Contemporary Music Instruction and Mentoring

  Selecting an Electric Guitar Amp

It is crucial to understand that only half of the electric guitar "sound" comes from the guitar itself.  The other half comes from the amplifier.  You can't just plug an electric guitar into a PA system or computer or stereo system and get a good sound.  You must have an amplifier made specifically for electric guitar.  A cheap beginner's electric guitar played through a good amp will sound better than will a $2,500 Les Paul plugged into a cheap guitar amp or a PA system.

Traditionally, electric guitars were played through tube amplifiers.  Vacuum tubes create compression and harmonic distortion that make an electric guitar sound fantastic.  Various kinds of vintage amps use different types of tubes that have very different sounds from each other.  For example, Fender amps (below left) are based on 6L6GC tubes that at low gain give a sparkly clean sound, and when overdriven create a smooth and subtle bluesy harmonic at first, then when turned up all the way grow to a rich, fat distortion.  In the 1960s up to the mid 1970s nearly all the American rock groups used various models of Fender amps, including the Beach Boys, BTO, CCR, Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Eagles.  Vox amps (below center) use EL84 tubes that have a distinctive nasally crunch sound.  In the 1960s through the 1970s most of the British groups used this amp, including the Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, Queen, and Dire Straits.  Marshall amps (below right) are based on EL34 tubes that at low gain have a round tone and when overdriven create a super-compressed and sustained, awesome rock sound.  Think Led Zeppelin, Journey, Cream, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, and Jimi Hendrix. 

Nearly all the rock music created between 1960 and 1990 was played through Fender, VOX, and Marshall amps. New release Fender, VOX, and Marshall tube amps sell for approximately $1,500-3,000, while used vintage amps from the 1960s-1980s era are highly sought after collector's items that, if you can find one in good condition, sell for nearly as much as the new ones.
  

For several decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s), there were no good-sounding guitar amps at reasonable prices.  Tube amps were -- and still are -- very expensive to make.  When cheap power transistors were invented, the amp manufacturers introduced inexpensive "solid state" amps that looked like tube amps on the outside, but sounded lousy.  They sold like hotcakes to naive, aspiring musicians who couldn't afford tube amps, who naively thought because of the name badge on the front they were getting a good amp, and couldn't figure out why their amps sounded so much worse than the famous bands' guitar sounds!  That's because transistors do not respond to overdrive the same way tubes do.  Instead of creating smooth compression and wonderful sounding even harmonics, they create ugly, ratty distortion and odd harmonics that sound like a blown speaker.  Most of the amps sold to the general public from 1980 to 2010 were these terrible solid state amps.

So, for many years, you had to make a choice between high price with fantastic tone, or low price with horrible tone.  There was nothing inbetween.

Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, you no longer have to spend big bucks to get a good sound with your electric guitar.  Today, there are modeling amps that use digital software to mimic the sound and behavior of various classic tube amps at the push of a button.  There are many choices, but my personal favorite full sized modeling amp is still the Fender Mustang III V.2 (below).  This is the amp I own, and let me tell you, it is an unbelievable bargain.  With 100 Watts, this amp has plenty of power to play in a band.  But the big selling point is the variety.  It's like having more than a dozen different kinds of well-known, highly collectable, classic tube amps all in one, along with a couple of dozen footpedals.  Three additional bonuses are: 1) they weigh half as much as a tube combo amp; 2) they are far more reliable and rugged than tube amps; and 3) they have a master volume knob that can turn down the amp without changing the sound characteristics.  Sadly, these amps have been out of production for several years, but nice used ones can still be found at reverb.com.  If one of my students buys one, I will be happy to program it with the presets that I painstakingly created over a two year period that provide astonishingly good emulations of many favorite vintage tube amps.


Do digital modeling amps sound as good as a tube amp?  No.  Tube amps sound better... (if they happen to be working today.)  BUT, to my ears, the 45 presets that I have created on the Mustang III V.2 sound about 80% as good as a real vintage tube amp, and that's not bad at all.  (Compared to old solid state amps, it's fantastic.)  Besides, by the time it's in a band mix through the PA mains, the difference is not noticeable to the audience.  So for most players, to get the the huge variety of amp sounds, plus all the pedal effects, with lower weight and much higher reliability, at an insanely low price, is WELL worth the tradeoff.  Plus, parents love that there's a headphone jack so the student can play without shaking the house.  For these reasons, I recommend this amp to all my students.  If you are on a budget, it is a far better choice than a used tube amp that will break down and be very expensive to fix.

If you decide to purchase a Fender Mustang III V.2, here is some important additional information:

1. DO NOT buy a Mustang III amp that does not say "V.2" on the back.  If it does not say V.2 right next to where it says Mustang III, it is a V.1... stay away.  There is a HUGE improvement between V.1 and V.2.  (NOTE: if it says nothing about a version number, it is a V.1.)

2. To get the most out of this amp, the app that backs up your presets and names them and shows you visually what's going on is a program called Fender FUSE.  Fender no longer supports it and they don't even offer it for download anymore, but you can find it for free download with a web search.  To run it you will need either a windows based computer running XP or newer, or an OLD iMac running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 or older.  (That's because it is 32 bit software, and no OSX since El Capitan will run 32 bit apps.)  You'll also need a USB A to USB Mini (NOT Micro) cord to connect the amp to the computer.

3. You don’t need any footswitches for practicing, because anything the footswitches can do you can also do by pressing the buttons on the amp with your fingers.  However, for stage use, you should definitely get BOTH of the footswitches for this amp, because you can’t be walking back to your amp every time you need to change the sound.  Of course, the footswitches are also more convenient and more fun for practicing, so they are nice to have, so I recommend that you buy them. 

4. The four button footswitch is the most important one.  The model number is MS4.  Beware, Fender makes a lot of four button footswitches that look like the MS4.  Do not buy any other one that looks like it, only buy the MS4 (for example, the MGT-4 will not work even though it looks the same).  The MS4 sells new for about $80 new if you can find one, and about half that much for a used one.  If you ever want one I wouldn’t wait too long to grab one, because they are getting harder to find.  The MS4 has a display that shows what preset you are on.  The display can also be used as a visual tuner.  Button 1 mutes the guitar and turns on the tuner.  Button 2 turns on and off the stomp.  Button 3 turns on and off the mod.  Button 4 turns on and off the delay.

5. The two button footswitch is the MS2.  All Mustang III amplifiers came with an MS2 footswitch from the factory, but most of them have been lost over time, so you may need to buy one.  Its two buttons are used to press up or down for the next higher numbered or lower numbered preset (the amp has 100 presets, and during a gig it’s great to press buttons to go the next song’s preset).

6. If you buy an MS4 or MS2 new, it will come with a cord.  If you are considering buying a used one, it's nice if you can find one that has the cord.  Otherwise you'll have to make or buy a cord for it.  A lot of the used footswitches sold online do not include the cord, so pay attention when you buy.

7. The best place to find the Mustang III V.2, MS4, and MS2 is on Reverb.com, which is an Ebay type market for musical gear.