A bunch of good guitar or a good amp and average guitars?

[JS122615]

Would you rather have a bunch of nice guitars and an average amp or a great amp and a bunch of average guitars?

[Axewielder]

A bunch of nice guitars and an Axe-Fx II.

[Nightbat]

I rather have a few good guitars and a decent amp

[xenophobe]

A few good guitars and a nice amp. lol

[lefty]

If I had to pick just one combination, it would be one Great Amp and decent guitars,
a la early Van Halen. For me, the amp is more important than the guitar, but that conclusion
took me many years to arrive at!

[TKEblue]

I would take the great amp and average guitars as well.

Really it depends what you mean by average, as my favorite guitar is my dk2m. I'm not saying it's the best there is, and granted I've played a very small number of guitars compared to many of you, but I've never played a guitar that I've liked more than it, including other dk2m's. So being "limited" to that wouldn't be disappointing to me.

If you mean average by each individuals standards then that's a much tougher question. I think in this situation I might choose an average amp just because the relationship between you and your guitar is much more intimate than with you and your amp.

[catzodellamarina]

Good amp over great guitars. Good amps inspire me to play better, play longer, and feel more inspired than good guitars.

In the 80's some of my friends could afford good guitars but skimped on the amps. I got to play their guitars that were out of my price range - Kramer USA Baretta, USA Strats, Gibson Explorers, Charvel Model 6. All through cheap combos (Gorilla, practice Peaveys). Each experience lasted only 5-10 min of being unimpressed. In contrast, during the same time period I borrowed a friend's homemade super-strat and Sholtz Rockman for a month. Seems it had some Schecter hw on it, a humbucker, and maybe a Kahler. Through his Sholtz Rockman it was a glorious experience - which is why I begged him to let me hold on to the stuff for a month. Played every day after work. I couldn't stop. Was much more inspiring than my Squier Bullet and Fender Sidekick 10.

[pianoguyy]

Guitars. Hands down. No brainer. Guitars, guitars, guitars.

But, as touched on by a few above - tech has come a long way, needing an amp is a thing of the past. And, also, it really depends on what someone considers nice, average, and great.

[Nightbat]

Sure, there's a limit to what you can do with both
But an average amp can often be improved upon with simple/cheap means
Whereas an average guitar is gonna need a lot of work/money to improve

[DAMPDX]

I lean towards having the nicer Guitar...

I can understand those that think the AMP is the most important as my current Guitar is worth 12 times more than my AMP and I am really hating my AMP right now...it sounded better on my old Charvel.... Why? I dunno, probably the pickups are the major difference from what I have now, an American Pro Strat.

I am still on the fence though as far as which NEW AMP to get myself. I play at home with headphones most of the time, so size is not important, in fact small is good for me. But the quality is the question. I suppose it depends on how you play/where you play, what you do with your Guitar. Since I do not gig and have little space, I am considering a small modeling amp. If I was to do the garage band thing again ( like I did in the past ) I would consider getting a higher quality/larger AMP.

Here is a great vid that discusses this question... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu_plv2CTEM

My current AMP, bought this in 89'.

[xenophobe]

Good amp over great guitars. Good amps inspire me to play better, play longer, and feel more inspired than good guitars.

Good guitars inspire me to play better as well... and tonal variances and overall sound guide me on what to write as well. If I pick up one guitar and play to it's strengths, another will guide me to play something more suited to it.

[RR2772]

It has to feel right before it sounds right and gets long term in ownership.

It took years to learn that while finding the guitar and amp that would work for the music I wanted to play. Money is really never the case at all.

Once I knew what I wanted in guitars and musical direction I had it. For amps it was always Marshall 100 watt for the first couple of years but I tried 200 watt and 50 watt vintage as well. It did not matter that the age was '71 or '78 as long as it worked and sounded right for the music which it did very good.

Now the problem was that my Stratocaster was easier to get sounding great than my Jackson RR custom with the Marshalls so I am on Mesa/Boogie with that one.

[straycat]

Thats a hard question I only have 2 really stellar amps but they are so different from each other and my other 3 amps are great but nothing special.
I guess guitars because if the guitar sucks the amp sucks so to suck less I would have to have a nicer guitar.
You can always get pedals to make your amp sound somewhat better.
I have my holy grail guitar and my Cygnus Orpheus 30 amp so I'm good.