Hello, today a very short article about upgrading your gear and in particular your guitaramp.

For a lot of guitar players the common experience is when it comes to buying equipment: Get a starter guitar coupled with a budget amp. Once people feel they can play a bit they want to buy a better guitar. Logical eh? Yes, but people often overlook that guitaramp. The amp makes a BIG part of your sound, and the better your sound, the better you will play.

My example of above is very cliched, and there are a lot of variations possible:

~ People start off on acoustic guitar, once they feel they get their first chords and riffs under their fingers, they will buy an electric guitar and an amp.

~ People start off on electic guitar, then upgrade to better quality electric guitar, then feel they have overlooked the acoustic guitar and get an acoustic guitar and start to learn more about tone and feel of fingers.

No matter how many examples I will provide, I may still overlook your own unique, personal experience.
What about the following example:

Student wants to learn to play the guitar, starts of with amp which will be suitable for playing in a band, because playing guitar with other people, and playing in a band is the goal. The amp will need to be powerful, loud enough to be heard over the drums. Most people in this case will buy something like a 75 to 100 watts amp. Logical? Yes, but then the band falls apart, amp apears too loud to use when playing with another guitarplayer, amp gets traded in for smaller amp. A few years later  this person regrets having sold that particular amp. What do you do??

# Start off with a small amp when you are starting out. Keep the amp, even when you upgrade to a bigger amp.

#For second amp, buy more powerful amp, but when you play at home, do not crank the volume, no need really as the amp will still sound a lot better than your small amp, because it is more powerful (more headroom– does not distort that quickly when you play it louder on clean settings ect.), does have a bigger speaker, therefore better bass-and treble response.

#Once the band breaks up and feel you no longer need that bigger amp, just keep it and buy another small amp, use this amp now in combination with your other small amp. You will be surprised how loud and full it sounds, almost as good as your bigger amp, only more portable and less bulky to carry around!.

#When guitarplaying is something you do a lot, look into getting a Valve amp. They are more dynamic and sound simply great compared to solid-state amps. You do need to maintain them from time to time: Change valves and some other components, but you will be rewarded with a great sound.

Okay and then I have forgotten to mention pedals: Add them to your basic amp and you will be in for a surprise: Your budget amp will start to sound a lot more expansive and fun to play through.

I know, at the end of this little story I have forgotten your case: Learning to play guitar for a few years now, still struggling with fingers, especially that pinky. Electric guitar? Still played as an acoustic!! You may need to ask yourself what you want from your guitar, and what you want to do musically. Not sure? Happy with whatever goes? Okay you may have to find out  for yourself what you like about playing the guitar.

Whatever your playing scenario is, it is a process, and a long one and do not expect easy ansers as there are none, there is only the experience of joy and it is this joy which makes people want to buy more guitars, amps, pedals, take more lessons, play in bands and make music above all, as much as they can.

Enjoy for now and hope to see you soon again.
Eddie