For a good clean tone to happen, I still believe that the amplifier is it. It's the make / break component in making one's tone great. You'd be surprised that an appealing level of clean can be achieved with just the guitar & amp if your amp is worthy. OK, there's some controversy as to what makes a good clean tone when it comes to amps. My first & foremost reference is always a Fender. When Leo started it all, he was working with cleans. Back in those days, the overdrive would take centerstage much later in guitar / amp developments. Cleans were pretty much it & Fender did it right from the start. Fender amps have that clean chime that's still very difficult to beat. In fact, the good amp names that are not Fender, presented their own iteration of good cleans instead of competing against the Fender standard. In the non-boutique realm, we can agree that Vox & Marshall did well in this aspect.
As for my personal reference, the Fender name wins it because it goes well with reverb. I have no idea if this was Leo's intention back then but pair up a Fender amp & some dedicated reverb unit, say a Strymon BigSky, & you'd be lost in dreamscape for days. That goes to show how good the Fender clean is even with digital implements.
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