Amplifiers Buying Guide
Buying your first amplifier?
An amplifier takes the electrical signal from a guitar, bass or keyboard and boosts the signal so it can be heard through loudspeakers. Amplifiers are usually housed in wooden cabinets and come in many varieties.
Some amplifiers have speakers built into the same cabinet, referred to as Combination Amplifiers or ‘Combo’s’. When separate they are referred to as ‘heads’ (the amplifier) and ‘cabs’ (the speaker cabinet), simply connected by a speaker cable. This gives you the option to achieve different sounds by using different head and cab combinations, even connecting multiple cabs to one head for an even bigger sound!
There are amplifiers specifically designed for most instruments, i.e. electric guitar amps for electric guitars, acoustic amps for electro-acoustic guitars, bass amps for bass guitars and keyboard amps for keyboards and synths. All amplifiers are connected to the instrument by an instrument cable, allowing the electrical signal to travel to the amplifier and be converted to audio.
Many guitar amps have a couple of different ‘channels’, typically one for clean tones and another for dirtier distorted tones. Most have a fully functioning EQ section, with a lot of amps featuring onboard reverbs and delays, with some also having footswitch inputs to control channels and built in effects.
These days there are many different types of amp available:
Tube amps
These are the original amps and use vacuum tubes (sometimes referred to as valves) to boost the volume. They are often described as ‘warm’ or having a ‘fat’ tone and are generally louder than other amps.
There are many different types of tube available and different amps will be built to accommodate the various types, with each having their own characteristics and sound. Out of the vast array of tubes available, most readily available amps are built to accommodate either 6L6, 6V6, EL34, EL84 and KT88 tubes, with smaller 12AX7’s commonly being used in the preamp section. Pushing the amp harder with higher volume will cause tubes to naturally break up and distort the sound, a sound highly sought after by guitarists and a good reason why a lot of musicians still stand by tube amps today compared to modern tubeless alternatives.
Solid State amps
Also known as analogue amps, these amps use transistors in the creation of the sound. Due to the lack of tubes and the required electronic components to accommodate them, solid state amps tend to be more durable and typically a lot lighter in weight, making them more affordable too. However, in terms of difference in sound, solid state amps will generally have a lot more ‘headroom’ – meaning that the amp sound will remain clean at much higher volume than a tube amp would, where the tubes will begin to naturally distort once you hit a certain level.
Modelling amps
These are sometimes called ‘digital’ amps. They use sophisticated software to ‘mathematically model’ the sound of amps, being able to convincingly replicate the sounds from both tube and solid-state amps alike. They can also house a lot of onboard effects because they are at their heart a computer, basically allowing you to consolidate the tones you would usually need multiple amps and an array of pedals, cabs and everything that goes with it into one convenient box.
Hailed by touring musicians around the globe due to the convenience and significant reduction in gear required, modelling amps have been progressively getting more and more advanced over the past couple of decades, with many being indistinguishable from the real tube amp and pedal combinations they are replicating.
Hybrids
As the name suggests these amps combine solid state and/or modeling amp technology with vacuum tubes in an attempt to reap the benefits of each kind. This could consist of a tube pre-amp section driving a modelling amp eq section then being powered by solid state technology. Whilst most guitarists will have a preference of using all tube, modelling or solid state as a dedicated amp rather than a combination there are some musicians out there that enjoy the benefits of a hybrid amp, however they are not so common in comparison to the three previously mentioned amp types.
Bass amps
Because the Bass guitar produces much lower tones than a regular guitar, they require specific amplifiers and speakers that can handle low frequencies well and produce plenty of volume without distorting the sound. You will find them in all varieties of the four types mentioned above, with the same arguments and pros and cons being applied to each.
Playing a bass guitar through a regular guitar amp is not recommended and can permanently damage the speaker cones, however it is possible to run a bass into a guitar head plugged into a bass speaker cabinet to experiment with more distorted sounds from tube breakup, a technique sometimes used in recording studios. Playing live this method would not be recommended, purely due to the wattage of guitar heads (typically 100w) not packing enough for the bass to carry through the mix as a bass amp can usually be anywhere between 200 to 1000 watts!
Keyboard Amps
These are amps specifically made to allow the keyboards voice to shine through, rather than the voice of the amp. They usually have 3 or 4 different channels to allow different keyboards to be played at the same time, some also being able to accommodate other instruments where you would want the natural sound of the instrument to be amplified. As keyboards rely on a clean tone that doesn’t break up with high volume, keyboard amps will typically be solid-state for maximum headroom.
Electronic Drum amps
Specially designed to replicate the sound of a real drum kit, electronic drum amps are ideal for practicing with your electronic drum kit at home or at rehearsal. Providing a clean, clear stereo image with low-frequency coverage gets you as close to a real drum sound as possible. It is also possible to use small, full range PA Speakers instead, however this may require dialing in the EQ to achieve a drum sound similar to that of a dedicated drum monitor.
New to amplifiers? Simple answers to important questions.
Frequently asked questions about Amplifiers