new guitar or amp first?

i have a sqier by fender strat and a fender amp right now. im wondeirng if i should get a new guitar first or a better practice amp? i was thinking the ibanez RG5ex1 for guitar or the 15wat marshal practice amp mg4 series. i usually play metal...yeap just metaland some rock like ozzy. i trying to get like a zakk W./kirk hammet tone RAWR

thnx for help guys and gals

I would lead towards the guitar in this case... just me though

I have a Squier Strat, and I love the thing, I'm using it on all of my recording right now because the Ibanez I own has a different neck that what was factory and I need to intonate it but... it has a floyd rose and the little allen keys are mushrooming out...but I digress

IMO guitar would be a little better in the long run

kool thats what i was thinking..also does anyone know wuts wiht the little fender amp buzzing when the gain is all the way up? do all small amps suk at distortion or just fenders?

I would think a small amp couldnt handle too much.
Btw, get the guitar, i hate fender guitars, Ibanez has a better feel

so you "Hate" all Fenders?
... thats a bit closed minded aint it?


as for the small amp ...
I have played 500 - 1,000 Seat clubs with a 30-watt amp.
one of my old bands opened for The Ramones in 91, I saw all these stacks being unloaded and grabbed my old 100watt Peavy Head and 4X12 cabinet. I , lol had to turn down and have it moved almost offstage as the band laughed. When the Ramones gear was hefted up i noticed that although "Johnny" had three or four Marshall stacks a 'dummy chord' from one lead offstage to another, Mic'ed cabinet (others ='d 'just for show')...Played w/ Fugazi later that year in a small, 300max, club .. Ian and Gei (or however ya spell his name) used matching guitars(SG's) and amps (100watt Marshals feeding 4x12"s) I brought the big amd p for 'balance' .. it worked (did not run it through PA, niether did they) just fine.

Thing is , its 20010 basically, and PA gear is immensely better, so the "need" for a large amp is gone and over 50watts = overkill, i know, i tried using my 120watt-2x12 Crate at a few gigs .. never got the levels to my liking.
This Thursday one of my students, Josh, brought my old old 30-watt 1x12" back from the dead; future shows will find IT perched on an old 'Elephant Stand'(anyone remember?) with a Sennhauser 'Flat Head (Mic) on it.....yummmmm!

we (new band) play a few large outdoor events. for those i will bring the Crate (or Hectors Fender Twin) "for backup" in case the sound is a waked out.

other than that ... you really CAN do more with less. And you should try some of my Fenders, and some new Fenders out before carpet-bombing an entire line of instruments.

RAWK!
Cs

i'd say go with the guitar. but then again i love all ibanez guitars

Low wattage solid states tend to crap out with the gain turned up all the way. Distortion and noise are two different things entirely. Distortion is a created change in the signal and noise is completely random. Solid state amps (cheap) get really noisy at high volume/high gain.

The guitar can be cheaply modified to get a more "metal" sound. Get some Seymour Duncan Hot Rails, or if you don't wanna spend much pick up GFS Rails. No need to go out and spend large amounts for another guitar.

As for the amp, pick up a low wattage tube and run a couple pedals for your metal tone or a 30 watt solid state. Marshall makes a great 30W, as does Vox

Roland Cubes are good too

normally you go with the amp. an inexperianced player would always say omg i want a guitar! because uk its flashy, but real tone comes utta the amp. what i mean is although both guiar and amp affect the tone, the amp does more. just do this experiment. take ur squire on a good amp, then compare the sound from a bad amp good guitar. the amp matters more. id get the amp. however i wouldnt get an mg. yuck. the vox nightrain is good

I agree with elliot(sorry, EMB). If you wanted just the MG, then I would say the Ibanez is the way to go, but if you opened up your choices a little bit, I would say that a good little(15 practice is plenty o'power) will help your guitar sound much better than if you had a cheaper amp.

I have a Hughes and Kettner 15 Watt Ed. blue, and the clean channel is amazing! if you go to harmony central and read reviews about it people absolultely love the clean channel, the lead channel is likened to marshalls as well. Don't know if that's what you looking for, but they make bigger ones of the same line, and they are awesome.

hughes-and-kettner.com

@Carlsnow
Fender guitars suck. The necks are rough, the whammy system breaks too easy, theyre heavy, and the sound is horrible.
And the Telecaster is just ugly. I will never even try one.
Ill stick with my Gibson/Epiphone Les Pauls and Ibanez.

Fender sucks? really? so many great guitar players play them. just because you might have played one bad fender does not make them all bad.

@Domigan_Lefty

Then clearly you don't know how to buy guitars...

