Decent Electric guitars/amps

[SultanOfSwing]

Hi guys,

 

I've been playing acoustic guitar for almost two years now. But I have a yamaha Pacifica electric and a Marshall mg10CD amp which I’ve had for around 10 years or more. I want to start learning some solos and some more electric style songs but this combination just doesn’t seem to sound great. I don’t know much about guitars or gear so I don’t know if it’s the guitar, the amp, or both, or if I just need some effect pedals. 
 A friend did recommend getting a Mexican Stratocaster or telecaster but I wanted to get some advice from some proper guitar heads. 
 

Hopefully you can help me out. 
 

Cheers

[ezbass]

 

I’m a big fan of Yammy Pacificas, a guitar that has always punched above its price point, no matter which level of Pacifica it is. I don’t know much about your amp, other than it’s very small and it’s this where I think your issue might lay. Try and use your guitar through a bigger amp, if possible, and see how that sounds to you.

[SultanOfSwing]

Any recommendations on amps? 

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, SultanOfSwing said:

Any recommendations on amps? 

Take your guitar to a shop (if possible) and try a bunch for a potential budget. Usual suspects apply: Marshall, Fender, Blackstar, Vox, etc. Personally, I always seem to veer towards Fender, or Fender style amps, but that’s just my preference. 

[Matt P]

I'm going to echo @ezbass and suggest a different amp is the way to go, there are so many good amps available these days that the best option is to go out and try as many as you can, i tend to veer towards british amps but as already said it's very much a personal thing.

 

another option might be to get a multi-fx unit of some kind (the zoom units are pretty good these days) this will give you lots of different sounds as well as amp sims on some models.

 

if you can i would also suggest having the guitar professionally set up to your own liking, the Pacifica's are really very good guitars for the money but a decent setup makes them even better.

 

Matt

[Kiwi]

On 19/11/2021 at 04:14, SultanOfSwing said:

I've been playing acoustic guitar for almost two years now. But I have a yamaha Pacifica electric and a Marshall mg10CD amp which I’ve had for around 10 years or more. I want to start learning some solos and some more electric style songs but this combination just doesn’t seem to sound great. I don’t know much about guitars or gear so I don’t know if it’s the guitar, the amp, or both, or if I just need some effect pedals. 

It depends on whether you just want something that you like more or you're tone hunting for a specific sound.  For most guitarists, it comes down to choice of pickups and amp.  The actual guitar itself is more about comfort, sustain and feel than tone.  Amps basically come in four flavours - Marshall-ish, Fender-ish, Vox-ish and German-ish metal (Diezel etc).   If you want aggressive distortion, go for something based on a Marshall (or even get one), if you like fat clean sounds and smooth overdrive then get a Fender inspired amp, if you are a metal player, you'll probably have to rely on pedals more than amps but get something with decent low end.  If you like pristine cleans and sharp attack in the overdrive then Vox-inspired amps are worth looking into but most of the budget conscious amps are either Fender or Marshall based.

Yammie Pacifica's are pretty decent instruments so maybe start out by tone hunting your fave player - what pickups do they use and how close can you get?  Then figure out whether the amp swings towards Marshall or Fender in response.  It should get you 75% of the way there for maybe six hundred quid or so.