Guitar Amp buying guide: It doesn’t matter whether you own an electric guitar or an acoustic-electric guitar, sooner or later, you will need a nice guitar amp. Here, we take a look at the various guitar amps/types to help you choose the right gear.
Guitar Amplifier Basics for Dummies
Types of guitar amps
- Tube amp: Uses vacuum tubes to drive the amp. Produces a rich, warm sound. Appeals to the purists. Downsides: Heavy, fragile, and costly.
- Solid state amp: Came into existence after the transistor was invented. A solid state amp is lighter, more durable, and costs less than a tube amp. It produces a crisper and cleaner sound (but many purists still prefer tube amps).
- Modeling amp: Uses digital technology to reshape the tone of the guitar. It can deliver variety of tones (unique or mimic other amps). It’s lightweight, affordable, and the flexibility offered makes it the best value.
- Hybrid amp: It’s a cross between a tube amp and a solid state amp, and offers the authentic tone of a tube amp and flexibility of a solid state amp. However, it cost and weighs more than a modeling amp.
So, what you should know is that:
- Solid-state is cheaper
- Tube-based amps can be expensive
- Most experienced players prefer Tube for their distinct sound
- Hybrid amps using both technologies are also available
- Modeling offers the best of all worlds and are more budget-friendly
- Modeling amps can deliver almost any tone or effect
More Types / Parts
You may come across more terms, but they are nothing but a variant of the above types. Guitar amps can further have variants such as stack, head, cab, combo, or acoustic amp.
Guitar Combo Amps: These are perfect for musicians, looking for a compact solution. Various Guitar combo amp models are available, including tube classics to modern modeling amps.
Guitar combo amps come with 6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, 15 inch speakers, depending on how big the venue is. Some come with one speaker while some may come with two built-in speakers.
Guitar Amp Heads: With these amps, you just have to plug in and get playing. Guitar amp heads are available as low-watt recording amps and can also cost over $1k. You can choose from different watt ranges such as below 50 watts, 50-100 watts, 201-300 watts, and above 300 watts, these will require separate speakers.
Acoustic Guitar Amps: When playing acoustic guitar, you want to be heard on the stage. The acoustic guitar amps generate crisp tone and sound, and are designed for monitoring or mains purposes.
Guitar Amp Accessories: Foot controllers, amplifier stands, tubes, speakers, you get Guitar Amp Accessories to get the most out of your guitar amp.
Guitar Speaker Cabinets: Make yourself heard with one of these guitar cabinets. Cabinets with 1×12 extension or a powerful 4×12, you will find it all here.
Guitar amp cabinets come with 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, 15 inch, and 18 inch speakers.
Guitar Stacks: Plug in and get ready to rock. You may choose from a range of iconic guitar half stacks and full stacks, available in every size.
Guitar Mini Amps: Want a more portable option, along with great sound? You may consider mini / micro guitar amps that include features like battery power and tonal modeling.
Guitar Power Amps: Want to add more power to your rig? Get one of these guitar power amps to provide extra wattage so that you can add extra extension cabinets to your amp setup.
Guitar Amp: Components
An amp, in general, consists of a box or cabinet (usually wooden) which contains:
- Speaker(s)
- Amp (aka head). This is an electronics-chassis designed with either transistor(s). or the classic ‘vacuum tube(s)’.
- Interconnecting wiring or circuit boards to facilitate mass-manufacturing.
When the average person talks about a guitar amp, they mean both the amp (aka head) and the speaker.
A combination (“combo”) amplifier includes an amplifier and one or more speakers in a single cabinet.
Features (At a Glance)
Wattage
Wattage (power): While a 20-watt guitar amp offers double the power as a 10-watt guitar amp, doubling the power only increases the volume output by three decibels. In general, up to 30 watts is considered a small amp (practice amps), and over 60 watts is considered a large amp (for smaller venues you need around 50-80, and at least 100 watts for a large live gig setup).
Speaker size
A small speaker (6 inches) produces a smaller sound with emphasis on higher frequencies; a larger speaker (12 inches) produces a rich sound with a full low end.
EQ
You can use EQ (equalizer) to adjust the loudness and softness of specific frequencies; this helps you change the tonal color of your guitar. Most guitar amps let you control 2 or 3 general frequencies: highs (treble) and lows (bass) or highs, mids, and lows.
Built-in effects
Effects such as reverb and chorus are commonly found on most amps. You can also buy effects separately.
Price
A 10-watt solid state guitar amp with 5-inch speakers can cost around $50. A 40-watt tube amp with 12-inch speakers can cost around $800. The $250-$300 price range is where you will find the most variety and the best value.
How Does It Work (the connection)?
