Simple question, is it more about the amp than the guitar?

Well is it, or is the primary sound from the guitar?

The amp can only amplify the signal you send it. It can and will color that signal, but not to the extent that an amp will make a crappy sounding guitar sound good. IMO. I'm sure others will disagree but <shrugs>

I disagree with originalmatthew. Much of what you hear from an electric guitar/amp combo is the amp. A mediocre guitar can sound spectacular through a great amp. A great guitar will absolutely sound bad through a bad amp.

Nearly any guitar sounds spectacular through a cranked AC30, for instance.

I mostly agree with Wayne. Of course the playability of the guitar comes into play as well as the parts but overall I think the amp is more important.

I think it'll always be a combination. I'm not Terry Jacks but bah bah bah bahhhhhh. Okay I'm not even that good but it's always going to be a combination of this and that, time and space, why didn't the Castaways kill Gilligan when they had their chance and most importantly the set up of the guitar, the pick selection, string gauge/tension, how many beers are left in the fridge, for that matter how many donuts, and whether or not a really hot person of the contrary gender is in the same room making googoo eyes at you. You see it really doesn't matter as Bill Murray once said. Get yourself the best guitar, best amp but if you don't have enough of the pre-mentioned necessities, all is for not. It's the singer not the song that make the music move along come on and bte bottles play slide better than cansssssssss....We now return to your normal broadcast.

A mediocre guitar can sound spectacular through a great amp. A great guitar will absolutely sound bad through a bad amp.

nail on head

I've just completed a Partscaster Tele with Tonerider Vintage Classics. Sounds great, I know Ïm bragging,but it sounds go on my Randall transistor a'mp and on my Fender valve amp. I think a guitar sounds good if built right- afterall the amp only magnifies a guitars sound.

P.S. On that note, ( no pun intended), many a guitar will sound great in the hands of a great player.

A good amp always helps. Nothing like playing a top shelf guitar through a 10 watt Gorilla to inspire and take you to the next level :roll:

Back to the primary sound thing. I'm going with player

Let's add another angle to the discussion.

Which is easier/more difficult: To get a classic Vox tone from a Fender or to coax a Les Paul tone from a Telecaster?

99% amp, 1% guitar.

And it's easy to prove that, too.
Take a great guitar and play it through a VOX AC30 and then play it through a $70 Crate starter amp. Same guitar, why does it sound better in the VOX?

You can also take a great guitar and a $100 starter guitar and play them both through, say, an AC30. You will find very little difference between the two sounds.

I have done this. My top guitar (a White Falcon) and my worst (a Squier Bullet) and I played them in my AC30. Though they do obviously sound different (hollow body vs. Strat quack), they both sound professional. $100 guitar vs. $3,000 guitar and the tone is professional from both. It is the amp, not the guitar that provides professional tone.

Short answer: yes

I always thought it was 75% amp and 25% guitar but I won't argue with Taxer.

A good guitar through a bad amp will sound bad. A bad guitar through a good amp will at least sound interesting, if not good.

My silverfaced Twin makes all my guitars sound not only good, but different from each other. The individual qualities of each guitar really shine through.

Quickest way to sell a 100 guitar is plug into a 3000 dollar amp..

It's a guitar store sales tactic...

I wouldn't put a % on it but tone is definitely a formula:

guitar+player+amp=tone

good guitar+good player+good amp= great tone and sound (IMHO)

The amp can only amplify the signal you send it. It can and will color that signal, but not to the extent that an amp will make a crappy sounding guitar sound good. IMO. I'm sure others will disagree but <shrugs>

Don't trust this guy, he's from Riverside....weird stuff goes down there.

(UC Riverside grad here! :wink:)

In all seriousness, though, I think the amp is probably the most important "voicing" component in the chain, with guitar being a close second.

The amp. It's part of the instrument as a whole. The player is more important than both of them though.:cool:

First the amp, then the rest...imo.

For me, the amp is the other "half" of the instrument.

