8 Best Guitar Amps Overall (Complete Buying Guide)

Above and below, I’ve listed all the best guitar amps I’m most comfortable recommending.

You can read more about each one beneath the product table. If you go through this material before buying, you’ll know exactly what to pay attention to when shopping for an electric guitar amp, regardless of age, skill level, musical style, or tone preference.

These are the best amps we know to recommend, based on actual use and personal experience.

All prices listed on this page were updated Sun, December 03rd, 2023.

Best Guitar Amps (top 8 picks)

1. Orange Crush 12 or 20 Watt Guitar Amps (best small combo amp)

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2. Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb Tube Amp (best tube amp)

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3. Orange Amps Micro Terror (MT 20) Amp Head (best small amp head)

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4. Fender Mustang LT 25 Modeling Amp (best modeling practice amp)

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5. Fender Blues Junior Tube Amp (best small tube amp)

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6. VOX AC15C1 Tube Guitar Amp (honorable mention)

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7. The Marshall DSL Series Amps (best cheap tube amp)

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What is a guitar amp and how to do they work?

Guitar amps are made up of the following three components:

1. Preamp
2. Power amp
3. Speaker cab

Most guitar amps, especially those beginners might be familiar with, include all three of these pieces in one box. These are called "combo" amps.

Note that in some cases, the parts of a combo amp can be separated out into different units. For example, you could buy just the preamp or just the power amp. You could also buy a separate speaker cab.

This is the route that a lot of professional players choose to go because it gives them more control over their tone.

For our purposes, the combo amp is a good example to stick with.

How do I use a guitar amp?

Before we get into knobs and dials, let's talk about how to set everything up, one step at a time. Before turning your amp on you should have your guitar connected. You'll need the following:

1. An electric guitar
2. One instrument cable
3. Your amp

Plug In

Use an instrument cable to connect the output on your guitar to the input on your amplifier. The input should be on the front panel and labeled something like "input" or "guitar". 

After the Instrument Cable is Plugged In

Once the instrument cable is plugged in, go through the following checklist:

• Check any volume, gain, level, or master knobs and make sure they aren't super high (you don't want to get blasted by a knob that has been inadvertently turned up)
• Turn the amp on and flip the standby switch (if there is one)
• If you have a tube amp, note that it'll take about 10-15 seconds for the tubes to warm up before you can hear them

Setting Volume Levels

The next thing you need to do is an important step. You need to set your volume knobs to a "baseline" depending on the room you're in. To do this correctly, you need to understand how volume in a guitar amp works.

In most amps, you will have two knobs that control volume:

• Preamp volume
• Power amp volume (master output)

Labels for these knobs will differ, but generally the preamp volume control will be labeled "volume" or "gain" while the power amp volume will be labeled "master" or "output". 

You can set your preamp volume first, then use the master (power amp) volume to sort of "cap off" your final output to make sure it's not too loud or loud enough depending on your preference.

1. Set the preamp volume
2. Set the master volume

What if you have multiple channels?

Many amps have multiple channels, which means you can use different volume levels or settings and switch between them instantly. In the above example, this amp actually has two channels, with a volume selector for each one.

1. Clean Channel
2. Gain Channel

If your amp has a similar setup (some amps have up to three or four channels) you should also set these levels.

EQ and Other Settings

Once you have your volume set, you can play your guitar and you should be able to hear it. Though to fine-tune your sound you need to go through the other dials on your amp.

Usually you'll have a three-band EQ, while some amps will add other controls like presence and reverb.

• Bass
• Midrange 
• Treble
• Presence
• Reverb

Certainly there is no right or wrong way to set these knobs. However, there are plenty of conventional amp settings you can test out for yourself. It all depends on what sound you like and what type of music you want to play.

Summary

These are the basics of how to use a guitar amp properly. It gets you started at a place where you can set volume and then experiment with the other features and settings your amp provides. 

Difference Between Solid State & Tube Amps

In this section, we'll look at the difference between tube and solid state amp models.

They often look the same, and most of us know that tube amps have tubes, of course. But, what's so different between them? I'll answer that question by explaining what the lingo means and what the ultimate differences are between the two types of guitar amps. 

We'll also cover the stigmas and pricing differences between the two types of amplifiers, as well as the type of music they're typically used for.

Before we get into the details, let's start with a simple answer to our question.

What is the difference between a tube and solid state amp?

The difference between tube and solid state amp models is found in how their preamp and power amp stages are powered. In a tube amp it's powered by vacuum tubes or valves, while solid state amps are powered by transistors or semiconductor circuits.

You can also have what's called a "hybrid" where either the preamp or power amp use tubes while the other uses a solid state circuit.

However, these are not particularly common.

Speaking broadly, this is the defining difference between the two amp types. While it seems like a simple distinction, the resulting tone, pricing, and feature implications between the two types of guitar amps are significant.

To sort these out, I'll talk about the characteristics of each one, starting with tube amps.

Characteristics of a Tube Amp

Tube amps have physical vacuum tubes installed at the preamp and power amp stages. Often you'll have 12AX7 tubes in the preamp and EL34 tubes in the power amp. Here's a quick shot of what they look like close up:

Tube-driven circuits are often installed in older amplifiers with a more vintage style. For example, the Fender Blues amp series, the Marshall JCM heads, and the VOX AC combos are all entirely tube powered.

The tone they produce is also more likely to have a smooth, vintage warmth to it. You'll have more of a warm overdrive, as opposed to a hard-edged distortion, along with a sweeter and more mellow clean tone. However, that's not to say that tube amps can't handle modern metal.

Amps like the Mesa Boogie Rectifier and Diezel VH4 produce some of the heaviest amp-based distortion in the world and they are both entirely tube powered.

Broadly, tube amp tone is thought to be better and of a higher quality than solid state amp tone.