Here’s how the connection is made, and how the overall sound is produced:
- The sound signal from the pickup(s) assembly is sent to the volume and tone-shaping control(s) mounted on the guitar, for bass and treble adjustments, from where it goes to the output jack on the guitar.
- The output jack of the guitar is connected, using a guitar cord (standard 1/4-inch phone plug) to the guitar amplifier’s input jack.
- The signal at the input of the electric guitar amplifier enters a pre-amplifier stage, where the signal is boosted, and tone shaping such as bass-mid-treble, or effects such as ‘reverb’ or ‘chorus’ are applied.
- The signal then moves to the main power amplifier, where its boosted several times louder than the original one coming from the guitar.
- The output from the power amplifier goes to the loudspeakers where the cone-assemblies move large volumes of air, creating the amplified sounds.
FAQ
Q. What is a guitar amp?
A guitar amplifier takes a passive electric signal from the pickup on the guitar and amplifies it to make it more audible. They don’t just amplify, but they also add their own individual color to the sound. Most pro guitarists mix and match guitars/amplifiers to get a certain sound.
Q. What’s the difference between an open back and a closed back guitar amp?
A. A closed back guitar amp delivers directional sound with a punchier low end. On an open back guitar amp, the sound seems to come from all around the amp.
Q. What amp to Use?
A. Depends.
- For smaller venues most combos will be suitable
- For bigger venues, you need a high-powered stack with at least a 4 x 12 cabinet
- Best to have one for studio/home and another for gigs (larger venues)
Detailed Guide: More Factors to Consider
The amplifier is the backbone of your guitar rig, and you have lots of options available to choose the right amplifier for your rig.
- A massive Marshall stack (or stacks) at your back serve is meant to blow the faces of your audience.
- A smaller, hand-wired tube amp (Vox or Fender) is perfect for the guitarist who values craftsmanship more.
- For those who wish to stay at top of the game (in terms of technology), a feature-loaded modeling amp (Line 6 or Peavey) is the one for your rig.
Wattage plays an important factor if you want to be heard over the other instrumentalists in the band (especially the drummer). Here, you will find amps of various wattage levels, plus replacement speakers and other useful amp accessories, available to make the life of the working musician easier.
Combo Amp or Head & Cabinet?
For smaller venues like clubs and small halls, today’s combos are well-equipped to deliver plenty of power.
On the other, for big venues like a giant auditorium or open arena, you will need a high-powered amp with a cabinet. Although there are setups where players still use a smaller amp (for their specific tone), and then simply mic the amp and run it through a PA system (this will work provided the PA is able to handle it)
Does Speakers Size Matter?
What you should remember is that smaller speakers can produce higher frequencies than larger speakers. For the same reason, tweeter is small (for high-pitched notes) and a woofer (for bass sounds) is large in size.
So, in general, a 10-inch speaker will produce a better “top end” than a 15-inch speaker.
Solid-State or Tube?
So which is better – Solid-state amplifier or Tube amps?
Most serious guitarists prefer tube amps because of their warm tone and natural distortions but then these amps can be expensive, part of the reason being the scarcity of good vacuum tube manufacturers.
Solid state circuitry, on the other hand, can produce superior clean power at a much more affordable price. Solid state amps use transistors (small electronic device) instead of tubes for their preamp and power sections of the amp. These amplifiers provide a very clean tone, some even come with “distortion” channels as well. They are sturdy and seldom need repairs, which explains the popularity of Solid-State Amplifier among guitar players for gigs/touring.
The good thing about good solid state guitar amps is that the gain can be very linear, which means if the high strings give a good distorted sound, even the low strings would do the same. Tube amps (some of them) respond to how you press the strings, so some of them will sound great at a given setting (or for power chords) but may sound thinner when played differently or if you use some other chord.
Here’s a video showing the demo of a Solid-State guitar amplifier, and as you can hear the sound quality is very good.
If you are a beginner guitar player, you may consider a solid-state (semiconductor) circuit based amp as they tend be cheaper and cleaner.
But if you want warmer overdrive/distortion then you may consider solid-state amps that have tubes in the preamp stage or probably go in for tube amps. Professional guitarists, especially the ones playing electric guitars, prefer vacuum tube amplifiers because of the better distortion sounds. That’s the reason probably high-end and more expensive solid-state amplifiers are less common.
But if you play the acoustic guitar or play jazz, you may like solid-state guitar amps more than tube amps because of the cleaner sound and the fact that the sounds do not get colored.
You will also find several interesting hybrids where the basic tone is produced by a tube-driven preamp, while the power amp is solid state. Besides, manufacturers are also churning out amazing new amps that are based on cutting-edge technology.
Understanding Hybrid Amplifier
A Hybrid amp use the best of both worlds – tube technology and solid-state design, and eliminates most of the problems associated with tube amps, and still provides the punchy tone and responsive touch of classic tube amplification. These combine the best of each type of amp in one box so you get the best sound at a reduced cost.
