[Music] Hi everyone, I’m Joe Fry and this is my channel Jojo Fry Rocks and this is part two of my deep dive into guitar amps with Andy Mack from Guitar Stuff Studio. And I also enlisted the help of some of my other guitar YouTube friends who have given me some great tips and advice, particularly on what to look for and what to bear in mind when you’re buying a new amp or if you’re a beginner and you’re just starting out buying your first amp. So, I hope you’ll find this as entertaining and and useful as I have making it. And yeah, let me know in the comments um what’s your favorite amp? And do you have any insights and advice and tips perhaps that you wish you’d known when you were just starting out and getting your first amp? Basically, a couple tips that I would suggest definitely. The first one is getting yourself in a EQ pedal. uh it could just help with your overall sound and you could totally change the actual sound of the amp itself as well as the guitars you’re playing. So EQ to me is definitely something that is really really important. And uh I think as a beginner I would go with that clean pedal platform friendly type amp and delve into effects pedals to find that kind of amp that you’re looking for where you can put the amp in a box type thing into it and see if that’s the sound you’re looking for and it kind of gives you more of a laser focused idea of what you’re really after and then go for that more expensive whether it be a Freriedman amp or a Marshall or an Orange. I’ve owned all those except for Freiedman and I’m sure I’ll own that someday. So hopefully that’s helpful and I appreciate you asking my opinion. Right. Top tips for a beginner on buying and choosing their first amp in 2025. That’s a ty one. Do you even need an amp in 2025? So who’s the guy? Is it John Conan? Connor Digital John, the guy from the Anderson’s videos. I am Digital John. Digital John. I’m pretty sure he was on record before saying that he’d never used a real amp, just all modeling stuff. And he’s got to a pretty awesome level of guitar player. So, do you really need an amp these days? Probably not. I mean, you’ve got options like plugins and Positive Grid Sparks and all these cool products. I’m a bit out of touch with it all to be honest with you, but my recommendation, what I would probably go for would be some kind of modernish modeling amp. So, uh, Fender Mustang, Boss Katana, Line 6 Catalyst, and these are all kind of powerful enough, most of them, for you to go and do a small gig with if you wanted to in future as well, or a rehearsal. I’m a big believer in a 12-in speaker if you can get one. I just always prefer that kind of fuller sound. Even sounds good at low volumes. A lot of old school people might say just get a one channel amp and don’t be distracted with effects and gizmos and stuff. Just have the one sound and control from your guitar, the volume and tone and pay attention to dynamics and your touch and things like that. I think that’s all good and well, but in 2025, even like the last, I don’t know, several years, and if we’re talking about a kid as a beginner, you’re up against getting them to stick with playing the guitar and your competition is phone, iPad, gaming, social media. There’s just so many distractions these days. Tamagotchi, roller skates, the list goes on. So, I think that a guitarist playing experience should be as fun as possible. So, if that means experimenting with a load of effects and amp models and just if it makes it more fun for them, I think that’s the way to go. I’m all for that. And I also think it’s never too early to be learning about how effects pedals work and things like that. So, yeah, modeling a shamp with effects, 12-in speaker, and also having the option to change things at your feet because if you’re using something like this Wii guy, this we Fender Mustang micro thing, this is all good for practice and stuff, but if you need to change your patch, you don’t want to be touching this. You also don’t want to have to be going into your app to change sounds, having something at your feet. Even this wee guy, this we lo um what is this cube baby? This is like a we modeler thing. Something where you can change the sound of your feet. Imagine you’re doing smells like teen spirit and then it goes into the the clean. But you don’t want to be touching things. