Electric Guitar Amps Have Come A Long Way
Today’s electric guitar amps are a crucial piece of a guitarists arsenal. There’s no doubt that everyone loves the sound of an acoustic guitar. But, it’s just hard to beat the driving, energy making vibe of an Electric Guitar. To get the most out of that Electric guitar, you’re definitely going to need a good Electric guitar amplifier. There are so many different units to select from, that it can get a little overwhelming. Simply walk into your local music shop and see all the available models.
Do not let the salesperson sucker you with fancy jargon when discussing these amplifiers. The best thing to do is to try them out and figure out which one sounds the greatest to you. What may sound satisfactory to one person may sound totally opposite to you. After all, you will be the one who is going to be paying for it and using it. Another thing, after you’ve discovered the model you like the best, get on the web and do a little cost shopping. If you can find it for a lower price, find out if the salesperson will match the cost. This way, they make the sale and you don’t have to wait.
Electric guitar amplifiers have been around since the 1930′s. Guitars were the first instruments to actually benefit from being amplified. It took a little spell to make it precise, but with the progression of electronics followed more quality built amplifiers. Matched with an electric guitar, this produced a new trend of music. It wasn’t the first time a guitar had been amplified, as acoustic guitars had been miked earlier. But, this was something different.
The early units had a limited ability to control the creation of decent sound quality. These amplifiers were just so basic. They missed having a satisfactory bass sound while providing a pretty solid treble sound. But, over time, the producers started bestowing more control to the amplifiers. Reverb and tremelo effects were two of the original additions. Today’s models provide all kinds of effects to fit your taste.
Electric guitar amps today basically come in four models, and this is decided on their inner make up:
Tube. The oldest type, and commonly the best sounding have glass tubes on the inside.
Solid State. Have transistors instead of glass tubes and sounds good at medium levels.
Digital. Equals the sound of a tube amp and is frequently chosen by masters.
Hybrid. A combination of tube and solid state that doesn’t produce the best sound.
It’s truly going to boil down to you traveling to a music shop and examining the amplifiers yourself. The good thing about that is you’ll get to try out a variety of electric guitar amps, and get to play the top of the line companies like Marshall and Crate.
Jeffrey Veal
I need to know a little bit more about electric guitars and Amplifiers.?
Okay, so I recently finished a year long class for acoustic guitars. I decided it’s time for me to get an electric. I need to know a bit more about effects. Like overdrive, delay, etc. I have no clue about any of this. So if you could, explain to me how effects work, how to install them, if they can come built in amps, what are "Pedals?", What amplifiers would be good for me, and any other information to help get me on my feet.
Overdrive is simply pushing the amp past its limits, giving it a nice distortion. An example would be the song Die Eir by Tool.
Delay is an effect, either built into the amp or on a pedal, that delays the amp’s sounds from your actual string’s by about a half second to 1 second. Reverb is also something you should know, but I wont waste the space.
Pedals are just that: Pedals. They are connected between your guitar and amp, and when you stomp on them, the effect is activated. They can be used for distortions, reverbs, wah, all kinds of fun crap.
I can’t recommend any amps, but look for a beginner-level amp. Don’t get some over-complicated thing that you won’t understand like I did. Good Luck!
References :
Bass player for 2 years.
Like he said, get a simple amp. One with Reverb, clean and overdrive/distort w/ gain, High Mid Low Equalization. a nice 30-40 watt amp is good to start with.
Overdrive is the same thing as a distortion button I do believe. It just distorts a guitar to make it sound more metal and give it a more rigid sound. With some clean effects, a low Gain setting on overdrive (Gain = how much overdrive it has) can sound great
As far as pedals go. Your guitar plugs into the input of the pedal. The pedal plugs (From the output) into the input of the amp. When the pedal is active, it gives special effects depending on it’s type.
The Pedal I recommend most is the Digitech RP series. The simplest and easiest to use being the RP-50. It does everything. It’s a massive multi-effect pedal that lets you make your own sounds and save them as "Channels" as I call them. You get 40 channels to do what you like with and 40 default factory channels that you cannot edit. It comes with its own Eq settings, drum machine, tuner, many different effects, amp models, amp simulator, noise gate, and much more.
The great thing about these babys is they only cost 50-80 bucks!
If you wanna move up in quality then you can upgrade to the RP-250 or better.
[ As for the guy below me ]
"Chords dont sound that great on an electric guitar,instead we use power chords"
That is a bunch of noob horsesh*t. Electric guitar can do it all, clean distorted, blues, acoustic. Therefor, chords DO sound great on an electric and in some cases BETTER than an acoustic. Chords just don’t sound that great when your using too much distortion/overdrive. Chords on a bass guitar don’t sound that great either.
"Theyre like tiny magnets under the strings that help with the sound in the guitar"
No, actually. Pickups are the electronic devices that transmit the sound from your guitar to your amp! They don’t just "Help". Without pickups, its not an electric guitar!. The style of body and how it is shaped and built can HELP how the pickups pick up the sound.
Wikipedia says
[ An electric guitar is a guitar using pickups to convert its metal string vibration into electricity ]
"Reverb Is an effect that puts alot of feedback through an amp. It makes it squeal kind of. "
WRONG!… if used with too much distort/overdrive, yes thats what it does, but reverbs main purpose is to make your amp sound as though your playing in a large solid room. It makes you sound more distant and gives a sort of slight echo to make it sound that way. The guy below just demonstrated a way to use reverb in a way it wasn’t intended to be used.
