Now for Part 2 of this series, we take a look at the amp. If you think picking the guitar was hard, then take a step back, the amp is where you really have nuts to crack.
Sure there are many different styles of guitars etc. but most of them for beginners have 6 strings, a neck, a body and some hardware and pickups. But with amps we have a whole universe of different philosophy collide.
First of all you have to think about the type of player you are and again what your budget is. The 3 biggest movements in the amp community are: Tube Amps, Modelling Amps and Transistor Amps. Again none of those are the best, some of them are the best at a certain job. So think about the job you want your amp to do for you first and your budget.
Let us start with Transistor Amps. Those are relatively cheap, most of them have OK clean sounds and some of them even sport a good distortion section. Is any of them sounding like a tube amp?
Nope. But if you are on a budget or geared more towards jazz sounds, a transistor amp might be for you. On the other hand if you are on the real heavy downtuned to the bottom side, a transistor amp can do good jobs there also. They are also cool for backup and as practice amps, as they are available as small and light combos. Many guitarists start with such an amp, especially if they are not yet sure if they stick to the instrument. So if you can compromise a little on the size of your stack and on "tube sound" this is your weapon of choice here. Some so called hybrid amps, include preamp tubes in a transistor amp package, which can increase the quality of distorted sounds.
Now for modellers this is another thing. A modeller tries to emulate the sound of a tube or transistor amp through a piece of software, most of the time running on a CPU from a washing machine. Now these beasts are also quite cheap sometimes and can get OK sounds that are close to the original. Most of them sacrifice a little sound and dynamic of the real thing for their versatility. So if you are into being as versatile as you can and play many different styles. A modeller might be your choice. Will the emulation of a Mesa sound like the original on my Line6 POD? Nope it wont. Of course there is also the High End of Modellers like the Fractal Audio AxeFX. This will sound very very close to the original and it wont sacrifice much dynamics etc. but the price tag is to hefty for most beginners and you should know your tone and music very well before you dive in here.
Well the tube amp is said to be the holy grail of amps. Today they come in a price range from a few hundret bucks to thousands of dollars. If you are into Rock and Metal and are looking for that thing that can drive a big stack and really scream. You are on track here. To this date I have yet to find anything else that sounds like a tube amp, with the AxeFX very very close to the real thing. Now you have to be aware of one thing though: You and fellow guitarists will definately hear the difference, if not now as a beginner, you will in the future. With your audience this is a very different thing. So you have to be aware that for that last percent in tone, which many people in your audience wont hear, you are sacrificing a lot of money. If you can live with that and are into getting the tube sound, than a tube amp is your weapon of choice.
After deciding in which category you dive into comes the really hard part. What to get now?
What I do with my students is: I give them my pocketPOD (yes a modeller!) and tell them to try to find sounds on it, which they really like. This thing is really really cheap, a great utility for practice and you can get many different sounds from it. None will sound really good, but you can get an idea of the different sounds. After 2 or 3 weeks I ask them which presets they prefer and we look them up, which amp modells were used in that preset.
From that amp modells you get a basic idea of what amps they might like. For instance one student liked many presets with rectifier modells for distorted sounds and twinreverb sounds for clean. He was really into versatile sounds and playing from pop to rock and a little metal. He wanted a real tube amp. So we selected several amps that fit his budget to try out like the Carvin V3, Peavey JSX, Marshall JVM etc. Very different amps but in the price range and all of them versatile.
Important now is that you do not select total crap, just because it has tubes in it. Many students ask me about those cheap Bugera tube amps etc. and I have to tell them: If you want a chainsaw go to home depot. A good hybrid amp is often better than those cheapo tube amps. So beware of them.
With a few modells selected all you can do again is go and test them out. The process can be similar to chosing your guitar, ask friends to listen to it and your teacher. Take long enough sessions and always take a night to sleep over it before you buy.
Chances your amp will "start to wear out on you" are very high. I bought and sold lots and lots of amps, before I found my sound. I spent thousands on Marshalls, Mesas and Fenders and found my sound totally elsewhere. And most of the guitarists I know did the same. So start out slow and work your way up. It is totally OK to start out with a decent modeller or transistor amp, before you dive into tubes or high-end modelling.
Again very important: Always keep in mind that you are looking for YOUR tone, do not try to copy someone else's equipment. Chances they have totally modified that amp from 4 different amp techs are very high. Try to find your own style and do not look on that Marshall sign, as with guitars all the amp companies make lots of good and lots of total crap amps.
As you may have noticed I did not include speakers in this article. The beginner will not have to worry about speakers. If you are into a combo you have to live with the internal speakers for some time and if you are into a stack I can only tell you: First buy a cheap 2x12 and then work with that for a while. I will possibly get into the speaker and cab Voodoo in a later article, but this topic is not really for the beginner and would be to much here.
Now for Part 2 of this series, we take a look at the amp. If you think picking the guitar was hard, then take a step back, the amp is where you really have nuts to crack.
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