What's more important Guitar or Amp?

**docbop** · 11-13-2010, 04:22 PM

After reading a number of threads I was wondering what you feel is more important as a Jazz guitarist a better guitar or better amp?

**Scolohofo** · 11-13-2010, 05:08 PM

none,you get to match your equipment!

**oilywrag** · 11-13-2010, 05:14 PM

A Guitar,why?..A bad guitar will always be a bad guitar,but you can always get a "sound" out of an amp.Just my £0.02p.

Cheers Tom

**mr. beaumont** · 11-13-2010, 05:20 PM

For jazz, the guitar.

For rock and roll, that's debatable...

**JohnW400** · 11-13-2010, 06:26 PM

If we're talking electric as opposed to acoustic archtop then I would say the amp.

And Jeff , I'm going to use you as the example.

Mr.B gets a convincing "hollowbody" sound out of his tele due to his amp.

**BigDaddyLoveHandles** · 11-13-2010, 07:37 PM

I'll compromise and say the cable.

**barrymclark** · 11-13-2010, 07:38 PM

In my mind they are the same. There is a third option more important than both of those I think should be included: the player.

**Tom Karol** · 11-13-2010, 07:55 PM

I didn't vote - I can't decide! I have a $600 guitar, a $700 guitar, an $800 guitar, and a $900 amp. I'm happy with all of them (but I still buy a lottery ticket now and then)!

**GodinFan** · 11-13-2010, 07:56 PM

I can run direct and get a sound I like - so it has to be the geetar.

**backliner** · 11-13-2010, 09:17 PM

I can make the best equipment on earth sound like the worst.

But most amps seem ok for jazz sounds to me. Gimmee a good pickup on a cheap guitar -and a wood bridge- and I'm good to go.

**spiral** · 11-13-2010, 09:41 PM

If you don't like your guitar and/or never play it, the amp isn't much use.

**lpdeluxe** · 11-13-2010, 09:50 PM

I don't usually participate in these duality debates: to me, it's the combination of all the elements, including the strings, the pick, the player's technique (which should arise from his or her taste and talent). It doesn't matter whether the guitar comes first or the amp. The important issue is whether you can make music with what you have. The implicit priority given gear is highly misleading -- none of us bought a great guitar and amp and went out and amazed the world. instead, we worked our way through sometimes inadequate junk while we perfected our technique (which process was sometimes retarded by our choice -- or necessity -- of amplifier and axe). To try to reduce the entire experience of spending a lifetime playing music down to whether you buy an amp first or a guitar seems to greatly trivialize the whole thing.

But I do have a strong opinion: I have to find the guitar that I bond with sonically and ergonomically before I go looking for an amp. Like most of us, I have owned quite a few (30+ at last, informal count) and, even though I really love my blonde 335, it will be on the block as soon as I find one with a Bigsby.

Once I get the guitar, I start trying out amps that bring out its better qualities and attenuate its less desirable traits.

My thinking is pretty simple: I don't spend hours on the bandstand with the amp in my arms!

I have good luck (although I don't think there's that much luck involved) with this approach, especially with bass. I play more bass gigs than guitar at this point, and I went through nine basses before I found the one that spoke to me. Once I had it, I sold my Les Paul gold top to finance the ultimate bass combo, a Mesa/Boogie Walkabout Scout. Of course, you all are interested in what the 335 plugs into: that would be a Fender Band-Master VM head into a Weber California Ceramic Fifteen cab. Sweet top end, enough EQ to handle a variety of material, useful effects, and it looks old-school (which matches me, after all). It can bark and it can distort, and it can bring the hairs up on the back of your neck.

Good amp. But I had to have the 335 first.

**kenbennett** · 11-14-2010, 12:43 AM

(C) Neither the guitar nor the amp needs to be great.

**Scotto** · 11-14-2010, 01:44 AM

I know Wes used to view them as equal. I would rather have a guitar setup to my specs and use a different amp at different venues than the other way around.

