Amp Prices... I'm outraged!

[Scottgman]

I got my Budda Superdrive before the price increase. I could probably sell my amp for a profit right now (I never would though... I'll have this amp for life).

I LOVE BOUTIQUE AMPS!!!!

 

[Codmate]

I all due respect, I cannot agree. A handbuilt, point to point wired amps with its own signature tone has value to many of us.

Some people will be happy playing a mass produced imported guitar through a factory built amp---and that is their choice. But, for those that appreciate the nuances and attributes of an amp that is built from the best components there is a big difference.

I see little reason to make blanket subjective statements about these things.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a nice boutique amp.

But you have to admit, an awful lot of great music has been made with factory built amps (and production line guitars for that matter).

 

[Farview]

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a nice boutique amp.

But you have to admit, an awful lot of great music has been made with factory built amps (and production line guitars for that matter).

Oddly enough, most of it has been made on factory built stuff that has been modified to perform better than normal. When you add the cost of modification to the price of a top shelf factory built piece, you will still be up in the range of a boutique amp.

 

[ggunn]

Oddly enough, most of it has been made on factory built stuff that has been modified to perform better than normal. When you add the cost of modification to the price of a top shelf factory built piece, you will still be up in the range of a boutique amp.

Most great music in the world has been made on modded factory amps? How can you say that? With a straight face, I mean...

 

[Farview]

I suppose it depends on what you think great music is. I know for a fact that nobody you've heard of using a Marshall from the mid 70's through the mid 90's was using a stock one.

 

[SBax]

But you have to admit, an awful lot of great music has been made with factory built amps (and production line guitars for that matter).

When Roger Waters was recording Amused To Death he said Jeff Beck came into the studio with a brand new Strat and Twin. Waters asked Beck where he got the strat from because the guitar and amp still had the Fender production tags attached. Waters assumed that Beck's guitar tech would have to set it up according to Beck's preferences but no, Beck said he took it straight off the wall in the local music store. Beck rips off the tags, tunes up, and starts recording. That session is on the album. Waters was amazed how Beck can walk into any old store, buy the same stuff anyone can, no mods and play so well.

You may say ok but Amused To Death is not great music so this doesn't apply but if it had the Pink Floyd brand name it would sold huge like The Wall or Dark Side.

 

[ggunn]

Isuppose it depends on what you think great music is. I know for a fact that nobody you've heard of using a Marshall from the mid 70's through the mid 90's was using a stock one.

How could you possibly know such a thing "for a fact"? That's a pretty huge statement, especially since you've no idea of whom I've heard of. There are a lot of amps in the world, and not all of them are Marshalls, stock or otherwise.

I'll allow that there are a lot of modded amps out there, but for you to make the sweeping statement that there is not a single act that I've ever heard of that used a stock guitar amplifier is ludicrous. I've seen and heard of a lot of acts in my 56 years on this planet, and I'd be willing to wager a substantial amount that at least one blistering guitar player I heard in some smoky dive was playing through a stock amp.

That's just silly.

 

[IronFlippy]

The bottom line is that guitars and guitar stuff is very inexpensive. If you were a serious violinist, you would think nothing of getting a $30,000 violin. Hell, the cheap ones that the grade school kids use are as expensive as mid-level guitars at Guitar Center.

Being a guitar player in this day and age is about the cheapest thing you can do musically. Look behind you at your drummer, he can easily have $1000 worth of cymbals around his kit. If he plays hard, he will go through $200-$300 worth of them a year. Sticks are $7 a pair and might only last a couple of songs. Even if he gets the GC special $500 kit, he still needed to get $300 worth of stands to make it work.

+1

I upgraded my student alto sax to a pro horn for school and it cost me $3500. I wanted to get a bari, but I couldn't afford the $6000 for it. And brass instruments are cheap compared to, say, a bassoon which can go for >$14,000. Getting a sax setup properly costs around $500, and you should really have that done yearly if your gigging a lot. I picked up guitar because it was a relatively cheap hobby.

 

[lpdeluxe]

If you don't want to pay to play, be glad you're not a cello player.

As for me, if I need it, I'll buy it, and if I can't buy it, I'll do without. I have no desire to insult the many innovative and underpaid boutique amp builders out there, just because I can't afford some new toy.

 

[Farview]

How could you possibly know such a thing "for a fact"? That's a pretty huge statement, especially since you've no idea of whom I've heard of. There are a lot of amps in the world, and not all of them are Marshalls, stock or otherwise.

I was using the royal 'you', I didn't mean you personally. You're right, I have no idea whom you have or have not heard of.

What I meant by 'anyone you have heard of' was more like 'anyone we've all heard of'. I suppose I was also thinking mostly of rock guys.

There are plenty of famous mods for most classic Fender amps, Vox AC30s, etc... I used to do this for people from Tony Iommi to Lonnie Mack. It was a cottage industry just adding gain to JMP and JCM800 Marshalls.

When I was working artist relations at various guitar companies, it was my job to make sure that the guitars the artists got were set up the way they wanted them. That wasn't necessarily the way we made the normal ones.

Could Jeff Beck play a guitar off a showroom floor, sure, anyone can. Were the ones that he ordered directly from a company bone stock, no.

 

[Farview]

BTW, don't fool yourself into thinking that Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck use the exact configuration of their Fender signature models exclusively or that is necessarily thier favorite. They are putting their name on the product to make money and thiers has to be different than in some way.

 

[Light]

BTW, don't fool yourself into thinking that Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck use the exact configuration of their Fender signature models exclusively or that is necessarily thier favorite. They are putting their name on the product to make money and thiers has to be different than in some way.

