@moose408 Craig, itās important that you understand the mathematics of guitar ownership:
if the number of guitars that you own = n
and the number of guitars you need = x
then x=n+1
clearly, x has to be recalculated after every guitar acquisition!
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CāMON Guysā¦ Rogier @roger_holland means EMOJIā¦ English isnāt his first languageā¦
As a side noteā¦ I did laugh when I saw his little faux pas!!! 
Tod
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Ahhā¦ now I understand. Apologies @roger_holland
On a side note, surely a guitar forum should have more guitar emojis available. 
At least an acoustic, a strat and a tele. I believe that Discourse allows you to add custom emojis to the standard set.
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finally ā¦ and I just think I missed the joke in the otherās comments 
Thanks
Ps: I missed the C for what I needed ā¦EmotiCon but also called here emoji
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āFor 1, ya canāt play your acoustic loud.ā
It can also be difficult in the first couple of years to play an acoutstic quietly, where as an electric with headphones can be almost silent for anyone who doesnāt want to hear you practicing.
Fast strumming with fast chord changes need to be practiced a lot, and mailing the rhythm takes priority over keeping the volume down. My neighbours would be a lot happier if I had an electric to practice this on!
Hum,
Agreed on hard to play acoustic dynamically. But it surly can be done, just not to the extent of electric though (thinking the many amp settings available)
I guess I will clarify my statement with a caveat.
I think of the song āRevolutionā. That to me is loud, overdriven guitar. I canāt achieve that tone on my acoustic. I canāt play it loud enough on my acoustic. It needs to be done with a electric.
The caveat on this song is āRevolution 1ā. Done on a acoustic guitar.
Variety is the spice of life! The āBeatlesā were genius.
This is the reason ya āgotta haveā both acoustic and electric guitar.
So you can play both versions of āRevolutionā.
As for the headphones. I donāt do headphones (short of when recording) w/ my guitar.
Iāll play my electric not plugged in, or with low volume amp.
To me, with headphones, even I hear every little mistake I make. And since I make many mistakes, headphones hurt my earsā¦ 
This is also a great reason to get a Epiphone Casino hollow body elect. guitar. Played acoustically it falls about half way between a elec. and a acoustic, vol. wiseā¦
Exellent!
This is most important imho.
At least at my house it isā¦
What kinda guitars and amps are ya gonna start looking at?
The variety is so vast.
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No kidding.
Iām getting a Spark 40 amp
For the guitar Iāve narrowed it down to either a
Squier Classic Vibe '70s Stratocaster HSS or a
Squier Classic Vibe '60s Stratocaster SSS
I like the looks of two of the 70s versions, all black with black pickups or a walnut body.
The 60s is a Candy Apple Red
Iām not so fond of my spark 40. too muddy sounding. make sure you listen to one before you buy - and I donāt mean the youtube recording they took out of the USB port - the speaker is the part I donāt like.
There are plenty of folks that like the yamaha and the boss katana in the same market space.
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My advice is donāt, if thereās any amp on the market that can be a distraction itās that one!
In that price range a Boss Katana is a much better choice, thatās if you want built in effects. I always advise beginners to get a simple amp with a good sound that you can add pedals as and when you find you want/need them to play particular pieces - the Orange Crush 35 RT, itās a very good amp that has an effects loop which is important when you get around to using pedals and a looper.
I had been looking at the Katana as well. Iāll take another look at it.
If you want to play rock then you are going to need an electric at some point, but reading through this thread you seem to have been persuaded already. I went about it the other way around to you. I also wanted to play rock so started with an electric (squier strat) but I soon found out that there are many rock songs that are actually more suited to acoustic so I bought a little fender cc60s. I still mostly play the strat though.
I agree on the Spark 40. Itās an OK amp for the money, but not a patch on the Katana for sound quality and versatility.
The one thing it does that the (full-sized) Katana doesnāt do is Bluetooth, so if you are after something that can also double as a Bluetooth speaker, the Spark 40 might be worth a go.
Overall, I wasnāt happy with it. It was very muddy and I found the effects quite limited compared to the Katana. I also felt it was quite gimmicky.
