So, so, so many times I see guitar players play through strange setups. At different times in the past 3-4 years since I've been playing with worship teams and worship bands, I've seen a 100 watt solid state Marshall half-stack (played for about 50-75 people), 4 watt Vox playing heavy/speed/shred metal with a metal-style guitar (0 people, Guitar Center player), a guitar player from a former well-known worship team play a Rivera and Fender combo, and much more. Needless to say, the last example sounded worlds apart from the first two examples.
Here's my main point: guitarists usually overestimate the amount of power they need to project through their amp. Honestly, I don't blame them, because that's what the media kind of portrays to us (and at one point, myself too). Metal is in right now, and how many bands play with the faux-wall of Marshalls? So many aspiring guitarists think that 40 Marshall cabinets equal amazing tone. If they only stood face-to-face with ONE Marshall full stack turned to
5, their ears would explode, let alone turned up even more!
The motivation behind this post is because I know an aspiring guitarist who just recently got his first real amp. He got a Marshall Class 5 combo for a Birth-mas present, and is in love with it. I found myself in a position about a month ago to kind of feed into him what type of amp he should be looking for. I advised against a solid state amp of any kind. My first purchase was a Marshall 30 watt solid state combo with digital effects....ugh! Anyway, I told him that even though 5 watts does not seem like a lot, it would be good for his style of playing (blues). He could get cleanish tones out of it by turning the guitar down, but also could crank it to get awesome overdrive. Last night I got the chance to turn the amp up...so glorious!! If only guitar players understood the power of tube amps. Mmmm!
Volume controls on tube amps are not like volume controls on the TV or on your iPod. As you turn them up, they do not always become incrementally as loud as you would expect. An amp on 4 is not twice as loud as the same amp on 8. It for sure will not be as clean. It all depends on the amp. But this is for certain - cranked amps have the most natural, responsive, authentic, amazing, organic overdrive, and even 5 watts turned to 10 is ridiculously loud.
I wish that I had had a "tone mentor" (just coined it) to show me the in's and out's of guitars, amps, pedals, etc. Not saying that I am all-knowing or anything! But I am current and I research the new stuff on the market, I listen and look for good deals when people are in the market for equipment, and I am always ready to either suggest, turn someone away from, or research an amp, guitar, pedal, etc. I actually look for opportunities to talk to people about gear, guitars, tone in general. However....
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.
1 Peter 3:15
Why can't it be this easy to talk to others about Christ? I mean if the topic comes up naturally about Christ, I will talk about Him and my life in Christ. However, I am not shrewd enough to steer conversations toward Christ as I am with guitar musings. I need to be able to seek out any small tidbit of topic that can relate to Christ and expound on that. We are called to be witnesses from now until the end of the age. And, not to redirect the blame, I am called to be a witness. Just like no one would expect the ultimate power of a 5 watt tube amp cranked to heavenly overdriven bliss, no one would expect someone to actually seek out opportunities to love people enough to show them the Light of Christ.
