Why is the amp the hardest choice to make...?

[coolhand78]

I'm completely (relatively) happy with everything in my signal chain, I love my guitars i'm settling on my pedals pretty well but man I cant make my mind up about an amp...

I've currently got a 67 bassman that i run into a custom 2x12 with scumback H75 & H55 speakers, but everyday I think I really want a plexi style amp (Metro, Germino, Badger) then I see keith Urban and David Gilmour and think maybe I want a high headroom clean amp (Hiwatt, Reeves), I watch the clips of Lance Keltner playing the Nik Huber Krautster (my next guitar) and think I should get a bludo...

is it just me or is the amp just the hardest peice of gear to settle on...?

[Lance]

Much like guitars and pedals, it's great to have several of each, as sooo many of them sound so cool. Yeah, you could get a Variax, and an AxeFx and try to get everything in one thing, but where's the fun in that? It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase, right? What the hell else are we gonna do with ourselves?

[gunslinger]

Originally Posted by coolhand78

is it just me or is the amp just the hardest piece of gear to settle on...?

It's not that hard if you can try them out side by side. Problem is a lot of music stores don't have enough variety.

[Crate love]

Appears to me there is TOO MUCH variety. Concentrate on developing your tone and playing skills. Amps are simply tools of the trade!

[Martin Reid]

I don't find choosing the amp is the hard part, it's paying for it that sucks...

[LSchefman]

The amp has a huge impact on the ultimate sound you're going to get out of an electric guitar, so, naturally it's a bit difficult to choose one!

After all, with guitars, your hands, your eyes, and your ears tell you a lot, very quickly. But no matter which guitar you pick, the fact is that alone, they can only do so much.

But an amp can be a total game changer, and they often produce radically different results, even with the same guitar and guitarist. I had a harder time choosing amps for a long time, than guitars.

Here's what I did to more or less end the dilemma:

I found a couple of styles of amp whose tones I gravitated towards no matter what else was around. I realized that there were some amp sounds I wasn't often attracted to. That helps a lot right there, as a lot of choices are eliminated. You keep eliminating the ones you don't like, and playing what you bond strongly with, and suddenly you've found your amp.

Hell, I've found "my amp" a zillion times!! But at least I'm consistent in tone directions. So there's that...

[Martin Reid]

Originally Posted by LSchefman

The amp has a huge impact on the ultimate sound you're going to get out of an electric guitar, so, naturally it's a bit difficult to choose one!

After all, with guitars, your hands, your eyes, and your ears tell you a lot, very quickly. But no matter which guitar you pick, the fact is that alone, they can only do so much.

But an amp can be a total game changer, and they often produce radically different results, even with the same guitar and guitarist. I had a harder time choosing amps for a long time, than guitars.

Here's what I did to more or less end the dilemma:

I found a couple of styles of amp whose tones I gravitated towards no matter what else was around. I realized that there were some amp sounds I wasn't often attracted to. That helps a lot right there, as a lot of choices are eliminated. You keep eliminating the ones you don't like, and playing what you bond strongly with, and suddenly you've found your amp.

Hell, I've found "my amp" a zillion times!! But at least I'm consistent in tone directions. So there's that...

Totally agree, my experience shows a good amp can be very "kind" to a poor guitar but tends not to work so well the other way...

I have one of the new Marshal AFD100 (Slash) amps on order. I'm hoping this will be the end of my search for my "British" amp tone. I'm very happy with my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for my "American" tone. (Although a Dr Z Monza would always be welcome )

[Dashface]

Here, let me make your decision for you:



I've never looked back. You won't either Get an old Hiwatt or two, you won't regret it.

...The only thing is, which one to get... The 100 for the headroom or the 50 for the crunch? Of course, at the prices they are these days you could just do what I did and get both

[Blix]

When I was buying a new amp a few months ago I had a similar dilemma.
I love plexis, my ideal rock tone is a cranked plexi in a wet/dry/wet setup, but that I didn't have the budget for, also I play in a couple bands and need some variety in my tones, so a two-channel amp was pretty necessary. And for my personal pleasure I dig EJ and Bonamassa and love fooling around with similar tones.

So I ended up with a 100w Dumble-clone and a few new pedals. A nice Fuzz face and a Wampler Pinnacle for cranked Marshall tones. The amp have massive headroom, really nice and fat overdrive channel, and with the peals does exactly what I wanted, it was win-win all the way for my use.
I will add a plexi at some time, when my wallet agrees that is.

So what I'm trying to say, and "Dumble" type of amp is an excellent platform that can take you in many different directions, it's far more than the "smooth jazz" RF-sound. Plenty of deals in the emporium almost at all times here.

[harryjmic]

Buy an amp based on feel, everything else is secondary. After you get an amp that responds the way you would like then concentrate on voicing followed by features and cost.

For example even though many say the Matchless C-Series amps are one of the best amps made I found I couldn't get along with it. It is so fast and very middy, while great for live use I hate difficulties with it in regards to pedal usage. I ended up staying with the Chieftain as it's a bit more relaxed and is less middy so pedals seem to work better...at least for what I want to hear.

Another amp held in high regard is the Bogner Shiva, I thought great clean tone and excellent lead channel what's not to like, right? Boy was I wrong, didn't have the singing quality of the Matchless Clubman I sold, the amp lasted about a month before it was sold.

Buy based on feel, it changes how you play (in a bad way) or melds with how you like to do things (all good) you have to get this sorted out first.

[ChorusCrackpot]

I found that choosing amps isn't too hard- it's getting two amps you love to work together that's harder.

[MRCHILL4]

well i kind of think of guitars in the same manner. it is hard to find a great one. i assume a certain level of skill. when you do find one, you know. guitars and amps are tools, true. but when i find a great guitar, it's immediate for me. amps, it's the feel, the sound. your ears are the best indicators. trust them, again i will assume a certain level of listening ability, knowing what you are looking for.

[coolhand78]

I also suffer from living in Australia where the opportunity to walk into a guitar store and actually play any of the amps that interest me is completely non-existent!!!

For the record, Today I'm thinking hiwatt... The thread on the Cornish ss3 & Keith urban has sent me back on the hiwatt bandwagon plus listening to gilmour live from gdansk... I am getting to play a mates 18 watt badger tomorrow so at least I'll be able to add or scratch that amp off the list...

The post with the 2 hiwatts didn't help much either...

[neastguy]

Originally Posted by Crate love

Appears to me there is TOO MUCH variety. Concentrate on developing your tone and playing skills. Amps are simply tools of the trade!

I agree w/ this .. worry about your playing and finding your tone.. I know what I want to sound like in my head and pretty much any of the amps I recently have used I can tweek 90% of that tone out... at least in my mind I can... I don't think I will ever get 100%..

[sixesandsevens]

Originally Posted by Lance

Much like guitars and pedals, it's great to have several of each, as sooo many of them sound so cool. Yeah, you could get a Variax, and an AxeFx and try to get everything in one thing, but where's the fun in that? It's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase, right? What the hell else are we gonna do with ourselves?

As a former Variax/POD player, one thing I'll note is that the uniform feel of the variax was more off-putting than I expected. That is, I didn't realize how much I wanted different models to "feel" different in the neck and body.

In hindsight, I guess it's not that surprising since playing an instrument is a visceral experience, but I definitely didn't see it coming!