50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

[misterwhizzy]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

RIGHT! I don't think the human race as we know it will still be walking on earth fifty years from now...

You think we'll have populated Mars or the Moon by that point?

</sarcasm> I know what you mean, I just think it's dumb.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

In 50 years, should I still be alive and able to pick up a guitar, I'll be playing my own amps.

 

[crguti]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I'm pretty sure everything will be based in computers (as it is now). So all guitar amps will have a computer inside doing all the processing and modelling. Vacumm tubes will be part of the museums. So, keep your tubes, probably will cost a fortune in the future.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I don't even thing there will be sound systems. The guitar amp, FX, and sound system will all just be an iPhone app. People coming to the concert will get a specail access code, and receive the audio on their iPhones. The concert iteslf will be dead silent, cause everyone will get it in-ear.

Oh, and the iPhones will be implanted in our skulls at birth.

There will be no amps.

Guitars will be plastic and transmit "tone" wireless to the audience's brain. Each person will be able to individually specify their tonal preference and mix of the audio signals being received. You will also be able to "hear" the concert even if you are someplace else, ex: at the ballet with your significant other.

These responses are very interesting. I think they may be closer to how people will be listening to music 50 years from now.
I read an interview with Joe Satriani, probably in the 80's, in which he commented that he considered speakers, and setting up an array of them in the front of a concert venue to blast sound at the audience at great volume, pretty primitive technology. If you think about it, speakers as we know them have been around since the early part of the last century, probably over 70 years. Old technology.
Satriani envisioned some means of creating a field around each audience member's head that would excite air molecules and result in the audience hearing music.

If you think about it, all the technology that is new and cutting edge today - iphones, ipods, modeling amps, laptop computers, even digital electronics - may be antique and completely obsolete in 50 years. I have seen articles claiming that scientists and engineers somewhere are already working on a successor to digital electronics.

It's hard to imagine the technology of 2059, anymore than people in 1959 could imagine laptop computers or iphones. Some of today's technology may survive, but some bright engineer out there might come up with a completely new way of creating audio, recording it, saving preset settings, and bringing audio to the listener.

And then there's trends in music too. I think one reason why live music is not doing great is that live rock bands have been around for over 50 years, and everyone has been there, done that. By 2059, rock music may die, or be so different that we wouldn't recognize it as rock.

 

[richard parker]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

When I first played through a Line 6 amp (first series) everyone was raving about them. My thoughts after playing around with one for a while was: a) every sound in it is crap b) even if they were any good I don't need anywhere near that many footswitchable sounds. There's stuff out there now with 200+ footswitch selectable sounds - who needs it? I still haven't heard any modelling stuff that sounds any good. My needs are simple - a decent valve amp and a good guitar. I think there will still be people using this stuff in 50 years time. And there will still be people playing trumpets, making their own beer, reading paperback books, going for walks in the moonlight, collecting old bottles, rolling their own cigarettes, breeding dogs, hunting animals, making love to actual real women - there will also be bloated couch vegetables spending most of their time plugged into their virtual reality machines heading into evolutionary oblivion while the real people take over again.

 

[RLee]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I fully believe that tube amps will be as big a deal in 50 years as they are now. Modeling started around 1985, right? Everyone said that tube amps were doomed then, and now, 25 years later, they are still the definitive choice for most, and tube manufacturers will keep making tubes as long as there's a market for them. My .02...

 

[Scott_F]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I think a lot of the tubes still being made are for old military equipment in 2nd and 3rd world countries. The amp stuff is a side line for them.

At least I thought this was right. Anyone agree or disagree?

 

[CATFIVE]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

they will be using tube amps and wondering why everyone liked amp modeling..dont need to fix what is not broken.the amps will have way more gain and be a wall of static.they will be saying man that mesa is a classic it does not have enough gain though

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

they will be using tube amps and wondering why everyone liked amp modeling..dont need to fix what is not broken.the amps will have way more gain and be a wall of static.they will be saying man that mesa is a classic it does not have enough gain though

No sense make do?

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I fully believe that tube amps will be as big a deal in 50 years as they are now. Modeling started around 1985, right? Everyone said that tube amps were doomed then, and now, 25 years later, they are still the definitive choice for most, and tube manufacturers will keep making tubes as long as there's a market for them. My .02...

Thing is, back then, no one was using modeling.
Modeling is no longer crap like it used to be and now people are going out and gigging with their laptops.
Yes, there are still plenty of tube users, but the percentage isn't as high as it used to be.

 

[aleclee]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I think a lot of the tubes still being made are for old military equipment in 2nd and 3rd world countries. The amp stuff is a side line for them.

At least I thought this was right. Anyone agree or disagree?

I think that was the case when we started getting Sino and Russo tubes 20 yrs ago but I doubt much of their current military hardware still runs tubes.

