guitar noob here !! plz look and help !

[siva]

hi , im siva, 17 this year and have been playing the elec. guitar for a ouple of months..

my gear are the ibanez grx 40 and ibanez 10 watt amp and a boss ds2

i would like to improve the sound of my guitar .. as in the the power.

shld i change the pickups ? the guitar ? the amp or wat ?? plz offer me help in these areas.. thx .

 

[vespa]

wat u mean by power?....volume?

 

[Lifehouse]

Get a new amp. You can only sound as good as your amp can take you. 10 watts really have no headroom.

 

[pooo]

Yea upgrading to a better amp is a good idea. Then as time goes by you find yourself demanding more, get the pickups changed or even better, a new guitar

 

[vernplum]

Get a new amp. You can only sound as good as your amp can take you. 10 watts really have no headroom.

What does it mean when people say 'headroom'?

 

[siva]

power as in like the distortion sound.. the quality of it ... wat is the factor that affects the quality of the distortion..

 

[The-Warlord]

It really depends. Remeber that you can also only sound as good as you can play. Yngwie will still sound kick ass on a shitty setup. Yur probably listening to your favorite bands and hearing their $10,000+ set ups. So just keep that in mind. Otherwise, I would reccommend that if your really wanting to upgrade, youd get a new amp. If you give us a budget we can suggest some stuff...

 

[siva]

say maybe 100-200 ?? i wan smth like 15 watt ..

 

[Mr_X]

siva, get the mesa boogie amp, its good. U trust me, its good.

Jus kiddin. I suggest a peavey amp. The blazer 158. Sounds good on clean, but when i use a ds2, it sounded weird, not quite wad i expected. u may wanna consider a 15 ibanez, may sound nicer with ds2, clean wise i aint sure.

 

[ES335]

siva,

Save ur money, that amount of money won't help you much. One year later, when you are much more experience you will know what you want, and you will regret the money you spent now. When you have more money you can buy better gear.

For amp, you will need at least a 30 watts (15 watt can only satisfy you for 6 months), and a high output humbucker at the bridge.

Trust me, i been in your shoes before.

Remember, tone is in your fingers.

 

[penguin]

hiya Siva,

U want more distortion tone eh..

try to set ur amp to "dirty" and boost it with the ds2.
I dont believe in using bigger amp...unless ur not living in a hdb.
Dont tell me u gonna crank the amp at 12o`clock..

there are many approach to achive this so call "power"
the one i listed above should do the trick for a few more months untill u sick of the tone.... hopefully not..

u might like to save up for a tube amp,a new guitar or rig in future..
btw cut down the drive when ur using the "dirty" channel on the amp.

i normally set my amp(15w) slightly dirty and boost it with boss sd1(overdrive).sometimes i boost it will a ge7(boss eq).
volume of amp not more than 3.Otherwise my family gonna scream at me.

 

[Lifehouse]

The most significant upgrade for the least amount of money would probably be the Roland Cube 30 amp. It's about $300+ should be able to get you some mileage for quite some time.

 

[Ablue]

The most significant upgrade for the least amount of money would probably be the Roland Cube 30 amp. It's about $300+ should be able to get you some mileage for quite some time.

I second the idea of a 'modelling' amp. For me its the only thing that can get that 'deep' distortion sound at low levels. Tube amps and attenuation is another alternative but a very expensive route to take. The Roland Cube 30 is a sensible choice.

Another thing to note is, wattage can be very misleading. Given an amp with 10 watts, 10" speaker and a fixed cabinet size, a 20 watt amp with the same specs does not mean its twice as loud. In fact you need a 100 watt amp for it to be twice as loud as a 10 watter.

Fact is, our ears do not perceive sound linearly albeit logarithmically hence, for the same amp to be twice as loud, you need to increase the wattage by 10 times. This is however a simple generalisation. Room acoustics, cabinet size, speaker size etc all contribute to perceived 'volume'. Marketing hype can be very powerful, listen to the amp rather than buy according to specs.

 

[repulse87]

+1 to tone is in your fingers. Siva. Save up for something better. $200 won't get you anywhere in this price-inflated POS world. sorry dude.. its reality. 15watts is really no big increase from 10watts. Keep in mind that 100watts is only 15decibels louder than 50watts. so it ain't really twice louder. So by buying a 15 watt amp, it wouldn't sound 1.5 times louder. you'd be surprised some people blow others outta the water with 10 watt solid state amps compared to people with high end tube amps. :roll:

 

[ChanMin]

Get a new amp. You can only sound as good as your amp can take you. 10 watts really have no headroom.

What does it mean when people say 'headroom'?

Headroom is the volume left in your system between your normal volume level and the maximum output of the system. If you have to run your system wide open all the time to do your shows you have no headroom in the system, and you should consider upgrading your system (amplifier/s and/or speakers). Headroom is good to have because the system will sound better if it is not being strained to its limits. Imagine driving your car everywhere you go with your foot on the floor all the time.

 

[stillwater]

siva,

Save ur money, that amount of money won't help you much. One year later, when you are much more experience you will know what you want, and you will regret the money you spent now. When you have more money you can buy better gear.

For amp, you will need at least a 30 watts (15 watt can only satisfy you for 6 months), and a high output humbucker at the bridge.

Trust me, i been in your shoes before.

Remember, tone is in your fingers.

I'm still with a 10W reverb-less amp after all these years, and am still satisfied. I've got a friend who plays guitar for 20 years and is playing professionally... he only has one amp for practice, its a 15W amp.

If you've read abt how randy rhoads got chosen by Ozzy, he went for audition only to arm with a tiny amp, as opposed to the rest of the guitarists, who brought marshall stacks.

Remember, tone is in your fingers.

REMEMBER what u've preached. So REMEMBER, its in your fingers, not speakers.

For amp, you will need at least a 30 watts (15 watt can only satisfy you for 6 months), and a high output humbucker at the bridge.

Trust me, i been in your shoes before.

Looks like Randy Rhoads, and other millions of guitarists who use less than 30W amp, and if any of them aren't using a high output humbucker at the bridge... should all bow down to you. You've been in their shoes before haven't you?

 

[subversion]

maybe Rhoads (RIP) is a person better versed in his gear than many of us here, which is what everyone should strive to be- know what drives you, regardless of what you are armed with...

 

[MrE]

What does it mean when people say 'headroom'?

I believe headroom refers to the amount of 'clean' volume u get before a tube amp breaks up to give you that sweet slightly overdriven tone? I'm not a tube user, but this is my educated guess. Tube users pls correct me if i'm wrong, i'd like to be sure too

Siva:
You might wanna check out a Marshall MG15, there's a guy on Luther selling his 6 mth old one for 160

Date posted : 16 December 2004
hi all. im selling a marshall MG-15 CDR. its a powerful amp even for a beginner with 2 channels and reverb as well. its used for less than 6 months and owner selling it for quick cash. selling it for 160. negotiable. interested parties. please contact jimmy at 81003255.
Email:jingming_86@hotmail.com

 

[repulse87]

Jimmy Page recorded one of his songs in a Pignose Mini Portable amp, which is less than 5watts... mic-ed up in the studio. Haha... its fantabulous shit! I swear it sounds good!

 

[Mr_X]

is it sold in singapore? if so where? how much? need to mic-up to sound nice?