Great Amp vs. Great Guitar.

When you start out on the great venture that is the electric guitar.  There are so many erroneous beliefs about what gear one should buy.  The first thing people dream of is the perfect instrument, the guitar that will get you from just a beginner to a seasoned pro.  We somehow believe that the instrument will truly make us a better player over night.  Going from your $150 guitar to a $3499 will most likely only change the feel of the instrument and you might realize that in some cases you do get what you pay for.  As far as sound is concerned, there will not be much of a difference if you are still playing through that $40 solid state amp that you bought at Walmart.  So if you have a big budget for a new instrument and you have not yet bought yourself a good tube amp, you are essentially wasting your money, if you spend all your resources on just the guitar.  In the world today there are more types of tube amps available than ever before and they are as affordable as they have ever been.  So do your research and find yourself a good tube amp.  If your spending under $500 on your amp, you might have to look harder to find the right amp for your needs.  Look on craigs list and e-bay for great deals.  Some online stores have good prices on new and used tube amps.   Look for a future post with some great online stores.

One of the biggest misconceptions about amplifiers is: the bigger the better.  This is not true at all.  If you want to get good tone out of a tube amp you need to run your tubes hot, not necessarily full blast but at least 30% - 40% of the max output.  In most amps that translates to 9 to 10 o'clock.  That would get you started on a good clean sound, assuming we're talking about a single channel amp.  A 15 watt tube amp sounds much louder than a 15 watt solid state amp.  So don't be mislead by your budget amp's output classification.  Don't go out there and buy yourself a 100 watt all tube head w/ full stack cabs, and expect to get the monster tone you have been looking for, with out getting evicted or arrested for public disturbance. Do yourself a favor and buy a good 15 - 40 watt tube amp, and avoid homelessness and the slammer.  You will be a lot happier and your beginner guitar will sound many times better. The boutique axe you have been saving for with blood donations will shine as it should.  With the availability of PAs in most of the venues you will ever play, 15 - 20 watts is really all you need.  You will get a monster tone out of the amp and the sound man will also be very happy with your output level.  I have never had a sound engineer ask me to turn down my 20w amp. On the other hand I had an engineer ask me to turn down my 50 watt amp through a borrowed 4x12 because I was bleeding into his other mic's and mudding up his mix.  The last thing you want is to get the sound man angry... lest he smite you with his "you suck" knob on the mixing board.  So if you're in the market for a new instrument consider this: Your instrument doesn't only consist of the guitar alone.  It is the combination of your fingers, the pick or picking technique, the guitar, cable, fx, and amp. If your record a lot add a mic, mic pre, eq, compressor, converters, and DAW to the equation.  The biggest improvement to your sound could be as simple as getting guitar lessons.  There is no substitute for great musicianship.  So if you are about to shell out $1000 on an instrument and you are still playing through that crappy amp... spend $800 on the amp, $100 on a good 10 ft. cable and $100 on new tuners, nut and a setup.  Save up for the guitar that you really want.  You can find a decent guitar for $1000 but you will find a killer amp for $800 or less.  (Last week I found a 1967 bassman amp for $750, didn't buy it.) My Fender Deluxe Reverb RI cost me $6oo.  Used.  So be diligent and patient.

As always feel free to ask for pointers on what and where to by your next piece of gear.

Side note:

There are some upgrades you could do to your beginner instrument that would greatly improve it.  Like changing the plastic nut to a graphtech nut, or even a good corina nut.  Or changing the tuners, for better quality tuners or even locking tuners, this will help you stay in tune.  The more obvious upgrade would be to get your instrument professionally set up.  Most new instruments are not properly set up, so if you are getting a new instrument ask the store if they offer a free setup when you buy it. Pickup hight is important so play around with it until you find the sweet spot. Balance the pickup's output with each other. This will give you a better balance when going from your front (neck) pickup to your back (bridge) pickup.  To do this accurately find a console or a mixer with a meter and match the output on each pickup. Don't change your pickups until you have played your guitar through a good amp for a while.  With pickups, more output is not always better.  Low to medium output pickups have a greater dynamic range compared to higher output pickups.  You first need to determine what sound you are looking for and then research how people have achieved that sound.  Once you attain that knowledge, get creative and find your own sound.