Possible new amp day

[iceman79]

I went to my local music store to possibly buy a new guitar. I went to the amp room and they had a bunch of new Dr. Z amps. A few months ago I bought a VHT Special 6 (head + cab). For the price the VHT is better than most of Chinese junk thats out there. Anyway, I can only afford a nice guitar or a nice amp. Which should I get?

[cronnin]

Re: Possible new amp day

Well, if staff people see you coming in, ready to spend some money, they'll probably be in your best service.
Tell the manager you want to make direct comparison, and ask when is the best time to do this.

You'll probably be there somewhere 10-11 a.m. when there's no one around.
Take your guitar and VHT head with you.
If they already have same/similar models (which would not be unusual), then you won't even have to make any arrangement with store staff.

And try both combination:
your guitar > Dr. Z
new guitar > VHT 6
Decide which sound suits you best for the next winter.

Get out of the store with one new piece of equipment.
Play till your fingers bleed.

Make an estimation - how much money you can get selling two old pieces of your equipment.
Subtract that sum from the price of your new guitar/DrZ (depending on what you will get now).
Make a count - how much money you have to save per month to get your new guitar/amp by ...Easter?

That's what I would do

[iceman79]

Re: Possible new amp day

I would love to get rid of amp and guitar at the same time, but I only have enough cash saved for either the Dr. Z or a nice guitar. A friend of mine told me he'd rather play a gig with an Epiphone Les Paul thru a boutique amp, instead of having a Gibson VOS Les Paul thru a cheap amp. I will eventually get rid of the VHT Special 6 and my guitar (Epi Les Paul), but I still cant decide which is going first.

[cronnin]

Re: Possible new amp day

he'd rather play a gig with an Epiphone Les Paul thru a boutique amp, instead of having a Gibson VOS Les Paul thru a cheap amp.

+1

If you really can't decide, go for a new amp.

Even $150 Squier sounds good through a good amplifier.
No $2000 guitar is inspiring to play through a cheap SS.

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Possible new amp day

I side on the better amp more so than better guitar as well. The amp is literally where the rubber meets the road. The guitar is like having a nicer interior. After the $500 mark, most guitars just look better and don't really start sounding better until you start putting out serious cash. Amps on the other hand really improve as the expenditure increases. I'd take a new amp over a new guitar any day. I have four electrics in heavy rotation here and one of them is a really nice Yamaha Weddington that I paid $1000 for, the rest are cheap strats of varying degrees of sophistocation and one Kramer Focus 1000. That Kramer gets played just as often as the Yamaha and I would cry almost as hard if I lost it as I would for the Yamaha (it would be easier/cheaper to replace). Take one of my preferred amps however and I'll bawl like a baby for weeks. If one of my amps is sick or broken, I get depressed and can't rest until it's fixed. Amps mean much more to the overall sound coming out than individual guitars do. Sure there is a difference between strats and les pauls etc, but in terms of quality of sound the differences are pretty small between the cheap and expensive ones when you compare them to amps.

NEW AMP DAY! NEW AMP DAY!!!

[d1dsj]

Re: Possible new amp day

I'd go for a better amp first too.

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Possible new amp day

If you spend most of your playing time at home at the moment, the guitar would be the way to go. If you're jamming and gigging, go with the amp. A good amp will usually stay through many guitar swaps along the track. And it's much easier to upgrade an average guitar step-by-step as money allows ; almost impossible to do that with an amp.

[iceman79]

Re: Possible new amp day

I'm gonna go with the majority on this one. The amp it is. Thanks for the input everyone!

[greatbob6]

Re: Possible new amp day

Don't forget clips!

[Gforce9]

Re: Possible new amp day

Dr. Z Carmen Ghia owner here......Dr. Z amps are great and they love pedals! Which one are you looking at?

[everdrone]

Re: Possible new amp day

Id go dr. z ...but marshall over that! I saw this band live, they used dr. z and it sounded great for classic rock downtuned: http://www.myspace.com/droidsattack

[distortionhead]

Re: Possible new amp day

go amp but i played a few Dr. Z amps and wasnt all that great for down tuned stuff. I play in C#