To those of you who own electric guitars...

[Soeru]

I'm trying to save up cash to buy me a decent electric guitar + amp + pedal set. I've been taking a look at the ESP EX-50 which retails at about $220. The Zoom - 505 MKII Guitar Multi-Effect Pedal is at $50, which sounds reasonable IMO. What I'm not sure of is how much I should spend on an amp, let alone which would be best. Naturally, I've taken a look at a bunch of different Marshall amps... but some seem just way too expensive. I'd certainly like to tear shit up with something powerful that sounds clear, but I just can't afford a $300 amp. I'd like people with experience with this hardware to give me some advice, as well as some comments on the pricings for the ESP EX-50 and the pedal set I mentioned. Thanks.

Edit: Btw, all the prices are from www.samash.com

[FoReVerZeRo]

Hmm, well the price of that multi effects pedal scares me...it might break easily. I take it your not looking for a practice amp when you said "clean and powerful" so I suggest taking a look at the amps at musciansfriend.com. Look at the amps made by a companys named Drive(they dont make great guitars but their amps are pretty good) they have some big ones for good prices. Hope that helps man...

[Soeru]

Hmm, well the price of that multi effects pedal scares me...it might break easily. I take it your not looking for a practice amp when you said "clean and powerful" so I suggest taking a look at the amps at musciansfriend.com. Look at the amps made by a companys named Drive(they dont make great guitars but their amps are pretty good) they have some big ones for good prices. Hope that helps man...

The pedal I mentioned has some good reviews, and doesn't look flimsy. It has an assload of effects for a price like that. What pedal would you reccomend? Keep in mind that I plan to play some very heavy stuff, so lots of distortion keeps me happy.

This
amp is small and pretty cheap. Maybe I should start off with something cheaper like this to practice, since I am nowhere near proficient with a guitar yet... at least until I can afford a big-ass one. It's $70 and 10 or 15 watts supposedly(it's a Marshall, see the link), but I wouldn't mind unloading another $50 bucks or so for something significantly better.

[Vash Van Gogh]

I bought a crappy spin off of a spin off guitar for 20 bucks and it has worked for me fine. But I don't really use it for anything except jamming around and such at home, but if your not going to use your guitar alot I'd just get a cheap piece used for as little money as possible

[FoReVerZeRo]

The pedal I mentioned has some good reviews, and doesn't look flimsy. It has an assload of effects for a price like that. What pedal would you reccomend? Keep in mind that I plan to play some very heavy stuff, so lots of distortion keeps me happy.

This
amp is small and pretty cheap. Maybe I should start off with something cheaper like this to practice, since I am nowhere near proficient with a guitar yet... at least until I can afford a big-ass one. It's $70 and 10 or 15 watts supposedly(it's a Marshall, see the link), but I wouldn't mind unloading another $50 bucks or so for something significantly better.

Well, I would recommend the Digitech RP80(or RP100 and so on) for a multi-effects pedal but since your lookin for heavy distortion and stuff like that I think that pedal your looking at now will suit you just fine. The amp also looks pretty good for practicing(good price as well) until you get better and more interested in more..well power. Blergh man...I think your all set with the equipment your lookin at now.

[Xaenn]

Well are you going to just jam with yourself or with other people? 15 amps would be ok alone...but if you plan on practicing with other people (especially a drummer) you're definately going to need more.

[Soeru]

Well are you going to just jam with yourself or with other people? 15 amps would be ok alone...but if you plan on practicing with other people (especially a drummer) you're definately going to need more.

I definately want a big-ass amplifier, I just can't blow over $500 when I go buy this thing. Is it a good idea to buy used amps? Also, are they significantly cheaper than new ones?