These amps use an actual tube (usually in the preamp section) together with the solid state circuitry in the power section to create a tube tone without requiring the use of power tubes (thus minimizing cost as well as future maintenance and repair).
A hybrid amplifier may include a combination where a solid-state pre-amp circuit may be feeding a tube power amp. Alternatively, you may have an amplifier that uses a tube pre-amp that feeds a solid-state output stage.
Irrespective of that, these amps tend to be cheaper and can sound pretty good.
To make a hybrid amp, you usually start with an existing amp, usually a practice one, and then tweak with its internals to get a different tone / increased power.
Benefits of modeling Amps
Modeling amps use software and digital processors that simulate the sound of various amplifiers – tube amplifiers (and cabinets) (thus giving you the best of all worlds). Basically, using software, the sound from various amps are taken and put in one box.
Software & computer hardware is becoming more powerful and flexible and that is why there are so many takers for modeling amplifiers.
The previous generation of modeling technology didn’t do well against the likes of tube amps because it could not handle harmonics and the decay properly. But not anymore!
Modeling Amps are fast becoming popular because of their ability to produce various types of sounds, suitable for varied purposes. These are affordable and have several practical benefits.
The recent modeling amps are very good, they are lightweight, and not prone to humming and buzzing sounds. In fact, you would be amazed to hear the kind of tones that can be produced with modeling.
You will also find built-in digital effects such as delay, chorus, etc. in these guitar amps. Some may also include digital or analog outputs with speaker simulation and the output can go directly into a recording interface or PA system.
The advantages of using these amps:
- You get any tone or effect you need
- You Get clean rhythm tones to a full-out overdrive
- You Get effects like reverb, chorus, phase, flange and delay
- You’ll get all these in an entry-level amp that can also double as a studio amp
Whether these tones and effects sound realistic or not will depend on how expensive the digital modeling amplifier is.
An entry-level modeling amplifier for guitar will provide you a lesser number of tones and effects, and maybe a few of them will only sound realistic while the others would be just about okay.
If you look at the more expensive ones, you’ll get a fairly extensive library of effects like distortion, chorusing, flanging, wah-wah sound or even multi-effects like chorus and delay plus reverb. Thanks to modeling, all these effects are designed to be amazingly quiet, minus all the noise.
Besides, modeling frees you from the constraints that a particular amp’s tonal range may pose.
Modeling amps can be used as a practice amp, studio amp, and live amp.
What Do the Pros Think?
Many experienced guitarists would agree that the modeling these days has gotten very good, and most studio engineers love that thing, because it only means one less equipment to deal with.
But then the hardcore guitarists still prefer the real thing – the tube amps!
The practical advantages are many, and with these becoming more realistic, these will definitely be very popular going ahead.
Besides, it’s just cheaper to buy a good amp simulator than spend thousands of dollars of amps and pedals?
I know most beginners and intermediate players would agree!
These come with tons of tones, are quite affordable, and are perfect for practice or even for use as backstage amp.
And some of these do actually sound better, both live and in the studio.
You can definitely spend on tube gear, but if check the video and hear the sound, I’m sure you won’t know that it is a simulation; and most probably even the audience may not realize that.
Tube Headphone Amp
While tube amps may not measure as well as their solid-state counterparts, there are many who feel that tubes more faithfully reproduce the sound of voices and real instruments. Most guitar players use tube amps because they like the distorted sound that these amps produce.
However, as with most things, opinions about sound quality don’t have to be true for everybody and you may like something that several others may not like.
Here’s a video of WooAudio WA6 Tube Headphone Amplifier:
Guitar Amp Kit: Build a Amplifier from Scratch
So why should anybody build a custom-made amplifier as opposed to buying one straight from the shelf?
One reason of course is that it can be cheaper, in case you know how and what to do. So, this may not really be an option for most beginner guitar players.
But if you have an aptitude for such DIY projects, you could definitely pick up one of these kits; it comes with all the parts and instructions that you require to build a good sounding amplifier for your guitar.
Other important reason for the popularity of these kits is that you can get the sound you desire, something which may not be possible from a ready-made one, unless you go in for an expensive one.
Even if you’re not an electronics person, you may still give it a try (build a smaller one) as most of these kits come with clear instructions.
What comes in the kit?
You get everything you require for your project, such as:
- Chassis
- Cabinet
- Transformers
- Speaker, and
- Thorough & step-by-step assembly manual
Just follow the steps, directions, video examples, and you’ll most likely get it right the first time itself.
If the assembly instructions are unclear, feel free to talk to the support guys from where you bought the kit, and they should get things sorted out for you.
When you make your own amplifier, and if everything goes well, and there’s no hiss or any other issue, the amplifier that you build does sound to be the sweetest sounding amp that you have ever played.
