EXPENSIVE GUITAR or EXPENSIVE AMP - Which One Should You Buy First? 

Just found your channel a few days ago, just had this question a few days ago. Really glad I stumbled across you, very positive personality, well made videos, and very useful information.

That moment he says "bad amp" and lifts up your current amp :(

"Don't even think about using the reverb, it sounds horrible" *Me, a guy that has the same model:* :(

"So we're gonna do a blind test." I literally closed my eyes after he said that. What the hell

if you're a home player, get the nice guitar, you dont need an expensive tube amp to sound good in a small room... if you are playing gigs, definitely get the expensive amp as this has the most impact on your sound in your signal chain, by far

Cheap guitar and Cheap amp for me!

Easiest gear blind test ever. It was painfully obviously which was which and I normally have a terrible ear for these things.

I often find myself having a hard time with those comparisons because I struggle to hear differences, but this one was extremely clear, clearer than I had anticipated.

Sure, a nice amp will sound better, but if you're just a "bedroom/sofa player", like myself, a nice guitar will make you pick it up a lot more. Great channel, by the way, Darrell. Cheers

I would go the path in the middle. Buy maybe an mexican or american special Strat and an affordable tube amp like the blues junior or similar.

Every time Darrel opens a video it puts a smile on my face. One of the nicest guys I've ever seen on youtube

@Darrell Braun Guitar: Your contents are so contentful, glad I stopped by and could hold onto my patience to watch the full episodes.

No doubt! Cheap guitar + Expensive amp. Even because you can do a non-expensive upgrade to the cheap pickups (e.g. guitarfetish) and enhance the overall tone.

I get angry because you look so happy all the time xd

I agree. I've been at open mic blues jams and the most important thing is finding the best amp to plug into regardless of what guitar you have.

I´ve found your channel one month ago. Really great and interesting videos!!!! You bring to table important discussions and wrong assumptions we generally make on price, models, brands, shapes, etc. Very usefull information! Jayr (Brazil)

Let me know what your first big upgrade was - your guitar or your amp! Or if you're just starting out, let me know what gear you have your eye on :)

IMO a good guitar is more likely to keep you interested than a good amp. Theres something about owning your dream guitar that makes you want to play.

Really very helpful. Makes it easier to chose the kind of rig you need for the specific occasion or place. Great Darrell. Always love your honest opinions.

wow the difference !! incredible !! nice video mr. Darrell !

You seem like such a nice guy and your videos are so informative and helpful to a beginner like myself. I wish you massive success with your channel!

I totally agree with your findings. The amp will make the biggest impact on overall sound. its so funny cause having a really great guitar feels nice and does make playing easier which can help you improve but having a nicer amp lets you hear your nuances and, as you mentioned, can bring your guitars' character out--which then makes it easier to play. Its a subjectively objective finding/process. haha. Great video.

Great Videos Thanks for making them! Very helpful!

Excellent vid, really helpful!

The amp and the fingers make the most of your tone.

Squier is like Kia of guitars...maybe 15-20 years ago they sucked, now they're really great bang for the buck

Thank you again for such wonderful and informative videos

Glad to find this channel. Thank you for being honest and sincere. Now I know what to buy and upgrade.

2:30 I hear the smoothness in sound, with a dulled down, not so dynamic output. Definitely the good guitar. 2:50 I hear the bad chimey pickups sound but I hear the good resonant and dynamic amp too. Definitely the squier. Edit: In test 2, the difference is even more perceptible. Guitar 2's amp can't handle the gain well and has a muffled output. The pickups still sound smooth though. I'd say, for a one time buy, pick a middle ground with both. Don't cheap out on either. But if you're a first time buyer & planning to build a collection, spend dearly on the amp that you can keep potentially for ever, and continue to switch through guitars. Although a decent guitar will aid the playability when learning or advancing. I learnt that the hard way. Bought an entry level Ibanez (still miles better than entry level fenders or anything else), but met it's limitations pretty soon, especially when I tried their RG series. The difference was day and night. All the stuff that I did on my Gio, just naturally felt more comfortable to do on the RG and started sounding applaudably better on the RG.

