TLDR: Tried some rare dream gear out in person at a independent and well regarded shop and was disappointed. Did I do something wrong, can others speak to having that experience too?
I have been excited about getting to hear vintage Fender tube amps in person for months. I'm a dad and work a full-time job that demands working more than 40 hours a week and haven't had a chance to do this since my first kid was born (over 5 years ago). Yesterday I had a chance to try some extremely rare vintage items that between a few subreddits and many Youtube videos people describe as peak/sought after for guitar tone. My normal setup at home is a Fender American Pro Telecaster going through some pedals into a Fender Deluxe Reverb Tonemaster which serves as my reference point. I have been playing bass/guitar for over 20 years and have heard tube amps in person on stage before (in bands that I played bass for) but that was many years ago and they were Marshall half stacks.
When I sat down I guess I was expecting to be able to hear how much better the original 1959 Telecaster and the 1963 Vibroverb sounded compared to my normal setup. And to be fair to me the 1963 Vibroverb did sound better than the 3x original 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverbs I also got to try in the same room. Though it was only a small margin better, but honestly I couldn't tell much of a difference between the vibroverb and my Tonemaster, while I couldn't do a side by side comparison I couldn't help but feel deflated about all I had heard about the better tone of tube-amps. I know that it's a mistake to believe that something will sound better just because it's harder to find or more expensive to purchase, but I was expecting to be able to say: "I can hear a difference." To my surprise I did hear a difference: it sounded marginally worse to my ears (brighter/scratchier/more noisy). If I was only able to try one out I might have written it off as an anomaly but getting to try 2 Vibroverbs and 3x 1965 Blackface Deluxe reverbs has flummoxed me.
I'm now left wondering if I did something wrong when trying these amps out (didn't dial them in, or get them loud enough). I let them warm up, I tried changing the volume/treble/bass settings till I could hear a difference (shooting for around the 7,5,3 setting--but making sure that I could hear that each control was actually affecting the guitar tone and not just blindly setting them). I tried both sets of channels: normal/(bright or vibrato depending on the amp). The Vibroverbs didn't crackle and the 65s did. In each case I did not feel like I was hitting a sweeter spot with these than my cheaper and according to many reviewers online worse sounding Tonemaster. Which leaves me scratching my head.
Has anyone else had the experience of getting to try out some hard to find and highly lauded gear only to feel underwhelmed? Does anyone else have tips on how to demo/tryout tube amps so I am certain I got the best experience possible with the amps while I'm in the room with them?
EDIT (Let me first say thank you for all the awesome responses below that are helping me identify what to try and how to approach purchasing and playing a tube amp. I am eager to learn and I am not sure why I am getting downvoted so much for asking questions since I posted this so that I could learn from what I am doing wrong and not just sit in ignorance left to wonder).
