Why aren't guitarists happy with their tones?

[Tarin]

I agree with all the posts concerning more on the "technique" issue other than the "necessary gear" to obtain a tone i like.
With me, the story went like this... i started playing guitar at 32 (will be 36 this April), i bought my mandatory Squier guitar to start off. The hunt began with a below $200 dollar amp search, so i went to my nearby music shops and started trying out Peavey's, Fender's Line 6 and others... well, actaully it was me and my cousin who happens to play guitar (i could'nt play squat at the time), so while HE was playing, i was actually LISTENING to what i liked... no artist influence here. VOX whas it.

Months later, i started blaming the guitar so i started to look for an upgrade semi-top-notch guitar. i tried a few looking for comfort, not tone. landed on a Parker P-38 (my wife saw me drooling over a Gresch Corvette once, so she got it for me on Xmass).
Then i started blaming the effect pedal i used (by this time i could play a few riffs and songs decently) and was gonna start blaming the amp also when i met a guy who really knows how to play... i mean REALLY knows, he's a graduate from a music conservatory and such, well, he played my gear once, i started to tweak here and there and with MY GEAR and HIS TECHNIQUE, me tweaking... i got the tone i know i like.
Conclusion: techinque my boy!

This is why i still have my 2 guitars and the same VOX 15R amp (which is recuperating from a recent surgery), and stopped the "tone hunt" untill i achieve it with what i have at hand (i know it can be done... and i'm almost there).

Edit: i must point out that i'm a bedroon rockstar, have never gigged.

 

[bcdon]

I'm a newbie so take this for what it is worth -- probably nothing -- but it seems to me that guitarists think they can buy something (new guitar, amph, &c) and they'll all of a sudden be better. It's kind of like the buy-a-better-car to pick up the babes outlook. Both don't work. The only thing that works is.... work. The bad part about this simple truth is that excellence requires time and practice; the good part about it is that it's free. With that, I'm going back to my glass of wine and LP. :dude

 

[NWBasser]

Do you have a Blackstar HT-5? That's an amph I've been lusting after recently. I thought you just had your Cube 30 and H&K.

Well, no Blackstar just yet. I do have the H&K and it does sound pretty good.

The Blackstar really nails the sound that I'd like to have.

I just have to save up some $$ for one though.

 

[gregsguitars]

Most of us can not play regularly at the volumes needed to induce our guitars to really sing or our amps to really reach that dynamic arena that most of the recordings we love are produced at, I find when I can shake the windows with my rig it really dynamically opens into new unrealized tonal zones.