[Cosmic]

http://www.music123.com/Line-6-Spide...5548.music?t=4

Get this one. I've played on one and it's brilliant, a guitarist who's just starting out really couldn't ask for better. It's a modelling amp, which means that it emulates a selection of famous amps. Simply put, you'll be able to get anything from Fender-style cleans to all-out thrash. It may seem like a lot of money, but it also has a number of effects built into it (delay, flange etc.), so you won't need to buy a multi-FX pedal. The only other effect I can see you'll want is wah, but I doubt you'll need that right now, you can always buy a single pedal at a later date. Now, it's only 30 watt but you should be alright for small jams. My old amplifier (20 watts) just about manages to compete OK with our drummer, so 30 watts ought to be alright for the time being. Try one of the amplifiers out in your nearest guitar store, and you'll love it.

If you can afford another $100, you may be interested the next model up (http://www.music123.com/Line-6-Spide...-i117817.music). It has more amp models and is 75 watts, which will be more than loud enough once you start playing gigs.

EDIT: Demo video. You will only get 4 of those amp models on the 30 watt amplifier, but you'll hear what they sound like.
http://line6.com/media/SpiderII/vide...sane_Video.wmv

[Soeru]

The Spider II sounds great... and I think it's relatively well-priced. So it has all the distortion effects, meaning I won't need any pedal? Then that's cheaper on my part, right? Are the effects shown in the audio clips at the site featured by this amp? Sounds pretty bad-ass, and I'm really considering this one. Thanks for the help.

Btw: I don't really care much about the wah-wah effect, I'm not very interested in Slash-style solos at the moment.

Edit: Oh yes, could you please explain these other effects? I'm not sure what a reverb or derange sounds like. I'll be happy with some nice clean effects, an acoustic-type sound, some sort of echo, and several levels of heavy distortion.

[Cosmic]

I've recorded a few examples of effects, just sending them to your Gmail account. And yeah, you won't need a pedal. Pretty much any modern amp you buy will have some form of distortion built into it, but some amps obviously have better distortion than others, which is partly why separate distortion pedals are popular. That Spider 2 on its own arguably has the best distortion and versatility of any amp in that price range, and even outperforms some higher priced amps. Short of an all-tube amp (they're VERY expensive, so don't worry about them at the moment), it can't be beat.

There's a page on the official site that has some MP3 demos of the amps. That's the 30 watt model in the link below, since I presume that's the one you're interested in. As for the 75 watt models and above, they can produce all of the tones you saw in that video clip.
http://www.line6.com/spiderII/about_30.html

[NEV3RMORE]

I have a Schecter Omen 6, 300 bucks very nice guitar (but if you are just starting out get a little cheaper guitar especially with a tight budget), and a Roland Cube 30 amp. It is 225 bucks on www.Musiciansfriend.com

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/...se_pid/480023/

That site has sound clips underneath the description and above the reviews.

The Roland amp is like that spider, But the thing with it is, Roland owns Boss, so they have like a bunch of boss pedals built right in it, and they actually sound good, I would really recommend it, especially for a tight budget. It is plenty loud enough, and it sounds really good. It has a Phaser, Flanger, Tremelo, Chorus, Reverb, and Delay pedal built in it, and it has a lot of lead effects; Acoustic, Metal, Tweed, Classic, R-Fier, Black Panel, and Brit Combo.

This is Musicians Friend's description of it:

Unbelievably stellar tone.

The new Cube 30 combo really packs a punch! There are lots of affordable guitar amps available on the market today, but none of them have the charisma, style, or finesse of Roland's new offering. Representing incredible value in a compact guitar amp, this light, portable, and affordable little beast hosts a 10" speaker with 30W of pure tone quality.

The Cube 30 includes 8 different COSM amp simulations, including JC Clean, Acoustic, Black Panel, Brit Combo, Tweed, Classic Stack, Metal Stack, and R-fier Stack. The effects section includes chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremolo as well as an independent delay/reverb and 3-band EQ.

A footswitch input allows you to connect 2 optional FS5U footswitches to control both the effects on/off and switch between the clean channel and lead channel. An auxiliary input enables you to connect other products such as drum machines or CD players, making the Cube 30 a true jam machine!



SO GOOD!

I guess it would just be preference though. I don't really know too much about the spider, im gonna check it out right now.

I just checked it, It is really good too, You really can't lose out with either one.