The Age-Old Question Is The Wrong Question!

[Toolmaster Of Brainerd]

I actually prefer the question in its original postulation. Possibly because I like my answer to that question.

First, if it's not for a total beginner, set aside minimum $500 for a decent guitar. No sharp fret ends, level frets that can get a reasonable action, bridge that holds tune, replace the nut with graphtech, and get some Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios.

Then if budget allows, it's really really worth stepping up to an entry level tube amp: Marshall DSL40, Fender hot rod deluxe, blues junior, or Princeton, 5150, even an orange lunchbox, MT15, or used Archon 25. All those amps can be found for under $1000, sometimes closer to $500.

After that, whatever budget is left can be spent on a guitar, whether the leftover budget is $500 or $2500.

But the point is my $250 used Yamaha Pacifica was a fantastic guitar. Totally playable, sounded good, ideal for learning on. And my $230 Boss Katana sounded like a butthole. Even to my beginner ears it was a bad amp with no good sounds. I needed more amp.

And on the flip side, lots of pros tour with a 5150 and sound amazing. My bandmate bought one used for $650. Affordable and sounds killer.

At pretty much any budget, this is what I recommend.

 

[Jason Penn]

yeah man, life is good!

i just got a 2019, but it cost me double what yours cost

 

[Bogner]

I Say Get The Best Gear That You Like And Can Afford, Play It And Have Fun. The Notion That You Need To Be At A Certain Talent Level To Justify Having A Certain Piece Of Gear Is Silly.

 

[Tom Bradovich]

Here's the age-old question, and it is 100% the wrong question:

Would you rather put your money into an expensive guitar and a cheap amp, or a cheap guitar and an expensive amp?

The right question is, "Would you rather hear the amp or the guitar?"

Why do I say this...?

If you want to hear as much of the pure guitar as possible, you obviously play through a clean amp.

Lots of amps - even very cheap ones - will at the very least do a decent job of reproducing the recognizable sound of the guitar (yes, I know that clean tube amps contain some distortion, but you still hear the characteristics of the guitar).

In that case, maybe you'd rather put your money into the guitar. It's going to matter.

On the other hand, the more distortion you add via an amp, the more you obscure the guitar, and hear the characteristics of the amp. So in the context of a dirtier tone, you might prefer to put your money into the amp, and less money into the guitar.

If you don't know what your priority is, then you can't make the right call. There's a continuum here, to be sure, but the right question focuses your decision making a little.

"This is all pretty obvious, Laz."

"That's why it's the right question. Consider Occam's razor."

Excellent, Les - I always enjoy reading your stuff. Good exposure of the two "Use Your Ears" choices: What would you rather hear, the guitar or the amp? I'd answer both.

So, let's say you gave me $4,000 to buy a guitar and amp. I could spend $3,500 on a Core and have $500 left for the amp. Yuk! Or, I could try to do both. Downgrade to something nice out of the S2 line and spend what? around $2,200 or so and then have around $1,800 for the amp. Waaaaay better sound this way from out of the gtr/amp/speaker chain than the $500 amp option - even though played with a Core.

Guess I'm greedy. I want both.

 

[You_Narf]

I concur

 

[Maertl513]

I own rather more expensive guitars than cheap ones (But the expensive ones are below Private Stock price ranges.). Therefore I had less concerns to order a custom made cabinet with the requirement of carrying powerful speakers with low to no tendency to break up.
The perfect cabinet will provide with clean amp setting the capability of the guitar. The perfect cabinet will aswell provide the qualitity of a kranked amp and guitar, when turning the guitar's volume knob from open to lower volumes to go from distorted to clean.

 

[You_Narf]

As someone who owns 25+ guitars but only a handful of amps, I wish I could just own 10 guitars and 10 amps. I got into amps long after I got into guitars and pedals and that is evident today.

All the guitar's I own are around the $899-$1,600 margin. The pedals average at $250-$400 and the amps average from $1,700-$2,500. To give you an idea. Of course, as many of you already know, most of my guitars are heavily modded (pickups, bridges, etc)

 

[Bogner]

As someone who owns 25+ guitars but only a handful of amps, I wish I could just own 10 guitars and 10 amps. I got into amps long after I got into guitars and pedals and that is evident today.

All the guitar's I own are around the $899-$1,600 margin. The pedals average at $250-$400 and the amps average from $1,700-$2,500. To give you an idea. Of course, as many of you already know, most of my guitars are heavily modded (pickups, bridges, etc)

It Is Never Too Late To Turn Things Around...

 

[You_Narf]

It Is Never Too Late To Turn Things Around...

I don't want to sell any of my guitars or pedals though lol I am working on getting more amps, my goal is to acquire 5 more good tube amps. I don't really count a few of the cheap amps I have like the Positive Grid Spark Go for instance, because that's more of a toy than an actual amp.

 

[Bogner]

I don't want to sell any of my guitars or pedals though lol I am working on getting more amps, my goal is to acquire 5 more good tube amps. I don't really count a few of the cheap amps I have like the Positive Grid Spark Go for instance, because that's more of a toy than an actual amp.

You Gotta Keep All That Stuff For Sure! Just Get More Amps!!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

so I realize I'm preaching to the choir…

I’d rather you preached to the congregation Pastor Laz.

I stand by that if at 18 years old, I had my SE 245 and my pops in laws Blackstar HT5R, I would be a very happy camper. I wouldn’t realise how lucky I was.

My 15 year old son is learning guitar using this very set up, because I want it to be an enjoyable experience and not the chore it was for me on a “cheese grater” action and a dodgy SS amp, where dialling in a usable tone was pretty much impossible.

