Mesa Boogie vs Fender

davey -- To put it simply, I just don’t play any electrified instruments anymore. Just like one of my band members happily/mistakenly exclaimed about the Grateful Dead during one fleeting moment back in the previous century, I’ve gone completely acoustic and haven’t looked back.

Electric guitars have to weigh a ton if you want any tone out of them. It’s tough on the shoulders and back. And feet. More importantly, I preternaturally crave acoustic sounds. That Carr amp in our living room hasn’t been switched on in several years. As for the sound difference between the Fenders and the Mesa, three-easy-payments has it right on. Sparkle, headroom and dynamic range are currently out of style. Instead, players seem to crave power and punch...not that this is a particularly bad thing in the rock universe. When you’re duking it out with other electric performers it’s not subtlety you generally want, anyway. You want to make your presence known. You want the audience/listener to know how bruised and angry you are at the current state of existence.

Back when I actually was in a rock band, I played a relic-ed Custom Shop "Pre-CBS" Fender Tele (among other axes) through a genuine Pre-CBS Vibrolux while the other guitarist played his various guitars, both humbucking & single-coil, through a Mesa Boogie.  True, the Boogie has more testosterone but my Vibrolux sounded so lovely, when I got out of the rock-and-roll game he asked to buy the thing.   As far as I know he still plays through it.  Meantime, just to keep a toe in the electric guitar world I have a Carr Rambler in the living room.  I also still have that Tele. 

We're brewing a great thread here.  I'll drift it a bit further into the weeds.  My first electric was a Strat, and opposed to most of the musical instruments I've donned it is extremely comfortable to wear.  I think my wife still has a Strat somewhere, hidden in a closet.  The trouble is, I could never get a strat to sing the way others could.  On the other hand, when I wielded a Telecaster I could boing, scream, twang, and make this big city kid feel like an outlaw country boy.  It's possible that my Les Paul is hidden in the wife's closet, as well.  An LP can sing like Pavarotti but it also weighs as much as the dear departed Luciano.  The short scale and high frets give me fits, too.  I appreciate the one-and-a-half steps you can choke out of a string but I never could never achieve the gentle touch needed to play the axe in tune.  Bottom line, when it comes to guitars I guess I'm just a steel string acoustic guy.