Marshall Guitar Amplifier Amplification
I’ve been playing guitar for 7 months now, but I’m still kinda ignorant about guitar amplifiers. So I have a lot of questions about them:
1. What do the different settings on an amp do? Like Drive, Bass, Gain, Treble, Mid, etc, etc. I might have left out a few, so if you could point out any I did, that would be nice
2. What’s an amp cabinet? head? stack? combo amp?
3. What are brands that make really good amps? (generally, Gibson, Schecter, Ibanez make good guitars, so what are the respective brands for amps?)
4. In general, are distortion/effects pedals better than built-in distortion and effects?
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- Tags: 7 Months, Amplifiers, Amps, Combo Amp, Distortion Effects, Effects Pedals, Gibson, Guitar, Guitar Amplifiers, Guitars, help, Playing Guitar, Stack, Treble
RudieCantFail
April 27th, 2010 at 1:56 am
1). The different settings on the amp help control the shape and tone of the sound. Bass is the low end of the sound spectrum, Treble is the high end, and Med is the mid range tones. Gain is usually the incoming volume into the amplifier.
2). A Cabinet is just a cabinet full of speakers, and not the amp Head, which actually has all the control knobs and what not on it. A Stack is several speaker cabinets put together and run on (usually) a single amp head. A combo amp is where a head and a set of speakers have been built together into a single unit. A combo is ideal for beginners, and you really shouldn’t worry too much about heads and stacks unless you get into playing gigs on a regular basis.
3). Opinions on who makes good amps are going to vary as much as who likes what kind of guitars. Personally I like Marshalls, Fenders, Peaveys, and SWR for Bass.
4). You can get cool effects off of built in distortion, particularly on tube amps. It all really depends on what kind of sound you’re going for. Pedals tend to give you a greater range of control for a particular effect than an amplifier, and there are some types of effects that may not be available as built-ins on amplifiers.
Wolfgang2049
April 27th, 2010 at 2:28 am
1. Gain controls the preamp level of the amp. That is, the level of things before it gets to the actual amp and then to your speakers. Turning this up will increase the volume. turning it up really high will also cause some distortion.
Drive would control the level of the distortion from the amp. As with gain, and it can also boost volume.
Bass, Mid, Treb are your equilizer knobs. Turn bass up to add more low end tone, treb up to add more high end tone, etc.
Many amps also have a drive and a clean channel. A clean channel is just that, a very clear clean tone. A drive channel will give you a knarly distorted tone. Different amps do either or both better than others. For example, the clean channel on a Fender 2X12 combo is very clean. The drive channel is kind of weak when compared to others (like an Ibanez amp for example).
2. A Stack is a combination of one or more heads and two cabinets. A cabinet is simply that, a cabinet that contains speakers. The head contains the actual amp and the controls. A half-stack is one head and one cabinet. A combo amp contains the head and cabinet in the same unit.
3. Loaded question. Depends on your style and what sound you are going for. Ibanez does have a well priced line of amps designed for the rock/metal crowd (making assumptions from Schecter and Ibanez in your post). They are really loud, and have great bult in distortion on them. They are solid state amps, meaning they do not have tubes in them.
A tube amp is generally louder, and creates a fuller tone. Most people with the money to buy them… buy them. They are not cheap. Mesa/Boogie, Marshall (also makes decent, but IMO overpriced, solid state amps), Peavey. Top end stuff.
4. The super top end tube stuff won’t require much other than a drive pedal for a little more nastiness at high volumes. For a solid state combo or half stack, generally the answer is yes. Boss makes several popular pedals and Line 6 makes a great one with a lot of options.
The Ibanez amps mentioned above pretty darn good distortion built in.
Line 6 makes several amps with a ton of built in effects, options, preset sounds from popular bands, pedals to control them with your feet, etc. They are geared towards the rock/metal crowd. They are well built amps, with high end speakers in them. I personally like to have my effects on the floor instead of in the amp itself, but this is personal preference.
For someone starting out I would suggest a Line 6 Spider IV or Ibanez 2×12 combo. Plenty loud for bar gigs, good price, and tons of rock/metal tone.