**whiskywheels** · 11-14-2010, 09:55 AM

Sometimes it's one, sometimes the other.
But at the end of the day the amp is just as much part of the sound as the guitar. It's not a case of 'either or' , they both work in synergy. Like Scotto, I'd prefer to play my own guitar through a different amp, but only if absolutely necessary. What I'd rather do is play my own guitar through my own amp!

**woyvel** · 11-14-2010, 10:37 AM

The poll says "great" guitar or "great" amp. I say neither. It does start with the guitar, though. A warped archtop will be better than an amp with with a short in the wiring, if amplification is required in the first place.

**abracadabra** · 11-14-2010, 11:32 AM

If the choice is 'great guitar' OR 'great amp', then I have to choose amp.

A nice clean, warm amp can be made to sound good with any guitar. An amp that doesn't clean up well cannot sound good with any guitar.

And for other styles, using OD/Distortion etc, the amp is even more important.

imo

**asedas** · 11-14-2010, 12:16 PM

It's not that simple. Maybe most important is guitar, becouse you can play without amp, but cannot with amp without guitar ;P From the other hand, even the best guitar will sound like shit on shitty amp...

And good player will sound similar on cheap and expensive guitar...

So should we add "both are important" to the poll?

**abracadabra** · 11-14-2010, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by asedas

It's not that simple. Maybe most important is guitar, becouse you can play without amp, but cannot with amp without guitar ;P From the other hand, even the best guitar will sound like shit on shitty amp...

And good player will sound similar on cheap and expensive guitar...

So should we add "both are important" to the poll?

but then 100% of the responses would say "both are important", making the poll and debate really boring.

**lpdeluxe** · 11-14-2010, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Scotto

I know Wes used to view them as equal. I would rather have a guitar setup to my specs and use a different amp at different venues than the other way around.

That's my approach. The 335 has become my one-and-only electric, but I maintain a herd of amps to plug him into ('63 Silvertone 1484, Fender Blues Jr NOS, Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight, Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue, and the BM/Weber). My "signature sound" comes out of the Band-Master/Weber, but they all get used, based on venue, material and space.

I don't feel the same way about guitars. Over the last three years I have shed a Chet Atkins Country Gent, a Les Paul, and an SG, each of which had unmistakable sounds and virtues, but none of them fit me the way the Gibson does.

**abracadabra** · 11-14-2010, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by lpdeluxe

I maintain a herd of amps to plug him into ('63 Silvertone 1484, Fender Blues Jr NOS, Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight, Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue, and the BM/Weber). My "signature sound" comes out of the Band-Master/Weber, but they all get used, based on venue, material and space.

So this means that the amp is the most important, right? If you can play the same guitar but need to fit the amp to the occasion, then the amp must be the most important.

**mambosun** · 11-14-2010, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by abracadabra

So this means that the amp is the most important, right? If you can play the same guitar but need to fit the amp to the occasion, then the amp must be the most important.

Both or neither: the most important is the guitar playing technique.
I guess say, a Pat Martino would be able to extract a nice jazz tone from a lug plugged in a kitchen radio

...

**lpdeluxe** · 11-14-2010, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by mambosun

Both or neither: the most important is the guitar playing technique.
I guess say, a Pat Martino would be able to extract a nice jazz tone from a lug plugged in a kitchen radio

...

Right on. The amplifier and guitar are only tools.

Archie · 11-15-2010, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by lpdeluxe

Right on. The amplifier and guitar are only tools.

Yes, but I'm no MacGyver. What's that old saying: "a workman is only as good as his tools"?

**hot ford coupe** · 11-15-2010, 01:49 PM

There should have been a both answer also. The only reason I chose guitar over amp is because there's more to a guitar than just the sound that comes out of it. Does the neck stay stable? Do the strings stay in tune? Is the action good or does it make the hand hurt? Is the guitar easy to hold or a pain in the neck? Are the pickups reliable? Are the glue joints stable? Etc, Etc, Etc. True, you need a reliable amp as well as a good instrument but I tend to agree with those that said a mediocre amp can still sound pretty good. I have a $74 amp, a $125 amp and a $1000 Fender amp. None of them sound good if I have to wrestle with a crappy guitar.