My only criticism is that in some of these videos, Rob chooses a piece of equipment he never has to “try it” rather than choosing what he thinks the actual best rig for the challenge is. I like seeing the different equipment but I just wish he tried new stuff in demo focused videos and when the video is about answering a question he actually shares his knowledge a bit more. Anyway love all the videos regardless
One of the katana’s tricks is diming the gain and volume on the clean channel and then controlling the volume with the master. It gets so much more responsive than the crunch channel. Gives you a little bit of break-up with single coils and some nice chrunchies with hb’s.
My vote goes to buying the best amp that can be afforded. My $400 guitars often play better than the more expensive ones, purely as a result of setup. However, dialing in your tone through a proper amplifier (preferably with some volume) is a special experience that cannot be recreated by any other means.
Yeah big difference between noodling away solo at home and on stage with a rocking band! Cheap amp could well be pretty much unusable in live scenario. That said you can try a secondhand top quality solid state amp like an Orange or Peavey that won't have issues tube amps are more likely to have.
My fav guitar is a SX VTG series statocaster copy I got for 150 dollars and my fav bass is an SX 5 string bass I got for 185 dollars. I have much more expensive guitars and basses but these are teh ones I go to most often. They don't look pretty but they sound good and have big chunky baseball bat necks for my giant hands they just suit me.
So this is always a difficult choice, the better sounding is going to be the better amp, but a better guitar will be easier to play and will likely get the player to want to practice and play more. A great guitar makes you want to play more, but for sound, it is 80% amp.
There are 200+ languages on earth and you chose to speak facts. I'd prefer a better amp/cab cos I can setup a guitar to play better kinda and maybe a nicer overdrive tone makes someone want to play more.
agree, for a noob (like me) a guitar with good playability can set your mood to practice more and you can always upgrade the pickup, the wiring and get a better amp down the line
This isnt really super applicable anymore honestly. Budget guitars nowadays are miles ahead of where they were even 10 years ago. A proper set up can make most guitars play great.
Yamaha Pacificas are seriously solid AF workhorses. I've honestly never played a Yamaha guitar (acoustic or electric) that I didn't like. My old bandmate toured with a MIM Fender Strat and a matching (color) Pacifica strat as his backup, and honestly ended up playing the Yamaha most of the time. Both had a single coil sized mini HB in the bridge and both sounded ace! Thanks Rob. I've pondered getting a strat for my affordable "guitarsenal". I think you just sold me on one! Haha! Cheers again lads!
Yamaha acoustics have been workhorses for me for years. Always surprise the Taylor and Martin players with my decent priced full solid construction Yammies. Let's me spend more on electric guitars...
Yamaha acoustics are phenomenal. Even the non solid top ones sound great. I’ve got a 1978 Yamaha acoustic, fully laminate, no solid wood top back or sides, and yet the thing absolutely sings. Got it for $250 at a vintage guitar show. Even their current lineup for years now seems almost impossible to beat for acoustic under $400
Great shout on that Pacifica. My first electric bought about 20 years ago was a Pacifica 112XC. Two decades later, it's got DiMarzio Virtual Vintage 2.1 and a PAF Pro in it and the only HSS configuration I own. I don't know whether the 112 guitars are still made in Taiwan (mine was), but the quality is outstanding. It's an angry little guitar that sits well in a mix.
I have one of the maple (112M) from circa 2001 and it's still my favorite to play. A few upgrades and tweaks to taste and it's good to go. The top-spec Pacificas are absolutely great and are affordable.
Always love watching your videos, hope everyone at Anderton’s have a safe and awesome Christmas same goes for all of the other people watching as well.
Lee is such a wholesome and enjoyable person to watch. He's very relatable and just loves life. So good to see people like that make it for a change rather than the typical people who lie cheat and steal or bully their way. Keep being genuine Captain!
@@24avenged24 Totally agree with you. Rob isn't stupid, but with all that has happened due to his arrogance these last couple of years, you'd think he would have learned a bit of humility. His arrogance is stunning. I don't know why Andertons have taken him on again, he really doesn't add anything.
@@cesarportela1273 Hi Cesar, I am not a fan of Mr. Chapman, he is a fantastic guitarist, but he is a very arrogant individual. Have a look at some of the videos from this link and you'll get the idea of what he is guilty of. ru-vid.com?search_query=rob+chapman+exposed
I remember dearly... The original version of this video was the very first video of yours I watched, and fell in love with the concept and have watched countless of your videos ever since. Good memories!