This being said I absolutely love the sound of a clean, cheap, solid state amp. They have a fidelity that not many tube amps can compete with.

Thank you for this video! It absolutely agrees with my view Back in the early nineties, I finally had saved some money, and had a buddy who sold his Fender Princeton Chorus. The step up from my micro transistor, no-name practice amp to this amp, was like a world of sound opening up. Of course, when I got my Les Paul Studio, that was perfection.

Your videos are nothing but amazing, Guy! Greetings from Brazil!!

Or you could just meet in the middle. Buy a Mexican strat and a fender blues Jr amp and you will have a great setup.

This was perfect for my situation. I just bought a Fender hot rod Deville a few weeks ago and LOVE playing with it. The amp I upgraded from was a marshal 15 watt. This video proves that I made the right choice! Great video!!

Great video idea !!

Very educational video!

EVH said; "It starts with the guitar. Hopefully the amp can reproduce everything the guitar is designed to do."

I think distributing your budget sensibly and selecting gear that is worth it's money is the key here. I got myself a used Marshall JCM 2000 (including a cap) for 700$ and a new LÂG Arkane 500 Superstrat (that was for sale) for 300$. I now have an amazingly versatile tube amp with which I can play anything from Jazz to Metal and a awesome guitar with coil splitting, original Floyd Rose, flamed maple top and amazing string action I would have happily paid 800$ for. Some additional Fuzz, OD and Modulation Pedals complete my "sonic needs". Getting a mega expensie guitar and cheaping out on the amp and vice versa will always be choosing between sound and feel.

Loving this channel, videos straight to the point and very very informative. Great quality content, thank you for making it!

I've gotten most of the comparisons on other videos right on the mark, but this comparison I chosen the Squire with the better amp both times! What!!! Great video Darrell, as always.

My feeling is really that a good amp should go before a good guitar. My start gear was a 129-buck pack. I played around guitar center and decided that it's the good sound from a decent amp that keeps me hyped and carry on practicing.

I play a Mexican Telecaster, and I've heard really nice sounds from it in the past, playing in practice studios that had top-notch amps. In my current band I was playing through a 100W solid state amp and the sound was atrocious. I went and spent 250$ on a used 15W tube amp and it sounds MUCH better. I agree with Darrell. If you're gonna be playing with other people go for the amp. Even if you have a great guitar it'll still sound like crap with a crap amp. And yeah, how you play is important but you need a good amp to get good tone.

Great video!!

Congratulations Darrel! Excellent idea for this video, perfect scientific method! Greetings from Brazil!

Great vid!!!

2:26 I have to say this is my favorite of the sounds. I was really surprised by which setup it was. I think the select pickups are just unreasonably good.

love ur channel useful information 🎸

always enjoy your video's Darrell

I got the same "cheap" stratocaster standard..

Wow I’m 66 and your channel made me go back and really sit down to learn

Best guitar channel on RU-vid! Always surprising and showing a impartial opinion, understandable even for those who aren't guitar players. I hope someday you come to Brazil and see what kind of equipments we use down here. thanks

Very helpful . . . thanks! Just subscribed, by the way.

I play a Mexican Strat and a Squier classic vibes tele through a Fender hot rod deluxe and I wouldn't have it any other way.

That Squire is a beautiful looking guitar.

Darrell, I keep coming back to your videos - you give us answers to some of the questions I've always been meaning to get around to answering very clearly - so thank you very much! Personally, I'd put my money towards an expensive amp first too - especially when the guitar has been put through a few pedals. One rider, I think I'd put some good pick-ups on the cheaper guitar first. A modest guitar with good pick-ups, a sequence of pedals and then a great amp would, I think, be far closer to a fully top-of-the-range rig - close to indistinguishable (-ish).

Best channel ever, best content, always well cleared. Keep it up, Darrel, cheers from Brazil

Well it’s official, I’m just a bad player. 😂 They both sounded good to me!

As soon as the first guitar started playing I thought, this is too hard for an casual person like me because Darrell plays TOO WELL!

