How do you try out a new amp in a store?

[Lewguitar]

What do you look for first?

Clean tones? Distorted tones?

Are clean tones important to you or do you ALWAYS play with distortion?

Can you play a little jazz and is a clean tone for jazz or blues or even Beatles type chord changes important to you?

How important is getting a super saturated distortion tone at low volumes to you?

For me, I like a natural tone that I can get to distort when I turn the amp up to performance levels (4 or more) and crank the volume of the guitar to 10. But I like it to clean up again when I go back to playing rythym and lower the volume of the guitar and back off on my picking attack.

However, it seems to me that the majority of players are primarily looking for an amp that distorts like a Marshall on 10 but at bedroom to small venue volumes.

I'm a bluesy player who plays a little rock though...not a rock player who plays a little blues!:laugh2:

Lew

 

[Rocker35]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

Being a rock player, I always look for saturated tones first, however, clean tones are important too. I'm lucky in that the manager of my local store is a good friend and so I usually pick a mid week day when it's quiet and I get the chance to crank amps a bit louder than most places allow.
I spend at least an hour with an amp and then return a second day maybe a week or two later just to confirm what I'd thought from my first try out (fresh ears and all that!).
As a gigging guitarist, bedroom levels don't interest me - I need to know how the amp reacts when pushed. It's the only way to truly judge an amp IMHO.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

I had a feeling this was resting on your mind!

It really depends...I would never walk up to a vintage Fender or anything that even looked like it might be in the same ballpark and try to get loads of crunch out of it...but the same token if I walk up to a VHT Im not looking for clean...althought it does have a nice clean sound!

If Im looking at clean to slightly overdriven tones I set the maste (if it has one) to 10, set the tone control(s) to noon and start messing with the volume control first to see what kind of dynamics I can get out of it then I use the tone control(s) to see what kind of range they have and tweak my sound.

If im looking for more grit out of a higher gain amp I still start off the same way but them I try using the master volume a little to see what the range of gain I can get out of the amp is.

 

[flank]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

i usually check to see how much bass an amp has first. I turn the volume up to where the volume is pretty solid, and the sound is full. Then i adjust the bass down from there, since i loathe lots of bass in my sound. Then i will turn it up more and turn the volume down on my guitar to see what kind of clean tone i can get from having the amps volume up, and my guitar volume down a bit, since thats usually how i find my clean tone. If i like the sound there, i will then see how it sounds as i turn my guitars volume higher. I don't like much gain, so i like for the semi-driven sound that has alot of harmonics and sustain. If i were ever to want more gain, i enjoy a compressed lead tone like a fuzz tone, so i would rather use a pedal to get any more gain than i would normall use.

 

[aleclee]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

The short answer is I don't try out many single channel amps.

That said, I try to dial in a pleasant OD and then roll off the gutiar's volume to see how it cleans up.

I also mess with the tone controls to get a feel for how flexible it is.

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

if im testing amps i always bring my guitar, if its a fender, i set everything to six, roll the bass back to four and see how it sounds, adjust the reverb to taste.

im a blues/rock/funk player so i want a natural distorted tone without loads of gain, a fender dlx on 10 is as much as i ever need but the amp needs to clean up nicely for both chords and solos.

at home, i play acoustic. killer tone at bedroom volumes isnt something im usually concerned with

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

i usually check to see how much bass an amp has first. I turn the volume up to where the volume is pretty solid, and the sound is full. Then i adjust the bass down from there, since i loathe lots of bass in my sound. Then i will turn it up more and turn the volume down on my guitar to see what kind of clean tone i can get from having the amps volume up, and my guitar volume down a bit, since thats usually how i find my clean tone. If i like the sound there, i will then see how it sounds as i turn my guitars volume higher. I don't like much gain, so i like for the semi-driven sound that has alot of harmonics and sustain. If i were ever to want more gain, i enjoy a compressed lead tone like a fuzz tone, so i would rather use a pedal to get any more gain than i would normall use.

+1. Although I like a very strong punchy bass, I don't want it boomy or clicky though. Sometimes an amp may be a bit boomy when you first bring it off standby, but they usually mellow out after a few minutes. I want to spend enough time.

I judge an amp mainly on it's clean tone, and if it's "clean but dirty" is good, with complex harmonics and sustain, then it will probably sound even better at higher volumes.

I want to see how singles in the neck and middle positions sound, and I also like to hear some nice complex mids out of a good bridge humbucker. It's not good if you must re-EQ from pup position to pup position.

I like plug in and play amps, not amps that require a bunch of fiddling with knobs and sliders, to get a good sound. Useless versatility, and gizmos are not selling points with me. I also want to see if the speaker (if it's a combo) does or doesn't get ice picky with a good strat bridge pup.

