We posed a question to six experienced industry pros to get their take on an important topic for musicians. Which is more important for electric guitar tone: the guitar or the amp?
This is a complicated question. The most important part is the player and their hands. After that, I’ve heard guitar players with the same guitar get almost the same tone out of several different amps. That said, recently I’ve been collecting vintage amps and cabinets of famous musicians. Sometimes the amp and cabinet sound is so cool that you can’t sound the way that musician intended without the right amp and/or cabinet. So saying the guitar is more important than the amp should not diminish the importance of the amp at all.
Paul Reed Smith
Owner of PRS Guitars
I believe the guitar is the more important element in the signal chain. Let’s take just one setup variable: action height. If you keep your strings too low in an effort to facilitate speed or ease in playing, the guitar will fret out and not speak with clarity. You lose all that clean chime and focused distortion tones. There are no amplifiers that can compensate for that ‘ticky ticky’ sound when clean tones are desired or ‘flubby’ tone on notes below a low C# on the fifth string when distorted. Wood density and pickup output contribute to a singing high end and tight low end. Once I get the right instrument, I look for the ‘marriage of wood and tubes’ to produce the sound I’m looking for.
Carl Verheyen
Supertramp, Los Angeles session legend
Tone is a very personal thing. Your tone originates in your imagination and is created through your hands, so any tool that helps you bring it to realization is important. To me, the most important tool is the guitar since it’s the initial physical connection and where your ideas are crafted. If your music doesn’t get expressed through the guitar, it’ll never make it any further.
Don Carr
The Oak Ridge Boys, Nashville session veteran, Sweetwater Studios staff guitarist
My answer to this question is the amplifier. You can make much broader strokes with amplifier choices than with guitar choices. Meaning, you can change your tone more drastically with an amp. Various guitars make a difference, but those differences are in much smaller increments. Think about it this way: there’s a difference between a Strat and a Les Paul — fatter, brighter, thinner — but the tonal difference between a Fender amp and Friedman amp is much bigger.
David Friedman
Owner of Friedman Amplification
Understandably, in the world of rock, the guitar has always been the quarterback of the tone team — the one that invariably gets all the attention and acclaim. In truth though, as important as the axe is, it’s only part of the sonic equation. String gauge, action, tuning, stompboxes, amps, speakers, and speaker cab type all play a significant role. Even the pick type, like the peso Billy F. Gibbons uses or the sixpence coin that Brian May picks with, impacts tone. And then there’s the two pivotal essential factors: the player’s heart and hands.
So, as undoubtedly important as the guitar is deemed — without all of the above, it’s merely a pretty piece of wood with some wires on and in it! Ditto, the amp — without all the other factors in the tonal equation, it’s merely a cool (and hopefully!) loud box o’ components!
Nick Bowcott
Grim Reaper, journalist, author, industry veteran with Marshall, Jackson, Charvel, and EVH
For me, it’s always been the amp. Great amp tone can elevate and magnify every nuance of the instrument you plug into it. A good-sounding Strat sounds great through an inspiring amp — same thing with a Tele or any other guitar. The amp is the vehicle. I think a great-playing, toneful guitar inspires, but the amp is the mighty equalizer.
David Hess
Sweetwater Sales Engineer