Good video, Darrel. Definitely shows why you should get a good guitar and then save for a great amp. Don't forget to piece together your pedal board along the way.

I entirely agree with you Darrell. All the best!

from my own experience, go for the amp. Getting my Vox AC15 years ago totally reinvigorated my interest in playing guitar! good discussion topic! The Frontman was pretty terrible. haha. :)

I’d go for a great guitar for the experience, specially if you gig, since your nice guitar will be paired with great amps or pa systems that will take better advantage of your instrument. A good amp helps but you must want to play the instrument you hear. You have a way more personal experience with your guitar than you do with your amp. Just my opinion and i don’t even play professionally, I’m just a luthier.

Another great video.. Thank you

Couldn't agree more with the final bit. I currently have a few amps and guitars, but my favorite is a simple Harley Benton CST (PRS copy with P90's) run through an Engl Ironball. So, cheap guitar through an amp that's a bit more expensive. All I did change, were the pickups. The originals were good, but I put in a pair of SD Antiquities, and now it sounds absolutely glorious!

You could get a Boss Katana, it's a really good amp & they're really affordable. Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, & more all included, plus all the Boss pedals already included. Amazing value & sounds fantastic. That way you save money, get all the Boss pedals for free with the additional Tone Studio software also included, & you'll have more money for a nicer guitar. The Katanas are fantastic amps, highly recommend them

I agreed with your logic but then found me preferring the better guitar scenario on the clean test, threw me off completely. I would say, recording...amp. practise or home... guitar. Gigging... probably need to upgrade both. Nice video dude.

I have a fender mustang II "practice" amp. It has different amp models built in with a 12" speaker with 40W. My favorite amp model on it is the 57 deluxe. I put the word practice in quotation marks because this thing is so good, especially for the money. It totally can be used for a gig. It cost me only about $150, but this amp can be LOUD without distorting the clean tones. I love it.

I have to agree on this, i got a standard MIM strat (HSS pickups) and one day i flipped at the music store and invested on a mesa lonestar special, and I haven't regretted it not one time! it sounded great even with my banged ol' knock off chinese strat. IF you have to choose know this: a crappy amp cannot make a good guitar sound good, but a great amp CAN make a modest guitar sound like heaven! big up to Darrell for all these videos!

Oh that overdrive part killed me

According to my wife ALL of my gear is expensive. Lol

Simply great videos man! I'm a new viewer and loving the videos. Keep it up!

Thanks this was helpful.

I got both right! There's always a first I guess 😅 Top vid, thx :) Greetings from Germany

If you’re a gigging musician and need a setup fast, expensive amp. If you’re a guy jamming in his bedroom, expensive guitar.

Great video. I've watched others that are like this but I've never heard such a drastic difference. The nice amp wins all day, especially if you have a non-crappy guitar already. I do relate to the playing experience though, so I like your notes that it depends on where you're playing.

This video just helped me make a tough decision. Thanks!

Wow, sad when the cheap amp and guitar is actually my setup 😳

If you change the Frontman's speaker for something like a Weber, the drive will sound much nicer, from some videos I've seen around. It's not that bad of a drive sound even with the stock speaker, but I guess my opinion can't be taken as a standard of sound quality, considering that where I live, these Frontman are seen as "high end" amps.

Interesting topic 🔥

For clean tone my ears prefers the rig 1, opposite on the other sound. Thank for your happy mood !

1:30 min in. Expensive amp with cheapo guitar is going to sound better, but I would still recommend to upgrade guitar first.

id probably say if you want to record high quality tracks, go for the amp. If you are learning or just messing around a decently priced guitar with a cheap amp would be fine, you could even use digital amps on the pc. great video.

hi man! perfect blind test, always enjoyable and clear. i'd make an observation, which is my personal case essentialy: i live in a flat with some very old people living upstairs and downstairs, so when i play i have to keep the volume low generally, so i ended up buying a small 10 watt amp that actually wasn't crazy expensive but sounds great to my ear and now i'm saving for a well built low/mid range guitar... i guess it's just another possibility at the end!

once again, nice video darrel. this blind test was so easy to me (choose the squier+expensive amp). one of the most important thing to consider here (in my opinion) are the speakers, usually the 8" and smaller sound pretty bad, I bet that if you put a expensive amp through a very cheap 8" and a cheap amp through a nice 10 or 12", the cheap amp will sound quite better. maybe you can try this for next blind test.

