ghostrider, you are way off on the association of clean power and distortion. There's good distortion and then ther's bad distortion. I play a Dr Z (Prescription) amp. All his designs are based on power tube distortion rather than preamp driven distortion both of which are hugely different from bad power distortion. Clean power, high dollar propriatary caps, matched tubes, NOS tubes, point to point wiring all add to these amps not take away. They have massive transformers to keep the bottom end tight and they are among the most touch responsive amps and dynamic out there. The notes are very articulate and defined. A players dream amp. Victoria, Matchless, Swart all the same deal.
Some guitar players are getting into the high end patch chords (George Ls for ex) and good speaker cables but as a player with 30+ years of gigging i have to say patch cords are questionable unless you are recording and get real about the power cord thing. The idea of trashing an $80 cord on a $50 dollar gig isn't all that appealing. Half of the time you are playing a bar with out-of-date-ground-loop-from-hell electrical, beer lights that send more signal through your single coils than your playing does, shoved into a corner of a no acoustics dive playing to loud patrons who think you are a live jutebox. If you want a real difference for the real world a player should get something to keep line voltages where they should be. Resonance control as mentioned above is a benifit as well.
All the potential improvements from cords assumes the guy has spent money on a high quality responsive amp in the first place. A lot of guys think it's nuts to spend $1500 or better on an amp. Spending money upgrading a mass production fender blues Jr is nothing but a waste (nothing particularly bad about a blues Jr but it is what it is).
Some guitar players are getting into the high end patch chords (George Ls for ex) and good speaker cables but as a player with 30+ years of gigging i have to say patch cords are questionable unless you are recording and get real about the power cord thing. The idea of trashing an $80 cord on a $50 dollar gig isn't all that appealing. Half of the time you are playing a bar with out-of-date-ground-loop-from-hell electrical, beer lights that send more signal through your single coils than your playing does, shoved into a corner of a no acoustics dive playing to loud patrons who think you are a live jutebox. If you want a real difference for the real world a player should get something to keep line voltages where they should be. Resonance control as mentioned above is a benifit as well.
All the potential improvements from cords assumes the guy has spent money on a high quality responsive amp in the first place. A lot of guys think it's nuts to spend $1500 or better on an amp. Spending money upgrading a mass production fender blues Jr is nothing but a waste (nothing particularly bad about a blues Jr but it is what it is).