 

[Davey]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

i go all out.. cos i know i aint gonna buy it =/


though.. the laney i ordered is due at the beginning of the month and i'm gonna put it through its paces

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

Clean is king for me. I love OD, but about 80 percent of the time I play either clean or semi distorted, so full on saturation isn't terribly important for me.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

I play singles and humbuckers 50/50, so I need to hear an amp with a LP and a strat or tele. Then, I just run it through it's paces, starting from clean, through all the midgain tones, then I see how much tight gain I can get out of it. I look like a maniac when I adjust knobs on an amp, because my right hand twidles them fast, looking for the sweet spot, then abruptly stops on the optimum setting.

 

[ErikH]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

For me it depends on the amp and what I would use it for. It's been a long time since I bought a new amp but when I do sit down in the shops with one, I try to use a guitar as close as possible to one of mine and go from there. Most of the time I'm playing ones with the thought of good sound at low volume for at home.

 

[Bludave]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

The first thing I look for is a good clean sound. If an Amp sound good clean you will be able to get a good OD sound out of it as well. It also has a lot to do with the type of amp I am playing thru and trying to get a feel for. Last week a buddy of mine went out playing thru a few amps he was considering he had his Strat and I brought a Tele, and we used a Les Paul in the store to cover all the bases. He liked the Hot Rod Deluxe and the Lone Star. I liked the Bogner so much I bought it today!

 

[Sludgenutz]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

First off, I require overdriven tones. I have a saying..."If I want to hear mellow music, then give me silence"! I would rather hear nothing, usually.

When it comes down to playing, I am a stoner rocker. I am the guy in the music store that plays 1/4 as fast as other "noodlers". I need to hear how an overdrive tone decays and falls away from the original chord-pluck.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

I try the cleans, mid to low volumes to see how it sounds when it's running 'comfortably'. Then i go for the 'borderline clean/semi dirty' tone, which is typically 5-7 on a BF fender deluxe, or higher up on the 40-50 watt fenders. With my strat, the dynamic control is quite pleasing most of the time thanks to the single coils. I might see how i like the 'meltdown mode' with my bridge pickup, or the throatier tone with my neck pickup and the amp's volume further up, but i really dont plan on playing through an amp that is hanging on for dear life.

I'd say that the most important part of my tone is the character of the treble, which is why my blonde bandmaster is my favorite amp-the treble is there with the bright switch on, it is clear enough for my strat to ring out its true tone completely, but with my volume rolled back a bit it mellows out nicely.

 

[Lava Man]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

It's not important what settings you have it own other than the volume set at about 4-5.

What is important is the songs you play when you try out a new amp.

These are the best in order:

1. Stairway to Heaven
2. Cocaine
3. Smoke on the Water
4. You really got me
5. Sloppy blues

Now, if the amp sounds good or bad it doesnt matter because you've had a good time and pissed off the saleman and maybe even the enitre store!:banana:

 

[Scott_F]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

I first ask if they have an audition room where I can have some privacy, get rid of the Rock MuZak that is blaring over the house system. If not, I just crank it up with my favorite guitar and play clean. Just hit a chord and listen to it and how it dies. I do not care who I piss off if I really was in the market for a new amp.

Now I just build what I want. Makes life easier.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, beats playing the amp on stage. I have learned this lesson over the years--sometimes an amp that sounds mediocre in the store, and downright lousy in my living room, will just SMOKE at stage volume. (A certain 50-watt JCM 800 I used to own comes to mind.) I eventually sold it, but that amp was frustrating as heck at home--and a snarling BEAST in a club.

That said, I do look for a good clean tone first. My favorite amps right now are my Mesa Mark III and Mark IV amps because of their versatility.

Bill

 

[Forbes]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

I need a usable clean tone, with a bit of life to it, and a meaty, thick distortion, that isn't at all buzzy. If it's got all of that then it will probably do me fine.

 

[Jeroen]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

When I test an amp, I always set anything to dead neutral. All EQ knobs to 5, gain to 0, volume to 0. I start at the clean channel, turn up the volume and then start turning the gain up until I find the sweet spot I like (not before having tried the full spectrum of the gain knob though!). That sweet spot usually is somewhere around 5-6 on most amps I've tried so far. From there, I start tayloring the EQ-settings to my liking. Usually it stays close to the neutral position though, but maybe with some added treble and slightly cut bass. I then do the same to the next channel, and so on. If I am in the position to do so, I try several guitars over the amp and try to find a setting that just...well, 'works' with all guitars I try.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: How do you try out a new amp in a store?

Bring one of my guitars, get into a soundproof room with the amp, and somewhere between 5 and 60 minutes later I´ll emerge and either be interested or I won´t (the longer I was in there the greater the chance)

I start with clean tones.... if the clean tone is good I can use a pedal or similar for distortion if I have to... Bu ti can´t puit a "clean pedal" on the gain channel