Touch is a huge component of how the guitar and amp (and effects, if you use them) interact. Playing unplugged is good to initially judge the real sustain of an instrument, but getting used to how the amplifier responds to your touch is crucial. The only problem is that unless you have a rehearsal space, you may not be able to get those performance volume. Low volume may not let you get 'your sound', and that interaction between the guitar and amp isn't the same...but then again, the interaction between you and everyone within a half mile might be improved.

You can get great sounds with a small output amp- I have a Fender Vibro Champ and an old tweed Princeton that both seem fairly loud on their own in a small room.If you are a Marshall, Hiwatt or other high gain amp lover, your options are limited.

An alternative that allows you to hear yourself for practicing purposes is to use a small mixing board with headphones. You don't get the tube warmth, but there are devices that can give you a pretty decent sound. The new digital modeling doo-dads like the Pod, Genesis 3 and whatever this month's new modeling model is, allow you to use headphones and practice until you are exhausted without bugging anyone. Cool!

Try to vary your left hand touch and right hand attack and position, to see how the response of the amp (or whatever you are playing through) follows you.

Whatever sound you get on your own will have to be adapted to playing in a band- everything changes when you play with other instruments.

Pickup selection helps break up the monotony.

On my Zeidler electric, I have a humbucker/ single coil/ humbucker set up, with push/pull pots to switch the humbuckers to single coil, and on/off switches for each pickup. This is a really versatile setup, with great Strat sounds (the whammy bar bridge helps) and credible near-Les Paul humbucker sounds. No one guitar or amp can truly do it all, regardless of the claims...but this guitar covers (for my purposes) all the solid-body tones except the Tele.

A fixed bridge and Tele bridge/pickup is crucial for those sounds. I got a Fender JD Tele for $500.This guitar comes stock with two pickups and a five-way selector, wired with a capacitor to emulate Strat sounds. I found them a bit lacking, so I added a middle pickup (DiMarzio Blue Velvet, under $40) and replaced the neck pickup (another Blue Velvet) and got a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Tele bridge pickup (about $50). I had Jim Mouradian (ace bassist and luthier/repairman in Cambridge, Ma.) route the slot for the new pickup, and had him wire it neck/ neck and middle/ neck and bridge/ middle and bridge/ bridge. This gives me the standard Tele positions (except for the neck pickup being a Strat style, with is a bit throaty and warmer than the Tele neck pickup), plus the two 'in between' Strat positions. The bridge and middle combination is particularly cool.(Since I wrote that, I changed out the pickups to DiMarzio's "Virtual Vintage" which are humbuckers designed to sound like single coils. Of course, they don't, but they are twangy and quiet!)

Other cool guitars I have include a Zeidler double 6/12, with humbuckers that split to single coil. I primarily use it for the 12 string neck, but the 6 sounds great also, it's just a little heavy to wear for long.

Another Zeidler I own is his "serial #1" electric, built in 1977. He went for a sort of Les Paul Recording vibe- walnut body, carved top with a mandolin style scroll (my idea), long scale, 24 frets, splitable humbuckers. I'm using it as a baritone guitar, tuned BEADF#B (capo five frets below the nut).

Zeidler and I also experimented with a soprano guitar (tuned an octave higher) on a little Les Paul body- since converted to a 5 string electric mandolin, tuned CGDAE, much more comfortable!

I also have a customized '66 Fender Jaguar and a '94 Epiphone Casino reissue (Lennon's original is in the background).I string the Casino with the German Pyramid flatwound strings, they are supposedly the same as used by the Beatles in the '60's- they certainly sound and feel 100% better than domestic flatwounds.

You can drive yourself broke and crazy chasing after guitars and amps.If you can afford 'em and enjoy 'em, all right! The rest of us have to make the most of what we got. One way to avoid the torture is to ask yourself how often will you actually be able to use the piece.If the answer is 'not much' then maybe you should think twice If the answer is 'just shut up about that, I'm-a gettin' it!', you are a perfectly normal guitar/amp collector. Enjoy it in good health, it's a short spin around the block after all...Don't access to visit the Spouse Enrager's Usenet Group (alt.pleasebabyplease).

I'd love to have a nice collection of black-paneled Fender amps, but I was lucky enough to get a couple of silver panels (late '60's Deluxe Reverb and Vibrolux Reverb) that I had 'de-CBS'ed' and re-spiffed by the amazing Roy Goode of Goodesound. The price of all new tubes and extensive internal overhaul was much less than the price of a black panel version of either amp, and the sound is as 'good' as the (admittedly) cooler looking black panels. The silvers are going up in price, too, so if you see one, and have separates to a good amp tech (essential for keeping you amps in top condition), consider it.

What separates a great amp from a good one is pretty subjective, and almost 'beyond words'. The main idea to remember is that each amp is an individual instrument, two adjacent serial numbers can sound quite different depending on the tolerances of the components, how often the amp has been played, how loud, tubes used, high end hearing loss of the owner, etc.Think of each one as unique, and try it on it's own merits.

The Matchless amps are expensive, but do what they do incredibly well. I bought one instead of a Vox AC-30 as I wanted 'that sound'exemplified by early Beatles, Brian May, U2 etc. but I also wanted reliability. The Vox designs don't allow the tubes (which run hot in that class-A circuit) to cool, which can lead to some bad events, not the least of which is fire.

The best analogy I can make between Fender-type amps and Vox/Matchless style is that the Fenders feel softer and 'sproingier' like a Strat, the Vox/Matchless is 'spankier' like a Tele.

Like I said, beyond words. You just gotta experience it yourself.

I recently got a KLON CENTAUR pedal (clean boost/overdrive) and am amazed at what it does to enhance the electric guitar and amplifier's natural interaction. This is my favorite sound enhancer ever!

Something about playing electric guitar with a good drummer makes life worth living...the frequencies seem to compliment each other, even though the cymbals 'mask guitar frequencies' as cited by one Robert Fripp. Notice how many more solo acoustic guitar albums there are, as opposed to solo electric?