That’s a reality, at least when you do it for the first time.
But then, these do come with great quality parts and you really can expect great sounds using both, single coils as well as humbuckers. You get exactly the sound and tone that you’ve always wanted for your music room / recording needs.
On a lighter note, it’s very likely that you’ll get quite impressed with the results, especially when you do it for the first time, so don’t think of making the next one immediately, you definitely don’t want it to get addictive!
Other Cheaper Options
Those who have done it before go to the extent of using old PA amps to build their guitar amps. You can get them for cheap from churches and other venues who are cleaning out their basements, and old stuff.
Old PA amps can really be a good and cheap source of quality iron and chassis, so if you’re confident of the design, how to build one, you can make quality reproduction cabinets using these.
In case you like fiddling with electronics and want to create your own vintage tube-powered amplifier for your guitar, you can do it using a guitar amplifier kit. The build process is straight forward, thanks to informative videos and the step-by-step assembly manual.
Boutique Guitar Amps
A boutique is basically a small shop where you can buy unique stuff that is usually not mass-produced. These shops basically have things in which they “specialize” and have “exclusive” stuff for the more discerning customers.
So in the case of amplifiers, if you’re not happy with the $200 or $1000 amps that most music dealers sell, you have the option of building one yourself or buy from such shops.
A Boutique Guitar Amp is perfect for you, in case you don’t want the mass-produced ones, and don’t have the time/inclination to build something from scratch suitable to your needs.
A boutique builder usually has limited production capacity and they don’t really go after a widely divergent market segments. So you won’t find them making amps, that range from $200 to few-thousand dollars. That’s not their focus.
Mass production of products is not a characteristic of a boutique builder, so these are usually smaller in size catering to a niche segment.
So even though Mesa Boogie (considered the first boutique amp company) produces some fine amps, they seem to have grown much bigger, and don’t really fit the definition of a boutique.
Most boutique guitar amps are built to a standard, and not really to a price.
Be it replicating vintage designs or developing unique creations, every builder follows their own processes & recipes to make a product that is better than the mass-produced amp.
Hand wired vs. PCBs
Guitarists usually debate on this point, with many feeling that for an amp to be considered boutique, every component and wire inside it needs to be hand-wired, as opposed to using a PCB (printed circuit board).
However, the fact is that the manner in which components are attached and soldered to a circuit board simply does not affect the tone. A well designed PCB amp will sound indistinguishable from a hand wired one. Remember, PCBs are also used in spacecraft and military electronics.
Usually, boutique guitar amp prices run from a couple of thousand dollars up to tens of thousands (for Dumbles and similar make).
Those, that offer amps in the $1,000 (and less) range are usually not considered boutique by many guitarists. This is because, there are several mass-produced amps (from big brands) that are priced in this range, or even higher!
Do they Really Sound Great?
They have to sound great, else nobody would buy them!
Brands such as Suhr, Snider, Orange, Bogner, Paul Reed Smith, and Budda are aware of that, and their amps are indeed of exceptionally high-quality.
So, though tone can be a subjective thing, Boutique Guitar Amps really needs to sound exceptional to justify the high costs, else guitarists would just go for the mass-produced ones (which can also sound great).
Handling Repairs
In case, you decide to go in for a boutique amp, make sure they have favorable repair/return policies and warranties.
If you’ve an amplifier from a large manufacturer, repair is easier because they have several authorized service centers.
But that’s not the case with a boutique shop. Even though, problems with boutique amps are highly unlikely, in case you encounter one, you want it to be hassle-free (no hefty shipping fee and so on).
What Guitar Amp to Choose
Reviews of Various Guitar Amps
Guitar Amps Reviews
Guitar Mini Amps (practice amps)
Bass Guitar Amps Reviews
Summing Up
At the end of the day, when it comes to using a guitar amp, things like personal preferences, kind of music you like, matter. Some may find tubes to be too loud and prefer the sparkling clean solid-state sound. There are some who think “tubes are obsolete”, which actually is far from true.
However, just as their guitars, people can develop a relationship with their amplifier as well, and that is why some just prefer to use tube amps. There are many who have moved away from the pricey tube amps, and are quite happy about their decisions. But there surely are guitar players out there who want a big tube stack with half a dozen individual pedals on a board.
So, it does come down to the player and what’s being played. Use whatever suits you; over the years your preference of gear will also change as you playing improves.
However, for other purposes & for amateurs, considerations such as size, weight and how quickly you can dismantle the setup are important considerations. While it’s fun to set up an elaborate rig before a gig, it’s pure torture to bring it all down after performing for a few hours.
There are many who like the idea of a modeling amp and effects but still prefer to play it through a traditional amp to warm up the sound.
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KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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