Guitar teachers, what kind of amps are your students using, if any, and how is the impact?

Nothing will replace the real thing, a pushed tube amp that responds like no modeler or plugin can.

As for students, my experience has been whatever keeps them practicing and growing. Modeling amps and plugins makes getting a good sound at practice volume too easy and keeps them inspired until the point when they want to go fully legit.


I've got nothing on Aahzz but I did it myself.
 
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So when guitar teachers give lessons these days do you each play through pedal boards into your own amp?

Is part of the lesson teaching kids how to use clean tones, overdrive, delay, etc?

Yep. And I'll make sure the volume is loud enough to make mistakes uncomfortable enough for someone to notice; like unintentionally ringing strings, misplaced pick attacks, etc.
 
Have you considered sitting down with the 12-year-old and discussing their goals and interests when it comes to playing the guitar?
Yes. He wants to play drums. After that, bass. He plays saxophone in school, so he has to put a certain amount of time in on that. Guitar is pretty far down on his list of priorities. At the end of his last lesson, I switched the Katana 50 from the clean setting we have been using to the Brown setting and got him going on palm muted power chords. I haven’t seen him light up like that from anything else. It will be interesting to see if he gets more interested as we begin to explore different sounds and styles. He generally listens to things I have never heard that might have a little guitar in it, but it isn’t exactly guitar music.
 
Yes. He wants to play drums. After that, bass. He plays saxophone in school, so he has to put a certain amount of time in on that. Guitar is pretty far down on his list of priorities. At the end of his last lesson, I switched the Katana 50 from the clean setting we have been using to the Brown setting and got him going on palm muted power chords. I haven’t seen him light up like that from anything else. It will be interesting to see if he gets more interested as we begin to explore different sounds and styles. He generally listens to things I have never heard that might have a little guitar in it, but it isn’t exactly guitar music.

My 14 year old son plays Alto sax, drums and bass (not so little show off).

Weird coincidence.
 
But on the other hand, do more players stick with learning when they play through a modelled sound that gets close to recordings that inspire them? In the older days, how many fledgling guitarists gave up during their Gorilla/Pignose/Bandit phase?

<old man rant>

When I started playing, I had a 5 watt Gorilla and a DOD American Metal pedal I used with my second hand Cort bold-on Les Paul made from plywood that had fake humbuckers in it. I hated that setup with the heat of 1000 suns, but it was what I could afford at the time. It was a long while before I was able to finally get a rig that sounded reasonable to me.

If students aren't motivated, it's not the amp.
 
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