it took me years before realising what it could actually do. i blame myself for being not really tweaking the amp enough to get the tone i wanted. the neon once played my les paul through the marshall, and the amp actually sounded better than i thought.
nothing beats a valve amp, though. a hybrid like mine doesn’t really count. then again, since i am more of a bedroom player, my friends have advised me against purchasing a high wattage valve amp as you can’t get the tone you really want unless you don’t mind having the cops knocking on your door. probably i long to be able to play a gig with a proper valve amp (i have once, when i played in newcastle – i used a JCM900 halfstack, but i only wished i knew how to properly tweak my then recently-acquired GT3 multieffects unit). i think i have never sat down long enough to sort out a tone with what i have. i remembered playing lmsn’s american standard tele through the GT3 and my marshall. looking at the gig video now, i just wished i had put a little more thought in my GT3/amp settings. it has been a recurring problem. the shitty sound i had with my older effects unit (because i didn’t know that i had to press this one button), the list goes on.
i had a long conversation with a mate recently, which centred on what we really want in our guitar sound. we agreed that it is no use kidding ourselves. why can’t i sound like jimmy page / eric clapton / {*enter your guitar hero’s name here*}? the simple answer to this is because we can only sound like ourselves. to the day i die, i will sound like kudo. i might argue anyone else wanting to sound like kudo would be a laughable notion, but if i wanted to, a better sounding kudo is possible with effort. no guitar pickup, pedal, and if i dare say, guitar or amp will make you sound like anyone else. you can only strive to sound better, if nothing else.
