zplapplap,
I have often wondered if the change in tone we all seem to have noticed on players that have been around for a while is due, at least in part to their inevitable hearing loss they have after years of playing loud, live gigs?
You know, you don't generally lose your hearing totally across the sound spectrum. It seems that you lose the ability to hear certain frequencies. Maybe, just maybe, a player that to us, has an undesirable tone is actually trying to dial in good tone, or his classic tone he has had for years but what he hears and what we hear is different. Make sense?
I think this could explain why to us, Clapton's tone is just a little off. Maybe to him, it sounds like it always has. Maybe he doesn't hear the low frequency as good so he dials it in to where he hears what he wants. Maybe he can still hear the highs or the lack of being able to hear the lows makes him compensate by dialing the highs down a bit and the lows up a bit. Does this makes sense?
Just a thought.
Here's Clapton sounding good on a Strat and is tone isn't all the far off from where he is today. Just a little more spank and little more crispness. Beck sounds great in this clip, as always.
This clip is for gmacdonald. Check this out.