Quest for TONE; weakest link

[darchirnoj]

So then the amp, effects, and the player have a majority of an affect on sound vs. simply the kind of guitar (i.e. pickups, wood, etc.).
So then, should we perhaps invest more $ on higher quality amps vs. a high(er) quality guitar?

 

[colinboy]

The whole fun part of gigging for me is playing through a nice tube amp up loud, and rockin out. I could play through a POD, but I might as well stay at home and do it. Each to their own, I like the tone and vibe of a tube amp and an EBMM axe, i'm not a boutique snob by any means though, I play through a Marshall Bluesbreaker combo, a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10, and a Carvin Vintage 16 amp. None of those amps are expensive, but they are rock solid tube amps and I have fun playing them. Plus I just dont get the tone I'm looking for when I play through an effects unit.

i concur rob!

 

[ShaneV]

The whole fun part of gigging for me is playing through a nice tube amp up loud, and rockin out. I could play through a POD, but I might as well stay at home and do it. Each to their own, I like the tone and vibe of a tube amp and an EBMM axe, i'm not a boutique snob by any means though, I play through a Marshall Bluesbreaker combo, a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10, and a Carvin Vintage 16 amp. None of those amps are expensive, but they are rock solid tube amps and I have fun playing them. Plus I just dont get the tone I'm looking for when I play through an effects unit.

What in the world are they putting in your water supply up north?

By your same argument, you could say "A $2000 Music Man guitar wouldn't be much different than a $300 Squire." Is that true too?

You guys took the words out of my mouth, a nice amp will always be a more important tone factor than a nice guitar. I prefer to have both be nice myself .

 

[Wick3d.]

Funny you guys bring this up, as I was thinking of it myself these days.

I actually bought a very cheap solid-state F*nder Princeton 65 this week and I have to say that, used with a Maxon OD808 as a boost, this thing SLAYS my Marshall DSL50 head and Avatar 2x12 w/ Hellatones 60L at home volumes, which is pretty shocking considering the HUGE price difference (+-300$ vs. 1200$). I also took a chance and brought it to band practice today, just for kicks. Well, I have to say that little sucker did a GREAT job at high volumes too! Of course, it was still lacking that tube response and dynamic qualities, but it still sounded really good with my Silo.

I have to say that I am now totally rethinking my rig as I just hate playing too loud (I care a lot about my ears and I really hate going off the wall) and the Marshall and other tube stacks in general seem to only reach their full potential at this kind of volume... Maybe a Hot Rod Deluxe of some sort would do the trick, we'll see.