I play guitar a bit. Not very seriously, just playing songs I like, but I've got more serious recently and think it might be worth investing in a decent amp.
Currently I have a [url=http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/profile_mojo_data/7/1/4/2/714265/pics/_c462994_image_0.jpg]Fender 15G[/url], which I'm pretty sure is just a standard amp that makes noise.
I notice when I play alot of songs, although I can hear that the note is right, it just doesn't sound right. First of all, is this because of the amp or the guitar not being set up right? I have a Squire Strat ("By Fender").
Im mosly into metal / rock / power metal.
Can I get a decent amp for less than £100?
I am planning to get a new guitar some time, would you suggest getting a new amp or guitar first?
TL;DR
1. Notes are right but the effect sounds wrong. Assuming its because of amp, not guitar?
2. Good amp for metal / rock / power metal for around £100 and down?
3. Should I get a new amp or a new guitar first?
Sorry for anything stupid, I'm not hugely knowledgeable about the technical parts of playing guitar.
I'm a pretty new guitarist aswell (just 1 year that i'm playing) and I can give you some decent tips.
That amp you're using is prefectly fine for practicing at home, because if you keep the volume down, the sound is clean and nice, but being a small amp if you put a lot of volume into it starts to make noise and ruin the sound.
There would be no point in getting a much better guitar keeping the same amp, since it wouldnt change much.. (First guitar i've had was an american deluxe fender strat, it came 1600€ with a MG15 amp, and for the time I tought it sounded excellent,but when I went on stage and plugged the guitar into a 200 watt Marshall Box with 8 separate amps, I couldnt recognise my guitar anymore...)
If you are serious about guitar playing, I suggest you save up for a VERY GOOD amp that will use your guitar to its maximum potential (it's a squire, on cheap amps it sounds exactly like original fenders, but on better ones the difference gets bigger and bigger), and only then think about your next guitar.
You could also get a distortion pedal, and keep the amp on the clean channel and distort it via pedal, since pedal distortion is usually higher quality than stock amp distortion.
TLDR:
-If you just wanna jam a little at home keep practicing with your current gear. You'll notice improvements in the sound aswell when you get better.
-Get a new amp first, maybe with some effects / distortion pedal. Maybe even a valve amp, not a solid state one like the most. The sound is 1000x better but it's more fragile.
-If you shall ever get a new guitar, for heavy metal and such you are better off with some Humbucking pickups instead of single coils, since they have a fatter sound. Single coils are all around better and more versatile, but humbuckers are the way if you just wanna play heavy rock / metal and no blues for example.
From my experiences strats aren't the best for metal. For starting out id say Ibanez maybe, they make cheap decent guitars. And for an amp I use a Peavey Vyper, it has great built in effects and amp models, very good for starting out and not too pricy
Invest in a guitar.
LTD's work well if you know what you're doing, but strats work fine.
if your after a serious amp i dont suggest buying under $500 Aud.
but the gear doesn't make the guitarist. only refines them.
Peavy Make some great little amps. I feel in love with an old Peavy Deuce at the studio I work in. I have no idea where it sits in the range, and they dont even make them anymore, but it sounds great. Look on eBay. For guitars, Ibanez is a good bet. I have an RG370 and it plays really well, and sounds great. I got one with the crazy paintjob on eBay for £300ish a few years back.
Parker are churning out some cheap guitars now, which play and sound amazing, I saw one floating around on eBay for about £250 not long ago.
As for cheap amps, steer clear of Marshall. I love their big old stacks, but their cheap amps sound like shit in my oppinion. Again Peavy make some great gear. Try out a Roland Cube amp too, not everyone's cup of tea, but they sound pretty good in my opinion.
If you dont play Guitar seriously, you'll probably get along with a digital Amp Simulator like GuitarRig, i use it for practicing
Peavy is great along with line 6 if your into rock or metal. Also, in the future i would recommend getting a better guitar if you're playing metal. Ibanez would be my first choice
I always tell people an amp goes before a guitar. I mean the obvious choice for metal or heavy rock players is a guitar with humbuckers and single coils for a blues or alternative player.
The amp I would suggest is the Crate Flexwave series. I had a GTD120/212 which was the older version of the flexwave amps and I loved it. It has three channels... High gain, overdrive, and clean. It also has a few decent effects, I found it to be a very versatile amp for most styles. I played everything from metal to country and never found myself limited.
The only other choice is an effects processor from Roland and I have even heard a lot of good things about the Behringer V-Amp. I owned a Line 6 POD X3 pro for a while and I pretty much wanted to marry the thing. Line 6 has a great line of PODs priced from beginner to expert. The POD 2.0 is another great choice, but in the end it all depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to take it over to a friends house and jam an amp might be your best bet. The advantage of an effects processor or interface is if you feel like recording something straight to your computer without having to buy the equipment and mic your amp you just plug it in to your computer and press record. The disadvantage is you would not be able to just bring it to a friends house and jam. I mean you can split the headphone signal but you won't get any sound outside of headphones without a set of speakers.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftXfLkDsxAI[/url]
78 euro, Orange is great.
[QUOTE=Simiil;32827836]If you dont play Guitar seriously, you'll probably get along with a digital Amp Simulator like GuitarRig, i use it for practicing[/QUOTE]
I use GuitarRig, but it's weird it won't let me listen to anything else when my guitar's plugged in. (I use a guitar to usb lead). But if I want to listen to a backing track while I play, I can't because GuitarRig is the only program that produces sound when I plug my guitar in. And then after a while of playing the guitar quality will just drop and become really fuzzy, so I have to open and close GuitarRig and it's back to normal.
I'm thinking of just using a microphone over my amplifier to record.
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