My dearly departed mentor had a 61 Super 400C that sounded great until he plugged it in. I think the story here is he was not really an electric player whatsoever. So for him it was about the guitar and it being an acoustic instrument. I tried to talk with him about the idea of getting a Johnny Smith style floating pickup and nice tube amp to go with, but he wouldn't have it. He'd say too much "Atom Smashing".

Pete Townsend was a famous player who stated that his choice of guitars were based on what suited his Hiwatt amps best. It would seem to me that this doesn't make a whole lot of sense in that he used every major guitar with his amps, Rickenbackers, Telecasters, Stratocasters, SGs, and Les Pauls. Did ever find the right guitar to go with his amps? But I guess he's an Amp Guy.

As one nice gentleman has said here, the AC30 is a great amp and many a guitar sound great plugged into that great Vox design. Personally I tend to gravitate to my one of my vintage Princeton Reverb Amps as my go to amp. Just about anything I plug into one my Princetons sounds great. I guess that makes me an "Amp Guy".

On the other hand I have a 1960 Telecaster that I have hot rodded to my own specs and just any good amp I plug it into the guitar sounds great. So I guess this makes me a "Guitar Guy".

As players of electric guitar, we should consider the amp as the half of the equation. In our quest for that sound we're looking for, sometimes we find the guitar first and other times we find the amp first. Thereafter we look for what goes with the other. And this experience repeats over and over. That is why we love guitars and amps.

Whatever be your history, let the quest continue.

The amp. It's part of the instrument as a whole. The player is more important than both of them though.:cool:

Hey fezzbo... what's with the george goble?

I love me some Gobel. :lol:
GFlsYUkMHW0

Amp! I definately agree with everyone who says a crap guitar can sound great through a killer amp, but a killer guitar will probably sound like crap through a crap amp.

I love me some Gobel. :lol:
GFlsYUkMHW0

I worked with him in summer stock in Maine in 1970. I can tell you he walked through life being exactly the same person that you saw in his performing.

I have heard it said that, other than the fingers, which are paramount, it's a three way tie between guitar, pickups, and amp. If you use stomp boxes, they also enter into the equation, although probably as a subset of "amp."

I'd rather have a nice guitar than I nice amp.

I disagree with originalmatthew. Much of what you hear from an electric guitar/amp combo is the amp. A mediocre guitar can sound spectacular through a great amp. A great guitar will absolutely sound bad through a bad amp.

Nearly any guitar sounds spectacular through a cranked AC30, for instance.

+1

Big difference in sound between a cheap amp and a expensive amp. Not as big a difference in sound between a MIM tele and a MIA tele. Amp has my vote.

IMO, more the amp. Much more.
MD

I find it is totally a combination. A good sounding guitar sounds fantastic on a good amp but a crappy guitar does not. Confirmed by me right here, over and over. To be more specific, I believe a good choice of pickups on the other hand can really help out a guitar as well. I wish I could afford a set for a great guitar that sounds pretty darn poor although my amp sounds heavenly to me on a bunch of other guitars. I am talking about real cheap garbage pups though. It is definitely not 99% amp in my opinion. They can make a guitar sound better but not good enough to say they would cure a bad sounding guitar.
The type of music and amp settings have to factor in as well. Let's talk clean sounds and then we can compare notes.

Yes.

My old Bassman makes cheap beater partscasters into acceptable gigging tools.

I had this terrible amp that I nearly tossed out until I tried it in my open plan living room - which has wooden floors rather than carpet amongst other things. You really would not believe the difference it made. Natural reverb!

Also my guitars sound better there too. So room acoustics should be in the equation as well.

Everything counts, but a good player will be able to take any of the basic elements provided, at any level of quality, and create something you like to hear. Personally, I rely on a good amp more than anything. That, and a comfortable pair of brown shoes.

Heart = #1. Fingers = #2. Guitar = #3. Amp = #4. Altogether, a perfect 10.