Hey, I bought a Fender Starcaster about a year ago and tbh, it sounds like crap. I generally play metal music like A day to remember, the devil wears prada, bring me the horizon etc but my current gear does not make the desired heavy sound that im looking for, and I was wondering if I need to buy a different guitar, a different amp or both? cheera

e/ if anyone could recommend something it'd be great

This post was edited by GetOnYourKnees on May 28 2011 01:38pm

Marshall do a great range of combo amps aswell as Fender. Something else I recommend is the Boss ML2 Metalcore pedal. I find it suits loadsa types of metal and rock very well based on the distortion knob. The Marshall JDM501 is a good valve amp i've come across

I searched the Boss ML2 Metalcore pedal on eebay, looks pretty good, but will this allow me to get the tone i want regardless of what amp and guitar i'm using? or will i have to upgrade?

A cheap amp will ruin a good guitar. whats your current amp?

to be fair a strat isn't a metal guitar either :/

my amp is a Fender SP-10 22watt, it came with the guitar

and yeah, it was my first guitar and when i bought it i didnt have a job so it was a case of whatever was cheapest, and ontop of that it was even harder to find one because im left handed :/

I dunno what amp you have, but yes guitar and amp both influence tone. You won't notice the guitar as much until you get the right amp of course. I could go into all sorts of tonal details, but long story short, every piece of equipment matters, and there are ways to mask it with cheaper gear but not so much with cheap gear.

Also, as a base point, I'd recommend looking for humbucker equipped guitars. Not necessary, but it'll boost your bass and your output (gain). As far as amps are concerned, I don't really know your budget, but if I had to aim high, I'd go for a marshall jcm800 for 80s toanz. Mesa Boogie, Orange, and Soldano are also solid amps. On the low end, Jet City is basically the low tier Soldano amplification. There are some other amp brands that are really good for metal and affordable, but their names are escaping me. I'll be sure to let you know if I remember them. I wanna say Peavey makes a pretty solid metal amp.

If I had to make a priority though, I'd say get a good amp first, then a guitar. Also, pedals are great for masking tone. If you can't get enough gain with your amp, get a dope distortion pedal.

Tone is a deep, deep hole though. You can get lost in there jumping around between various specific sounds. One thing to remember is the audience won't be nearly as much as an audiophile about it as you will be. That said, good tone is inspirational and helps YOU express yourself better.

tl;dr:
both matter. won't notice guitar as much until you get a good amp. recommend looking at humbucker equipped guitars. marshall, mesa boogie, orange, and soldano are awesome gainy amps. jet city is a low end soldano, and I think peavey makes a good metal amp.

This post was edited by Derkaderk on May 28 2011 08:05pm

thanks mate

You will have to upgrade your amp eventually, simply because practise amps are shit. They just are, all of them suck, but the Boss pedal WILL make that practise amp sound good. It changes the entire amp sound and uses the pedal to give you the new sound. It's badass - I can get AC/DC rock tone, and with a couple of adjustments have a dropped chorus enduced thrash tone!

Marshall amps are sick. I got a practice Marshall 10watt to start and have a 50watt Marshall now.

If you're not doing anything, getting a better guitar would be more prudent. You outgrow guitars faster then amplifiers.


For your taste in music, I HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest getting a used Ibanez RG series 300+. Stay away from RG's less then 300. If you can get in to the 500's thats even better But most likely you will find a good deal on an rg321 online. Its not expensive, but its a really decent guitar for the money. My guitar collection is worth around 12,000, and Im saying its a good little guitar. Take that for what its worth.


As for amplifiers and sound... At this point in the game, id HIGHLY suggest my practice rig. I use an epiphone valve junior and delta fx multi pedal. I get a good, decent sound out of it, and the effects really reallly arent that bad! I have tons and tons of pedals I can play with, but the delta pedal aint bad! the valve juniors are ~140 NEW (i.e. try to find a used one...), and the delta pedal was 90$ NEW (i.e. try to find a used one...).


It boils down to your budget and what you can afford. Be honest with yourself and us, and we can help you get the most bang for your buck.