I just don't get high gain amps.

If you don't play some form of metal, what's the point of high gain amps? I was just listening to my old band's album and the highest gain amps used on that record are plexi front marshalls. The tones are almost TOO crunchy. We barely used any effects, just the occasional rangemaster treble boost or a little full range boost or fuzz. I think we used a distortion pedal for 1 part of 1 songs to get a trashy transistor sound over some harmonics.

So someone tell me, why do non-metal guys play triple rectifiers and 5150s and stuff? I am baffled. My high gain love stops with the JCM800 single channels. I mean, Soldanos sound good, but I usually set the gain channel at around 3! Its way over the top. All that preamp distortion, even voiced by a genius like Mike Soldano, sounds mushy and obscures a lot of the nuance in your playing. It seems to me that it HIDES the feeling of the song like Roger Waters' wall, getting between you and a scary audience...

Mesa guys, modern Orange players... set me straight!

You mean there are people who don't play Metal?

Yeah, there are... a lot. LOL

Then the question is, which is the best guitar for metal for people who don't play metal?

Then the question is, which is the best guitar for metal for people who don't play metal?

I assume you're joking, but I will answer seriously that its an 80s Jackson or an early BC Rich. In the late 90s I failed to bond with a Jackson V, but it was more due to the uncomfortable shape that wouldn't sit well on my body standing up OR sitting down than to a lack of playability or tone. That USA-made Jackson did what it was designed to do VERY well (as well as being able to cover a few other genres with the right gear) and it was hard not to love it through the JCM900 SLX I owned at the time. In the end neither was for me, but with a Yamaha processor in the loop and a wah out front that set-up really conjured all of the quintessential metal sounds I grew up with, from NWOBM to Thrash.