Do specific types of guitars sound better with certain brands of amp?

shaunm

I have been out recently trying out new amps and I have come to the conclusion that some amp brands are better suited to certain guitar types. 

Marshall amps to my ears just sound better when used with humbuckers. Maybe it's just me but single coils don't seem to push those amps hard enough to really make them sing (Jimi would prove as an obvious argument here as would jeff beck) but my favourite Marshall tones all come from Humbuckers. 

Two Rock amps are the opposite to me - single coils really shine through this brand, to me humbuckers sound a little muddy and not articulate enough with this brand. That being said a semi sounds great through these amps.

I think Fender guitars sound better through fender amps, I'm sure they must have been designed this way as the two seem to bring out the best in each other. Though I don't know this for certain.

I tried a DR Z and I tried an SG, Strat and Sheraton through it and they all sounded equally good. So I don't think its true of all makes but it's a thought that has never really occurred to me. 

Does anyone else think this? 

samzadgan

I don't think so...in my limited experience...a good amp with let the tone of the pickups come through more than a shit amp.

The ending result then becomes personal taste. I play my marshall with humbuckers and p90's...they sound very different but great for the purpose and the amp doesn't really accentuate one over the other.

No experience with single coils...don't like them...but i don't think thats because of the amp I've played them through...or maybe it was??!?

shaunm

Well this is it, I have never considered it until I've spent some time trying different amps and guitars. 

I love single coils, I played a Strat through a two rock exo and I thought it was a fantastic noise, I played the same strat through a Marshall offset and I thought it sounded weak. I played an SG through both and thought it was totally the opposite. 

impmann

Marshall and Single Coils - er... Richie Blackmore, Jimi, Pagey, Beck, SRV, Malmsteen... I could go on..

Fender guitars do sound very pretty through Fender Amps - but Larry Carlton seemed to get a pretty decent tone with a 335 into one for the Steely Dan stuff... At the other end of the spectrum Neil Young's feedback drenched wailings are courtesy of a Les Paul and a Tweed Deluxe. Then you get Brian Stetzer banging a Gretsch into a Bassman.... and most of Who's Next was recorded with a Gretsch 6120 and a Tweed Deluxe...

So in short... no, a good guitar sounds great with any amp. And a great amp will sound fantastic with any guitar and any guitarist.

samzadgan

Thats interesting.

I should qualify that i only use the clean tone of an amp...if you are pushing the amp to breakup then, different pickups will push differently, so you may find that some amps behave differently to pickups...I'm just theorising here...

shaunm

impmann said:

Marshall and Single Coils - er... Richie Blackmore, Jimi, Pagey, Beck, SRV, Malmsteen... I could go on..

Fender guitars do sound very pretty through Fender Amps - but Larry Carlton seemed to get a pretty decent tone with a 335 into one for the Steely Dan stuff... At the other end of the spectrum Neil Young's feedback drenched wailings are courtesy of a Les Paul and a Tweed Deluxe. Then you get Brian Stetzer banging a Gretsch into a Bassman.... and most of Who's Next was recorded with a Gretsch 6120 and a Tweed Deluxe...

So in short... no, a good guitar sounds great with any amp. And a great amp will sound fantastic with any guitar and any guitarist.

I know that there are loads of examples to disprove my theory but I still think that there is something in it. 

Eric's beano tone, there's something about that amp and that guitar combination that just works. 

Angus Young playing an SG into a marshall it just sounds brilliant. 

SRV used mainly fender and Dumble didn't he? When I think of his distinctive tone it's fender not marshall and Malmsteen uses a modded strat with stacked coils doesn't he? I'm of course not saying that these guys wouldn't sound amazing with any amp guitar combination though.

A good guitar does sound great in any amp but I believe that a certain type of guitar will sound better in an amp that is better suited to it.

ICBM

I agree with impmann. I can't think of any great guitar that doesn't sound great through any good amp, or any great amp that doesn't sound great with any good guitar through it.

Obviously some will sound quite different through one type of amp than another, and some sounds are beyond the range of some amps and possibly some guitars, but a lot of it is just down to settings.

impmann

SRV also used Marshalls - clean. Look it up if you don't believe me.
Malmsteen's early tone was standard Strat singles and he didn't sound that different.
Some amps are more suited to a particular style of music - but even there, you can't make total generalisations. For example - AC30s... from Hank, through the Beatles, past Rory,via Brian May, Quo, Suede, The Jam and onto The Edge and beyond...

Voxman

Fender amps were designed with Fender guitars in mind, no question. And in general Marshall amps suit HB guitars eg Gibson's better. Single coil Fenders were designed to be brighter sounding and Gibson HB guitars were designed for sustain and raunch. So its a natural match.

I certainly concur that a good guitar will always sound good with a good amp, but certain guitars definitely do seem to 'suit' some amps better. Having said that, what combination better 'suits' or even what is deemed 'better' is largely in the ears of the beholder and is more subjective than objective. It's also down to feel - a Les Paul through a Fender physically feels quite different to a Les Paul through a Marshall, and ditto a Fender Strat.