I did this inadvertently recently. Spent 300 for a used gretsch jet with the P90/broadtron and 800 for a Fender Princeton 65 RI in a small music store that just wanted to move product. I've been re inspired to play every day with that rig. The P90 played through that Princeton is incredible.
Bugera G5 Infinium head with reverb and a Celestion V30 1x12 cab (Harley Benton's only $139) - best budget amp setup ever and it really leaves nearly nothing to be desired unless you're gigging, in which you'd just get the Bugera G20 Infinium and a Celestion V30 2x12 cab instead.
@@keithhoffman1864 Oh the G5 is much better. I had a Katana 100 combo and I loved the versatility and it did sound good, in a middle-of-the-road kind of way for an inexpensive 100 watt combo that will get very loud, but the G5 for around $200 gets you that full tube goodness and will still get loud enough to shake the windows in your house haha
I had chance to play $2500 boutique amps yesterday, played the Supro delta last week, then practiced with my solid state Orange 35 last night. The less obvious difference is the attack and decay times of notes. The tubes react and decay far more naturally, where the solid state wants to cut off notes. It feels like a very controlled playing experience, which I think is good for beginners, but frustrating for vets.
I would go the expensive guitar, affordable amp route. Because if you have a guitar that is easy and fun to play, you'll play it more and that's the whole point. I got by with a cheap amp until I saved up for something bigger and better. I started playing when cheap guitars were awful, my first (used) electric guitar was $25 and it was not great. I saved up whatever money I could earn for 3 months to buy it because my parents felt if I wanted something that "extravagant" I should pay for it myself. A good guitar is always a better choice, IMO.
considering that most of the players are just going to play in their bedrooms, or at maximum gig with friends, I would also go for a more expensive guitar rather than a more expensive amp. It's actually even possible not to have an amp at all and play via plugins on your computer, but the learning curve may be frustrating. Using some multi-fx unit for this purpose would be a great option, especially for beginners who don't really understand the tone they want to invest in. An expensive guitar, though, may be fun to play even unplugged.
Most players these days never get out of the bedroom. No reason for an expansive amp if you are not playing out. An expensive guitar? Depends on what you consider expensive. A higher end Epiphone with USA pups is an excellent choice. To be honest for about $1K you have a choice of many, many outstanding guitars.
I just said, I don't need anymore amps, I have a mesa half stack for gigs, a mesa combo for practice, and a spark for learning and bedroom jamming, then the tone king keeps popping up, damn you Andertons.
Expensive guitar cheap amp for the win! I'll paraphrase Tyler Larson from Music Is Win regarding this dilemma, "Are we guitar players, or are we amp players"? The true answer is expensive guitar with cheap home studio and some Neural DSP plugins
Great video. My choice would be expensive amp over expensive guitar. I have a Mesa Triple Rec and Peavey Invective 120, both with their matching 4x12 cabs, and they make every guitar sound amazing. An expensive guitar will feel and play way better than a cheap one (though there's really diminishing returns on this after about 800 bucks), but it won't give me the sound of a triple rec or boosted 5150 when played through a cheap amp, and a cheap guitar can be made to play and feel amazing with a good setup and maybe some cheap mods.
I'd vote for either one if they have to be heard via RU-vid on tiny laptop computer speakers. They both sound equally excellent! But seriously, the usual advice is get the guitar that inspires you regardless of how inexpensive it might be. £750 for a PRS Custom 24 is pretty inspiring. Even in pink.
The Pacifica is insanely great for the money. I run 2 different guitar programs that I've had the good fortune of adding electric guitar to the curriculum and I've only bought Pacificas for the students. My buddy had one that he left with me for months and I always thought it was amazing. It's actually the guitar I'm playing in my profile picture. I'm glad Rob is such a Pacifica fan as well!
If you like people who lie (and break the law) while advertising companies they own, and lie about the work with companies they don't, then Rob is the guy for you.
I went the route that Lee took, a Korean PRS Holcomb on sale for $750.00 and the Boss Amp that was $229.00. When I feel I'm good enough for a good amp I'll get that. Maybe in a couple of years or so.