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Do it with your feet. That’s it. The end. Good luck. The next part of the question Joe asked me to answer was, "What’s the best amp for beginners?" And you might think I’d say this, but it might not be because of all the controls and all the power this thing has, it could be a bit daunting. And I’m not sure that giving a beginner lots of options in the beginning is a good idea. So, I started with a simple two channel amp clean and distortion with this little button on the front. It was a Fender 15, I think, or a Squire 15. and it probably sounded terrible, but that was my that was my amp. So, I would say for a beginner, you need something you can carry, which this does fall into, but something that is not too complicated or requires reading the manual. So, I would actually keep it simpler than this for a first amp. Maybe the Blackar Debut 50 is a good choice. Um, but anything that is inspiring to make you play and the fact that you can take it places because you should play guitar wherever you can. All right. Um, thank you for having me on the show, Joe. I hope that helped and uh, I guess I’ll see you around at my channel. Let’s say I’m I’m just starting out and I’ve got my first guitar and I need to buy an amp. Okay. What kind of m What what what kind of guitar have you got? What kind of music do you want to play? What setting are you going to play that music in? Are you going to play just in your bedroom? Are you going to play pubs or are you going to play like small clubs or, you know, it all depends on what you want to do with that amp? Cuz some amps are suitable for many of these things and then others aren’t. So, I think this is it. So, when I when I got my first proper amp like i.e. not just practice amp. Um, so I was looking for something that I could still use to practice at home because it was replacing the small practice amp because I was trading that in as part of buying it. Um, but I was starting to, you know, go out um, playing in pubs and stuff. So, I wanted something that would be suitable for, you know, practicing at home and playing live, but not a huge gig. But the the same time, you could you could get like a 10 watt amp and mic it up into the PA, you know? It’s You see, I didn’t know about any of that. So, that’s why I went out and bought a 50 W amp and then just like blasted everyone in the pub to oblivion. And then you’ve got these days, you’ve got guitarists that aren’t even using amps now. They’re just going straight into front of house with a, you know, a little profiler or something. It’s crazy. I mean, that that’s a whole other thing that I I need to also understand and get my head around because that’s a whole new world to me. Okay. Well, uh, putting it putting it very simply, you’ve got your band on stage, you’ve got your dude at the other end of the hall on his mixing desk, and he’s controlling the stuff that’s coming out of the big PA speakers. Um, you know, everything’s coming out of those speakers. You’ve got the drum kit, the singer, the guitar amps are, you know, coming out of those. Everything’s miked up and it’s all coming out and that’s how he mixes it all. M um but instead of you having an amp behind you, your guitar is just going straight into into your effects straight into the desk and it’s just coming straight out of the PA. Mhm. And you can either have a monitor, you know, like a wedge monitor in front of you or your M. Um, so you all there’s guitarists that are just showing up with a guitar and a a profiler and just going straight into front of the house now and like a like a tonex or something. Yeah, tonex or um uh the head rush is quite a popular one as well. Mhm. Um Okay. So yeah, you can So you can do that, you know, nowadays you you might not even necessarily use an amp. Yeah, there’s many many many many guitarists for, you know, big big, you know, huge bands not even using amps anymore. They’re just going straight to front of house. When I first wanted to start buying, you know, getting some proper gear and a proper amp to sort of moving on from that initial beginner stage and starting to starting to join bands and stuff and going to practices and things. Um, you know, I just kind of think what what information should I have been told when I cuz basically I I just went into a music shop and asked them what I should buy and that’s that’s that’s not always the greatest approach. No, I mean have some knowledge yourself. They’re they’re gonna they’re I mean obviously these guys have got a living to make and you know they’re going to sell whatever’s I mean they’re not going to shaft you. Um no and I think I think I came out with with something that met my needs for that time really. But I I there are some things that I think I just I wish I’d been a bit more informed um you know and had a bit more of an idea of like what I should be looking for and you know in case there’s sort of like people watching my channel in that position. Yeah. I mean, how loud how how loud do you need the amp to be? Really? These go to 11. Um, you know, if you’re just going to be playing at home, then a 10 watt amp is plenty. 