ICBM

impmann said:

SRV also used Marshalls - clean. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Indeed - although Majors and the Club & Country (which is essentially a Marshall Twin, the circuit is a near copy), rather than the traditional 50W and 100W models.

meltedbuzzbox

Good guitars and good amps make a good sound. What works for one player will not work for another etc etc

I think people get hung up with association of what their favourite players used to use and form opinions from there maybe?

I have never really been a fan of Marshall amps but I will concede at volume a JCM800 on the clean channel sounds great with a strat etc. 

Every amp is usable to a point. Some need more coaxing than others. 

exocet

In my experience there are combinations that don't work very well. My Dumble clone hates Strats (Clean or Dirty) but my Fender style Holland absolutely loves Strats. The Fender Blackface type tone stack with it's scooped mids just helps Strats sound more "Stratty" to my ears..

shaunm

ICBM;454351" said:

impmann said:

SRV also used Marshalls - clean. Look it up if you don't believe me.












Indeed - although Majors and the Club & Country (which is essentially a Marshall Twin, the circuit is a near copy), rather than the traditional 50W and 100W models.

I did not know this at all.

I agree that a good guitar and good amp won't sound bad together but I do think some amps are better suited to certain set ups. I guess it's similar to some amps working better with certain pedals?

ICBM

shaunm said:

I agree that a good guitar and good amp won't sound bad together but I do think some amps are better suited to certain set ups. I guess it's similar to some amps working better with certain pedals?

I don't think it's anywhere near as much as that. The way pedals interact with amps is a lot to do with overdrive characteristics, gain and harmonics, whereas (contrary to popular myth that things like hot humbuckers produce a distorted tone) all guitars produce a clean tone, just with different EQ and attack/sustain mostly.

An overdrive pedal is far more an extra part of the amp than the guitar is.

Richardj

I absolutely agree that a good guitar into a good amp will work come what may.  I do however (being a bit of a Fender fanboy) believe that a Fender guitar into a Fender amp are pretty hard to beat as a combination that just 'works'.

shaunm

Perhaps this is just a personal opinion thing. When I was sat there playing this week, I thought that the Marshall and Two Rock just sounded better. Of course that's subjective but then I looked at the players that use these amps. Two Rocks better known players are Strat players (mostly). The Marshall tones that I think as defining are people like Slash, Jimmy Page, Angus Young.

richardhomer

I think there are characteristics which some guitars have which blend well with the characteristics of some amps.

For example, Les Pauls have a deep, extended bass response. Play one through a Blackface based amp (which has the same characteristic) and without dialling out a considerable amount of bass, the combination - especially on the neck pick-up - can sound 'farty'.

Marshalls typically have a tighter, more focused low-end, which combines brilliantly with the fatness of a Les Paul to give a really powerful sound which takes up the right amount of space in a band mix.

I'm not saying that a decent amp and a decent guitar can't be dialled in to work with each other but I think there are magic combinations that work very easily.

ICBM

shaunm said:

Perhaps this is just a personal opinion thing. When I was sat there playing this week, I thought that the Marshall and Two Rock just sounded better. Of course that's subjective but then I looked at the players that use these amps. Two Rocks better known players are Strat players (mostly). The Marshall tones that I think as defining are people like Slash, Jimmy Page, Angus Young. 

Yes, but as already said, Hendrix and Blackmore put Strats through Marshalls and had some of the best tones ever. Not to mention Robin Trower, Jeff Beck, Yngwie, SRV, John Frusciante, Joe Bonamassa and loads more who all sound good (NB, some but not all of who are my personal taste in tone or playing!). Jimmy Page used a Tele and a Supro on many of the records he's assumed to have used a Les Paul and a Marshall. A large part of AC/DC's core sound comes from Malcolm Young's Gretsch. Even Paul Kossoff used a Strat sometimes...

shaunm

@richardhomer I think you said what I was trying to better than I did.

richardhomer

shaunm;454509" said:

@richardhomer I think you said what I was trying to better than I did.

Or I might just be getting repetitive in my old age!

shaunm

ICBM said:

I agree with impmann. I can't think of any great guitar that doesn't sound great through any good amp, or any great amp that doesn't sound great with any good guitar through it.

Obviously some will sound quite different through one type of amp than another, and some sounds are beyond the range of some amps and possibly some guitars, but a lot of it is just down to settings.

@ICBM perhaps thinking outside of the box a little, perhaps the amps I was playing weren't good ones? I was playing a Marshall offset and a two rock exo. The fender was a full sized twin (I think we all agree a fender guitar matches this amp well though) and the Dr Z was the 18 Combo and that worked with all guitars. 

In the spirit that we all agree a good amp sounds good with a good guitar the Ofset and the Exo might not be classed as good? As these two amps certainly sounded better with a specific guitar. 

Now I don't mean to sound stalkerish but I've been researching portable lunchbox heads and looked at the Vox AC4. When looking on this site you said that that amp hates humbuckers but loves single coils. Maybe it's the small low watt amps then that might suffer from a preference. 

For the record I tried the vox and you did better than me, I thought it sounded rubbish with all guitars.