That maybe true sometimes, but the fact is that (for instance) Eric Clapton plays a Clapton signiture model strat, and that is true for most of these guys. The reason players like that sound better than you or I has nothing to do with the gear. It's in the hands. I've heard Clapton play other guitars, and he still sounds exactly like Clapton. I've opened up and looked inside Bonnie Raitt's strat, and it's just a strat.

Factories can make a fine instrument. I would certainly not say that I (or anyone) makes a better guitar than PRS, for instance. I make a DIFFERENT guitar, for sure, but the quality of work in most factories is very fine. You will not get one of my guitars out of a factory, but you also won't get a Fender or a Gibson out of me. The trick is not to find the BEST guitar. There is no such thing. The trick is to find the best guitar FOR YOU. Same with amps, or pedals, or picks, or strings, or whatever. Some people will only be happy with something unique, and for them a custom guitar or boutique amp may well be the thing. For others, a strat through a twin (or an LP through a Marshal, or whatever) is the thing. For some poor souls (including myself, I'm afraid), they need everything. Heck, I'm thinking pretty seriously about making myself a Leslie without a power amp that I can drive with an AC-30, because it just seems right to me.

So go out and play every guitar you can get your hands on, and have fun. When you find yours, you'll know, and then all you have to do is figure out how to pay for it.

Be it custom, boutique, factory, or homemade, they can all be fine guitars. Just don't every believe that YOUR tastes in gear is the only thing which is right, and don't assume that your pocket book should determine what things cost.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Clive Hugh]

I've got to check but I do not believe the 401 is made in England.

My Deville is most certainly chrome, it is not plastic. Do your research.


A point I'm trying to make is the Marshall is a mass produced amp, same as the Fender. At least to "me" a 401 is nowhere near being worth what they are getting for that amp. The market will bear it because of the Marshall name.

Just a point, chrome is a plating done over another metal, in most amp corners it's brass, however some plastics can also be chrome plated.

 

[gibsonguy09]

I agree the prices of amps are crazy! I am trying to find a new amp adn i want a crate gx212, crazy price for that thing. Almost cost as much as my guitars.

 

[ggunn]

That maybe true sometimes, but the fact is that (for instance) Eric Clapton plays a Clapton signiture model strat, and that is true for most of these guys. The reason players like that sound better than you or I has nothing to do with the gear. It's in the hands. I've heard Clapton play other guitars, and he still sounds exactly like Clapton. I've opened up and looked inside Bonnie Raitt's strat, and it's just a strat.

Yeah, I was having trouble swallowing the concept that nobody famous ever used or uses unmodded gear.

 

[Farview]

That maybe true sometimes, but the fact is that (for instance) Eric Clapton plays a Clapton signiture model strat, and that is true for most of these guys.

I wasn't trying to say that he doesn't play his signature guitar, I was saying that his guitar will not be the same as the one you order. His will have gone through at least another 3 or 4 QC steps. The wood will be selected by the companies high priest of wood selecting. It will be made by the companies 'best' person or people, etc... The one that you order will just be the same configuration.

 

[WERNER 1]

"So go out and play every guitar you can get your hands on, and have fun. When you find yours, you'll know, and then all you have to do is figure out how to pay for it. "

You wanna hear something sad? .....I've got a pretty good selection of guitars that I've aquired over the past 25 years, and I've spent a pretty good chuck of change on them as well...... The guitar that I always reach for is my 84' Kramer Striker 300st - Plywood body and all! This goes against everything I've ever learned about quality guitars and woods, but it doesn't matter as it still plays the best and sound even better. Now grant it, I've done, and had done a lot of work on it, but still! The total amount for the guitar new plus what I've put into it still doesn't equal 1/2 of what I payed for my Custom shop Soloist!

Guitars - 1964 Gibson SG Standard, 1994 Jackson Custom Shop Soloist, 50th Ann. Strat w/ Lindy Fralin Vintage hot's, The Kramer, Agile Prestige AL3000 (Best $350.00 bucks I've ever spent!....even if it is from Korea! ) ...........

 

[nonovice]

Greed!

Sorry guys but I have a friend who has built me a thermin and looked inside a couple amps with me.( he even het rooded my boogie) All your paying for is is greed (or a name) you decide. Point to point wiring and labor do not constitute such a steep price. Another 10 years of amp sims (if that) amp makers are going to pay dearly for a lack of vision. Yell all you want but tape is nearly dead and soon enough amps will be merely nostalgic in value as well. (times are a changing) I have read debates by great engineers many record direct and have gotten superb tones. Bob Ezrin, Kevin Kline to name a few, and this was before amp modeling. Even Andy Johns bitched about how tape adds it's own artifacts to the signal. That being said I think Just like The makers of the old consoles and reel to reel. If the amp makers of the world don't step up (or down) they have real trouble ahead.

 

[easychair]

Sorry guys but I have a friend who has built me a thermin and looked inside a couple amps with me.( he even het rooded my boogie) All your paying for is is greed (or a name) you decide. Point to point wiring and labor do not constitute such a steep price. Another 10 years of amp sims (if that) amp makers are going to pay dearly for a lack of vision. Yell all you want but tape is nearly dead and soon enough amps will be merely nostalgic in value as well. (times are a changing) I have read debates by great engineers many record direct and have gotten superb tones. Bob Ezrin, Kevin Kline to name a few, and this was before amp modeling. Even Andy Johns bitched about how tape adds it's own artifacts to the signal. That being said I think Just like The makers of the old consoles and reel to reel. If the amp makers of the world don't step up (or down) they have real trouble ahead.

Okay then, I guess we can close this thread now, thanks.

 

[nonovice]

Just an opinion

Man I thought. What was i thinking.......HAHAHAHAH