What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

J

jayK

New member
I think the knee jerk reaction would be to say guitar.

But, lets say we take EVH and give him a $99 squire and plug it into any amp & effects of his choice.

Then, we let him choose any guitar in the world but we plug it into a totally cheesy $39 10 watt amp.

What would sound better?

I know these are extreme examples but my point is that I think if you have a great amp setup you can basically plug in any guitar and get by fine.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

The amp does by far most of the work in the creation of tone, as it's the last in the line (next to speakers) in the creation of the audible sound. Everything plays a part in the creation of tone: the signal created by the pickups is influenced by the design of the pickups and guitar, travel through effects (sometimes) where the signal is colored, and then on to the amp, where the signal is colored even further.

You could take two completely different guitars and play them through the same amp, and then you could take two identical guitars and play them through different amps, and my money says that the two different guitars through the same amp will sound more similar than the two identical guitars through different amps. It makes to me, then, that the amp has far more of an effect on tone than anything else.

We are so picky about our pickups and wood because we like the different nuances that they bring to the base tone we are accustomed to working with.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

i am not a common player, in that i love to use lots of effects- guitar synth, looping, etc.... with any gear you can 'get by fine' , but, excepting money limitations, why? a creative person will make a hollowed out log sound great. i think it is more important to ask, 'how will you let your current gear choices limit you'. i leared on terrible, awful gear, but i wrote music that i still really like. in the end, i think everything is inter-related. a crappy guitar wouldn't drive me to play any more than a crappy amp or bad/no effects.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

MikeS said:
The amp does by far most of the work in the creation of tone, as it's the last in the line (next to speakers) in the creation of the audible sound. Everything plays a part in the creation of tone: the signal created by the pickups is influenced by the design of the pickups and guitar, travel through effects (sometimes) where the signal is colored, and then on to the amp, where the signal is colored even further.

You could take two completely different guitars and play them through the same amp, and then you could take two identical guitars and play them through different amps, and my money says that the two different guitars through the same amp will sound more similar than the two identical guitars through different amps. It makes to me, then, that the amp has far more of an effect on tone than anything else.

We are so picky about our pickups and wood because we like the different nuances that they bring to the base tone we are accustomed to working with.
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If you had a crappy but servicable guitar, and a crappy but servicable amp and you could afford to upgrade ONE... I'd say the amp every time. Get a good amp and worry about the guitar later.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

the equation stands equal on both side.

a good amp will produce a good tone. however, in a room with bad acoustic properties, a good amp may not necessary produce a good tone. i reckon that is the tangible side of things.

a good guitar (including pickups) on the other hand, plays a small part in the tone chain. what is important is the intangible benefits. in a word, feel. you feel good playing your number 1. the familarity is unparalled because it is an extension of you.

if a strat player were to switch to a les paul, he will feel awkward. i reckon this is what we all call the comfort zone. that said, put the strat back in his hands and i am sure he will throw caution in the wind and let it rip. the subconcious takes over as opposed to his consciousness to replicate the feel of his strat on a foreign-feeling guitar slung over his shoulders.

of course, given enough time (and guitars), a player will feel at home even if he is playing a strat, tele, lp, etc. what i am saying is, when a certain guitar becomes an extension of you, your musical feel will be apparent. that is what makes evh sounds like evh. i am sure jimi will never sound like jimi on the first time he played a les paul. that is if he ever recorded or gigged with one.

just my.02.
dani
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

I use a bunch of good amps but the guitar i jam with most is a Mex Fender and a few Epi's.... I have some real usa Fenders/ Gibsons / and a nice Warmoth but i mostly end up using my cheap stuff unless it is for something important.... If i have a good amp i sound like me on any of my guitars.

WhoFan
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

The amp is more important by FAR!!!!! I would wager to say that the amp makes up to 75% to 80% of your tone!!!!
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

I've done it both ways, and I have to say that it's pretty equal in my ears. My first guitar was an Epiphone Strat-copy. It was entirely stock, and not long after purchasing it, I found a great deal on a Fender Twin. Granted, it sounded better than the trash can amp that I bought with the guitar, but it didn't sound good. In fact, it sounded nowhere near good. Nothing I, or anyone else, could do would fix it.

Fast forward to last Christmas. My brother is currently using my old Crapiphone (upgraded with a JB Jr.). I bought him a Roland Cube 15 for Christmas to replace that crappy amp that I still had from when I bought the guitar. After playing his guitar through it, he wanted to hear how mine sounded. I was actually impressed by the sound I got out of it. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad, either. Granted, this isn't bottom of the barrel for an amp, but it's nothing special.

