What is “touch-sensitive”?
“Touch-sensitive” is an adjective that guitarists and manufacturers alike use to describe amplifiers. Like so many adjectives used by guitarists and manufacturers, its meaning seems to mutate depending upon context. In actuality, touch-sensitivity is not an absolute quantity, but rather a spectrum of behaviors. In its broadest sense, touch-sensitivity is some change in an amplifier’s behavior – other than getting louder or softer – as the player changes picking intensity or the guitar’s volume control. With the exception of a few specialty amps (mostly designed for jazz or acoustic guitars), almost all guitar amps have some degree of touch sensitivity. The devil, as they say, is in the details. At its most basic, touch-sensitivity is an increase in distortion with an increase in volume or picking intensity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re cranking up a vintage amp to get that distortion, or using the gain on a master-volume amp. Distortion is distortion, and you can virtually always c
