Originally posted by wyn525i:[..]
Actually, one way to tell a good guitar is how chords sound on an unamplified electric. I play my strat without my amp all the time.
Actually they sound good on my guitar, very clear, but nowhere near as full as my brother's acoustic.
Though my intonation is a bit off apparently, according to the 12th fret test the fretted notes are not exactly identical to the unfretted ones (shipping it from the US to Australia is to blame)
According to Google, it's pretty easy to correct though if you have a tune-o-matic bridge (which i do). I might do it on the weekend when I have time, the only thing i'm uncertain about is whether to postpone doing it until my strings are broken in. They already seem to be less likely to slip out of tune though.
If you listen closely, Edge almost always plays something live compared to how it sounds on the album. You shouldn't try to hard to emulate how someone else plays. Play to make your own music.
I shall, but I also want to play U2 and anyway it's pretty unlikely that i'm going to write anything better than the Edge

And basically everyone emulates their guitar heroes very few guitarists I know actually try to make their own music, that's a bit advanced
You also need to slow down. You already have better equipment than 95% of guitar players out there, a top notch guitar, an effects rig that most people will wait many years of playing before they can really master it, and lord knows what amp.
No way my gear is that good.
My guitar's only a Chinese made Epiphone, not a proper brand like a Fender, Gibson or Ibanez etc.
And the M13 is a pretty middle of the road FX unit, its probably better than the Zoom gear, but it's not as good as the Boss units let alone the top shelf stuff like the Fractal Axe-Fx etc.
Try to read what the 3 knobs on your guitar do, it's pretty basic. The amplifier is pretty much the same way. Read what each knob does then play your heart out, it doesn't matter if your intonation if off a little, or if you're out of tune a little bit. Just have fun and don't try to hard to copy The Edge. Make your own music.
I figured them out two volume (one for each pickup) and one tone. The amp has reverb and tremolo controls which i'll probably leave turned off. And then it has gain, volume, treble and bass knobs and it'll take me ages to try the diff combinations of them (and my guitar pickups and tone knob) to find the right tone for each song.
Should I send as clean a tone as possible to the M13? And also have the amp outputting as clean a tone as possible (and let the M13 handle all the tone colouration?)
And just FYI, if you can't play chords and are around other guitar players, that's not a good thing... Chords are the meat n' potatoes of playing the guitar. Learn chords, variations of chords, and then you will learn Edge stuff much easier.
I will definitely be learning chords, the first complete song I want to learn is Party Girl and it has chords.