 

[crguti]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

I think a lot of the tubes still being made are for old military equipment in 2nd and 3rd world countries.

2nd and 3rd world countries using vacumm tubes for military equipment? :lmao: :clap:... best joke ever coming from a guy of the "1st world" :earl:

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

Assuming the world doesn't get into a nasty state and there's roughly a similar amount of folk lucky enough to f*ck around talking on guitar forums...

I expect modeling to improve. It seems safe to assume that the gap will eventually close but we won't know til we get there. There may well always be a gap you can feel.

It will be very interesting to see what constitutes popular music by then, though. The ability to ape the sounds of the past will remain not only as a nostalgia-facilitation but because there's always a context you can put an old sound into to create something new. What remains to be seen is what happens on the outer edges of guitar sound, and whether the Torns, Gabrels, Reids and Bellamys are a signpost toward what becomes the norm in guitar sound.

 

[TheProphet]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

The answer is....


Tube Powered Laptops

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

Would probally be even more dull than it is now....which is not much fun as it is....far between stuff that has some soul these days!!

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

When electric guitars and amps appeared, many manufacturers and even players felt the whole 'beat group' thing was a fad that would be lucky to last for five years. That was over half a century ago. When transistors became cheap and plentiful, some guitar amps began using them, and they were promoted as being lighter, more reliable, didn't need to be warmed up and wouldn't need expensive valve changes periodically. But some big name acts (Hendrix, Cream etc.) stuck with tubes and transistor guitar amps couldn't make big inroads into the market, despite fierce advertising campaigns.

The other factor i forsee is that people may tire of technology.....many people already find it over-rated....and at some point more people may yearn for more 'real' things in life. (Back in the seventies, and probably before, the feeling was that technological advances were going to bring future generations much more leisure time and easier workloads, things that have turned out to be less than correct).

With that in mind, i suspect that something similar will happen....we will think that modelling and laptops will be the future of guitar, and yet some elements from the past and our present time will survive against all odds. I certainly hope so.

I am interested in technological advances, but as a musician i also love the historical elements.....orchestral instruments haven't changed much throughout centuries and still hearing a good violin or cello is a wonderful experience. Heaven forbid future generations would hear an orchestra of people playing skeleton instruments with the sound generated from a laptop or some little digital box. Moving forward can be a good thing, but only when it can improve something. The future may be so cluttered with technology (i think it is already) that people will seek out 'real' things to nourish their spirits.

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

When electric guitars and amps appeared, many manufacturers and even players felt the whole 'beat group' thing was a fad that would be lucky to last for five years. That was over half a century ago. When transistors became cheap and plentiful, some guitar amps began using them, and they were promoted as being lighter, more reliable, didn't need to be warmed up and wouldn't need expensive valve changes periodically. But some big name acts (Hendrix, Cream etc.) stuck with tubes and transistor guitar amps couldn't make big inroads into the market, despite fierce advertising campaigns.

The other factor i forsee is that people may tire of technology.....many people already find it over-rated....and at some point more people may yearn for more 'real' things in life. (Back in the seventies, and probably before, the feeling was that technological advances were going to bring future generations much more leisure time and easier workloads, things that have turned out to be less than correct).

With that in mind, i suspect that something similar will happen....we will think that modelling and laptops will be the future of guitar, and yet some elements from the past and our present time will survive against all odds. I certainly hope so.

I am interested in technological advances, but as a musician i also love the historical elements.....orchestral instruments haven't changed much throughout centuries and still hearing a good violin or cello is a wonderful experience. Heaven forbid future generations would hear an orchestra of people playing skeleton instruments with the sound generated from a laptop or some little digital box. Moving forward can be a good thing, but only when it can improve something. The future may be so cluttered with technology (i think it is already) that people will seek out 'real' things to nourish their spirits.

I agree on the classical instruments. Anyway classical is all about the old sound and compositions, so there will probably be no electric orchestras too soon.
I also think that modern instruments should evolve, but not for the sake of itself. Keyboards, guitars and drums will evolve and they will be cheaper and more versatile.
In the distant future, there will probably only be synthesizers and perhaps holophonors.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

Software.

Tube amps will be a legend.

 

[CATFIVE]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

Thing is, back then, no one was using modeling.
Modeling is no longer crap like it used to be and now people are going out and gigging with their laptops.
Yes, there are still plenty of tube users, but the percentage isn't as high as it used to be.

if your a fan of new technology that is fine.it is not replacing tube technology.i thought solidstate was the future thirty years ago and now everyone says digital is.why are tubes still around then

 

[CATFIVE]

Re: 50 years from now: what amp will guitarists be playing through?

No sense make do?

whatever like i said solidstate was going to take over thirty years ago and now digital is?why are tubes still around newbie