Tele's sound like a Les Paul if they are HB equipped, which equals amazing

Strats are the most versatile guitar out there(not counting custom ones)

And did you sand paper the neck or something?
Seriously dude, don't slam a guitar manufacturer...
I don't take kindly to that sort of thing.
Sure everyone has different tastes, but yours are just so narrow minded... and did you know that Gibson is releasing a Jimi Hendrix Signature guitar? which is basically a Fender Stratocaster?(I know that doesn't make sense)

Think about it a minute... why would Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Jackson, Gretsch, etc. etc. be in business still today if they made crappy guitars

when you can answer back to me without slamming fender anymore, then I will post back... but until that day...

oh hell yes!
have an early 80's cube I bought new and Josh brought back to life; I love it still!


...and ^THAT^ , lol, says it all!
*sheeesh*

@Domigan_Lefty
Kid, when you get old enough and play well enough to call me out by name on a forum at least have the balls to use your real name as i do and please send a video of your amazing, non Tele chops, (ya know those cool riffs ya play on yer non-fender) so we can compare notes.
in other words kid. you've been called out. Put up or shut up.
-end of discussion-



@BodomBeachTerror

RAWK!
Cs

@Carlsnow

hey man, do you know some prices on older used cubes? I'd like to get something a little bit bigger and louder than my amp right now with out having to file for bankruptcy! lol

i know they run a bit high but prob in yer budget ..trick IS finding one, Bro! look around on Gragslist etc... ya never know. Meanwhile (since i'd love to find those old specs for myself ...

wait

JOSH!!!

Josh (our newest member just refurbished MY olde 'cube' so he may know a LOT more than me, his 'electronically-challenged' guitar teacher...

Still ..I'll ask around and look around...put some feelers out.

you looking for the 30-watt? i can vouch for and highly recommend it as a studio and road amp. i have used an assortment of amps on about every sized stage indoors and out over the past 30 years (got the Cube in 86 i think) and unless you are outside with a drunk soundman and nothing but kick in yer monitor mix, lol, that 30-watt cube will blow 90% of all 50's outta the water and has a low end thats like warm butter on a hot knife(Orange makes a killer, but would most definitely break the bank)

I'll be looking ... ya may wanna pm Josh, Bro.. really.

RAWK!
Cs

Are you Retarded....is your mouth really that much bigger than your brain?

If you don't like fenders that fine but to say they suck when you've never even played a tele is just plan ignorant.

Fender is the original and the innovators of solid body guitars. If it were not for Leo the would of guitars would be vastly different.

Hell the almighty Ibanez got it's start by ripping off the fender and Gibson style right down to the head stock. They are the cover band of guitar makers.

Do we really need to revisit this amazing piece of Gibson innovation?


The Reverse V

If you think a strat is heavy than you are insane... they are such a light guitar, blocking the trem makes it about as heavy as a tele. A les paul weighs a ton.

As for the whammy, the strat definitely isn't setup to do crazy whammys.

@case211

I've seen the BC-30's running anywhere from 150 to 300. They are an amazing little amp and incredibly easy to work on.

LoL maybe u got messed up with the Fender Squier and the "original" Fender?
I think it's better to get that ibanez before getting the amp, but it all depends u can still play some metal on the squier(depending which squier) but it doesnt have that powerful pickups, but then again if u got that ibanez and u wanna play metal, your amp wont handle the distortion, so LoL, get the amp first.


Okay, I disagree. I got a 15watts SS Behringer GM108. I brought for like $50(which is cheap I guess) and I have no problem with the sound at all, use as much gain as u want or any kind of distortion, and it'll sound great, and the clean sound even better.

Looks like the majority of respondents would disagree with you little buckaroo! Add me to the list.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but it would be nice if that opinion were based on facts.
FEED HIM TO THE VOLCANO!!!!!




Phip

@josh johnson
that is actually very doable for an amp that could be my gigging amp... I may have to PM you if I find one for sale and see if you can help me out on desicions... if you don't mind that is...

@nightmare
I believe Josh was talking about the lower end 10 Watters, because my 15 watt only craps out when I crank it up to... 11 lol jk all the way to 10 the speaker tends to distort(which I'm considering swapping for a Jensen). But some of the lower end amps do distort and get very noisy when they hit their highest volume... at least from what I've seen though

@case211

Sure you can PM anytime.

@nightmare
I was talking about the lower end 10 watters. The 15W typically has a decent speaker inside to handle the power.

aight guys i hate to see ppl bash other ppl on the forums.when i first started out i didnt like my squier fender cuz it was kidna big and the neck is big and rough but it does not suck. i have come to like the design of the fenders but i dont have the money for one wiht HB in it.

to all the folks dat answered m yquestion thanks! it looks like majority says amp first because it matters the most. ima try out the vox and 30wat mg like yall suggested. mabye find some humbuckers to instal in my lil squier.

