Between the guitar and the amp,

niangelo · Post by **niangelo** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:18 am

...the amp provides the vast majority of difference in tone.

In effect, investing in a quality amp is much more worthwhile that spending money on guitars in the quest for tone.

Discuss.

Van Cleef · Post by **Van Cleef** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:20 am

does a crap guitar sound amazing through a great amp?

does a great guitar sound amazing through a crap amp?

PopnFresh · Post by **PopnFresh** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:21 am

Does an okay player sound amazing through amazing amps and guitars? No and I think its a bit of both.

deepblue · Post by **deepblue** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:23 am

Ive been playing for over 30 years. Tone comes from the hands. The guitar and amp will either make a nice tone sound better, or it will make a not so nice technique sound flat with little or no dynamic.

Neiloler · Post by **Neiloler** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:40 am

My personal opinion on "Tone is in the hand" is that it's subjective. Tone is produced from the mad mechanics of the entire machine, from player and guitar to playing technique of player to pedals and amps used to recording or amp placement in a live venue. It's a mad machine.

Ronnie Robinson · Post by **Ronnie Robinson** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:21 am

Well I think its a mixture of all three hands , guitar and amp. Even through a great Amp a cheap guitar will sound poor although that sound will be improved by someone who plays with skill, expression and taste . An expensive guitar through a crap amp will also sound poor but that sound will be enhanced by the skill of the player.

There is a train of thought that if u are going to buy a guitar and an amp u should spend roughly the same on each .

Janglin_Jack · Post by **Janglin_Jack** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:25 am

A great amp can make some so so guitars sound good. A bad amp will make everything sound bad. In the end, tone is a sum of all things from fingers/pick/playing style all the way to speakers and cabinet, (room too).

Jack

Bandeapart · Post by **Bandeapart** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:26 am

I played my old ESP yesterday through my AD30TC, and I can absolutely say that nothing about it made me smile. I put it back into it's stinky case, and shoved it away in my closet again. All that I find beautiful in that amp with my tele and ric could not be found in the tone with the ESP.

timme_v · Post by **timme_v** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:29 am

U need a combo to find the tone u like. They don't need to be high quality, as long as the player likes the tone.

mulletman · Post by **mulletman** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:51 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Bandeapart
 I played my old ESP yesterday through my AD30TC, and I can absolutely say that nothing about it made me smile. I put it back into it's stinky case, and shoved it away in my closet again. All that I find beautiful in that amp with my tele and ric could not be found in the tone with the ESP.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I'd be willing to take it off your hands......

Van Cleef · Post by **Van Cleef** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:04 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Neiloler
 My personal opinion on "Tone is in the hand" is that it's subjective. Tone is produced from the mad mechanics of the entire machine, from player and guitar to playing technique of player to pedals and amps used to recording or amp placement in a live venue. It's a mad machine.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

agreed

i just dragged out the les paul after not playing it for a couple of months... now i remember why i didn't sell it

BrianGT · Post by **BrianGT** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:36 am

Although it's a combination of a lot of things I have found over the years that a really great amp makes mediocre guitars sound good.

No matter what I plug in to my Matamp it comes out sounding great.I'm not pushing Matamp....it's just a great amp.

I have plugged really nice guitars in my pal's music store in to cheap amps and they have sounded like cheap guitars....

Of course if you get all things in harmony then you get great tone!

And so much IS in the fungers! I just wish I had some decent ones!!

:oops:

Jondog · Post by **Jondog** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:17 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Ronnie Robinson
 Well I think its a mixture of all three hands , guitar and amp. Even through a great Amp a cheap guitar will sound poor although that sound will be improved by someone who plays with skill, expression and taste . An expensive guitar through a crap amp will also sound poor but that sound will be enhanced by the skill of the player.

There is a train of thought that if u are going to buy a guitar and an amp u should spend roughly the same on each .
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I agree with this. For years I played a Mex. Strat and a Solid State Fender Princeton Chorus, nice sounding mediocre gear to have and everything satisfied me, I used to get lots of good compliments with that tone. When my amp finally started going haywire I bought my first tube amp and the first thing I noticed was "WOW, my guitar sounds like crap" My first Amer.Strat improved my tone greatly on the tube amp. My buddy sounds completely different when he plays my gear. Since then, the more money I"ve spent on quality gear (not fancy), the better everything has sounded tonally.

a.hun · Post by **a.hun** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:19 pm

I'm very much with Janglin_Jack and Brian on this one. And yeah I totally agree with the original post:
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by niangelo
 ...the amp provides the vast majority of difference in tone.

In effect, investing in a quality amp is much more worthwhile that spending money on guitars in the quest for tone.

Discuss.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

You can get some very usable inexpensive guitars these days. I mean seriously, at a pinch a seasoned Strat user could easily gig a well set up basic Yamaha Pacifica or one of the new Chinese 'Classic Vibe' series Squiers through their normal amp and sound great. Nobody would hear anything wrong, and they'd also be fine to play. Take your best guitar and put it through an inferior amp with cheap speakers though and it would be a totally different story.

So yes, I DO genuinely think with electric guitar the amp provides the majority of the tone, and that you'd get away with using a (decent but) inexpensive guitar in a way you just wouldn't with a cheap and cheerful amp whatever guitar you put through it.

Both are important, but I think below a certain price point you are definitely better investing in a better amp and saving up for the better guitar which can come later. A really nice amp will of course let a great guitar sing, but I'd definitely say get the best amp you can realistically afford to start with and go with a decent but more basic guitar.

This is basically due to the amazingly good inexpensive guitars around these days though and wasn't always the case. Cheap guitars used to be cheap and nasty, but that certainly isn't always so now. Fancy looking woods etc though are much more for a players own enjoyment than being needed as such for making great music.

Probably that explains why in my own quest for tone I have spent rather more on amps than guitars over the years, and why I own more different amps than electric guitars. Though admittedly I am also a bit biased in that I do find amps more interesting than guitars. I've often said that I consider great valve amps to be musical instruments which you happen to use electric guitars to play. (I don't mean that to play down the importance of the guitar, but to emphasize how important a great amp can be!!!) It maybe sounds ironic but I truly do believe myself that the amp is way more than 50% of the sound of electric guitar.

Thats my opinion anyway, which I honestly think it is backed up by the gear out there these days...

aNDyH.

kungfu · Post by **kungfu** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:38 pm

An equation with lots of variables:)

Between the guitar and the amp,

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