I chuckled when I heard this…
Scroll forward to :47… he is talking about how important the sound of his rig is to being able to play well.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
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Interesting. I know little about him but a quick read of his story has me wondering if people who make a living in music are different than any other profession. Some people are passionate about what they do. Others are making a living because they’re talented.
Steering this to audiophile stuff… Eric Johnson cares about the subtleties of his tone. He recognizes that the quality of AC power effects his tone and therefore his ability to make music. He notes here in this video that it effects his playing.
Eddie Van Halen cared so much about his tone, the started literally designing his own amps and he was clueless when he started… joked about shocking himself.
Not all successful musicians care about tone at least to the point where they dig into minutia like we audiophiles… Eric Johnson was the first musician I am aware of that can hear quality AC.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
I can’t imagine a musician not considering the subtleties of tone of their instrument as essential to their performance. It’s the main reason a Stradivarius is worth a few bucks more than others.
Robben Ford and Larry Carlton both have talked about this in detail ( re. power quality) in interviews.
In fact, a player I know was using a P12 for quite a while before he felt it was not hardened for road use.
I expect an electric guitarist to be as obsessed with tone as us acoustic musicians.
Is not tone the primary point of an electric guitar, pedals, compression, etc.?
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Many electric guitarists use a Variac to power their (usually valve output) guitar amps - stage power is well known for varying all over the place, usually being too low, which changes all the bias levels etc. on the power amp.
Hence the Variac, usually to bring it back up to the rated 240 - 250 volts in the UK (ignore all that 230 volt rubbish, it’s a con*) so it sounds like it was designed to (and is a bit louder).
Whether that counts as improving the quality of the mains is another matter. I’ll go read the article now 
* reminder to anyone designing mains powered equipment for the UK - if you aim for 230 volts, and especially if you are using a linear PSU, you are going to have trouble at some point.
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Edit - poxy videos?!!
Why can’t people put the text - nothing worse than taking in information at the slow rate most people talk!!
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I believe Eddie Van Halen was the first to vary voltage to change tone.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
https://wgsusa.com/blog/true-story-eddie-vanhalen-using-variac-tube-guitar-amp
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Interesting
Yes of course they do… but how to get tone… what are the options… can you use technology?
Electric guitar players focus on a few things… so it was when I was a teenager and in college… solid body, pickup type and brand, the ground switch, and solid state vs tube amplification. Other than that, then came the gadgets and knobs which are all additive devices. Considering things like tube type or brand, quality of AC, just weren’t known to us… we had no idea.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
All electric guitarists I know are obsessed with everything - tubes, cables, copper sheathing within the instrument, strings, changing out and modifying pick-ups - everything.
That is, it is all in the instrument and accessories.
One electric guitarist that doesn’t obsess is Ronnie Earl, and his tone is really good.
I never got along with effects pedals. I’ve bought some, tried them and given them away.
I do care a lot about strings especially on my nylon and steel string acoustic guitars.
The amp and speakers within however are critical to getting the sounds I need. Once that sound comes thru, the instrument becomes like my own voice.
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