I think I'm with Pip on this. I suspect there is a difference between wanting to perform like the definitive recording and wanting to do stuff where the "original" could not even be recorded.

One that comes to my mind on this sort of thing is the use of the banjo. Maybe I'm wrong but with the 5 string and Bluegrass, most seem to want to get that definitive "Scruggs sound". On the Irish and the tenor where we are just playing tunes, it seems to me more a case of anything from Framus to Mastertone to whatever will do if the player likes the sound.