MakerDP
streckfus
I don't think anyone would make the argument that amp sims are preferable to the real thing. But there's a reason amp sims exist - because most of us can't afford nor have the space for a huge collection of classic amps. So if I have a choice of spending a few hundred bucks on some amp simulators or tens of thousands of dollars on real amps and their matching cabs (and a new house to keep all the stuff), sorry, I'm going with the amp sims.
I hear you, but I guess it depends on your goals.
If you are looking to define "your signature sound" then you should spend the $$$ on ONE top-quality amp and pedals if you think you need them (or do what I do and save thousands by building it yourself) that will define your signature sound. Learn how to mic it properly (or use impulse responses and a reactive load box) and be able to quickly reproduce that setup live and in the studio.
If your needs are akin to a session guitarist and you need to sound like anybody at any given moment in your own home studio, then yeah, buy some quality sims.
Not to toot my own horn but to show what you can do if you are DIY savvy... This is my current amp collection:
Matchless DC30
Fender-ish (custom modified build - think Princeton/Deluxe Reverb on steroids)
Marshall 18-watt (1974)
Marshall JTM45 (preamp section only)
Custom self-design harp amp based on old 1954-ish Fender Tweed Super
If I were to buy all those original amps outright, I would spend well over $15,000.
I built them all for less than $2,000 and only the DC30 was from a kit, the rest from scratch (less $.) A DC30 alone will cost you around $4,000 but I built my clone from a kit for less than $700 including cabinet and speaker. Still not chump-change but geez if you know your way around a soldering iron and have the willingness to learn a bit as you go, you should really go for it!
Hope this doesn't come off as bragging... it's really just an encouragement to engage in an extremely rewarding hobby that can save you some serious $$$ as you go and open your world up to tone you only ever dreamed about obtaining!
Nope, don't see that as bragging at all. Some folks are quite skilled in the DIY world, yourself obviously being one of them. Myself, however, not so much. Not at all, to be honest.
And yeah, you are correct: if you are a bona fide guitar player looking for your signature sound, then yes, absolutely. Spend the money and get an amp or two. But for hacks like me, I play the guitar but I'm not a guitarist, catch my drift? Most of the stuff I write is classic rock/bluesy with some folk/country thrown in. So in my case, sometimes I want my Les Paul to snarl through a TubeScreamer into a Marshall stack. Other times, I'd prefer to have my Telecaster twang through a Twin Reverb. Or maybe run the Strat through a Soldano...and so on. Different tunes call for different tones, and in that regard amp sims are more a matter of necessity than preference. Ideally, yeah, I'd love to have all those amps for real. Then again, I'd also like to have the
real guitars I mentioned above as well. My Les Paul is an Epiphone (although it is the Joe Perry Boneyard, which is pretty slick). My Telecaster is a Squire Classic Vibe. My Strat does have "Fender" on the headstock, but it was made in Mexico.
Not saying this about you, but we as musicians are a competitive bunch and unfortunately there's a tendency to play the superiority card when it comes to gear. "If it don't say Gibson, it ain't a Les Paul." "If you ain't tracking through a tube pre-amp, you ain't tracking through nothin'." There are obviously advantages to having top-of-the-line stuff, but it's not as though a person can't make good music with cheap gear. (Real life example: I played an American Telecaster then picked up the Squire...the Squire sounded better, believe it or not.)
I will say, though, that I don't see that so much on this particular forum. Gear snobs are rampant elsewhere on the web, but overall this particular community is refreshingly focused on helping each other out and much more "tolerant" of those who don't have all the expensive toys. :)