Ok i am planning on buying an electric guitar but thats not the prob i already know what kind of guitar i want (Stratocaster Fender) if thats any help. my problem is that i have no idea what kind of amp i want to get. i mean i don’t know what watt to get. i am look for something that would be good for practice or maby small concert with a band. if there are any guitar players out there, tell me what watt you would recommend for a beginner.
You need a Marshall 100 stack, dood!
Get realistic about what you really need. Is this your first guitar? Where are you going to practice? Even a small 5 watt amp like my vintage Fender Champ is too loud for apartments. Maybe you should get a little “rockman” style amp, which is just a little box you plug your guitar cord into one end and a set of headphones into the other, you can practice without anyone else hearing it.
First, Crate makes a very nice practice amp which you can buy for around 40 bucks on sale.
There’s also a nice little practice amp which clips on your belt and allows you to use headphones- this is cool as it’s battery powered and lets you walk around and play.
Now for the guitar: be aware that US Strats are bloody expensive. Asian made strats (“squier” strats)are cheap but crappy. If you don’t want to spend a lot buy a mexican made stratocaster, very close to the US made but a lot less expensive. Sounds like you already know this from your O.P.
Good luck!
b,
With basic amp designs, the sound is much cooler the higher you turn the volume. I know there are exceptions to this, but they’re not really applicable to beginner amps. So the lower-powered amps (10-15 watts) would sound better at lower volumes. A 30-50 watt amp is going to sound pretty clean until you turn it up to “11,” and then you’re going to tick off the neighbors.
Aside from treble/mid/bass controls, the essential thing to have is reverb (maybe not available on cheaper student amps). The difference between reverb and a “dry” signal is night and day.
“Presence” control (sort of an active ultra-high boost) is a nice touch (also maybe not available on cheaper student amps), but I’d take reverb first if I had to choose. Also, a footswitch is a very good thing.