There is a question about modern guitar amplifiers. Fewer tonal options were available in the tonal options. But these days, it’s mostly a matter of style. Some amps are designed to have a “tone” right out of the box. They’re designed for a particular sound, and you don’t really need to dial it in — it’s there as soon as you turn the amp on. Amps like that generally don’t have a comprehensive EQ because they aren’t really intended to sound different than what the designer envisioned. The tone knob (or “shape” knob or any similar name) is there to allow you to compensate for the acoustics of your room, the tonal qualities of your specific guitars, and so on. But mostly, the tone of the amp is there already, waiting for you.

On the other hand, some amps are designed as blank canvases on which you can paint your own sound. With amps like these, the more tonal shaping you can do the better! These amps often come with more than just the basic treble, middle, bass, and feature push-pull shaping options, graphic equalizer sections, and other additional tone-shaping knobs. These amps let you really get into the weeds of sound design with your amp, and dial in something unique.

As you can see, there’s no right or wrong or better or worse, it is just a matter of the design philosophy behind a given amp. Both can sound amazing, and you may find yourself liking some amps with lots of tone-shaping knobs, and the sound of others that feature very limited controls.