Cagey
Experienced
I've never technically understood the idea that presets need to be built up specifically for each user []
People play differently, so that the exact same gear set up the exact same way will sound entirely different. David Curcurito tells a story (excerpted here from an Esquire article)...
It's all in the fingers, man. [Eddie] tells a story about when the band first hit. Van Halen was opening for Ted Nugent back in 1978 at the Capital Centre. Ted was cool enough to give the band a sound check. He's standing off to the side and he's listening to me, and he comes up and says,"Hey, you little shit! Where's your little magic black box?" I'm going, Who the fuck is that? And it was Ted. Hey Ted, it's nice to meet you, thanks for the sound check. And he's going, "Let me play your guitar!" I go, "Okay, here you go." He starts playing my guitar and it sounds like Ted. He yells,"You just removed your little black box, didn't you? Where is it? What did you do?" I go, "I didn't do anything!" So I play, and it sounds like me. He says, "Here, play my guitar!" I play his big old guitar and it sounds just like me. He's going, "You little shit!" What I'm trying to say is I am the best at doing me. Nobody else can do me better than me.
I'm certainly no Eddie or Ted, but I get the same thing here when people come over and want to play my rig. A preset that works great for me will sound all sorts of wrong when someone else uses it. How you pick and/or strum, your legato/vibrato technique, the way you hammer/tap/pull, where you set the dreaded knobs/switches on the guitar, etc. all change the signal going into the rig, which responds accordingly.