Amps And Guitars: Are Some Matches Better Than Others?

[László]

Inquiring minds want to know. Do some combinations of guitars and amps work better for you than others?

An argument could be made that they do, at least for me.

There is no better match in my world than a 594 Soapbar and the DG30. None. Even a DGT can only approximate the greatness of this combination. It's juicy, it's emotional, it's warm and vowel-like, and it's made in tone heaven.

You want a killer humbucker combination? HXDA and CU24 30th PS. Oh. My. Goodness. I mean, sure, you'd expect that with the McCarty Singlecut, also great, but not necessarily with the CU24.

The Special with the Lone Star's clean channel with NOS tubes is joy-joy that makes me weep in its utter tone glory. I bow down to the genius of Paul Smith and Randall Smith, who obviously had the same familial genes.

Well OK, they probably didn't, BUT the combination still sounds amazing.

The McCarty Singlecut works with everything, but I was surprised with how well it mates up with the Fillmore. I didn't expect that at all.

Guitars. Amps.

Mysteries abound. What are some of your favorites?

 

[veinbuster]

Some favourites:

Les Paul or McCarty with 59/09 through the Boogie Mark III dialled in for dirty blues.

Santana through channel 2 of the Boogie Mark V, set with a hybrid of Santana and Petrucci

408/Santana Rosewood hybrid through the MDT

Strat or NF3 through channel 3 of the Mark V

SAS is best through the Kemper on vacation.

 

[jak3af3r]

Yep.

Generally, my humbuckers guitars don't sound as good to me through my twin. Single coils sound heavenly though.

My little 6v6 D-amp doesn't like single coils on the drive channel with the gain up. Humbuckers will do "the thing" all the time clean or dirty. That amp seems particularly fond of the HFS in my custom 24 and the middle NF in the SAS.

The Vox sounds pretty decent with anything after minor tweaking.

Princeton used to sound phenomenal to me until I got the D-amp.

The supro doesn't care as long as it is pushed and on a bridge pickup.

The only one that's happy with anything anytime is the Lab L7.

 

[Black Plaid]

These are my fave pairings from my collection

Soapbar McCarty mahogany and 50s Gibson Falcon
20th anniversary Artist CU 22 and GK RL250
Santana and Boogie Mk III
Private Stock 24 and Boogie Mk V
ME 1 and Archon 100

 

[Rider1260]

100% yes , My 335 thru my Vibrolux is killer , Silver Skys thru MK1 mode on the Mesa MK V OR my PRS H
408 thru MKV in MKiV mode ( in fact MKIV mode works for all humbucker guitars )

 

[andy474x]

Definitely have some go-to combinations, although hard to pin down one certain guitar that I like best with a given amp.

594 or S2 Studio with the Custom 50
Silver Sky or Mira 25th Soapbar with Sweet 16
SE Akesson or SE CU24 with MT15
S2 CU22 Semi Hollow with (of all things) Valve Jr w/Bitmo mods

On the amp side, my '68 Custom Vibrolux likes everything, and for guitars, my S2 Standard 22 Satin does as well.

I like all of my gear, but there are also some combinations that I just wouldn't use for a gig, etc. - like one of my SE's into the Sweet 16, not because they sound bad, but the above combinations sound better.

 

[Tony M.]

To actually answer the question in the thread title,


Yes.

 

[Bogner]

Yes, for sure!

PRS Tremonti & Bogner Uberschall
PRS ME II & Diezel Herbert
PRS SC 245 & Friedman BE
PRS McCarty & Bogner Shiva
PRS Santana & Diezel Schmidt
PRS Custom 24 & Mesa Boogie Mark Series (pick your favorite)

 

[ruger9]

Absolutely.

I won't go into details, it's years and years of owning different gear, but suffice it to say this:

I have not yet found THE ONE amp that sounds amazing with ALL of my guitars. Pairings matter. Especially with my Gretsch- those Filtertrons are unlike any other pickup IMO (tonally, trying to get them to sound good through the amp).

I actually dream of the day when I will have 1 guitar and 1 amp, believe it or not... because that means I'll be doing nothing but playing at that point, not spending all this time researching, buying, trying, selling gear... I'll just PLAY. But it is not THIS day.

 

[JasonE]

Short answer is yes. However, there is so much that goes into this. The speaker has a huge influence on the tone. I can take two different heads and put them through the same cabinet and they will sound very similar. I definitely hear much more of a difference in the drives of different amps than I do in the cleans. You can usually adjust the tone stack and get them in a similar range, again the speakers have a lot to do with this.

