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Since JC hinted at it...here goes. Bad intonation is evident no matter what amp one is playing through. If you are into the realm of distortion and two notes are out of tune to each other and 'beating' against each other hard, things are really sour. Some ears may hear this as 'od' or righteous distortion...some others hear it as an out-of-tune guitar being played with a lot of distortion. At any time, a guitar that plays in tune will create more musical harmonics than a guitar that doesn't play in tune...and that is where distortion lives...in the harmonics. Distort a note that is out of tune with other notes and the out-of-tune harmonics will be righteously sour. Sometimes that works if you are going for that garage-band, low-fi, 'cheap' guitar sound. Sometimes we like that sound. However, from my perspective,
this appeal for less than correct harmonic structure does not negate the fact that an amp dosen't hide the imperfections. An amp merely amplifies what comes in the input....out of tune is out of tune, in tune is in tune. No amp in good working order will change that. An amp in poor working condition will create some out-of-tune harmonics that an experienced ear can hear.
Snobby....naw. LIstening with open ears...yeah.
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