Modeling offers the best of all worlds. You can buy a basic “practice” amp today that will deliver almost any tone or effect you might need or want, and it will pull double-duty as a great studio amp. These budget-friendly models (starting at about $149) provide everything from clean rhythm tones to a full-out overdrive along with all the “must have” effects like reverb, chorus, phase, flange and delay. There is no longer any need to compromise your sound, just because you’re just getting started playing guitar.

Even more impressive are the “does everything” amps that are sonic chameleons. They can deliver the sound of a tiny tweed or shake the walls with a “Hendrix on 11″ tone at the push of a button or the tap of a footswitch. Modeling also allows most amps to include a fairly extensive library of effects. Back in the 1960s and early ’70s, guitarists needed multiple outboard stompboxes to produce distortion, chorusing, flanging or a wah-wah sound. All of those boxes added up to one thing: Noise! But today, thanks to modeling, all effects – even multi-effects like chorus and delay plus reverb – are designed to be amazingly quiet.

What’s more, modeling frees you from the constraints of having to “make do” with a particular amp’s tonal range. Using sophisticated DSP, a 2×12 modeling amp can still sound like a vintage 1×10 tweed or a modern 4×12 stack. When you add up all the benefits of a modeling amp, they do make a lot of sense unless you just happen to be a purist who is convinced that only a 1959 Fender Bassman reissue will sound like a 1959 Bassman. For those players, modeling is simply no substitute. And since a player’s individual tone is critical, we concede that each guitarist will decide for themselves whether modeling is simply a fad or the future of all guitar amplification.