I should mention I have owned the Katana 100, the Spark 40, and am currently using a Yamaha THR10ii (due to living in an apartment where a Katana wouldnāt make sense).
Cheers,
Keith
I wouldnāt sacrifice sound I like for BT. I have a fancy-dancy line6 amp that I like the sound of. No BT. If I want to play something thru it, I either plug in a cheap BT with headset output (i think $8 on amazon black friday), or more likely just plug in the USB to my tablet or laptop.
go for sound you like. it is more likely to be pleasing to listen to in the long run and that is the important part of playing guitar.
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I donāt get it. Probably because Iām older though.
Sounds like yer wanting a cheaper amp. Thatās cool.
imho, thereās only one answer.
A Peavey red stripe transtube bandit.
Ya can play it at volumes that ya can hear the strings on your guitar over the amp. Or. Straight up paint peeling volumes.
It can be clean right up to 10 and paint peeling.
Or, can be as much distorition as ya want, from 1- 10 on the volume control.
What this amp aināt got is any effects. period. Itās a amp, not a modeler. You get what you play.
These amps go for about $250 + or -. Used. The red stripe is no longer in production. The silver stripe is a good alternative. I got both. Dialed in proper, they are just shy of a tube amp, yet they are solid state and last a lifetime.
These amps sound good.
In lieu of that. For your low vol. environment, Iād be looking at the fender custom vibro champ reverb. I could see me gettin one of them in lieu of my princeton reverb reissue. For a amp thatās billed as a student amp, the princeton can be, just plain loud. The champ @ 5w instead of 12 might be more appropriate.
Be aware, 5w I think can be pretty loud too.
Also, be aware that these are not master vol. amps. They only got one vol. control. Only way to get overdrive out of them is to turn them upā¦
Good luck in your hunt.
Hi @moose408
There is a discussion here that I suspect will be a nice debate to study. Practice Amp for 1st Electric Guitar
There are a several small amp discussions around the forum. you should do some research there and see what you can learn that is meaningful for your goals. Picking an amp is really not easy when you lack familiarity with the sound and feel of the options.
I have never played through a tube amp, yet folks say there is no equal. I may have got a small taste of that when I bought a $60 Hotone 5W (solid state) tweed styled amp and played it thru a gutted Fender Princeton (no amp, just speaker). Felt different in a good way, and it is the setup I keep behind my desk as I work from home. It wonāt peel paint or shatter the windows, but it is louder than I want to hear most of the time even at 3/10.
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Michael,
A tube amp is where I landed at.
I got three amps I rotate though regular. A Peavy solid state. A supro class A tube amp w/ 2 tubes. And a Fender prri Class AB w/7 tubes. Each has itās place and I like all three, but.
The absolute best sounding is the prri. Hands down.
The others sound good, but the Princeton sounds luscious. For lack of a better description.
fwiw, the prri vol. goes from the guitar strings are louder than the amp, to, not quite rattlin windows, but pretty close to. Probably not paint peelingā¦
Itās kinda loud. I like to play mine @ 3-4. At 5 itās plain loud and starting to get natural tube overdrive (and this tone is near to die for and most interactive). Above 5 is mostly just more overdrive up to āRevolutionā sounding overdrive (above 8, 10 is max).
imho, unless your turning your amp on and off and on and off over and over, get a tube amp.
Keep in mind, I got a ss amp, just so I can turn it on and off and on and off. So there is benefit to ss and I use my ss much everyday. On and off.
As for modelers and processors, I have no comment. I have no experience. All I can think though is all of them are trying to replicate something else. Iām leary of that idea.
I wanted an acoustic love the sound of finger style but bought a cheaper one and it killed my fingers so bought a better one a Taylor love it but when we travel in our caravan makes to much noise so hubby bought me an electric now I have the best of both worlds can practice when I want on the electric have a nux mighty plug all goes through my IPad with head phones and still do finger style on the acoustic. And the fingers are happyš
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Yeah!
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I recently saw the stage show in London. Highly recommend it if you are in the city.
I saw it in New York last month. Itās a fun show.