How to test out guitar amps please help?

[Jessica1988]

I currently have a line 6 spider IV 15 which my dad bought me last christmas as a upgrade from a 10w bb blaster and hated it more or less straight away. Ive been playing for a bout year and a half now and looking to upgrade to something much better but i dont know a lot about amps, i know about different types and wattage but thats about it. Im after something between 30w - 75w and i play mainly heavy metal and rock, the usual stuff. Price range is about £200 - £250 at a push and i've found these so far MARSHALL MG 50FX, Vox VT40+, Marshall MG30FX MG4, Peavey Vypyr 30,Peavey Vypyr 75, Roland Cube 40XL, Fender Mustang III 100W and Marshall MG 30DFX but havent tested any yet. I dont really know what to look for and i cant really play well due to not practicing enough, I can play a bunch of riffs but not without screwing up and i dont wanna look like a douch bag in the shop and it wont sound very good. Any tips, advice or ideas on what to look out for would be a great help. Thanks in advance

[woodyc]

Just learn the first four chords of "Stairway to Heaven" and play them over and over. People in music stores love that.

[Enzo]

Well I laughed out loud at that one.


Jessica, if you hang around music stores, you will find that a LOT of people don;t play well, yet they crank out the noise anyway. You are in show business, go ahead and do your thing. I been playing over 40 years, and I suck. I can work the guitar, play any chord you call, but talent? Nah. I have learned one thing in those years, and that is I have no talent. I have to play through amps to fix them. I'm pretty good at fixing. But when I worked in a music store, there'd be my crappy playing echoing through the store. Just what the staff of actual real musicians wanted to hear, me, a hack, banging out bad guitar licks. Yeah well. Now I have my own shop, and my crappy play fills MY store.

To hell with them, make some noise. If you are really concerned, ask the store if there is a better time to come in and wail on the amps a little. MAybe a super-busy Saturday afternoon is not the best time.


You don;t have to make a virtuoso performance, just play enough to hear what an amp sounds like. Play a few chords, play whatever you play best. Even if it is only two bars of something simple.

Try the amp features, is it easy to figure out? Is it too heavy? Too loud even at low settings? Not loud enough? CAn you get a pleasing tone out of it easily, or do you have to fuss and fume with it? You don't like the Line 6, so at least you already know what you don;t like.

Some stores will let you take an amp out of the store on approval. That means you are seriously considering it, but want to hear it in your own environment. SOme will let you make purchase, with a short period of return allowed.

[Steve Conner]

No Stairway, denied!

If your local music store is any good, they ought to be sympathetic to a beginner. For a start you have money to spend. And who knows, in 10 years time you might be the next Jennifer Batten, buying two massive rigs for your world tour. OK, maybe not.

When you're starting out it is hard to know what you want to sound like. I've been playing for something like 20 years, and I started because I thought Metallica were awesome and I wanted to sound like James Hetfield. With a Tokai Strat and a 15 watt practice amp with no distortion, that was impossible, but it was something to aim for. I did it in the end, about the same time as I got bored of Metallica, oh the irony.

But anyway, if you have an artist and a sound in mind, it might help the guy in the music store recommend an amp. As opposed to just selling you the one that he gets the biggest markup on.

[exclamationmark]

Hahaha... reminds me of the time my dad brought me to a music store when I was about 12. For some reason the sales guy thought it would be hilarious to hook me up to a marshall half stack at some ridiculous volume. I kept turning down the volume knob on the guitar in an attempt to keep anyone from hearing me... but it was futile

We can't really tell what to look for in terms of tone (you're the only one who knows what you're looking for!). Although in terms of reliability, features, etc, there are plenty of good reviews to judge from if you look around. Just go in there and a play a few chords and see what's what. You don't need need to be a virtuoso to see what works for you. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is being rushed when testing things out because you feel the glare of people looking at you.

[big_teee]

When I first started I took a friend that could play like crazy.
He knew what to ask, and he would say, Oh you don't want this one.
I would let him play and I would listen to the tone, and I kept tweaking the amps.
We did that a couple of times till I got an idea what I wanted.
Then I ordered the Amp for low Dollar on the Internet!
Probably not very nice of me, but I didn't have many Bux to spend!
Terry

[J M Fahey]

and i dont wanna look like a douch bag in the shop

Don´t worry, you won´t.
They don´t care, anyway.
Worst case, (and it happens a lot) the salesman thinks *HE* is God´s Gift to Mankind in the shape of a Guitar Hero, and *he* thinks everybody is a douchebag, even if Stevie , Eric, Yngwie and Ritchie come together to test something so .... worst case you will be in illustrious company

[Chuck H]

+1 to all above. Where I grew up the local guitar shop was Guitar Showcase. They're a big shop now but used to be a small to medium shop. Some of the same people still work there since my childhood. I was 12 when I started playing and they were forced to watch my evolution for many years. It's part of their job. Most of the gear they sell is to novice players so listening to mediocre guitar players just comes with the territory. And of course the salsmen themselves should be excellent players otherwise they couldn't WOW novices into buying anything.

