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Should you buy a better Guitar or Amplifier?

Landon Bailey

It’s a common question

Should you spend more of your money on a guitar or on an amplifier. This is a common question I see come up from time to time. There are a lot of variables to take into account so it’s not a simple answer for everyone. For my personal situation, and from my years of experience, you are better to put more money into a good sounding amplifier than into an expensive guitar. But why do I say that? There’s a difference between a good guitar and expensive guitar. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a good guitar. Let’s talk about different situations that can exist, and get into more detail about why I feel this way.

SPEND MORE ON a better guitar?

let’s talk about GUITARS

For the purpose of this discussion, I will be focusing on electric guitars. I won’t dive into the world of acoustic guitars, as that can be a completely different discussion. First we’ll talk about the different price levels for electric guitars. This whole topic is a broad overview and may not cover every brand and model, but it’s a good starting point. Let’s start with some lower priced guitars.

Entry level guitars (AKA beginner guitars)

You will hear the term ‘beginner’ guitar used quite often. Some people will argue that there’s no such thing as a beginner guitar. When I say beginner guitar, I’m referring to low priced guitars that parents may look at buying for a child that is looking to learn guitar. So I’m coming from a parent’s point of video. I’ve played a number of entry level guitars from Squier and Epiphone. Squier is the lower priced line of guitars that are owned by Fender. Epiphone is the lower priced line of guitars that are owned by Gibson. There are so many other brands on the market today, so I’ll just focus on the guitars I have personally played.

Now what price are we talking about here? I’m from Canada, so I’ll talk in Canadian funds. Being close the US, a lot of prices I see are advertised in USD. So if I switch back and forth between CAD and USD, apologies EH! Generally I’d say a beginner guitar would start around $200, but prices have risen so much in the past year, that same guitar may be closer to $300 now!

Entry level guitars will usually have a few things in common amongst all the various brands. This is not an exhaustive list, but things that I have noticed.

Common entry level features

  • manufactured overseas in countries like China, Korea, Indonesia

  • less attention to detail on fit and finish

  • cheaper electronic components (pickups, pots, switches)

Here are some guitars from a few brands that I have personally tried and reviewed.

SQUIER

  • Bullet Mustang HH

    • one of the lowest priced Squier guitars

    • shorter scale may make it easier to play for younger people

    • thinner body and lightweight

EPIPHONE

  • Epiphone Les Paul Special

    • One of the lowest priced Epiphone electric guitars

    • light poplar body

    • simple 3-way selector

    • 1 volume & 1 tone control

MIDRANGE GUITARs

Midrange is a term I’m using to describe guitars that are in the price point past beginner/entry level, and under the more standard or expensive pro level models. It’s really a grey area these days as there are so many great guitars at lower prices. Is it all about the price and where it’s made or how it plays? Essentially I’m just talking about the prices.

There are a lot of great options at the midrange level. Let’s look at some guitars in the range of $500 to $1000. Some are made in North America, such as brands like Godin and Fender, while others are made overseas in countries such as China, Korea and Indonesia. Prices have increased steadily over the past 2 years, so it’s really tough to determine where a guitar will be manufactured just based on price alone. Let’s take a look at 3 different models from 3 different brands.

GODIN

  • Godin Stadium HT in Havana Brown

    • Made in Canada

    • Lightweight

    • Similar to Telecaster specs and tones

    • Great fit and finish

SQUIER

EPIPHONE

HighER End GUITARS

Let’s go with $1000+ pricing for the higher end guitars. Does that mean they will be better than the lower priced guitars? Nothing is guaranteed, and it also depends on what is better for you! Just a few short years ago it was rare to see an overseas manufactured guitar priced over one thousand dollars. Now it’s pretty common, but it also depends on your country’s currency. Let’s take a look at a couple brands that I have owned, PRS and Fender.