Since I'm a beginner I'd go for Cheap guitars and practice amps

I think with the expensive guitar vs the cheaper guitar, the sound quality isn't as much a deal changer as the play-ability and enjoyment in playing. So, If you enjoy playing on your less expensive guitar and want a better sound, spending money on a better amp is the way to go. If your cheap guitar sucks to play on, and you aren't ready to jam with friends or whatever like that, getting a better guitar will make playing more enjoyable and therefore you may practice more, which means when you then can afford a better amp, you can really rock out with your friends. It takes time and practice to get good, during that time, you can save up and get a better amp down the road when your skill and repertoire have increased. That's my 2 cents worth of advice :)

this vídeo was very helpful. thanks a lot. your are very good

You can probably find a Peavey Triple X amp head, the trucker plate series, all tube, 120 watt, totally pro, high gain amp head for about $400. It will stomp the dog crap out of many amps at 2 or 3 times the price. The clean channel isn't so great because they set it up to be mostly a power amp utilizing the power tubes only, so you have to work with it. You can switch it from 6l6 tubes to EL34s if you want and also run it with only 2 tubes to cut it down to 60 watts. It was my favorite amp of all time. Oh, and the line out and effects in/out volumes act almost like power soaks so you can play with unreal, blistering tone all night and never bother the neighbors.

For clean one I actually like rig 1 more

I have always said for years now, that a really good guitar through an inexpensive transistor amp will sound ok, but a descent guitar through a tube amp will sound great. You just proved what I believed all along...

Managed to pick both of these, but I had a Frontman 15 (which I've passed down to my 6 year old) so I'm a little biased. Describing the overdriven channel as "a phone book through a table saw" is incredibly accurate though... I only ever used it clean. Great video, and that Select Strat is definitely a thing of beauty! 😁

Love all of your videos Darrell, you're very gentlemanly and respectful in your presentation. So, I discovered this gem, a mid priced ($700) Epiphone sheraton ii pro with coil tapping. So surprised how well made it is for a MIC. Super smooth on humbucker mode. It has that great bright, chimey, bell like strat/ tele tone on single coils. I did a blind test with this one on single coil and some teles on the same amp, was hard pressed to tell the difference. Who would have thought that the best way to get that strat sound is put single coils on a semi hollow, brilliant! Such a versatile instrument, whether you're looking for a humbucking LP sound, or a semi hollow jazzy instrument or that bright jangly/ twangy strat/ tele tone, this axe has it all! So surprised that not many are talking about it. So I would pair a mid priced guitar with a moderately priced amp, not swinging to either extremes! Of course if you have the money, then knock yourself out with an expensive guitar and amp :) Thanks for the video! Cheers

I think cheap amps clean tone was good but overdrive was so fuzzy to me

I think upgrading your guitar is more important; beginner to intermediate players don’t play gigs, the actual sound isn’t super important, but playability is everything, getting a guitar that fits your style is probably the most important thing when you are trying to learn the instrument.

I just got my sunburst Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster, and I'm waiting for my Fender Bassman, sometime in March. It's the first guitar and amp I've bought that's cost over $1,000 each (1900.00+ for the Bassman). Love your channel keep up the great work.

another great video

Could you do a test between Yamaha Pacifica 012 and a Bullet/Affinity Strat?

Expensive amp definitely. Great video!

I learned many years ago that I like small tube amps. I’ve played places to a couple thousand folks with my Epi LP and my blues junior. Push the little blues jr hard, hang a 609 in front and run it through the house. It’s all I’ve ever needed. Done it for years, have less than a grand in my rig.

Great video, I have the same standard squier, and a fender mustang. I recently bought a pedal and am amazed at how great I can sound now. I will buy an expensive guitar only when I am good enough to play it.