Good Guitar/Crappy Amp vs. Crappy Guitar/Good Amp

[Pantina]

No matter how many times I see someone do this it still blows my mind. I have two friends who both decided they wanted to play guitar. Each one of them had $1000 to spend for their gear and each one of them spent $900 on a great guitar and then $100 on some cheap, 10 watt, solid-state Crate amp. When they took their gear home, plugged it in and were all ready to rock they were both completely frustrated in the sound and tone they got. Needless to say it took about maybe a month before both of those guitars were sitting in corners of their apartments collecting dust because they were no fun to play and made learning very frustrating for them. I tried tell them, "why don't you spend $500 on a guitar and $500 on an amp and maybe an overdrive opedal but what the hell would I possibly know? They both thought the guitar, because of the price, would all by itself would give them the tone, overdrive etc that would let them run up and down the fret board. Instead they sounded like a wet fart. Don't make the same mistake my friends make. It's much better to play a cheaper guitar through a good amp than to play a great guitar through a shitty, cheap, small solid-state amp.

[frankdrebin]

Yes,great amp is the way,in fact a shitty one can't translate well the guitar sound and then you start buying 1000s of pedals,then you sell the pedals and buy the good one,which,by the way ,makes every pedal sound even better.

[Stevem]

Beginners need to learn on a decent Acoustic guitar strung with .011" on it period!
When can sound good on a Acoustic then a well set up electric is cake.
You gotta pay some dues before you can play like Al D!

[gingertube]

The Guitar Amp is a musical instrument in its own right.
Its sound is an integral part of your final sound - So no crappy amps thanks.
Ian

[gingertube]

The Guitar Amp is a musical instrument in its own right.
Its sound is an integral part of your final sound - So no crappy amps thanks.
Don't forget the speaker either - my absolute favourite amp sounds the absolute best with only one speaker box out of the many I've tried it with.
Ian

[frankdrebin]

Absolutely, the speaker is in itself an eq filter,and combined with the cabinet has a specific impedance curve that makes a power amp behave different from other combination.

[beezerboy]

a good amp can make a crappy guitar sound at least OK. a crappy amp will make even a great guitar sound bad. this I know to be true

[M Fowler]

If the player is new to guitar world I fully understand going cheap I was at the same point in my young days.

I see very good players locally that trade and trade and trade all day long at one particular guitar store. He opened a shop just for that reason so he and buddies could trade gear.
Rarely does he get cash so he is usually running low on the green stuff but he enjoys the business.

I decided to join in on the trading since I own more amps than anyone in town.

Back to the subject line: Even these great players locally spend money on gold top Les Paul's $3000+ and go through cheap crappy amps. But soon I will get them all a Fowler amp to play with.

Mark

[Seawolf]

I had this discussion with a friend of mine recently. Definitely good amp with crappy guitar. I'm working on an ampeg SVT right now. I'm primarily a guitar player but I keep a crappy beat up bottom of the line Squier bass just for testing amps. It's sounded bad/dull/muddy through every mediocre amp I've tried but the SVT somehow brings it to life and makes it sound really good. I've heard amazing guitars sound like garbage through crappy amps but a good amp can almost always make any guitar sound good.

[SPeter]

Define crappy guitar... one that is not set up correctly does not stay in tune and the frets have sharp edges is just as frustrating as a crappy amp and will make anybody give up on the new hobby fast.
I would say a $350-400 gently used guitar paired up with a good 500ish combo amp will be night and day better than a $900 guitar + $100 amp combo mentioned in the OP. You can even stretch that $1k further if you went with used tube amp...

[studiodunn]

A great player can make either sound good and a new player can make either sound bad. I personally am more inspired by the amp regardless of what guitar I'm playing, but I'm the kind of guy that will pick up any shape, radius, configuration of guitar and play it. There is no style of guitar that I need to be comfortable.

A great guitar can sound worst through a bad amp then a crap guitar through a great amp...IMO of coarse.

[Tony Bones]

I agree that crap guitar + good amp is more likely to sound good than good guitar + crap amp. It's also true that a good player can make almost anything sound good, but so what? That's not what we're talking about here, is it?

I thought that what we're talking about is new players (i.e. NOT good by definition) spending too much of their budget on guitar and not enough on amp. In that case I think BOTH (guitar and amp) need to be at least adequate quality. In other words, a beginner can be discouraged by either a crappy guitar or a crappy amp. Fortunately, it's possible to get a good playing, reasonably good sounding guitar for $250. Even less if someone experienced is helping with the search. Another $250 for a Blues Jr and you're ready to take lessons.

I would not recommend to any beginner that they get a $75 pawn shop guitar and spend $500 on an amp. Find a balance where both are serviceable until the musician finds herself and knows what to trade up to.