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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | In researching the history of Fender amps, much is found about Leo’s strong conviction in his belief that the amp was every bit as important to the performer as the guitar. This is the reason he spent most of his time perfecting his amps. While this certainly applies to electric guitar players, how about for acoustic/electric players? To test this, the question might be, ‘how does your investment in amps compare with your investment in guitars?’ For those who plug in, and care to take a survey, think about how much time and money you’ve spent on your guitars and amps, and to the extent you can differentiate your investment and expenses between the two, select the answer that best describes your experience . . . |
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November 2006
Posts: 3969
| Interesting poll, Brad. I think we all know where you fall on the spectrum ;) |
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December 2001
Posts: 7237
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I'm going to post before answering just to see if I'm understanding the question.
I am going to assume I "invest" as much in my guitars as my amps, but it's not a "monetary" investment. It's more that I spend as much time/thought in picking the amp I'm going to use as the guitar. On the monetary side of things... if you own more than one or two decent guitars, there's a good chance you're spending more on the guitars than the amps... but I didn't think that was where you were headed. |
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March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | My little Crate amp does everything I want it to do, but I'm always looking for a new guitar that "speaks" to me. |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | I have spent Thousands of Dollars on Guitars, and hundreds on amps.
(That sounds so Insane when I read it in Print! :eek: )
I have a coupla Roland MicroCubes (one's a spare) and a Cube Street...
All I need is a bit of supporting volume on my Acoustics, maybe abit of chorus and reverb/delay.
And for my electrics they have all the annoying overdrive and "R-fier" that I need.
[Just enough to annoy the neighbors :D ]
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2 Roland MicroCubes, Roland Cube Street, Crate Profiler 5, Fender G-DEC, Beat-up Pignose |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | My most expensive amp was $150. So my 3 amps are less than 10% of what I have in one guitar. I guess I have 3 guitars that, added together, are about 10% of that guitar. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | You're right, Miles. I'm not just thinking dollars, but also time, effort, upgrading, downgrading, supplementing, duplicating, etc. Fender's position was that many musicians in the late 40's and early 50's experimented a lot with guitar pickups, but seemed to care little about the amp. He, of course, changed all that. My hypothesis is that even here at the OFC, we spend considerably more time and money on our guitars than we do on the rest of the signal chain, and in particular, the amp. Even with my little assortment of amps, I figure I've invested at least five times more resources into guitars than amps. The figure is likely closer to seven or eight times more. And, as you point out, while we may agree to spend $5 grand or more on a custom guitar, or custom guitars, there are very few of us likely to spend that kind of money on an amp rig, nor would we really need to. That would be a lot of amp(s). Fender's theory makes a lot of sense. I just thought I'd work with it a little here. On the other hand, maybe the amps nowadays are, generally speaking across the industry, so darn good that most players have little need to invest the same kind of energy in amps as they do the instruments. |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | I voted nr. 1 ,
.. with a small modification .. , I hardly spend anything on effects , Wah and Cry to be about it ( add a little Chorus or Hall ), and No , it`s not because I build amps. myself , for I buy as well , I like to know about what others make , .. but I Do understand how much " Flavor " can be achieved by using different amps. , much , much more than by switching gits. , and that counts for A/E git. too.
Leo Fender was an Amp. man ( radio-tech ) , so of course , He knew the importance of Elec. Equipment.
Vic |
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October 2007
Posts: 2711
Location: Vernon CT | My Understand is that if you play an "Acoustic" it is the Guitar that is creating most of your tone. If you are playing "Electric" the Amp and effects obviously give you most of the tone, so, this poll would be affected by the type of "player" and his prefered Type of guitar, Correct? |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I went with the last. Almost all on guitars, since most places I go to play you're through the PA. I got some in amps but the majority in guitars. |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Originally posted by BT717:
My Understand is that if you play an "Acoustic" it is the Guitar that is creating most of your tone. If you are playing "Electric" the Amp and effects obviously give you most of the tone, so, this poll would be affected by the type of "player" and his prefered Type of guitar, Correct? Certainly a Strong point !
However .. apart from playing purely Acoustical , an A/E Could benefit from amplification in order to reach a larger crowd , tweak the " weak spots " , change the flavor ,... color it by Adding something , up to changing it`s sound significantly, different Amps. increase those possibilities , bear in mind , that when sound-reinforcement is being applied , everything changes.
Vic |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Originally posted by Beal:
I went with the last. Almost all on guitars, since most places I go to play you're through the PA. I got some in amps but the majority in guitars. I guess that goes for most Acoustic players |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by Beal:
I went with the last. Same here. I've spent $30 on gits for every $1 on amps/etc. |
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March 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | Over the years, I spent a lot on amps and effects...I was looking for a sound...I found it...it's called Fender… the Soul of Tone...
Seriously, nothing sounds as good to me as the Fender Clean “tone for days” sound…
When I had the band, I used a dual Twin Reverb set-up (a black face '67 and a silver face '69)...with my pedal set-up I had somewhere just under 2.5K invested as both amps were in mint condition...along the way I have owned maybe 20 other Fenders and a few Peavey's, Marshalls, several Vox, a Dean Markley, an old Silvertone, an Original Pignose, and the Genz Benz Shen Stereo 60...some of which I still own...However I finally decided to settle on one amp that I truly loved...a fabulous Fender Deluxe/Celestion rig that does it all for me...Three great channels that holds its own with most everything else (including three Marshalls that I played along side of last 4th of July)...I have thought about getting maybe one other Fender: a Vibro King...but I don't really need it and get the sounds I want using my T.C.Electronic G Major w/G Minor midi pedal. I have two POD's (one Rack Mount and a 2.0) w/pedalboard...and a half dozen individual pedals currently replaced by the G Major...
My guitar purchases/investments easily dwarf the amp purchases/investments over the years and certainly more recently...
But even there, I have found the ones I want to play and am in the process of thinning what I do not play...and concentrate on the studio...
Less is more and I finally realized that I can't own everything...there is no more room...and I really love my family... ;)
So maybe in the end 2 to 1 (not counting the value of each piece) |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I called it 10x. Part of that is that good guitars cost multiples of what good amps cost i.e. I can buy three or four really good amps for one real nice guitar and one real nice amp for a decent guitar. I am not a big effects geek, but I have probably two amps worth of money tied up in pedals. When all is said and done I find I need more guitars than I do amps or effects. :cool: HOWEVER, I can see how easy it would be to get into amp collecting like my brother in law, who has way more money in amps than guitars ... but he does live on the electric side of the street. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | As suspected. As a group, we are way more into guitars than amps. |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I never thought about but I guess I'm about 1 amp/effect buck for every 6 guitar dollars. But I do a lot of trading and selling old gear, but the guitars stick around. So I'm more of guitar person than an amp man. |
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Investment: guitars vs. amps
