+1. Hands and fingers don't make a sound.

The amp is HUGE part of the tone equation.

For this very reason, when I am trying out a guitar, I will either bring my own amp which is familiar to me or try to find the same make/model amp and use that.

For this same reason when I'm looking at buying an amp, I bring one of my guitars.

Some guitar and amp combinations sound better than others too - for example My Gibsons sound better in my Traynor YCS50 head and 2x12 cab, while my strat and my gretsch sounded better in a Vox amp I recently sold.

I could get a good sound from the Gibbies in the Vox, and same with the gretsch and strat in the Trayor, but there was a lot more tweaking involved.

I replaced the vox with a Laney Cub 12r - an inexpensive chinese made amp, and so far I find with a few twists of the knobs it sounds good with all my guitars.

Which leads me to another thing - just because it doesn't cost a lot doesn't mean it's going to sound bad. Tone is subjective and the inexpensive gear out there might surprise you. The trick is to keep an open mind - find out what you like and then worry about price. If it's an inexpensive guitar or amp, great - get it... if it's the all tube Marshall stack in the corner that was made in England or the American strat on the wall, save your pennies until you can get it.

I have guitars that, when purchased new, ranged between $700 and $2500 and my amps cost me between $200 and $1500. They all have great qualities that I like and couldn't find in other guitars or amps.

"Do you think it's sometimes the amp, not the guitar?"

Sometimes most definitely.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

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You are 100% spot on with your assessment on that Aussie Rob. My 2 guitars are, a ESP LTD Viper 100-FM and a recently acquired, Squier CV 60's model in Red, which are both great sounding guitars on their own . I am playing them through a brand new, modified, Fender Frontman 25R, which has a Eminence Rajun Cajun 10" speaker installed in it, and they both sound great through this amp.

I'm not sure what you mean--and I'm not being antagonistic here--but the way a person plays (technique, etc) makes a huge difference.
I jam with a guy who has similar abilities (technically speaking) as I, and we sound totally different, even if we use the same rig. I asked if I could play his guitar (Peavey Wolfgang) through his amp (DRRI), and I sounded nothing like him, even though I was using his rig with his settings and playing the same song he had just finished playing.
He did the same thing--played my Telecaster through my '63 RI Vibroverb, playing the same song, and sounded very different than my tone.

He uses a pick and I don't, but otherwise we were basically playing the same thing--but each of us projected distinct tonal differences. I think the hands have a lot to do with it.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I would agree that different gauge picks and changing from a pick to fingers make a big difference. But fingers to fingers or pick to pick, I don't see how there could be any big difference. Phrasing and dynamics are different, but how does that affect tone?

I'm not GTG so I won't presume to say what his comment meant. It is my opinion that comments about hands are not productive in a discussion of guitar vs amp. The hands are the hands. I don't have your hands or anybody else's hands. I only have my hands and they will always make a given guitar sound the same as they always do for that guitar. Hands are not a variable that can be swapped out to try something else and since it takes many many years to develop good hands they simply play no part in a discussion like this one.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I agree with BMW-KTM,hands don't enter into the picture in the topic at hand. As I stated earlier,a poor amp would make even the most exquisite custom made guitar sound almost as bad as a child's plastic toy guitar.A stinker of a guitar played through a fabulous amp such as a Dumble Overdrive Special may have a somewhat better chance of sounding at least passable good if it was set up and worked properly.Sometimes just swapping out the speaker could make the world of difference to an amp's sound and performance.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I too think that the amp is more important than the guitar. After all the guitar is basically a coil picking up the vibration of a string. That being said, the room your playing in is an important factor in the sound your hearing. Years ago I had a pair of Bose 901 stereo speakers that sounded great until we removed the carpeting and refinished the hardwood floors in the room. I had to get rid of the speakers because they no longer had the carpet to muffle the sound, resulting in no bass. The acoustics of a room is a big factor in what your hearing... as much as anything else.