Approaching Amp Upgrade - Maybe

I played my acoustic for years, even though I knew it was a little blurry on the 1st and 2nd strings, compared with some Martins I had heard. For some reason I didn't mind, possibly because the sound was good enough for what I wanted to play. I could live with its faults - what choice, other than strings, did I have? Short of spending ten times as much on a Martin for a sound just a little brighter and crisper.

I did what everyone does: pick somewhere over the sound-hole, play from the fifth fret upwards. Picking by the bridge or up by the twelfth fret produces sounds that are really special effects; playing at the first and third frets produces harsher tones.

So what's the problem with settling on a tone for the electric guitar?

A solid body electric guitar does not have an acceptable "natural" sound. Record one directly into an interface and it will sound like mud when the files are played back, no matter how we set the tone pots. For a solid-body guitar, any tone is a special effect, even that sparkly, shiny Fender Reverb tone that appears any time you plug in a Strat to a Princeton Reverb and film it. Fender spent a while voicing that tone into the circuitry. Fender are West Coast USA, and that tone is the equivalent of all those 1950's cars with wings and chrome...

(The inspiration for the sound of a Twin Reverb) 

Real Guitar players use a clean-tone-with-some-salt, or an edge-of-breakup, or Nashville twang, or rock-god crunch, or a jazz neck tone. These are the malt whiskies of guitar tone, to be taken straight, no chaser. Heaven forbid one might use modulation effects (Chorus is so 1980's), excessive reverb and delay (The Edge uses delay, so nobody else can). Real men don't use tones with ingredients like a Pornstar Martini.

But you know? On the DL? I like a bit of embellishment. Makes the notes interesting to hear. Nothing over-the-top that might sound like an 18-year-old with their first FX pedal (those are the stock effects Helix provide, and... just no). A twist of this, a dab of that, the kind of cocktail that James Bond might drink. (Here's a party game: if James Bond had a guitar tone, what would it be?)

(Gratuitous music video. Guitar by Victor Flick. Not the tone James Bond would use.) 

A good tone makes you want play more. It fits in with the rest of the band, if that's what you're doing. That's why it matters. Playing at bedroom volumes put some tones out of reach, and, I think, forces us to find others that work. I'm about as far in with the gear I have as I can get, and am starting to think about upgrading. Even if I do get a nice, say Fender Vibro Champ, or Tonemaster Princeton, some of those malt-whisky tones will still be out of reach. And at those prices I will want to be sure that what I'm getting is what I want, and not just not-quite-in-a-different-way.