Ultimately, the two have to be equally important for most things, I would imagine. A great amp sim won't work miracles on a crap guitar. The tone has to be there to begin with. Particularly for cleaner tones.

But if you have a great guitar, and then you put it through a glorified distortion unit (ie. not a real amp sim), you're not doing yourself any favours, either.

Can't have EITHER of them "poor" and expect to get results. But one can be mediocre and the other great, and you'll still end up with a usable sound.

Greg

I'd say 70% of the sound comes from the player itself, the techniques, picking angle, vibrato... but the equipment still play a significantly important role in sound shaping.

As for your question, it heavily depends on the sound you are looking. I guess you are using the strat and if you are going for its glassy sound the guitar is important. If you are going for heavy metal or equal high-gain distortion, the guitar becomes less insignificantly important.

Its tough but as it comes to good sound, the whole line of equipment must be good, but it is up to you to define whats good or not.

I would recommend you to get a good guitar first because I believe the instrument is the most important and prior equipment. Its where the source of sound and the tonality comes from. Which in the future you add in effect pedals to suit that instrument. (not all effects are suitable for any guitar and vice versa)

The amp, in electric guitar, is also significant. It is the part of the sound shaping and that is why electric guitar player do not switch amps. E.g. Paul gilbert stuck with laney, yngwie stuck with marshall, Eric Johnson using fender for clean and marshall for the overdrive. plugging direct is still fine, just that you don't get the sound from the amp.

For me if I have to either choose "a high quality guitar or
a great Fx processor but a poor guitar", I would have chosen a good guitar.

Some of my opinions... have fun playing around with your setups...

Welcome aboard, Sam. Are you running a DAW for recording or analog? If you are using a computer, maybe you could take a look at Native Instruments GuitarRig or Guitar Combos? I recently used Guitar Combos for a couple clean/vibrato tracks of a recent session and they turned wonderful.

To help with your initial question, I would say 95% of the sound is the musician. Does he/she/it have a sense of time, feeling, proper technique, etc.? That makes all the difference in the world. A crapper player with a PRS is going to turn out a crappy track no matter what processor or widget you run them through, but a great player will make great things happen almost regardless of the gear. Assuming the first criteria is satisfied, I think the instrument is next in importance. Recording a Les Paul Standard direct for reamping or through a POD is going to sound better than using -insert cheap ass guitar here-. A better guitar yields better tone, better playability, and the harmonics are richer.

What I'm saying is that if you are up to scratch as a guitar player, get the best guitar you can. The processors can come later. If you're not up to scratch, keep practicing while you're saving up your money! :wink:

Thanx!

I think I will spend my money on a new guitar rather than on a FXprocessor...

About what Erik wrote, I don't know Guitar Rig & Combos, but I've tested other similar software like RockAmpLegend or Amplitube. D'you record the clean guitar and than apply the amp simulation?
Or have you got a fast computer to play in realtime?

You can do it either way, Sam. Setting it up to play along real time will depend on your host program.