great reluctance, under pressure from Gary of the Amp Shop and Mr. Lito Bote who had heard and tested the SLO100, I bought one. When I first plugged it, it creamed that Peavey 5150. Still in denial, I had told myself that the 5150 had a unique sound that EVH must have appreciated. As time passed, no way!!! I was plugging more and more into the SLO100. Everytime I plugged back into the 5150 it sounded so far --- it lacked dynamic, sounded muddy (Brown sound eh?), had a bad clean sound. There was no note definition and string separation. In my case, I started off with an inferior amp that was acceptable to me and I got upgraded to a killer amp which it was based on. I sold the 5150. Up to this day, NO one who has ever tried the SLO100 locally has said that the Peavey 5150 is better than the SLO 100.
Just a side note that I mentioned before, the last amp SRV was testing was a SLO100. He was ready to integrate it into his rig before he died. According to SRV's tech, Stevie loved it like anything but they did not have time to set it up because they were in the middle of a tour. If you know SRV, he is more meticulous than Eddie when it comes to gear. If you know SRV, he does not mind playing a Tokai Strat on Stage. If you know Stevie, than you know he took Cesar's Criticism to heart and made him his tech. If you know Stevie, he mikes 50 different amps in different rooms at the same time during recording and can tell which amp has a bad sounding power tube with all of them on at the same time.
Now that you mentioned Brand Equity, let me give you an observation. The more a celebrity endorses, the more cluttered its gets for the consumer and mixing up TShirts and mixing that up with guitar equipment is so detrimental because you feel that they are making money out of you (Why is he into Tshirts when he is just suppose to endorse guitars?). Just two days ago I was attending several FGDs, wherein consumers are so jaded with endorsers -- I guess because you have endorsements everywhere -- these Class C respondents said in verbatim "nababayaran lang sila". They felt the brand was better off and more credible without celebrities as endorsers. My agency representative also concurred. Based on further research, Endorsers like Kris Aquino, Sharon and Manny Pacquiao have so many products endorsements that consumers NOW cannot clearly associate or remember to which product the celebrity made a sales pitch for -- this always comes out after post ad tests.
True Steve Vai says no one is to blame. On the other hand, I say we should not extoll anybody either. By the way ernie, do you own any artist/signature guitars, amps or effects?
