How many people ever really hear an accurate representation of that actual cab in a given room though ?? For that matter, two different people are likely to have different hearing thresholds, so what one person hears can be different than what someone right next to them might hear if their thresholds are different (Doctor of Audiology for my day job, so I see plenty of variability in hearing thresholds lol)
I've never been in the studio with Gilmour, Hendrix et al., but I've always really enjoyed their tones. I've never not enjoyed listening to a Gilmour solo because I thought to myself "I'm not hearing his actual amp, I'm hearing his amp mic'd through a console, and then played back on my own monitoring equipment, which in my car, verses on my phone, verses my studio monitors all are going to affect the tone. But you know what ?? It sounds amazing each and every time still
Go find a great player and its going to sound good if they are playing through a cab or a FRFR or even a recorded clip on an iPhone. If Larry Mitchell came over and played my III through my CRL's I think it would be a pretty sweet tone, and far better than anything I ever played through it.
Too many guys (TGP especially) have an excuse for why their aren't better guitarist, and its always blaming the gear, because it doesn't "inspire" them to play their best, or the tonal nuance is slightly lacking, and while if everything was perfect we'd hear these monster chops, instead we get some poor chord voicing and bad blues leads, always with the disclaimer that they "weren't trying" and just wanted to show off the tone, or a new guitar etc.
In some ways, its a gift and curse for guitarist of a certain age, myself included, in that we've got the means to buy whatever we want, but that day job and lifestyle that affords us these great toys also means we don't really practice much, going days without touching the guitar because the kids got a soccer game one night etc. So then here we are, with vintage strats, custom PRS's, Axe III"s etc, but do we have the chops ? Usually not, so then why does John Mayer's noodling on a 40 minute headstock defense video clip sound better than anything we ever played ?? Must be the gear....
As i type this I've got an ax8 sitting on top of my III, with two CRL's hooked up, but am I playing it ?? Nope, I'm on the internet talking about gear..... Why is that ? Maybe its because my III and CRL's just cant get amp in room, and I'm just not inspiring. Maybe I need to go buy another tube amp (again) and then when I get that next week I'm suddenly going to live, sleep and breathe guitar, and I'll become a rock god, blowing away all my idols.... yeah that its... This III and CLR just doesn't cut it....sounds fake. Got to be the gear.... No way there are guys out there with III's and FRFR speakers doing anything good right ??