Wikipedia says the following.
[ Reverse echo or reverb, also known as backwards echo, is a sound effect created as the result of recording an echo or delayed signal of an audio recording whilst being played backwards. The original recording is then played forwards accompanied by the recording of the echo or delayed signal which is now in reverse ]
"Delay is merely Delaying the sound through your amp by a second or a half a second"
No… not exactly. When you strike a note, the first strike still sounds on time (Some pedals you can set where it doesn’t). HOWEVER, that same note will REPEAT with a delay. The delayed notes are usually weaker in sound than the original strike. An example of a band that uses delay very well is U2. The guitarist is only doing HALF the work of what you hear.
" Distortion pedals arent really pedals,theyre just a small device that can give you even more distortion VIA the dials on them."
No… Not really. A lot of Distortion pedals like the BOSS Metalzone models have their own unique sound. Therefor they are considered EFFECTS pedals.
Guitar brands that are good for starters are.
Fender Strat
Jackson Js1 (Cheaper Dinky model)
Ibanez GAX
Although I can vouch Musicians Friend!
One last note… this guy seems obsessed with Slayer. That is not a band you want to model your guitar work after rofl! Tell tale sign of a noob guitarist.
Instead of Kerry King, good guitarists to model after are Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, George Lynch (Dokken) , Steve Vai (Whitesnake), Randy Rhoads, Dimebag Darrel etc. Those are (Or were) the guitar virtuosos, not crappy death metal guitarists.
Not trying to sound like a total douchbag but I don’t want the idiot below me giving you or any other novices the wrong ideas.
References :
Guitar player for 7 years
Let me contribute something that might help a bit more. Overdrive is a setting on an amp using a button or a knob,That pushes an amp beyond the limits without turning up the volume. It makes the sound fuzzy and distorted. Distortion goes from slightly distorted,in classical music…to heavily distorted in music like death metal and thrash metal. Slayer uses alot of distortion.
Overdrive or distortion is commonly used among metal.
Delay is merely Delaying the sound through your amp by a second or a half a second.
Pedals Are Exactly what they sound like. You can buy a pedal board to hold multiple pedals, Theyre kinda like car pedals. You run a cord from the guitar to the pedal,and then another from the pedal to the amp. Pedals arent very complicated and do different things, There are whammy pedals(I trust you know what a whammy bar is but if not it is a bar installed on the tremolo of the guitar that can be pressed to ease tension on the string to make a lower sound or pulled to make a higher sound,Slayer does it alot) Whammy pedals are for guitars without a whammy bar. And instead of having to stop playing to use the bar,you can continue to play while using it. Distortion pedals arent really pedals,theyre just a small device that can give you even more distortion VIA the dials on them.
Effects really dont get installed into an amp,If your amp doesnt have a certain effect you either have to find a pedal that does it,or get a new amp…or go without. Also Chords dont sound that great on an electric guitar,instead we use power chords. The basic tunings for an electric guitar are:
Standard,Drop D,Drop C,Drop B,Drop A…etc.
Foot switches,are NOT pedals,They are small devices with one button on it. They can only be used on Amps with a footswitch jack on them,and two channels. If you press the foot switch you can switch from the clean to the distorted channel.
Reverb Is an effect that puts alot of feedback through an amp. It makes it squeal kind of.
The common effects on a guitar amp are:
Treble,which gives the guitar a lighter,crunchier tone,commonly used by Slayer.
Bass,Gives the guitar a deeper fuller,flatter tone.
Mid,fills in the hole giving the guitar an echoey egyptian kind of tone.
Cabinets are another thing you need to learn. Cabinets are Pretty much Big speakers you can hook your amp up to to make them louder. (you may need to ask a few people about these,theyre a little complicated)
Most effects come built in to an amp. Most little tiny practice amps you get with a 6 inch speaker arent that good. They only have volume,bass,treble,And occasionally a Headphone jack. Head phones come with a small piece on them that can be hooked into an amp.
Also different electric guitars will have different sounds. Pickups are something you will have to learn. Theyre like tiny magnets under the strings that help with the sound in the guitar. The pick up switch can switch in between the Neck,The Bridge, or in between. Different amps also have different sounds. Marshall is the most commonly used but also the most expensive… I dont reccomend one for starting.
A good amp to start on is the Fender 65R,it has 65 watts. On 3 1/2 volume it will Project over a drumset. Its what I use for practice and stage. It has 2 channels,comes with a free footswitch, On the first channel you have Volume,Treble,and Bass,On the second Youve got Volume,Over drive,Treble,Bass,Mid,and the Mid switch which gives it even more of an echo. You can switch in between the channels as long as the footswitch is plugged in. If the footswitch is not plugged in it will only be on the Clean channel.
A good starting guitar would be a fender stratocaster. However if you want a cool body shape,Head on over to
http://www.bcrich.com
http://www.musiciansfriend.com sells alot of Bc rich stuff,and they also sell the Fender 65R. If you dont want to buy offline Go to the "Find a dealer" Page on bc rich’s website,then click "International Dealers" Type in your Zip Code and they will give a list of the closest dealers that sell Bc Rich guitars. If you dont want the Fender 65R then Try a Randall or a Peavey Amp.
Dont go to official Licensed teachers. They know not of what they talk about. Ill be More than happy to teach you online for free if you like. (if your interested email me at crazy_person562@yahoo.com)
Also alot of electric guitars,amps,and equipment for them are expensive. So if your on a fixed budget,Fender is the way to go.
Hope i Helped.
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