PRS into a Mesa is a very useable combination for me.

 

[Wyzard]

I’d rather you preached to the congregation Pastor Laz.

I think of Laz as our cantor, but that's probably my ancestry at work.

 

[László]

I think of Laz as our cantor, but that's probably my ancestry at work.

My great-grandfather on my mother's side was a cantor. An 18th C. ancestor on my father's side composed liturgical music.

I've got the music gene comin' and goin'.

I’d rather you preached to the congregation Pastor Laz.

I have no congregation, Deacon Alnus.

Only the choir agrees with me!

 

[Tedder]

I completely disagree.... with something. I am also not in the choir though. My singing is terrible.

 

[László]

PRS into a Mesa is a very useable combination for me.

For me, PRS >> Mesa is one of the all-time classic combinations, in the way Les Paul >> Marshall is a classic set.

Obviously, PRS' sound great with a lot of amps, but for a long time PRS >> Mesa was definitely a thing!

 

[Chef T]

I made a lot of mistakes buying the wrong gear for what I was trying to achieve over the years, especially early on. Pickups when I should’ve bought an amp, an amp when I should’ve bought speakers… I don’t even want to think about it!

I think we live in a golden era of guitar gear, in a sense, because there are guitars and amps available for a fraction of the price of high end gear, that get a lot of the tone (or feel, playability, etc.). I’ve never really thought about gear in terms of saving money here, to spend more money there, to an extreme. For example, if you gave me $2500 to buy a guitar and amp, I wouldn’t buy a $500 guitar and $2000 amp. I’d probably split the money a little more equally, with a mind toward acquiring gear that’s more reliable. You can get a version of almost anything at any price point.

The “expensive this and cheap that” mental exercise is, IMO, more of a YouTube clickbait inspired gimmick, than a real question that most of us consider - again, at least to that extreme.

In summary, I agree - one should think about what they’re doing to determine where they’re spending, but most of us are gear whores so bad that it’s a non-issue.

I agree, but if someone gave you $2500 to buy a guitar and amp, would you buy more expensive used gear, or less expensive new gear. Sorry, this may be a topic for a different thread.

 

[andy474x]

I agree, but if someone gave you $2500 to buy a guitar and amp, would you buy more expensive used gear, or less expensive new gear. Sorry, this may be a topic for a different thread.

Hmm, I think in that case it would come down to the specifics of what I wanted, and the availability. If I were in that price range. Probably a used S2 and a new Archon 50 or Sonzera 20 combo would fit that budget.

 

[Moondog Wily]

. . . not the chore it was for me on a “cheese grater” . . .

I used to play the cheese grater as well, but when bits of my skin and blood were showing up in the quesadillas, I stopped using it for practice! It is for this reason that I have devoted giving my guitars to a public school when I pass away so that a few children will be able to learn on guitars that don't play like a cheese grater and allow them to make musical sounds with less pain and effort ;~))

 

[bodia]

I agree, but if someone gave you $2500 to buy a guitar and amp, would you buy more expensive used gear, or less expensive new gear. Sorry, this may be a topic for a different thread.

I’d go used for the guitar, for sure. I’d rather buy a new amp, though.

 

[Mozzi]

You see I think it potentially 'evolves' with you and your needs....

I bet most of us started with 'poor' amps/guitars (or cheap anyway) and now modern 'cheap' amps can be all you 'need' (MT15 for example)

Maybe as you evolve, you start chasing 'other' sounds that resonate with you, whether its something 'vintage' or 'boutique' or whatever...
Amps can change and/or become 'obsolete' in some situations that maybe suit the situation they are in - relying on purely Digital tech to create/simulate whatever sounding amp you want. Maybe something 'relatively' Cheap like a Boss Katana or those Yamaha options are absolutely 'perfect' for playing in the living room or bedroom when you spend 'most' of your life playing there.

You can always go on a quest to find the 'perfect combination' for you and/or the sound you want/need etc for eternity or something that does the 'job' you want at decent price for whatever situation you are in. Buying a 100w Valve amp that has the 'sweetest' tone with this 4x12 Matching cab maybe 'perfect' for a recording Studio/Artist but too much for most people....

A great guitar that's reliable, feels 'comfortable', and makes you want to play is more important. I think over a certain price, you get pretty decent guitars that are reliable, comfortable and have the 'basic' decent quality electronics (inc Pick-ups). Maybe not quite as 'Hi-Def' or as whatever high-end pickups may offer - but good enough to make great music and be a great 'tool' for the musician to have a career with. The 'rest' comes down to the voyage of your journey to decide which is more important for your 'next' step - invest in a 'better' guitar - maybe if your spending time tuning it, tweaking it etc to 'work' for you is interfering with 'progress' a more expensive guitar maybe the better choice but if the Guitar is 'good enough' and you 'need' a better/more expensive amp for gigging, then it makes sense to invest in a better amp.

I really only ever see that question posed hypothetically or often by those on a budget, and I'd always say invest in the guitar as much as you need to get something that 'you' want to pick up and play, and will be reliable and stable - if you are starting, then a 'cheap' amp is really all you need at most until you feel you are 'ready' to upgrade. The guitar is the most important as its what we 'interface' with, how we get the music out - the rest can be 'functional, situational, optimal or sprinkled with magic pixie dust' - so tweak/buy/modify etc according to personal desire or need - but a guitarist will play an Electric unplugged if they had to or even use some battery amp in some situations but they'll still play 'their' guitar....