Loud and proud is the only way to roll. Nothing worse than being in a band with a player who 'hangs back' because they don't want to be heard. So a good rule is 'If your going to suck, do it loud.' That way you won't develope the awful 'hang back' habit and you'll be inspired to not suck at the same time. Remeber that rock comes with a built in attitude of "Here I am, all up in your face!" defiance.

As far as which amp... In your budget and for your genre I might consider getting the best quality basic amp I could afford. With a used amp being a definite option. Basic as in your money will go further toward a solid piece of gear if it doesn't have too many bells and whistles like multiple channels,built in effects processors and reverbs. Those features of modern amps typically sort of suck anyhow. As you've seen with your Line6. A good solid amp and speakers with a RAT box or American Metal pedal in front should sound great and make all the metal tones from crunchy to saturated. IMHO the two most important elements of a big powerful and honestly rock tone are a solid amp and good speakers. Pedal can take you a long way after that.

JM2C

[JHow]

All the above is sound advice. I'm just surprised no one here suggested making your own amp yet. Ha ha! It's not really economical, but that doesn't stop us.

[J M Fahey]

Another option may be to buy any reasonable mid sized amp (used is a great inexpensive option) of which an earlier Bandit might be an example, meaning 60/80W, a reasonably good 12" (other examples might be used Crate G80, Laney G80, Fender Performer, Marshall VS8080, and so on, I think you get the picture), use your Line 6 as preamp and effects source , plugging its Line Out into the bigger one to provide muscle.
I bet what you mean by "the Line 6 sucks" is that when you set the simulation to: "Metallica live through a wall of Dual Rectifiers" it really sounds like a 15 W SS amp through a cheeeeap 8" speaker in a shoebox sized cabinet.
Well .... that´s what it is.
No matter how well written is the simulation software (and the Line 6 guys are very good at that), you can´t beat Physics.
You *need* power and you *need* beefy speakers to push air with authority.

Not the Gospel by any means, just another option.

Anyway congratulations and keep practicing.
Good luck.

PS: if you get to 100/120W + 2x12" speakers .... WOW!!!
Always used, of course.

[printer2]

Go on youtube and listen to the amps. You get an idea of what you want. Not being familiar with the line 6 I checked it out, did not hear anything that would make me consider that amp. I am not a fan of metal so I can not give any suggestions in that direction. Well maybe one, metal is more in the high gain territory and I am guessing that you might do well to get an amp that sounds good clean to rock sound and then use the pedal to go over the top. Also pay attention to the speaker. An amp may suck going through one speaker while sounding good through another. Unlike some of the others I have not been playing for years just starting out myself. Mind you I have had friends who were working musicians for years and I did the sound thing. Wish I tried this years ago.

[Hella1hella]

I know alot of people might not dig this idea, but have you considered maybe a lower end tube amp? Maybe even used? I feel like if I had a tube amp earlier on, I would be more keen on the sounds and dynamics I look for in amps now. I think it would be pretty sweet to see someone one step ahead of the competition as far as "Tone Junkie" per say. However, if you are in search of a ton of effects and something versitile enough to play everything, solid state might be your friend. I have heard pretty good stuff about the fender mustang amps. Its hard to recomend solid state amps because the majority of what I own is Vintage Fender stuff. I would check out the Vibro Champ XD. Has tubes, different voicings, effects. Alot of people dig the Champ XD, and even put them in different camps. Also cool because you can experiment with different tubes/speakers. Good luck!

[tubeswell]

I Price range is about £200 - £250 at a push and i've found these so far MARSHALL MG 50FX, Vox VT40+, Marshall MG30FX MG4, Peavey Vypyr 30,Peavey Vypyr 75, Roland Cube 40XL, Fender Mustang III 100W and Marshall MG 30DFX but havent tested any yet.

I went out shopping with my 13-year old son last year and we tried some of those modelling (the Fender Mustang, the Vox VT40, and the PV Vypyr) amps, I didn't like the Fender or the Vox much at all, and if I had to get one, it would be the PV Vypyr. Not only nice pretty lights but methinks by far the best modelled sounds and most intuitive controls. My son really liked that one too. But we eventually found a tube amp for him (PV VK112). Yes, yes, I know I could've made him a tube amp, but he really wanted something pretty and store-bought - oh well.

Oh and the best way to test out which amps you like is to try them all. Some shops have a soundproof room where all their amps are that you can go and hide in just for this purpose.

[big_teee]

Some of the Modeling amps sound pretty good.
My problem is I always get to playing with all the bells and whistles, and forget that the main purpose is!
TO PLAY GUITAR!!!

T

[Jag]

Lately I've found that I'm either playing with the bells and whistles or the soldering iron and capacitors and forgetting to play the guitar! Guess that's what I get for having one foot in each world.