My point is, if you put crap into a great amp you'll get crisp, articulate, well-defined crap coming out of the amp. It goes both ways, IMO.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

JacksonMIA said:
My point is, if you put crap into a great amp you'll get crisp, articulate, well-defined crap coming out of the amp. It goes both ways, IMO.
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This is so true. A good amp will really show off just how bad your crappy guitar is.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

The guitar and amp are far more important than the effects. If you can't get a great basic tone, then it's a case of garbage-in/garbage-out when you add the effects. Instead of just a crap tone, you have a chorused crap tone to double the crapness, or a crappy echo to repeat the crap tone back in your ear over and over, etc.

It all only magnifies the crap-titude of your pre-crapped tone to torment you and your tone sensibilities exponentially. And this is assuming you're using quality effects! If not, then it's crap cubed or to the 4th power, instead of merely squared...

Sort of reminds me of a Dennis Miller line talking about the lousy quality of items in 2-for-1 sales at department stores:

"Hey, people -- two of s**t is s**t! If they really want to screw you, they'll give you THREE of those things!"
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

the amp is the engine, the guitar is the inspiration, the effects are the spice in the stew
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

I think the amp has the biggest impact on the tone, considering that you can easily change the tone by simply turning a few knobs. A great guitar just sounds like **** if your playing through a horrible amp. On the other hand, playing a crappy guitar through a great amp can get you a pretty decent tone. Now yes, the guitar does still have an impact, and so that crappy guitar I mentioned will probably be noticable, perhaps having lots of hum or a thin tone, but when it comes to shapping your tone, the amp will give you the biggest difference. Guitars have more of an effect on things such as feel, and use(wheather you need a tremelo or not, stop tail, 22 or 24 frets etc). That's why it's always good to try out a guitar on your own amp, because you may play it in the store, think it sounds great, plug it into your own amp, and that great sound is gone.

As well, I do think effects have an importance as well, but not really the effects themselves, but more so the quality of the pedals and/or multi effect unit. By that, I mean getting pedals that wont just suck all the tone out of your rig. Plug a few cheap effects up, turn on your amp, and all of a sudden your tone can sound muddy or thin. You need quality units to make sure that the full signal(or as much as can be) is being sent to the amp.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

Curly said:
the amp is the engine, the guitar is the inspiration, the effects are the spice in the stew
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IMO, this is the best "boil it all down" answer. I can make allowances and play differently on a crappy guitar. What can I change if the amp sucks?
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

HamerPlyr said:
IMO, this is the best "boil it all down" answer. I can make allowances and play differently on a crappy guitar. What can I change if the amp sucks?
Click to expand...
EQ on the amp?
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

Plug your $3500 Gibson Historic Les Paul into a $100 Fender Frontman 15 and it won't sound like $3600.

-X
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

This is the way I look at it;

Crap Guitar + Great Amp = OK Tone

Great Guitar + Crap Amp = Crap Tone
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

It seems like the consensus is that the amp is probably more important in shaping tone than the guitar.

What made me post this is something I observed in guitar center this weekend.

A young high school kid who was selling guitars on the floor (a real hotshot player) was engaged with a mom and her young daughter who was picking out her first guitar. He started playing something for them on a guitar that I could not see at first, but he was playing some EVH style shredding through a big crate rig, and it sounded great. I shuffled over to see what guitar he was playing and it was a $99 mini squier.

It's just sort of ironic to me that we seem to spend more time on guitars as opposed to amps. It's just more fun and personal to spend the time on guitars. The amps in a way are more "machine" whereas the guitars are much more personal to us, almost like they are alive. I don't look upon my amps with the same "fondness" as I would with a guitar.

I know that pros probably spend way more time than me investigating amps, looking to change their setup, trade up etc, but I'd bet that even they spend more time messing around with new guitars.

I guess the best example I can give along these lines is that Jimmy Page played a telecaster on the album version of Stairway, which is a guitar that probably not many people would guess as what he used. If I'm not mistaken, I think he also used a tele for most of their first album. Page was a master of using different amps & effects to get the sounds he was looking for, and seemed to me as a guy who was in the "amp" camp as opposed to the "guitar camp". I read an article about why he originally switched to the Les Paul from his tele. He was asked about it, the interviewer basically asked him if he thought the tele "wasn't cutting it" anymore. Page replied that it wasnt' the sound at all, he just like how the LP felt & played.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

the amp every time. a $5000 custom shop les paul or a real 60's vintage strat is still going to sound like crap through a rogue practice amp. but a mexi-fender can still sound decent through a Dr. Z amplifier. but the best sound is obviously good guitar and good amp, but i think the amp has more affect on the overall tone, unless your comparing say les pauls and strats, but that's not really the same.
 
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