PRS

  • PRS SE Custom 24

    • Great fit and finish

    • Manufactured in Indonesia by Cort Guitars

    • Modern neck radius makes it easier to play

FENDER

SPEND MORE ON a better AMPLIFIER?

Practice & MINI Amps

I’ll put this group of amplifiers in the same section. There are really small mini amps, usually battery powered, and there are small practice amps. Small practice will usually require full power from a wall outlet. In general these amps will be used for home practice and would not be loud enough to play with a full band. Some have many effects built-in, while others may be more simple and have a clean and dirty channel. I’ve reviewed and demoed many of these amps over the years. Let’s take a look a some of them.

Fly 3 & Katana Mini

I think it was the Blackstar Fly 3 that set a new benchmark in terms of amp tones that you can get from a mini amp. The Fly 3 can be powered by 6 AA batteries or an external power source. It’s super small so you can throw it in a backpack and take it on trips when you want to play guitar on the go. Soon after Boss released their Katana Mini which has similar options, but adds a larger speaker and has more EQ options.

Peavey Rage/Blazer 158

The Peavey Blazer 158 was my first practice amplifier. Not quite loud enough to keep up with a band, but definitely loud enough to annoy your neighbours. It’s a small 15 watt solid state amp that features an 8 inch speaker. The base model was the Rage, while the Blazer added a small reverb tank effect.

Frontman 10g

The Frontman 10G is Fender’s entry level practice amp. You will commonly see it bundled with their beginner guitar packages. Sometimes it’s labelled with the Fender logo and other times it will be labelled as a Squier. It is cheap, simple, and in my opinion does not sound very good.

Yamaha THR5

The Yamaha THR series of mini amps are packed with features and options. They tend to be more expensive when comparing to other amps of similar size, but they have a lot of features that aren’t found in other amps. The one big feature is that the amp can be used and connected directly to a computer via USB. So you can record all your record tracks directly from the amplifier. It’s also loaded with built-in effects which sound really good.

Full Size Amplifiers

In general I would consider a full size amplifier something that has at least a 10" speaker, and more commonly a 12”. Obviously there are more combinations than this, but the larger the speaker, cabinet size, and wattage, the louder the sound you will be able to push out. Are all full sized amplifiers good sounding? I would say no. One of the biggest factors is the speaker size and type. So let’s talk about a few full size amplifiers that I have owned and reviewed.

Fender Princeton Reverb

One of my most recent purchases was a limited edition Fender Princeton Reverb. I’ve used this 12” Celestion Alnico Blue speaker loaded amplifier for the majority of my Youtube videos. Every pedal and guitar that I’ve run through it sounds great to my ears. I can take an entry level Squier Bullet Telecaster and it will sound good in the recordings. Is this misleading? I think it could be to someone that doesn’t realize the impact that a good amplifier has on the overall tone. This is one of the factors in leading to my opinion about the amplifier being more important overall.

Vox Ac15

My first tube amplifier was a Vox AC15C1. This amp sounds awesome with every guitar I’ve played through it. It’s big, loud, and definitely good for playing with a full band. A lot of my YouTube demos have featured this amplifier. It’s a 15 Watt all tube amplifier featuring a 12” Celestion Greenback speaker. It’s made to rock!

I WOULD SPEND MORE ON A BETTER AMPLIFIER

In my opinion and from my own experiences you can get a better overall tone by using a good sounding amplifier. A good sounding amplifier may cost more but it doesn’t mean it will be super expensive. You can always look at the used market to try and save some money. This is all personal opinion of course and what sounds best/better to someone may not sound good at all to someone else. I also think it’s good to have a good balance. You don’t want a guitar that is hard to play and doesn’t sound good. From my experience, you can take an average sounding guitar and make it sound really good through a good amplifier.

All that being said, a really good guitar player can very likely take a low priced guitar and amplifier and make them sound great. There’s so many factors at play and there’s no one solution for everyone.

If you can, try out different amps and guitars and see what works best for you. And remember BEST is what is best to you!

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