Different amps for different guitars? Do you?

Foottapiologist

Just wondering.... is it common amongst you lot to use different amps with your various guitars in your collection? Or do you manage to get the tone you're looking for from one unit?

I was about to sell a strat that I never play because it's just never sounded right to me, took it out to the garage to give it a once over, and plugged it into the el cheapo R200 Ritmuller M-15 that lives on the workbench for a quick last strum on "clean". And it sounded amazing. I got carried away and ended up playing for around an hour, jamming away like I don't think I've ever done before, and what was the soon to be ex guitar is now my favourite.

Not sure if I am imagining things because subliminally I don't want to get rid of a guitar.
Not sure if I can replicate that "sweet spot" tone with another better amp.
Not sure if I'm going to have to start collecting amps now too.

Stoffeltoo

Matter of taste and what the player's definition of "Tone" is. ?

My personal preference are clean tones as I do mostly rhythm and fills

My personal preference i.e what I like to hear is my Fender Strat through an Elk LS40 all tube. The combination of single coil and that specific tube amplification just sound right in my mind and I don't care if any one else has a different opinion. It sounds good to me.

Humbuckers with a Marshall sounds OK to me so is passable and I have not yet found the amp to satisfy the quest for my tone.

On acoustics I go Fishman solid state acoustic amps. I tried other acoustic amps such as the Ibby troubadour and never quite experienced the WOW feeling.

My two notes worth

V8

Foottapiologist wrote: Not sure if I can replicate that "sweet spot" tone with another better amp.

I had a Lab Series L5 that had a mid freq cut/boost - my strat sounded great with a mild boost around 1k , but the tele sounded good with more boost around 3-4k. Both settings sounded crap with a my humbucker'ed guitar...

Similar deal with my basses, they all seem to like a slightly different eq. I tend to run the amp flat and deal with cut/boosts on multifx (naughty, but it works for me).

And not all speakers are equal...scary how much better certain (usually guitar) amps sound when the speaker is swopped out. I used to think speaker snobs were...umm..snobby. They're not ?

ezietsman

Yeah, my different guitars sound very different through the various amps I have. Although which sounds best through which amps changes from week to week.

singemonkey

My 18W has a monster rock sound and sounds good with everything. I use it for surf guitar and it sounds totally acceptable. But I would like to have some of that Fender shimmer for surf guitar.

modulator

Old thread, but relevant. I now have several amplifiers and guitars. My ears say, yes, guitar - amplifier choices matter. I have a Strat-alike with weak single coils and a narrow neck, and planned to get rid of it. Until I finished my 5F1 type amplifier. This combination is good. Too good to get rid of the guitar, even though it's neck is too narrow. That guitar is "dead" with all the other amps. I have a pointy guitar which is easy to get a good sound with through an old 15 Watt Marshall transistor amp. I am now working on getting a good sound from it through a set of valves. It will yield.

I may be spoilt with the variety I have, but can only re-affirm conventional wisdom: Some guitars sound better through some amps. Depends on the sound you're after, too.