Guitar to Amplifier ratio

Lets see! guitar, strap, new strings, finger-ease, picks, lesson book, shielded cable, tube amp.

Thinking..Ok ask the store to throw in the strap, strings, cable, picks since I'm purchasing a complete pachage.

I'll still have some left for partying.

Joe

I think ive made my choice.. I found a epiphone les paul studio and a roland cube 30.

The Roland cube 30 is slightly used and will only cost me $100us

The epiphone i found sounds awsome compared to the other studios there.. i have no idea why.. Im getting it for about $300us

There throwing in 20 picks, A korg tuner and a pair of pro strings

The Cube 30 is very versatile. A bit of advice: When/if you buy another/bigger/better amp, hold on to the Cube 30, as you will always have a use for it.

Its nice to hear that im getting something good from someone other than the store representation. Thanks for your help guys :D

I just got back from GC yesterday, they're holding a Mexi Strat and 15 watt VOX Valvetronics amp for me till Thursday. The amp is a bit over 1/3rd of the total cost; $499 before tax, $530 with taxes.

Get a guitar that is comfortable to you. Then leave the rest to the amp. 8)

Get a guitar that is comfortable to you. Then leave the rest to the amp. 8)

Pretty good advice i think. I have a Peavey 5150 combo 212 and for a while an Ibanez S470. The Guitar cost me 800 Canadian (before taxes) and the amp cost around 800 also (used; i think they're around 1300 new). Had problems with the guitar and while it was away on warranty i used my roommates epiphone SG. While it sounds quite good due to the amp (the pickups in the S470 aren't great but they're much better than the Epiphone) it's really frustrating for me to play. It's not 'comfortable' and it gets frustrating due to the guitar's desire to go out of tune as quickly as possible (a few minutes and you sound like crap).

My point... the amp is the most important for sound. But the guitar is what you're physically in contact with. You gotta be able to hold onto that guitar for hours on end without getting frustrated. I don't think this means that you have to spend a lot on the guitar. Just have to be aware that the cheaper models (Korea, China, Mexico built guitars) are manufactured on a large scale and there are some duds and lemons. Play the guitar a lot before you buy it. And if you can get an experienced friend to try it out, all the better.

I tried out 6 of the epiphone les paul studios and 4 of them sounded fairly dead while one sounded extremly messed. However the sixth on sounds very full almost as good as the real gibson.. what I mean is how the strngs sounded without an amp.. with an amp they all sounded firaly the same.. however my freind says that the sound without the amp is what your looking for if im replacing the pickups anyways.

I always try an electric without an amp first. If the wood doesn't vibrate and give it life, why bother?!

A good amp can make a crappy guitar sound acceptable. So always try them out unamped first.

I started out playing with an Epi LP Classic Plus ($600) and a Marshall DFX15 ($160). I thought it sounded pretty good. Then I picked up a Fender Deluxe Reverb RI tube amp along with an Ibanez TS-7 petal and WOW! Huge difference! I still use the Marshall because it has a headphone jack, but when my girlfriend isn't home, I crank the Fender up and grin. :D

I Just picked up the epiphone les paul studio today and put it into the cube 30 for the first time.. holy shit does this sound good.. it sounds much better than my brothers fender stratocaster through a fender rage 158...

What you are mainly looking for in a guitar is something that you feel comfortable and happy playing. Past the 500 mark in guitars, i notice NO improvement in sound as you go higher. So use your animal intincts, pick one that looks cool. If you feel comfortable with it and it looks cool, then go plug into an amp. Amps unlike guitars i find only keep improving with more money. Yea mesas and riveras cost more than a few hundred dollars, but have you heard those things? I played a squier strat through them and they are awsome.

Im not too sure.. I played a gibson les paul custom and it sounds a hell of a lot better than my epiphone les paul studio....

As for amps. Im planing on buying an orange tube amp.. mostly becuase a guy I know gets such good sound from it.

It seems like an important variable that's often missed is those things that don't necessarily affect your sound directly, but are still obviously important: the feel and playability of the instrument, whether the tuning is stable, whether it has all the features you need, etc.

To that end, I would feel very justified going 600 guit/400 amp or even 700/300. The goal here isn't just to get the loudest possible sound, and most players don't spend more than a tiny fraction of their playing time at gigs.