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If you play a lot of gigs, maybe it matters less.
Drums change the way everything sounds in a big way too...
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01-21-2016 08:33 AM
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VOX AC-15=47 POUNDS (50 with the "blue bulldog").
Could use some help. Not too crazy about the tone with a hollow body.
Sounds great with a solid body.
(Yes, it has the Celestion blue copy of the original Weber speaker.)
Thank you in advance for your anticipated courtesy and assistance.
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Yep I'm bumping this old thread. And this right here is the correct answer.
There are basically two kinds of practice you can do. 1) Chops building: That can be learning/practicing chords, scales, arpeggios, exercises, licks, intervals etc, etc. Sure all that kind of stuff can be practiced without an amp and/or while your watching TV or whatever. The second kind of practice is 2) Performance mode: That's where your playing along with BIAB, or a music minus 1 track, or just yourself pre-recorded comping the chords to a tune. This is where you really see what you can do in a bandstand like situation playing TUNES at performance speed. And for this type of practice it's a great idea to use some sort of amplification to get your guitar up to the level of the tapes your playing with. Also so you hear your guitar sitting "in the mix" more like it would in a real bandstand setting. Also this is the best practice mode for learning tunes and getting them firmly in your memory banks.
That's enough reason right there to frequently practiced amped up, even if just into headphones to spare your neighbors/family. Also most of us don't want the amped sound to just sound like our guitar sounds acoustically by itself. The amp and pickups are designed to make the guitar sound BETTER than it does acoustically, louder and richer, rounder, warmer, with more sustain and harmonic complexity. Hearing that lovely tone will change the way you play somewhat ( and for the better). So it's good to practice amped up at times for that reason too.
All that applies to warm clean jazz. And if your playing rock or distorted fusion styles there's no way to emulate the sound and feel the distortion, compression, sustain, and effects amplification adds to the guitar in those styles of playing. All that processing on the guitar also changes the way you'll play so, again, you almost HAVE TO use an amp when practicing those styles.
This is the correct answer. If you don't agree pick up that card and put it back in the deck
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I mostly practice unplugged. This is partly a practical consideration (I live in an apartment with shared walls, and I've gotten noise complaints when I've practiced at what I would consider a low volume - i.e. just loud enough to hear the amp over the acoustic sound of the guitar). But there's another consideration as well: A good deal of tone is in the fingers. If you can get a good sound out of your guitar unplugged, then you shouldn't have much trouble getting a good sound out of your amp. It's true for all guitars, but especially solid bodies and semi-hollows, which are not designed for great acoustic sound. Granted, my Tele doesn't sound very Tele-like when it's unplugged, but if I can get it to sound at least "good" then when I plug in, I'm fairly confident that it will be both good and Tele-like.
I do try to practice plugged-in before gigs. (I try to do it when I know the neighbors aren't home.)
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Wow I can't believe the paucity of imagination amongst players around here who don't see the value of practicing with an amp.
There's so much dimension an amp can add to your tone. It's not ALL in the fingers that's a lie. Plus there are so many different sounds and textures one can experiment with using an amp. Those can cause you to play cool stuff you wouldn't have discovered playing sans amp. How does s flanger effect my tone? What cool riff's come to mind with a flanger? Even just playing with a Wah Wah. Me I like to dedicate a certain amount of time to practicing Wah Wah riff's/licks. Can't do that with just a guitar and no amp. Then you've got phasers, choruses, and harmonizers that all can inspire different new playing ideas. And I've only just mentioned a few effects.
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Of course it's not ALL in the fingers. But developing what IS in the fingers gives you the best possible basis for whatever you do to your tone after that. I play fusion as well as straight-ahead stuff. I use effects.
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Playing with an amp at practice room volume on your own is a different experience to playing with a jazz group, which is a different experience to playing with a loud band with electric bass.
Some things can only be practiced by playing with a band.
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Although I usually practice without an amp I think it is very important to at least occasionally plug in since it so directly effects your sound in performance, the amp and the settings interprets the information received from the guitar and translates it into what your audience hears. I think we are often fooled and surprised by the sound an amp offers from our guitars. A quality amp makes a difference as well.
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I don't think it really matter that much whether you practice with an amp or not. What really matters to me is that you are listening to the music. Everything, both consciously and subconsciously. I do have a preference for practicing unplugged with my acoustic guitar though as I believe this is good for technique building.
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i have such a difficult time with this one
just got an amp that doesn't produce annoying acoustical epiphenomena all the damn time (booms, reverbs, buzzes, feedback - boomy bass/thin treble etc. etc.)
the sort of things you don't really notice in gigs but do at home (after twenty minutes anyway)
but still i typically end up happier practicing without amplification
i suspect in the intimacy of one's own company the directness of unamplified playing is going to win out over the indirectness of amplified playing. by 'direct' i mean that you get the sound you make straight from the guitar unamplified but only (or mainly) through the amp and speaker when you plug in. i think this inevitably generates acoustic issues that become tiresome quite quickly when you're playing to/by yourself in a quiet space.
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"Klaatu barada nikto". Is that ancient Mongolian?
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I have a Line6 AmpliFi practice amp, which is great for backing tracks and the like. So I usually practice with that. But I also play classical and acoustic, so I'm unplugged a lot.
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Ha I got the reference.... I'm a proper nerd.
Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
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No that phrase hase nothing to do with Kublai Khan, Xanadu, or the pleasure dome. Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
Yes a famous line from this 1951 cult classic movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still". And NOT the horrible 2008 remake. Originally Posted by christianm77
Jabberwocky meet Klaatu and Gort:
While were on the subject, does anyone know why this fearsome weaponized robot is wearing metallic fruit of the looms on the outside?
Last edited by Bobalou; 05-13-2016 at 04:47 AM.
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Didn't Ringo Starr buy the robot? Somebody did. Great film by the way, it was on the telly not so long ago. Originally Posted by Bobalou
No that phrase hase nothing to do with Kublai Khan, Xanadu, or the pleasure dome.
Yes a famous line from this 1951 cult classic movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still". And NOT the horrible 2008 remake.
Jabberwocky meet Klaatu and Gort:
While were on the subject, does anyone know why this fearsome weaponized robot is wearing metallic fruit of the looms on the outside?
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Actually I think Ringo just used it on an album cover, I don't know if he actually bought it.
I find the bit in the film where Patricia Neal desperately says 'klaatu barada nikto', with the robot looming over her, to be oddly fascinating in a weird Freudian way!
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