Top 33 Amp Quotes

I remember one of the first gigs I played with that amp was at a local church. They wanted someone to fill in with the guitar and my friend say, ‘Ah, he can play.’ And so I dragged the amplifier down and started playing and everybody started yelling ‘turn it down!’

I like the guitar better these days. I like the bass, too, but it’s hard to fit a bass amp in a small car.

I suppose I am a frustrated musician so I annoy my family by playing guitar in the house. I used to be into acoustic stuff but my son Joseph is learning drums, so now I have an electric guitar and we play Metallica. We have an amp and a PA in the garage with his drum kit.

It’s easy to get a good amp that might not be the right amp for you. When you go to a music store, really turn the amps on and turn ’em up – hopefully they’ll let you – and work through the sounds. This is an important decision, so take your time and be methodical.

If you throw a frog in boiling water, he’ll just hop out. But if you put him in warm water and slowly amp up the temperature, he won’t notice and end up boiled.

I’ve always played every amp I’ve ever had full up, because rock and roll is supposed to be played loud. Also, that’s how you get your sustain.

In my touring rig, there’s a pedal drawer, where I’m able to switch pedals in and out, going into the front of the amp.

I like the sound of a Silvertone amp for myself. It’s kind of cleaner guitar sounds when necessary, maybe a little less metal-sounding. But it really doesn’t matter what amp I play through; it’s really the way I voice chords and play guitar, how I strike the strings.

I amp up my workout by doing Ballet Beautiful twice a day.

Some bands blow it before they even play. The most important moment of any show is when a band walks out with the red amp lights glowing, the flashlight that shows each performer the way to his spot on the stage. It’s crucial not to blow it. It sets the tempo of the show; it affects everyone’s perception of the band.

It’s fun, but the fun is where it always was. I mean, it’s still fun to strap on my Les Paul in the basement and turn up the Marshall amp. I’m still 15. I still enjoy that as much as I ever did.

In 1950, the biggest amp you could get was no bigger than a tabletop radio.

I went to my friend’s house one day, and he had an electric guitar he had just bought with a tiny little amp. I turned the volume up to 10 and I hit one chord, and I said, I’m in love.

We didn’t have much money when I was younger, so I had to collect Coke bottles and cash them in and get a paper route to afford a guitar. That guitar from Sears came with a case and an amp and everything all in one. It was really cool.

Finally I’d found this way where I didn’t need a record label; I didn’t need to wait for some phone call to tell me, ‘Go and do it’. It’s like, I’m going to get up with a bag of CDs and an amp and my guitar and make it happen for myself. That was such a liberating feeling, and I think it was the start of everything.

When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to meet Buddy Holly. I asked him how he got that big, powerful sound out of his guitar amp. He said, ‘I blew a speaker and decided not to get it fixed.’

For me, anything can be music! I can get huge enjoyment and be moved totally by the purity and perfection of some Renaissance polyphony, but equally I can feel emotion in the expectant hum of a big old guitar amp just before the strings are hit.

The problem with taking amps to a shop is that they come back sounding like another amp.

In the studio, I don’t use an amp, I just go direct into the desk. It’s virtually acoustic, what I’m doing.

Everything Paul Kossoff did came from his fingers and went right into the amp. He was his own effects unit.

The hedonistic lifestyle is difficult to achieve when you’re still carrying your own gear. Trust me that you don’t feel glamorous with a 60-pound amp in your arms; it’s a lot less sexy than toting a vodka gimlet and impossible to do in heels.

In the crazy world of touring, if something gets stuck at customs, I can do a show with just my amp!

If you have a great-sounding guitar that’s a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that’s the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.

My stepfather had an electric guitar. He went to his pawn store one day to get a guitar and an amp, and I couldn’t understand what I was hearing. All afternoon, I just sat against the amp and let it reverberate through me. Something must have stuck.

For the ‘Load’ album, I was experimenting so much with tone that I had to keep journals on what equipment I was using. For ‘Hero of the Day,’ I know I used a 1958 Les Paul Standard with a Matchless Chieftain, some Boogie amps and a Vox amp – again, they’re all blended.

It’s not about how loud you turn the amp up. That’s not what makes it sound big. What makes it sound big is fooling around with different delays and reverb settings.

I was doing comedy in laundry mats in 1992, literally where I would bring a little gorilla amp and a lapel mike and just start performing.

When I got my first Marshall amp, it was so empowering. No one ever forgets their first Marshall amp if you’re a guitar player pursuing a big powerful sound. I mean, no one ever forgets their first Marshall amp.

I had the humble beginnings. I was doing comedy in laundry mats in 1992, literally where I would bring a little gorilla amp and a lapel mike and just start performing.

I keep changing my stuff. I used to play through a Marshall JCM800, and then I also had a Randy Rhoads signature amp. So before I was playing EVH, I was playing an ODB pedal. I still have my Dunlop Jerry Cantrell wah pedal because I love that.

Rock ‘n’ roll guitar came from blues guitar. It was the blues guys who first turned the amp up and started whacking on the Stratocaster and a Les Paul. It wasn’t the country guys and it wasn’t the white guys; it was the Blues guys. That’s where the real fire is in all of this rock and roll music.

I’m not going for a soft sound. I ain’t lookin’ for a warm sound. My sound is warm, but I don’t need tubes to do it. The Randall RG-100 is the best amp for what I do.

I’m so used to knowing what to do with an electric guitar and amplifier, but with an acoustic guitar, it’s different, but I still have an amp and a whole bunch of pedals.