more important: guitar or amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter OverlookFran
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Another vote for the amp.

A cheap guitar can sound brilliant through a good amp. But you'll never get any guitar to sound worth a shit through a crappy amp.
 
Zaphod B said:
Another vote for the amp.

A cheap guitar can sound brilliant through a good amp. But you'll never get any guitar to sound worth a shit through a crappy amp.
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See ......... that's the thing.
You absolutely can get very many cheapo gits to sound good thru a great amp.
My $140 Xavier sounds great thru my Blue Angel.
But I could plug a top line Gibson or Fender or one of the super expensive boutique guitars into some solid state POS and you'll never, ever manage to make it sound decent.
 
I was gonna say 'amp', but since pretty much everyone else already did, I won't bother ...
 
You lot are are completely missing the point.

The correct answer is the cable.
 
My MIA Fender Jazz bass sounds great through just about everything till I plug it into my little Laney RBW300 1 x 12+ horn. That is a shit sounding amp but when I put my Tech21 Sansamp BDDI in between them the amp sounds amazing.

How confusing is that? The axe is more important I think cause it's all about feel and if it feels good you'll play better.
 
I buy a guitar because I like the way it feels and the way it sounds. Then I cast about for an amp that brings out the qualities I like best in the guitar.

I have devolved into owning only Gibson electrics and Fender amps, so my palette may seem a little limited. Also, I rarely use distortion or effects, unless there's something specific on a song that I think requires a little extra color.

So my LP Deluxe goes into the Jazzmaster Ultralight, or at least it did -- I put Lester up for sale; the SG goes into a raucous modified Pignose G40V [yup, an exception to the rule]; and the 335, after a happy time plugged into the Blues Jr NOS, is now getting a Band-Master VM head into a Weber California Ceramic 15" in a Weber cab.

I think the only dogmatic thing you can say about the guitar/amp combination is that everybody's different. In fact, my own approach has reversed over the last thirty years: I once thought the amp was the thing and that the guitar was secondary. And, as long as I was playing with heavy distortion at stupid levels, it really didn't matter what guitar I was using -- it was just a signal generator for the chain saw sound, anyway.

One more exception to my "the guitar is primary" philosophy: I still have the '63 Silvertone 1484 I bought for $40 in 1974, and it still kills everything else. If it had a decent reverb (and actual tone controls) I don't know that I'd play through anything else.
 
I think with a bit of fucking about I can get a sound that I like out of pretty much any guitar/amp combo, but it's utterly subjective and YMMV
 
Man you guys are confused. The most important thing is to have a pair of tight leather pants and snakeskin boots. You also need plenty of dummy speaker cabs. And don't forget the importance of a good fog machine, laser lights ,and pyrotechnics. The tone that your guitars and amps produce is pretty meaningless when compared to all of these things.
 
ocnor said:
Man you guys are confused. The most important thing is to have a pair of tight leather pants and snakeskin boots. You also need plenty of dummy speaker cabs. And don't forget the importance of a good fog machine, laser lights ,and pyrotechnics. The tone that your guitars and amps produce is pretty meaningless when compared to all of these things.
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This is really depressing, considering how true it can be. :( ;) :D
 
Its like another thread where people ask which piece I should Skimp on....well a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

I have a Crate VC5 that can make any guitar sound very good...and its as cheap as an amp you can get...its designed to amplify a harp...but its like butter.
On the other hand I have a variax 600 alot of you would turn your nose to...but it can make a wire with gain sound fabulous...and it sounds nice without anything plugged in.
 
Love the back and forth here. I can only speak for myself when I say that for the past 30 years, amps have come and gone for me. But when I've found the occasional guitar that really sings, I've never let it go--unless I was penniless at the time. Maybe I need to try some better amps.
 
TelePaul said:
I think with a bit of fucking about I can get a sound that I like out of pretty much any guitar/amp combo, but it's utterly subjective and YMMV
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Within limits, I agree. The player is easily the biggest part of this equation, IMO - Jeff Beck could make a Squier Strat and a Marshall MG10 combo sound magical.

Past that, I think guitars and amps are important for different reasons. Purely for tone, the amp is probably the most important part of the link, since it plays such a large part in "coloring" the sound your guitar produces. Huge, in fact.

However, I think the way I play is largely dictated by the guitar. Things like neck thickness, body contour, fretwire, setup, natural resonance, and overall "comfort" of a guitar... If I'm playing a guitar that really gels with me, then I think I sound like a better player than if it's a guitar that I'm just not comfortable on. It's less a tone thing than performance.

So, as long as your guitars "fit" you well, then I'd worry about finding an amp that makes you happy. But, if you can go into a shop, pick up a more expensive guitar, and immediately feel so much more at home on it, then grab a guitar. I can sit down with my Strat, unplugged, and have a blast playing it. If you can't say the same, then the greatest amp in the world won't change the enjoyment you get out of your rig. Your tone, sure, but not your enjoyment playing.
 
In theory: Guitar
In Practice: Amp

Plus, you've got a mexi tele, which is by no means a shitty guitar.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
However, I think the way I play is largely dictated by the guitar. Things like neck thickness, body contour, fretwire, setup, natural resonance, and overall "comfort" of a guitar... If I'm playing a guitar that really gels with me, then I think I sound like a better player than if it's a guitar that I'm just not comfortable on. It's less a tone thing than performance.
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I have to agree with you there, I'd rather have a well-playing guitar that sounds bad than a great sounding guitar that plays poorly.
 
You can still play guitar with a guitar and no amp. Things get trickier the other way round. Do the math. :)
 
Lt. Bob said:
See ......... that's the thing.
You absolutely can get very many cheapo gits to sound good thru a great amp.
My $140 Xavier sounds great thru my Blue Angel.
But I could plug a top line Gibson or Fender or one of the super expensive boutique guitars into some solid state POS and you'll never, ever manage to make it sound decent.
Click to expand...

I can see your perspective because you are talking about playing a gig or trying to sound decent over a longer period of time. But I think that some people seek out the quirkiness of a shitty sounding amp to capture some mood or something. I think of the solo in space oddity as being some of the shittiest tone ever tried to pass off on the listening public.

I also am betting that your xavier has a killer setup. If a guitar has a shitty setup, it doesn't matter what amp I play through. I sound like I'm 12.

In the song remains the same, doesn't that dano sound like ten pounds of catshit? I think it does. he is playing it through the same amp as the rest of the show, isn't he?

So, if a guitar is shitty with a shitty setup, I don't think I could make it sound good through the best amp in the world because it's fighting my fingers. But if it's a chinese less paul with shitty pickups but it set up pretty well, I think a decent amp would make it sound better than a 3 watt alamo solid state.

But I used to play my strat through that 3-watt alamo with a Dod distortion box and it sounded exactly like van halen to me. However, I was 20.

I also used to record with a PV audition 20 cranked up inside an old refrigerator and that sounded freaking awesome.
 
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