Hey was just watching Bad Hair from the Gothic. Looks like a pro shot vid, and Steve’s playing a les Paul looking guitar with an intricate carving. Looks like scalloped frets as well, but maybe that’s an optical illusion. Anyway the tone is very similar to the strat and the explorer to my untrained ears. It’s got me thinking the amp is more important than the guitar. True?
Stephen, Georgia
It can seem that way at times, “amp’s more important’, but at the end of the day the amp can only do what the guitar and guitarist tell it to do.
So, one way to consider the similarity between guitars you noticed would be to chalk it up to the player going for the same sound, another would be to say “same band, same mics, same room”, same context.
Maybe the holistic view “everything matters” is best understood as more a matter of focus than a priority list.
There’s amps and guitars, strings, frets, tubes, speakers, cables, connectors, effects, picks, batteries, 1,000 misc actual production bits and 10,000 misc electronic and acoustic variables to get hung up on, but the reality is we don’t normally focus on more than one thing at a time.
If you’re dealing with strings, you’re not dealing with a room corner etc.
Back to the top to answer your question, “its got me thinking the amp’s more important than the guitar, true?”
Well, yes it is more important!
If the amp’s got your attention right now, it absolutely is the most important thing but that’s a feature of your attention or focus, not a judgement on the relative importance of amps and guitars.
It’s a great question, “what’s important to me right now?’ it keeps the ball rolling. .
I just did my first gig in a year and a half and wound up on the opposite end of the spectrum; all about the guitar.
I think the bottom line is if it’s got anything to do with music, then it’s necessarily subjective, and our preferences, issues, attention, and interests will all be constantly shifting. Not necessarily changing to something completely different but how we achieve and consider our results is a moving target.
That’s the context your question comes up in for me anyway.
Thanks Steve! Being a working class parent who had to unload most of his gear a few years ago, I was wondering where to set my priorities. I’m thinking of finding a guitar that stays in tune and doesn’t pop or hiss and saving for a decent amp. Please come back to Atlanta even though turnout is usually lame. 😁
Thanks Steve! I unloaded most of my equipment when I hit some hard times, and was wondering where to put my focus rebuilding my rig. I’m going to try to find a cheap guitar that stays in tune and doesn’t pop or hiss. Holding out for a decent amp. But I get your point that it depends on your focus. Please come back to Atlanta even though turnout is usually lame.