20 watt amp more than enough. Um, I also didn’t really understand that volume isn’t necessarily related to wattage, to power. Yeah. I mean it’s it’s it’s an indicator. Yeah. I mean obviously my 100 watt Marshall is going to be louder than your 10 watt Yamaha THX or whatever they’re called. But there isn’t that much difference in like kind of volume I suppose between like a 50 and 100 watt. Um it’s just that the 100 watt has more what they call headroom. I I think and I think unless you’re getting into the realms of where the drum kite I think unless you’re getting into the realms of where the drum kit needs to be miked up um a 50 watt amp is more than loud enough. So that’s the key thing. So if you’re if you’re playing live in a band with live drums, 50 watts is going to be enough. Oh yeah. Abs. Absol absolutely. Um, you know, and more than what you more than what you need absolutely for just playing at home. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I’ve got um I’ve got What’s the smallest amp I’ve got? I’ve got one of those little orange micro terrors. Oh, of course there’s tiny amps nowadays. little tiny little teeny tiny thing that and I I don’t think I’ve put that past number two at home because it’s that loud. It’s insanely loud. I mean that’s only a 8 in speaker in So that is a a proper amp that Yeah. with a cab. Yeah. It’s just a tiny teeny tiny 8 in speaker in the cab speaker and it’s how many watts was it? Five. three or five watts, I can’t remember. Yeah. So, really, really quite low wattage. Really small, obviously. Very portable, very convenient. Um Yeah. Yeah. And plenty loud enough obviously for Oh, god. Yeah. I’ve used that at band practice before and I I don’t think I had it up past five or six. It’s It’s super loud. Um an amp like that though is a bit of a one-trick pony. It is It gives you a particular sound. Um, yeah. So, you don’t have all the tonal options that you would have. Let’s say that 99% of my viewers and 99% of your viewers are not rock stars. Um, sorry. Sorry, guys. You’re not rock stars. I don’t mean that in a bad way, guys. Um, we’re all rock stars in our own that’s it. In our own minds. So, you know, it’s something like, oh, what, you know, what what can I use to practice with my band or what can I use to practice at home? I mean, I don’t usually use an amp when I’m practicing. Oh, usually just headphones. Um, yeah. Yeah. I’ll just go straight into the toneex and then straight into headphones and I’m good. Mhm. Um, some processor. that is kind of that’s kind of useful because obviously then you’re not not disturbing anyone or the dogs or your neighbors or anyone else. Um, so yeah, that’s that’s a really kind of useful thing. But I I feel like sometimes it’s just it’s nice to just be able to hear the sound in the room. I don’t know. When I’m practicing, I find that I pick up on my mistakes a lot more when I’m wearing headphones. Yeah. I don’t want to hear my mistakes. I I I want to hear my mist I want to hear my mistakes so that I can get better. Um Oh yeah. I suppose if you’re interested in getting better. Fair enough. Um I’m going to send you a couple of processors down for you to just play with. Um you can just just plug into them, put some headphones on and play. And honestly I I think your mind will be changed. That that’d be really great actually cuz that’s something I’ve never explored. And as you know, because I’ve not been into amps particularly and I’ve always had digital ones and digital modeling, I think I’ve not been into effects and pedals because I’ve had them built in. Yeah. I mean, I I’m I I don’t know. I I just like trying different things. I I I I like am I like Look, I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I I I I don’t really have much going on at all. I don’t have much to spend my money on. and you know, buy buying pedals and amps and stuff. Um, I know it’s not going to make me a better guitar player, but it makes me happy. Um, and and and that’s, you know, and it is really nice to get an amp, you know, that you’ve never had before. Um, you know, to see what you can do with it. Um, and I think for me at the end of the day, because I play things that are quite diverse, a lot a lot of the different things that I like to play are quite different styles. Um, and I think that’s why I opted again for a for a if if you’re looking for diversity, you know, one minute you’re playing an ocean color scene song and then the next minute, yeah, I love my ocean color scene. you’re playing something by rat. Um, you know, yeah, you obviously want something that’s going to tick as many boxes as possible. And, you know, amps like the Katana, the the the the Cube, um, ba basically any of the decent modeling amps are 100% the way forward with stuff like that. Um, yeah, but, you know, if if you’re in a Stevie Ray Vaughn cover band or, you know, you want to sound like Eddie Van Halen, then, you know, tubes are the way forward. I I always thought that the AC30 was an overhyped amp in the Vox. Um until I played through one and I was like, "Oh my god." Um you know, cuz I’ve got loads of patches and pedals that make you sound like an AC30. Um nothing quite stacks up to the same as playing through one and Right. Yeah. And I I think actually I’m I’m kind of thinking now when I think about it when I’ve been into my local guitar shops and tried just you know I’ve just had a mess around with guitars. They they always I think plug you into I think it’s like a black star one of the one of the tube amp small ones and it you you always sound brilliant in the shop and I think that is probably to do with the amp because I I just kind of think yeah my playing has sounded quite different when I’m when I’m in the guitar shop. Um, sorry. What is this one? I’m so tempted to get one of these. Harley Benton have got a tube 15 Celestian. And it’s a tube amp. It’s a 15 watt tube amp switchable between 15 and one watt. Mhm. With a Celestian speaker in it for 200 quid. Right. That that sounds pretty cool. So that’s a com combo amp, is it? Yeah. Tiny little speaker. Yeah. Tiny little combo. And I’m like I I’m so tempted just to say just to get one to see what it sounds like. Uh I’ve seen I’ve seen a few videos on them and people are like how how have they done this for that amount of money? Well, I I remember watching your video um because you got the Harley Benton cab, didn’t you? And you said that’s been absolutely brilliant. I love that cab. That is my number one go-to cab now. Yeah, that’s a 2 two by 12. So that they’re obviously making some really really great stuff. And I mean that does have the Chinese Celest uh Celestians in it, but then I’ve seen a lot of people online recently saying that the Chinese Celestians are actually superior now. I mean, I’m not I’m not saying that they are. I’m not Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me. Um but that cab, I mean, is solid. It weighs a ton. Um, it’s just so well put together. Um, and anything that I plug into that cab sounds amazing. Like it just instantly sounds good. Um, I mean I like I say I I I like having different heads. Um, I mean I think in my spare room I I think I’ve I think I’ve got like four heads in there at the moment. Um, but I’ve only I’ve only got the 2×12 cab in there. Um, so I’ just been like, which one of these heads is going to go into the cab today? That’s kind of how how I do it. Just like what kind of mood is going to take me. Um, so yeah. Um, I I don’t know. It’s it it’s such a personal thing. That’s that’s like me saying, "Oh, every everyone should play a Fender Mustang or um No, totally. Totally. Jacksons are the best guitars." It’s um so actually that’s alive. We all know Izzar. Well, yeah, we do. Um I I’ll even I’ll even let you have that one despite Floyd Roses and whatnot. Um cuz they are fantastic and I do love my my RG550. Um, but I think like you say, it is personal and you do you’d obviously kind of develop um an ear for these things like over the years, but when you’re just starting out, let’s say you just want a a sort of a really flexible, versatile thing that you can use um for home and maybe at most an open mic. knife or something for for me from my experience going on what I have actually used I would say Roland cube every time inexpensive um very lightweight very portable built-in effects built-in tuna it’s they’re great but then I don’t really have that much to compare it to because I’ve never tried the katanas yeah sure but it’s that principle of like something as you say inexpensive, small, lightweight, lots of features. Um, and that’s that’s probably the sort of thing that you at that point want to be looking at. Um, but if you if you really didn’t want to go the sort of digital modeling route and let’s say you want something that just just has nice clean nice clean tones but also warm and some vintagey rock bluesy tones. um but still in a you know a reasonably affordable amp because this is what I was this was the other thing that I was maybe looking at um was like a Fender Blues Junior but they’re so expensive and even secondhand they’re so expensive. Um I played in a band with a guy who had a Fender Mustang little Fender modeling amp um and that sounded amazing. Judy is used to have a uh Fender Mustang as well. Oh, right. Right. They are great. Fantastic. Fantastic amps. I would I would have a Fender Mustang. Even the Marshall Code amps are pretty good. There’s just so many to choose from. And I think it’s a case of like try as many as you can. Yes, actually. Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it? I think that’s the thing that we we always sort of like keep coming back to in terms of guitars and gear. Um, yeah, you really you really have to try it. It doesn’t matter. I mean, like I I I could, you know, do an demo of, you know, whatever amp and put it up on YouTube and by the time I’ve tweaked the audio and compressed it and all the rest of it and made it sound amazing, you know, that’s not necessarily what you’re going to hear when you plug into that amp at home. It’s the same for guitars. It’s the same for pedals. Um, you know, you YouTube demos are kind of a little bit obsolete now to a point where, you know, I mean, how they can give you an idea. They give you a a kind of rough guide, I suppose. Um, but it ever since Josh Scott did the Bad Monkey video. Yeah. I don’t believe. Have you seen that one? What? Where he he recreates the He got a Bad Monkey pedal. Yeah. and made it sound exactly the same as a $5,000 clone. Yeah. Uh autumnness um you know just just the way he dialed it in. And that that just goes to show if you know what you’re doing with stuff then you know you can make it sound good. So I think the the take unless it’s a line six spider actually it it actually doesn’t sound it it’s not too bad. you can still get some usable sounds out of it, particularly on the clean um channel. You know, it’s actually quite a nice clean. That’s actually one of the things about the Cube that I liked so much was the uh the clean sounds from it. The cleans are really big, fat, warm cleans. Um just a little bit of reverb, a little bit of delay, and you have got a spanking clean sound out of the cube. Um yeah, I will say to you, you ever see one come up on marketplace or something like that and it’s close by and it’s 50 quid, get it. Um I I I even the micro cube um you know the tiny little buskers one, they are amazing and the distortion sounds that they’ve got built into them are fantastic. All right. Cuz that’s usually the thing that doesn’t sound so good in those. No, it sounds amazing. Right. Right. Cool. Okay. And then the last question that I was going to ask you about was um what do you think are good amps to use as a pedal platform? So if someone did want to kind of start using pedals, um you know, what sort of amps do you think take pedals really well? Anything. It all depends on what kind of pedals you want, but if you’ve got something with a nice decent warm fat clean sound to start with, Mhm. then you’ve got a nice you you’ve got a good platform to work on from for pedals. Cuz if your clean sound sucks, then it doesn’t matter how many pedals you put into it, it’s still going to suck it. Right. So, this is the the key thing about it then is it needs to have a nice you need to be happy with the clean sound. Yeah, 100%. Um I mean that’s one of the things I like about the orange uh amps as well is the clean sound is epic. Um Marshalls I’m not a big fan of the clean sound. No, actually and I you you never hear a lot of people say, "Oh yeah, I really love using my Marshall for clean." Like you never hear people say that so there must be reason. But I mean for me the nicest clean sounding amp out there is the uh Roland jazz chorus. That is that’s that’s the daddy of clean sounds for me. Right. So either one of those or something that sounds like one of those. Yeah. I mean, even even like um I mean obviously Fender Twin Reverb, you’re looking at big money, but I mean the Fender Mustang, I mean the Fender Frontman is quite a good platform as well for pedals, right? But Fender Front, I think that’s quite a big heavy amp though. Um Front Man was a bit of a um I think it’s kind of like an 80s ‘ 90s amp, solid state, bit lower end. It’s not quite as expensive and you you probably pick up a 100 watt Frontman for about 150 quid now. That’s all right. Maybe maybe even less. That’s Yeah, that’s reasonable. Very good pedal platform though. Nice nice and loud. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So I I’d say um you know if you’re if you’re just experimenting obviously you’re not looking to invest hundreds or thousands of pounds. Um, I think what I would always say to people is like I think most guitarists have an idea in their head who they want to sound like or what they want to sound like. So, you know, they’ll hear James Hetfield and say, "I want to chug like that." Or, you know, they’ll they’ll they’ll hear Steve V and say, "I want to, you know, have nice clean soaring solos like that." or, you know, I want to sound like Marty Freriedman when he’s shredding, you know, and then the the thing is go and look and see what those guys are using. Um, Anderson’s did I don’t know if they still do them, but they used to do like, you know, sound like such and such on a budget. Yes, I’ve seen a couple of those actually videos. They they were really good. And you know, it’d be like, oh, I’m going to sound like such and such a guitar player, so I’ll get this amp, but I’ll get this guitar and I’ll get these pedals. And I mean, that that’s always a great place to start. I think the only thing I would say about those is because I, like I say, I’ve watched a couple of them and I I think they did one on Slash because I remember watching it when I was making a video about Slash. Um, and I thought the interesting thing was they always seemed to they always spent more of their budget, whatever that budget was, say it’s a grand or something, they always spent more of their budget on the amp than they did on the guitar. Yeah. And I didn’t know whether that was because they think more more of the, you know, tone comes from the amp and therefore spend more on an amp or is it because Anderton’s make more of a profit on amps than on guitars? I I I don’t know. Um I I I don’t know what Anderson’s profit margins are are based on, but no, the amp is an important thing. I mean, if if you’re going to show up and do a gig and you’re playing in a Guns and Roses or a Snake Pit cover band, then obviously, you know, you’re going to want a Marshall. Yeah. More or less. Um, so yeah, I think it all depends on what you want to sound like. What I don’t what I always say to somebody is like if you want to sound like such and such a guitarist, what gear are they using? You know, how do they get that sound? And, you know, there’s always cheaper ways of recreating it. You might not get it spot on, but there’s always ways of making yourself sound like that. I mean, Andy Summers, Jazz Chorus, um the the the Neo Mistress uh not Neo Mistress, the Deluxe Electric Mistress pedal, but you know, you can kind of get the same with a decent clean sound with uh a bit of chorus and a bit of a phaser. No, no, a fl a bit a chorus and a a flanger and you can get a decent police sound. So, you know, it or you can, in my case, just go and find a patch. Oh, I just went out and bought the Andy Summers Walking on the Moon pedal. Walking on the moon pedal. That’s also Yeah. Um, it’s kind of similar, isn’t it? But I love that pedal. There are Yeah, like you say, there there’s so many options available to us now. There’s so much gear out there. There’s so many different approaches. So many so many people as well are just playing into an interface into their computers or laptops these days that yeah, you know, everything’s guitar rig or it’s it’s plugins or whatever. So um I think amps have taken amps are really taken a back seat now. Um and they will it’s it’s just a sign of the times. It is what it is. But it means I can buy amps cheaper and I like amps. So, and I I would like I think I I would still like to um try some different ones um and you know find out a bit more about just do what I do is just keep your eye on marketplace and just see what comes up and um you know sometimes you can get some real stills. I mean one of those Blackar heads I got I got it for 50 quid off of eBay. I had I had to drive for an hour to go and pick it up, but you know, I got a 250 quid amp head for 50 quid in an hour’s drive. Perfect. See, that that’s the kind of thing that I I think I would like to kind of have a look at because it’s something I haven’t really explored. Um, and I think I need to get, you know, just get my head around it a bit more. I know. It’s something I’m trying to concentrate a bit more on my channel now is used gear, retro gear, you know, gear that I can find cheap and making it, you know, this is what this can do. Um um and obviously we’ve got all the people selling stuff now that they bought during lockdown and decided that they don’t want to play guitars anymore. So that is a very good point as well. So ching people wanting to liquidate what they’ve got for some extra cash then absolutely it’s always always worth checking the secondhand market so especially marketplace Gumree if you’re in the UK um is it Craigslist Craigslist or something yeah I don’t know that sounds really seedy for some reason yeah yeah maybe that’s not the place to go for anything off Craigslist, take a friend. That that’s that’s the best best advice I can give you. Yeah, don’t don’t meet anyone in a parking lot at night or whatever. But um yeah, a great great top tip. Thanks for that. Yeah, there you go. That’s public safety announcement PSA. Brilliant. Well, thanks for that, Andy. I feel no worries like I’ve got a much better idea now of the kind of things that I might want to explore a little bit more. Just go and buy some amps. Um but yeah, go everyone should anyway go physically in person into a shop if if there is still one near you. If you’ve still got one open, go and support them. Go and try Absolutely. um and just, you know, see what see what kind of sounds you can get out of it and and what you like and so yeah, that’s that’s probably the best thing to do. Um all right, thanks for your time this morning and thank you for having us, Joe. Cheers, Andy. And see you on the next stream, probably. All right. Cheers, mate. Bye-bye. [Music]
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