You can't go wrong with that rig, but I bet you'll eventually realize getting a good amp doesn't really correlate with "being good enough". Instead, it's about exploring just how good of a sound you can get, and full-tube heads are still the best way to get full articulation. Luckily, the Bugera G5 is super cheap and so are Celestion V30 1x12 cabs. Enjoy your setup!
"When I feel I'm good enough for a good amp"... Your skill level has nothing to do with it. A good sounding amp is going to much more fun, motivating, inspiring and more satisfying than one that sounds acceptable.
I agree with your sentiment. I bought a tone king imperial as my first tube amp recently, and I quickly found out that a transparent clean fender amp exposes all of my bad habits 😂😂
@@zacherycampbell7296 that'll make you a better player. Did me. Going from a Mustang I to a Deluxe VM showed me how noisy and messy my playing was, and I had to clean it up because the tone of the amp was so irresistible that I couldn't just go back to the modeler.
I just bought my daughter a guitar and amp for her 18th birthday. Went the affordable + affordable option - Chappers' guitar and Captain's amp. The funny thing is I had kind of pre-decided the Pacifica and the Katana were pretty much the best bang for buck options available, but I did my due diligence anyway, as well as asking my daughter for her input, and did some in-styore tryouts, and ended up back where I had originally started. The Pacifica and the Katana are just fantastic bits of kit. I really wish the Katana had existed when I was much younger.
Note 2 new editors....whenever the hands of THE Captain and THE Chappers collide...It MUST be accompanied by some type of mighty EXPLOSION, that is all.
I’m so happy I rediscovered this channel yesterday… watching the Captain and Rob reviewing gear, jamming and always having a blast with their hilarious and English senses of humor. It’s like I’m back in my childhood. Thank you.
I remember going to see a pro player in a pub near me and he played the first song on a glorious PRS then switched to a squier strat for the rest of the set and he sounded brilliant throughout.
Great video and I agree with Lee about how both set ups are likely to be used although the Pacifica and the Katana combo is hard to beat on a budget too.
I'm a bit bummed you haven't gone wandering around the store looking for gear like in the ancient times, that was a lot of the charm of those videos. Guess nowadays it's a bit complicated.
I personally love the nicer guitar-decent amp setup. Having a sweet guitar really makes you want to play more. And with a decent amp there’s usually more versatility. In the case of the Katana, it does more than one trick. I feel like putting your money all on an amp is like getting a one trick pony. I have a mod-shop Fender Strat and a Marshall CODE 50. Does it all great-other than looper pedals. For some dumb reason the CODE doesn’t work with looper pedals. So someday I’ll pickup a nicer amp, but in the interim, this works great.
Great choice with the PRS 24 SE. They are fabulous feeling and playing guitars. I would have personally gone for the semi-hollow body in Santana yellow.
I’m not a fan of the Santana body shape, but yeah I think it’s hard to beat a semi hollow SE model these days for the money. Really, really top notch guitars. Swap pickups later on if you want
Received my Squier Contemporary Jaguar HH ST from Anderton's today on Christmas Eve! I'm in NY in the U.S. it arrived in impeccable condition! Very Satisfied!
Interesting, I've had one and sold it because (I assume) the speaker pushes a frequency I don't like. I thought about getting the 100w model, but went with a bugera v22 and a 2x12 instead.
Rob has the right idea, cheap guitars aren't really made so cheaply any more. However you need a good amp. Rob chosed a great Blues/Rock rig. He surprised me.
Ive got a cheap marshall amp. It was about £100 i think! I can get a few nice sounds from it, not that I'm very good! What difference does gear make really? Surely technique and feel are superior? Asking for a friend
@@noodle845 Get guitar lessons, then get a valve amp. After more lessons, you will feel the difference between a cheapo solid state amp and a proper valve amp.
@@281cu6 I have a 100 watt marshal head I just don't feel like putting miles on the tubes just to jam in my room. Have a katana 100 watt head and orange crush 120 to fix that problem
@@noodle845 As long as you can keep a guitar in tune for a couple hours at a time and your intonation is accurate, your in good shape guitar wise. The amp is another story. You need a amp that gives you a great clean, crunch, and if you play hard rock or metal, it has to chug nicely. The amp & speaker without question is much more important than the guitar. Again, the warm clean channel is the most important because the amp builds on that channel. FX loop is always nice to have but not required.
I have a katana and a good guitar and an affordable guitar, and the amp is deffo the limiting factor. Will be investing in a small tube amp at some point.
