Guitar Vs Amp...

[Maldeve]

Lets put this on a equal playing field and eliminate the whole, "You can sound great on a pignose and a Arbor if you have mastered the fretboard", deal. And Just say for this senario we have a skilled musician.

Taking into account everyones "GrailTone" differs from player to player, What would you say in a % answer effects your overall goal in achieving this tone.

For example would you say the guitar contributes 40% and the amp 60%?
Or 50/50 etc... etc...

Also taking into account your dream guitar and Amp anything goes whatever it may be. But thats it, no effects, no pedals, just your guitar and amp.

 

[18&Life]

AMP = 90%
PICKUPS = 8%
OTHERS = 2%

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I would say 70 amp 40 guitar, but the guitar and the amp need to match to get an individual tone, so one really nice guitar and really nice amp might not be able to get a particular tone.

 

[18&Life]

I would say 70 amp 40 guitar.

70% + 40% = 110% :shock:

 

[Russ]

I'll let you know when I find my grail tone...

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I would say 70 amp 40 guitar.

70% + 40% = 110% :shock:

****, I've played too many gigs this weekend!!! how about 65/35, that's better, or just make sure you give 110% when you play. wow I am tired

 

[Aart]

70 amp/ 30 guitar.

An Ibanez GIO through a Mark IV will sound better than a JEM through a Stagg 5 W.

 

[masque]

The short answer is 51% amp and 49% guitar....for those willing to read on I will offer more detail.

very interesting quesiton and not as easy to answer as you would think....here's why for me; most folks are giving a higher % to the amp and I won't disagree...I would say that the amp is obivoulsy the foundation of your tone.

however, once you have "that" amp then the guitar makes all the difference in the world to me. when i play my rig (and I'm very happy with my rig) i move between a PRS cusotm 22, Les Paul Custom, a Ernie Ball Steve Morse signature model and a Fender Eric Johson Strat. Each one of those guitars provide nearly a night and day sound to my ears compared to each other.

so I can plug in different guitars and never change a button on my rig and get completley different tones and vibes depending on the guitar I choose.

I play primarily my boogie rig but I also own a fender twin reverb amp....i can plug guitars into it all day long but something magical oocurs when i plug the EJ strat into it. they were made to go together plain and simple....the music that sounds best with that combo is the cleaner more bluesy stuff. now if i want to rock out a bit then my PRS into my triaxis on lead 2 yellow, green or red is the way to go.

i'm rambling now but I'm trying to say for me that I really believe that it's nearly equal when you really get down to the nitty gritty and think about it....i dont think that "grail tone" can be achieved without a great combination of "your amp" with "your guitar". I'm done now.

 

[bluntage]

I'll let you know when I find my grail tone...

It's waiting for you at my house! :lol:

 

[Charlie]

I'm going to go with 60% guitar and 40% amplifier if you are playing with a clean tone but that's going to change a lot as you add distortion and it depends what type of distortion you are adding.

With that said I'll take a crappy guitar into a nice amplifier before I take a nice guitar into a crappy amp.

Seems to me that even the lowest priced guitars are much better than the lowest priced amps.

 

[Rayder]

i wont say exact figures, cos that is stupid as its taking a wild guess, but the basis of your tone is from your amp + your playing style. when you think about it, the way you play affects your tone as well.

IMO, i have an ESP M2, and a KH-2, almost identical guitars, with a few differences, but same woods and stuff. they sound WAY different (KH2 obviously sounds better). so the guitar can and does make a difference, but amp+playing is the big one

 

[RR]

I'm going to go with 60% guitar and 40% amplifier if you are playing with a clean tone but that's going to change a lot as you add distortion and it depends what type of distortion you are adding.

With that said I'll take a crappy guitar into a nice amplifier before I take a nice guitar into a crappy amp.

Seems to me that even the lowest priced guitars are much better than the lowest priced amps.

I would summed it up this way too.
(over 35 years of playing) I would play some sweet bluesy tunes on vintage amps, but my friend who is mediocre on the guitar attempts to play on these vintage amps complains there's not enough distortion, that's because he has to disguise as much he can with mediocre blues playing thinking he sounds good with a lot of distortion playing blues.

 

[guitarmaster]

:!:

 

[18&Life]

100 % guitarist and his skills . A REAL guitarist doesn't need any amp, effects but only a classical guitar. If you are able to play a classical guitar
you can play all that you want . There are some very known and overrated guitarists with incredible rigs and expensive guitars ( I can't spend the name of one of this guys.........) , probably they have real good guitar tones, but when I listen to them I'm really disgusted for their lack of originality and skills considering their experience as musicians . I have listened to a lot of underrated guitarists that don't have 20000 US$ rigs, but with a guitar in their hands they could play better . I think that a great amp and a great guitar in wrong hands are wasted. It's obvious that unskilled guitar players with excellent amps and guitars can "shock" the audience with their tones, it's easy to understand it listening to some bands which guitarists don't know a note or a chord and use to play with expensive equipments . Before buying amps , many persons should have to learn how to play a guitar...............

Nonsense !
Steve Vai playing with a zoom will sound like a zoom, it doesn't matter how awsome is his playing .
Vinnie Moore always recorded his albums with boss pedals (he said in a magazine) and always sounded like **** but his hands CAN play guitar .
A good amp can help a weak guitar player but a crap amp sink any guitar god :wink:

 

[guitarmaster]

:!:

 

[guitarmaster]

:!:

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I have to say guitarmaster makes a good point, and steve vai playing through a zoom pedal will still sound like steve vai with a different tone. You can still hear a great player even with crappy quality recordings. A players hands, picking techniques, and how hard or light they hit and press the strings has a lot to do with it. The guy I bought my Mark IV from made it sound like him when he played it, a bit of a softer touch and big open chords, where i made it sound like me, I have a hard attack and do fast runs and play chords more in 3rds or 1-3-8 or 1-5-9 and the voicings and the way I hit them sound very different, and this was the same amp, same cab, same guitar, same pickup, same settings, just different hands, picks and techniques.

That being said every amp sounds different, so the amp has a lot to do with tone and sound, where the player controls the feel and voicings.

 

[guitarmaster]

:!:

 

[18&Life]

and steve vai playing through a zoom pedal will still sound like steve vai with a different tone.

But we are here talking about tones,in other words if you play with a boogie,playing good or bad your tone will be a boogie one.

If you play a zoom ,playing good or bad your tone will be a zoom one.
Nobody is discusting about who plays good or bad,malmsteen through a crap amp still play like a demon BUT his tone will sound like a crap amp.
That's what I'm talking about.
Techinique comes from the fingers,tone comes from the equipment,it's obvious :wink:
You can play like a god but through a crap amp your tone will be crap.
You can play like a newbie but through a crap amp your tone will be crap.
In other words crap amp=crap tom good amp = good tom
TOM and SKILLS or TECHNIQUE are different things. :wink:
Petrucci through a zoom will sound awful it doesn't matter how good he is,because tone comes from amps not from fingers.
Power off your amp and tell me,what tone your fingers have ? :lol:

 

[guitarmaster]

:!: