AMP Basics

im at the skill level where i find myself in need of a new amp....i have always been using the a squier amp that came with my guitar....now that im searching i see all these things like amp heads, cabinets, etc. and the amps have knobs and what nots.

if anyone can explain me what all those things are i would appriaciate it....

a good sales rep at your local store will be your best source because hearing what those knobs and switches do is believing :cool:

is there a difference between distortion and overdrive?

what an amp head and cabinet mean?

Distortion and overdrive are basically synonyms.

An head is an amplifier and a preamplifier. It amplifies and allows you to shape the sound from your guitar.

A cabinet is a speaker and a speaker is a cabinet.

How much money are you looking to spend?

not sure yet, just bout an new guitar though (iceman :D )......not to much, just a practice amp, im looking at marshalls now, cheaper the better, but i still want something useful..

Distortion and overdrive, although similar in the idea, refer to 2 levels of gain. Overdrive is a smoother subtle gain usually generated by tubes or anolog overdrive pedals...this provides that crunch type infamous sound. Distortion is usually associated with heavy gain, for metal etc, and can easly be provided by digital pedals and amps. Although saying that overdrive and distortion is common to one type of equipment is a bit of a misstatement.

Yeah that's true. When you take a signal and amplify that signal to the point where the sound has been augmented, I suppose that's overdrive. Distortion can exist without that amplification. Polera help me out with this maybe I'm not that right about that.

I had probably the same squier amplifier you had for a while. What you have to do is just play with a lot of amplifiers and try and find something.

What kinda music you play?

heavy **** yo

I would go with a Marshall. The second amplifier I bought was a Marshall 250DFX. I eventually found out I like "tube" amplifiers, which use vacuum tubes instead of the transistors that are used in "solid state" amplifiers like the Marshall, but I still kept the Marshall. It's a goos amplifier, and compared to the squier you have now it will sound much more lush like and refined.
Try it out though I don't want to tell you what to get.

line 6 spider II. good amp, really cheap. you can get a 15W version (plenty for practicing) for like $160. it's a great amp, good cleans, and the "insane" channel is great for playing metal.

head and cabinet:
head: the part that actually takes the signal from the guitar, and shapes the sound and amplifies it

cabinet: the speakers that the head puts that sound that it has amplified through, allowing you to audibly hear the sound coming from the head

combo amp: both the amplifier and speaker(s) in one box, this is undoubtedly what you are using right now, and is great for a practice amp, and certain ones (depending on the wattage and speaker size) are more then loud enough for gigs. a half stack (another name for having both a head and cabinet in seperate pieces, a full stack is a head and two cabinets) is a bit of overkill unless you are playing really loud music for (at least) a few hundred people