It may be no surprise to some of you but playing the guitar is only half of the picture. You can have all the fancy technical skills in the world, playing complicated scales all the way up and down the fretboard, but if you don't know how to set your amplifier up to receive the technical skills that your playing on the guitar, nobody will care and might not even tolerate the sound of a harsh guiitar amplifier. If you want to be heard as a guitar player... you gotta learn how to play the amp.