Taking our gear snob specs off for a mo, that Pacifica and Katana combo is probably one of the best beginner/intermediate rigs yet, total quality gear with a crapton of sonic options and still in mum and dads budget. The PRS and Supro is aspirational next level gear for when junior has left school got his first job and has joined a much better band. Also I would choose the pink one because its pink!
Personally I would go for the more pricy guitar. Many say the opposite but almost all the feel is in the guitar from a playing perspective as well as sustain and how well the guitar keeps the tune. Cheaper guitars tend to have an unbalanced tone (either too sharp or too mellow) as well as some can be a bit unpredictable quality wise. The new generation of amps such as boss katana really are very price worthy. Only time I would go for fancier amp would be if you needed a bigger amp for rehearsing or gigging. This is however my personal view, also I do think it differs depending on what style of music you are playing. The more distortion used the more you get the sound from the amp or pedals, but good luck getting a fat jazz tone from a squire strat.
I think that’s true up to a point. Once you get to something like a good Pacifica or a classic vibe a beginner doesn’t need anything better. The only things that detour people are really shit guitars
But really, even a budget guitar like a Pacifica or a Squier can be set up to play just as well as an expensive guitar. My $150 Pacifica doesn't really feel any noticeably worse to play than my $600 Fender.
I'd definitely go with the more expensive amp. The Katana just has this practice amp sound that it can't really shake. It's great if you're beginning and want to experiment with different tone styles, but it really can't compare to a solid tube amp. The Yamaha sounded significantly better through the Supro.
@@metalliholic Looking at the DB reader in the room, they both appear to be roughly the same volume level, yet the expensive amp sounds miles better. I don't think cranking the Katana will really do anything unlike the Supro which will sound even better the louder it is.
@@pablo9364 Eh, sure it has tons of effects and stuff to play around with, but I think I prefer just the classic amp with pedals setup. I don't think it's very fun to have essentially the same exact setup as everyone else.
I used to believe expensive amp over expensive guitar, but years ago I changed my mind. At one point I had a two rock amp for the cleans and to be honest it felt it was a diminished return with respect to tone. I now have a hot rod deluxe v3 with upgraded speaker. Get all great cleans and tones with all the great pedals available. The thing with a better guitar is it makes you want to play more, and play better which in turn makes the experience and sound much better. Give me a nice guitar with a mid level amp any day
Like the sound of the Katana most to be honest, the Supro feels a bit too bitey to me. Although the Katana did miss depth it was a more pleasant sound in my opinion. Even when playing the SE through the Supro I preferred its sound through the Katana.
@@mechmat12345 I have a Blackstar tube combo myself and very happy with it. I know that expensive (tube) amps sound generally better especially in that "just breaking up" region, just really dont like the Supro sound in this vid.
I have a Marshall DSL 40C and sold my Fender Mustang 20W and BlackStar ID Core 20W. I would definitely invest in a more expensive amp for my next amp purchase
Nowadays, cheap, inexpensive guitars sound good. I have recently recorded a few songs with a £90 p bass and everyone was impressed with the tone. The major difference with the more expensive guitars is build quality and feel. Inexpensive amps, however, are still not there. Yes, they are usable but they don't come close to the real deal. Orange Crush are excellent, but I wouldn't call them inexpensive.
My Pacifica 612viiFM is by far my favorite strat style guitar and got it for $500 used. Every mod I would've made is already there. Paired with a Marshall 40cr with 2 pedals + a looper and you're all set.
Merry christmas and happy holidays to Lee, Rob, and everyone involved at Andertons. This video is super helpful. I'm looking to buy a friend their first guitar for their birthday and these types of videos are great for shopping guides
Could be the mic placement or just the amp setting, but I thought the PRS-Katana combination sounded better! I think I would have gone for either the Orange Rocker 15 or the Super Crush combo, because the Rocker only has a 10" speaker. And then probably a Squier tele.
Late to the party here, but my thought is always if you can only spend money in one direction the money needs to go to the amp. I used to think when I was first starting to perform that the guitar was where all the sound was and I was playing a gorgeous vintage ES-175 through a Line 6 Spyder II. I can feel all of you cringe just as hard reading that as I did typing it. The best sound I have ever gotten is what I’m using now, an Epiphone SG Traditional Pro and Orange Dual Terror. A good amp will help you get the sound you really want, all the guitar really needs to be is set up properly and not complete garbage.