One that I hear a HUGE difference in is drive pedals and amp pairings. I have some OD pedals that I absolutely hate in some of my amps but sound incredible in others. The amp circuit has a lot to do with that. I am not much of a fan of fuzz pedals because I seem to gravitate towards Fender type circuits. However, into a Marshall, they sound pretty good.

 

[László]

Great responses, all. Keep 'em coming.

Short answer is yes. However, there is so much that goes into this. The speaker has a huge influence on the tone. I can take two different heads and put them through the same cabinet and they will sound very similar. I definitely hear much more of a difference in the drives of different amps than I do in the cleans. You can usually adjust the tone stack and get them in a similar range, again the speakers have a lot to do with this.

One that I hear a HUGE difference in is drive pedals and amp pairings. I have some OD pedals that I absolutely hate in some of my amps but sound incredible in others. The amp circuit has a lot to do with that. I am not much of a fan of fuzz pedals because I seem to gravitate towards Fender type circuits. However, into a Marshall, they sound pretty good.

Same here.

Absolutely.

I won't go into details, it's years and years of owning different gear, but suffice it to say this:

I have not yet found THE ONE amp that sounds amazing with ALL of my guitars. Pairings matter. Especially with my Gretsch- those Filtertrons are unlike any other pickup IMO (tonally, trying to get them to sound good through the amp).

I actually dream of the day when I will have 1 guitar and 1 amp, believe it or not... because that means I'll be doing nothing but playing at that point, not spending all this time researching, buying, trying, selling gear... I'll just PLAY. But it is not THIS day.

I have been a one amp, one guitar guy several times, for fairly long periods. Then I get nuts, and get more, and that lasts a long time. Later down the road I go back to 1 & 1.

I have a serious urge to purge at the moment. But I can't decide which amp and guitar to keep!

Because I'm a ho.

 

[Steve's addiction]

With the eq I can make most of my guitars sound good through the mesa but the old ce sounds great through the peavey valve king with the marshall 212 cab. It just oozes gain!

 

[bodia]

Yes. Definitely yes.

 

[veinbuster]

One guitar and one amp is just wrong.

I had one guitar and two amps for a while and was pretty happy. One amp was much more compact than the other, but couldn’t quite fill a hockey arena.

Then I had two guitars (well kind of 4, but I’m excluding acoustics) and one amp (the Mark III) for a bunch of years, and I was happy with that.

11 guitars and one amp was a very happy place. Just in time for my house to be paid, and my kids to start university.

When they stopped going to school, I had too much free cash and got silly.

 

[László]

One guitar and one amp is just wrong.

I had one guitar and two amps for a while and was pretty happy. One amp was much more compact than the other, but couldn’t quite fill a hockey arena.

Then I had two guitars (well kind of 4, but I’m excluding acoustics) and one amp (the Mark III) for a bunch of years, and I was happy with that.

11 guitars and one amp was a very happy place. Just I time for my house to be paid, and my kids to start university.

When they stopped going to school, I had too much free cash and got silly.

I'm goin' with silly being good here.

 

[Bogner]

1 guitar and 1 amp? Who wants to suffer that kind of hell?

 

[ruger9]

re: one guitar and one amp:

It is very simple to be happy,
yet
it is very difficult to become simple.

 

[László]

re: one guitar and one amp:

It is very simple to be happy,
yet
it is very difficult to become simple.

I'm inclined to agree!

Part of my recent desire for simplicity is that I'm spending most of my musical efforts on orchestral music. Granted, this makes very little sense. But the more I do it, the more I think, "What is the point of having all this dough tied up in guitars and amps when my main interest isn't music based on guitars and amps?"

Then my wife agrees with me, and I know I should reconsider.

Caveat: Oh, I know she's 100% right. I'm just a rebel without a clue.

 

[bodia]

1 guitar and 1 amp? Who wants to suffer that kind of hell?

No doubt!

 

[ViperDoc]

Yes, 100% yes.

PRS 594 and just about any amp, but especially a Marshall high-gain amp/Carr Mercury V.
James Tyler Studio Classic and my own TW Express P2P build.
Telecaster and my JTM45 loaded with KT66.
Strat or Kauer Banshee with Filtertrons and a 5E3 Deluxe.