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

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

The Mexican Fenders are actually pretty friggin' good guitars. I have an MIM Strat and it's the equal of any American Series, better than most. Though I admit that of all the MIM's I played, this one definitely a cut above.

The parts are made here (Corona, CA) and then shipped across the border where the final assembly is done.

The amp has more of an effect tonewise on the radical changes, clean vs. overdrive, the wide sweep of EQ changes, etc. But if the guitar is a lousy piece of wood and crummy electronics...

The guitar itself affects the tone in more subtle and refined ways, but to my ear that's every bit as important.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

What's more important: engine, brakes, or transmission?
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

aleclee said:
What's more important: engine, brakes, or transmission?
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Bad figurative metaphors.

How many times have you seen someone making great sounding music on a Kalamazoo Strat copy through a Peavey Classic? Now how many times have you seen 1.6 L Yugo engine push a Bentley through a 10 second 1/4 mile?

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

The Golden Boy said:
EQ on the amp?
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You know what I mean, smartass...lol

When the EQ (in)abilities and tone of an amp suck, you're kinda stuck with suck.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

The Golden Boy said:
Bad figurative metaphors.

How many times have you seen someone making great sounding music on a Kalamazoo Strat copy through a Peavey Classic? Now how many times have you seen 1.6 L Yugo engine push a Bentley through a 10 second 1/4 mile?

Metaphors.
Click to expand...
I'd argue that all you've done is try to prove that none of 'em is critical. If you don't need a good guitar, amp, or FX to make great music, none of 'em is all that important...

...making the discussion of which is most important rather moot. :eek:

Great music is great music regardless of the gear. Though one can coax good tone out of mediocre gear, having more appropriate gear (guitar/amp/FX) is, by definition, going to yield better results. If one of those three is less-than-ideal, there are improvements to be made. Which makes the biggest improvement depends on what you have and don't have.

That's where the automotive metaphor comes in. You can't have a great car without all three being appropriate. Too much engine and you can't decelerate well enough and it'll shred the tranny. Similarly, imbalances with the other two yield sub-optimal results.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

you can't polish scat - every link of the chain is important.

However for me the feel is more important than the sound - and a good guitar makes me feel better than a good amp. I often play guitar without amp, but seldom I play the amp without guitar ;-)
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

While I agree that both are important in the 'great tone' chain, I think that a bad amp and a good guitar will sound inferior tone-wise to a great amp and a naff guitar.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

aleclee said:
I'd argue that all you've done is try to prove that none of 'em is critical. If you don't need a good guitar, amp, or FX to make great music, none of 'em is all that important...

...making the discussion of which is most important rather moot.

That's where the automotive metaphor comes in. You can't have a great car without all three being appropriate. Too much engine and you can't decelerate well enough and it'll shred the tranny. Similarly, imbalances with the other two yield sub-optimal results.
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I'd argue that it's entirely possible to get a "good" tone with a bad guitar and a good amp, however, although possible, it's much more difficult to get a "good" tone with a good guitar and a bad amp.

In the instance of the automotive metaphor, throw a bad engine in a good car- it'll suck. Throw a bad tranny in a good car with a good engine- it'll suck. Throw bad brakes on a good car- it'll perform fine until you need to slow or stop. You're getting compromised at all ends.

I'd say look at Jimmy Page. What did he use for Kashmir and BlackMountainSide/White Summer live? Oh, yeah, a double cut Danelectro. A guitar so cheaply made they couldn't even put a somewhat intonable bridge on it. That guitar through that Marshall rig sounded pretty sporty and unique. Also think of Hendrix' tone on Red House with that cheap, broke ass Hofner.
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

Amp.. but you would still want at least a decent guitar
 
Re: What's more important, Amp & Effects or Guitar?

a GOOD guitar cant make a bad amp sound decent.

however, a good amp and effects board can make a ****ty guitar sound good

a highly processed sound chain can make ANY guitar sound the SAME


that is just so far as tone goes.

talking about individual parts is an entirely diferent discussion.
there you got guitars.. break it up into 3 basic categories:
wood
construction
pickups

amps:
tubes
construcion
combo/head
cabinets

effects:
here you have a million of diferent things going down into the quality of each component


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

Zhangliqun said:
The Mexican Fenders are actually pretty friggin' good guitars. I have an MIM Strat and it's the equal of any American Series, better than most. Though I admit that of all the MIM's I played, this one definitely a cut above.
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you may be correct sir, but i think that says more about fenders crappy production techniques than about import guitars in general. my intention was not call out fender imparticular but rather to use it as an example of a playable low price guitar. but i do agree, mexi fenders rock for the price.
 
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