About guitar amps

Guitar amps and speakers are powerful boxes of magic, come in all kinds of shapes, colors and sizes, and turn your guitar’s output from a simple electric current into those sweet, familiar sounds we all love.

If your goal is versatile, go-anywhere amplification, we recommend you to start out with a combo guitar amp. Being an all-in-one unit, these types of amps combine the preamp, power amp, and speakers into one piece. This will save you time (and in some cases money) as it’s a plug and play solution when it comes to guitar amps. Whether it’s for rehearsals, small venues, busking, or laid back jam sessions at home, combo amps are a staple guitar amps for any guitar player.

If you are looking to step up your guitar amp game, then there is always the possibility of building your own amp configuration. Amplifier heads are the standalone components of an amp stack. They are designed to be used with external speakers, and tend to be quite a bit more powerful than the head section that is built into a combo guitar amp. The head unit is composed of two elements; the preamp and the power amp, which are responsible for driving the amplification of the electrical currents produced by your guitar via the external speakers. So make sure that whichever head unit you decide to go for has enough ‘juice’ to sufficiently power those external speakers of yours.

Then there is the matter of sound. If you are looking for a crisp, clear sound and maximum reliability we recommend going for a solid-state amplifier. If you’re more into a warmer, richer sound with greater distortions (for that vintage feel), then we suggest you consider going for a tube-based amp set up.

The best guitar amp

The ‘what is the best guitar amp’ question is a difficult one as, much like with most instruments, it is a matter of subjectivity and personal preference. The best guitar amp could be a combo tube amp for one person, as they love versatility and vintage sound, but this doesn’t make it the best guitar amp for someone else with different preferences.

So at the end of the day, finding the best guitar amp for you comes down to what you like. With that said, there are things that you should consider when mapping these personal preferences out. For example, for any venue, it is important to bring along the right amp. Which types of venues do you play? A tiny amp in a huge venue will not be enough, while a huge amp in a tiny venue will be overkill. Do you exclusively play classic rock and live for that vintage sound? Then a tube camp will be the way to go.