Why don’t guitarists use amps anymore? I don’t either…… 

I switched to BIAS FX a couple years ago. My guitar playing went downhill untill I stopped completely for 4 years. Recently I got a katana and started playing more again. Sitting behind a desk and a computer somehow took all the fun out of actually playing. Instead of playing I got cought up in the endless features and got distracted easy since I was behind a computer. Guitar playing started to feel as a drag instead of a relief. I will never go back to digital again except perhaps recording. The simplicity of just turning on an amp and starting playing beats the extra functionalities you have with digital.

The less there is between me and getting to playing the better. This is why 90 percent of the time I either play unplugged or grab an acoustic. 9 percent I plug in and flip one switch to turn on the amps. One percent I DI into the interface and muck about in digital madness.

I approached this issue as if my guitar setup is my moog -- i went an all analogue pedals chain up to and including the preamp (i.e. a pedal that has a tube amp topology but with transistors) and then the digital time stuff (reverb/delay), and a cabsim on the end. all on a pedal board around the same size

Victory v4 pedal amps are awesome. All tube preamp, and two notes built in. Also powers a cab!

....I have Kemper but recently got a Boss Katana....its light, sounds pretty good

If ampless, I prefer simplicity. A small pedalboard with a NUX Amp acadamy will do. Sounds decent in the mix. We play with in ears over our own PA, our sound guy is part of the band. I have the Amp Acadamy also as a back up if I play a real amp which I prefer but it's easier to go ampless. For the crowd it does not make a difference and personally, I find getting a better in ear mix more important than the basic guitar sounds.

As a gigging guitarist I use amps in fact I have 3 all valve too

best thing i did to my music journey is to ditch pedals for multi channel amps.

I don't get it. I spent some time on my HX stomp to find/create a set of really good clean/crunch/high gain sounds and have used those ever since. Only if I need some additional effects I create a new temp preset for that purpose. So in then I use my HX stomp like a set of amps .... for PLAYING GUITAR.

Try a real tube amp and you'll see the difference. Nothing like a tube amp on the verge of break up and them control your clean and dirty sounds with you guitar volume and tone control. Or a fender twin with pedals into it. The response from the amp and guitar is amazing. Just by how hard or easy you play.

Many guitarists use plugins and digital devices because they have no idea how the original amps sound. They have never played a Plexi/AC30, Twin/Bassman, etc. I know all these amps and they sound so much better. I use them in the studio and live (and I have also a Kemper and tons of plugins)

Valve amps all day, every day. With Suhr Reactive Load IR for recording. Modellers, Kempers and plugins are all fun but have that strange and nasty high end digital sheen that is just impossible to get rid off and I hate it. I tried all through 2023 to use and like them but no thanks. Use what you like but they are not for me.

Guitarists should be playing not programming. Using modelers and in-ears in a live situation totally kills the band communication and ability to self mix onstage and play as a group. It’s like a musically Zoom meeting, no physical connection to the others through vibrating air.

Tend to think helix has won comprehensively. . There is nothing for amps to do anymore, aside from create conversation and views for RU-vid content creators, who won't let this subject die, as they know that amp owners (terrified their investments will be as worthless as vhs players) will blow up their comments sections. Jonathan Cordy changes his opinion on this subject every day for example, to keep it going. The analogue v digital debate is worth more to youtubers personal economies than anything they produce.

Thanks for the upload David, certainly an interesting topic. Very nice playing there by the way! "Why don’t guitarists use amps anymore?" --> This really isn't true. There's an excellent very recent 2024 YT video of Vai, Satriani and EJ having a discussion on this very topic - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3iHhe9C9kYs.html Basically, every guitarist, without exception, who has extensively gigged with real amps will know what that 'feels' like. They will also, almost without exception say that that 'feeling' is completely absent from using modelers on stage. All three describe what that feeling is and why it's so crucial to a guitarist on stage...especially a virtuoso guitarist. Today's Modelers/plugins are excellent and getting better, and yes, through headphones or in the recording studio they can, in some cases, be difficult to distinguish from the real thing. They are also being uses on more and more recordings. Their clean sounds though generally still leave a lot to be desired. Take them on stage and an experienced gigging guitarist used to using a good valve amp setup will instantly feel that crucial aspects such as the dynamic interaction between guitarist and amp are sadly lacking. The #1 problem today, is that more and more guitarists have never, ever played though a real amp setup. Everything they know is from the modelling/plugin world. They are used to that...they like it (!!!). Damningly, the majority have never gigged on a live stage! Then, they say "modellers/plugins are as good/better than real amps". Quite frankly, almost all are not qualified to make that comparison, clearly. You do gig, so I do appreciate your point of view. Having said all that, today's digital tech is excellent, produces repeatable tones and is very portable/convenient. I understand that. I've gigged in front of crowds for many, many years. My last setup was a Mesa Triaxis/2:90/TC G-Force combo. About as flexible and reproducible as I thought I could get. But damn was it heavy. Today, I also have in the house, A Kemper and on my PC, lots of plugins. Damn, they're convenient and pretty good sounding...apart from those cleans!

Digital will never beat the "human" and "Mechanic" right and wrongs of a real amp. Amp sounds more natural and warm. while going fully digital is like AI to me

Because they’re traitors to the cause ….