@case211
I agree with elliot(sorry, EMB). If you wanted just the MG, then I would say the Ibanez is the way to go, but if you opened up your choices a little bit, I would say that a good little(15 practice is plenty o'power) will help your guitar sound much better than if you had a cheaper amp.

i dont understand wut ur saying dood~

@apollos

Yeah, that's ok, I've been recovering from my wisdom teeth being removed(all 4) this morning... I've literally been "high" all day on Hydrocodone... So I completely understand you not understanding(again does that even make sense???)
Allow me to elaborate:(hopefully better than before)

What I was trying to say was that a bad amp with a great guitar will not always sound good, average, or great... the guitar can be the most comfortable and fastest playing neck, best wiring on the pickups and the finest tone wood known to man. But a crappy amp will just not do it justice...
And what I meant for the MG was that you should shop around a little bit more, maybe test run some of the slightly(~$50-$100 more) with you current gear. You never know, your guitar know may sound beautiful through a good amp.
My Squier Strat can sound downright amazing(to my ears) and actually really more like a top of the line guitar rather than my first guitar(starter kit). I have a really good practice amp by Hughes and Kettner, everyone who has played this thing raves about it. and for only $200(which was only something like $50 more than the first 3 Fender Frontman 15's I blew up/or crapped out) it sounds way better than most amps in its class(except those cubes! poss. Line6).

What I'm trying to say is open up your selection and with YOUR guitar, try out an amp, really go into some of the different sounds that it has, see if you like it.
Another way to test out an amp to see its true quality is to use the clean channel on flat EQ(10 or 5 I can't remember) and minus reverb, flanger, any of the other effects, test the clean channel(if that's what your looking for). You can do the same for the lead(dist) channel if you want to, though I don't know how it will work... but if the clean channel sounds amazing without anything being added or taken away, you may have a winner.

BTW I've been wanting to drop a humbucker into my Squier for quite some now as well, I think it would be a great thing to try...

Well, I hope that made some sense, if not... I'm sorry... very very sorry... because then I feel like I wasted your time...

Anyways, good luck with your shopping!

okay i understand now thanks man ill do that next time im at guitar center. i was wondering if anyone knows how i install a big humbucker into my single coil strat...

that sux about ur highness. im kinda afraid of getting my teeth pulled because i dnt like being drugged to sleep. mabye i can get them to just numb my mouth if i ever go.

You know man, I thought the same thing as I was never put down for anything before... So I was laying there with my sweater, a blanket, goggles, and my first IV drip in my arm(wasn't so bad) nervous as hell... well, I'm shaking like a leaf, then they were like "Okay, we're going to put the medicine in now..." about 20 seconds later I was completely out and I don't remember too much after that...
But the high feeling isn't so bad, its either I'm basically stoned for a while or in immense pain... and there's this party going on tomorrow for my stepmom graduating college and I can't eat really anything that involves chewing until I think next Friday...
and they did use a local anesthetic that made me unable to feel anything and I mean anything(drool, blood, my own hands!, etc.) for about 6-7 hours... that was weird...

And about the humbucker into your strat, if yours is anything like mine, it should have a massive pickup routing already(unless its actually a Fender American Strat or something where they don't route for humbuckers), the only thing to worry about is getting the pickguard cut out correctly for the humbucker so it looks nice...

Btw, just to correct a mistake i made earlier. I will never play a Telecaster AGAIN. Especially ones you find in Sam Ash. I hooked it to an amp and it sounded horrible. One open strum doesnt really count as playing. But the Ibanez i played, and my Les Paul sing. Every single Fender ive tried (about 8), has been real thick and heavy, had a rough neck, and had a horrible sound. ONE was good, but right handed.

And my LP is a quarter of the weight of the fender.

@apollos

Most Squier's are routed already for a H-S-H combination. You can easily pull out the bridge single and replace it with a HB. I'm not gonna try to explain the re-wiring as its pretty complicated over a forum

@domigan

I guess that's your opinion then... we'll leave it at that, you don't like Fenders, that's ok, I'm not a fan of LP's.

So agree to disagree

Well ya, the reason i thought u are talking about 15watts amps is because apollos was talking about his 15 watts fender amp, so if are talking about 10watts and stuff, then I guess maybe you're right, 'cause I had bad experience with those amps myself.



Can u be more clear plz? 'cause I think I'm intrested in that part.

my Squier Strat has H/S/H routing(though it is SSS pups) arlready in the body... i don't think that Fender Strats have this if they are SSS pickup config...

They don't only Squier does

yea i figured it out after i made the post...that i just order the hb pickups made for single coil and justinstall it its pretty eeasy.
and i never been stoned before so idk wut it feels like lol but i know wut pain feels like . it feels kool when i cant feel my mouth but my whole body? omg lol...why did thye drug u up so bad r ur teeth stuck way in ur mouth lol

whats a h-s-s routing? plus why whould they do that if all the pickups are single coil?

tltr.....
just get the guitar

@nightmare

H/S/S is humbucker-single coil-single coil(pickup configuration/ routing)

whats tltr?