It's viewed as a more pure and organic form of amplification.

PRICING AND FEATURE IMPLICATIONS FOR TUBE AMPS

As a consequence, tube amps are almost always more expensive and lower wattage than their solid state counterparts. It's also harder to add features and flexibility into a tube amp because of the physical tube circuit. This means that tube amps can almost always be characterized by the following bullet points:

• Better tone quality (vintage and/or modern)
• Less flexibility (less knobs and tweaking options)
• More expensive

Solid state amps are basically the inverse of this description. Let's take a closer look at their characteristics so we can get a clearer picture of how they differ.

Characteristics of a Solid State Amp

Solid state amps are far cheaper to produce and easier to manipulate with different controls and settings. This is why all modeling amps (amps with built-in effects) are solid state, with the exception of reverb and vibrato offered on a number of popular tube amps.

Yet, without the presence of tubes, many guitar players dislike solid state amps because the natural tone quality isn't there.

While solid state circuits can easily emulate tube amps and employ a lot of digital modeling technology, it's still not viewed as "the real thing." However, manufacturers have gotten better (in recent years) at developing solid state circuits and digital amp models that sound really good and make viable - more affordable alternatives - to the more expensive tube amps.

Particularly for modern metal and heavier styles, some guitar players have embraced solid state technology, in part, because it's so good at adapting to their playing tendencies and more sterile tone profiles.

Read more: Guitar amps with line outs

Section Summary

To summarize the difference between tube and solid state amp models, I'd be comfortable saying that tube amps are generally a better-quality amplifier, regardless of music style. Even those wanting a more modern tone will be better served by a tube-driven circuit, perhaps with something from Mesa, Diezel, or Marshall.

Solid state amps have their place, but the difference in tone is going to be hard for a lot of seasoned players to get past.

Unless you really want the modeling features or the extra flexibility solid state offers, a tube amp is probably your better option.

Amp Distortion VS Pedal-Based Distortion: Which one?

On the topic of distortion:

Is it better to get your electric guitar distortion from a pedal or from your amp?

Most beginners start out with some kind of distortion pedal or maybe the gain on a cheap modeling amp. While there are some really nice pedals and modeling amps out there, it's almost always better to get your distortion from your amplifier and not from a pedal.

There's a reason you don't typically see distortion pedals on professional rigs, even (especially) for the heavy metal guys.

It's almost always better to get your distortion from your amplifier and not from a pedal.

Expensive Amps and the Pros

Adam Jones of Tool, Dan Donegan of Disturbed, and Tom Morello have all used a ton of distortion throughout their careers, yet none of them run distortion pedals as their primary source of gain (if at all). This is because they use high-end amplifiers with tube-driven dirty channels that far surpass the quality of the distortion you get from a stompbox.

For example, Jones often uses Diezel amps to record Tool's studio tracks:

This is how you get smooth, high-quality distortion like you hear on "Fear Inoculum:"

Most of the modern rock and metal distortion tones you hear come from an amplifier similar to the Mesa and Diezel models. Specifically, the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier, Marshall JVM, JCM 800, and Randall 667 heads are also going to show up in the hard rock realm quite a bit. In almost every case, they'll be the preferred method of handling distortion.

But, these amps are super expensive!

It's true that most of the amps that are sought after for their powerful distorted tones are also at least $2000, if not encroaching on the $4000 mark (looking at you four-person company Diezel). 

But, if you can't afford an amp like this, you do have options that can still get you a really high-quality distortion without spending a ton of money.

Primarily, you have three choices:

1. Buy the high-dollar amp if you can afford it
2. Find a cheap amp with a high-quality distorted tone
3. Use a high-quality distortion pedal that's modeled after a tube-based amp distortion

The Cheap/Used Method

In my situation, I went with option number two. Years ago, for my birthday, my wife found a used Mesa Rectoverb combo on Craigslist for about $500, so we drove over to Lexington to meet the guy and picked it up. It's an older amp, but the distortion is absolutely fantastic. 

Here's a look at the amp with a bad sound-proofing job:

And here's what it sounded like:

This setup gave me an amp with an onboard distortion that is better than just about any pedal. Though as you'll see below the next section, there are some pedals that can compete with it. 

Cheap Amps that Have Good Onboard Distortion

If you don't want to buy used or if you just can't find something that suits you, there are some cheaper amps that still have a decent distortion source.

Here are a few we'd recommend checking out:

1. The Marshall DSL20HR
2. Blackstar HT Series
3. PRS MT15 (Mark Tremonti signature)

These amps all hover around the $500 and $600 price point, brand new. While this isn't as cheap as you might like to see, it's certainly more affordable than the $2000 and $4000 price tags we were seeing with the pro-level options.

Distortion Pedals that are Actually Good

There are a few distortion pedals that can compete with the high-quality amp-based distorted tones you get from Mesa and Diezel. These recommendations are based on distortion pedals that we've actually tested in-house, so note that we've also took our own pictures during the process and put up some simple demo videos.

Primarily, we recommend two:

• Amptweaker TightMetal JR
• Empress Heavy

Both of these pedals are not only great distortion sources, but are built more like amplifiers, able to function as their own preamp. 

The Heavy is more expensive, but probably the better-sounding of the two pedals and certainly more flexible:

Here's a quick audio demo:

The Amptweaker TightMetal JR, though it has far less control and functionality than the Heavy, has a high-gain tone that's similar in quality.

Here's my simple demo of the Amptweaker's tone: 

These pedals are exceptions to the rule of amp-based distortions always being better than pedals. Both the TightMetal and Empress Heavy can compete with amps like the Mesa Rectifier with comparable sounds. The moral of the story is that you shouldn't cheap out on your distortion pedal, if you decide to go that route.

Spending $150 to $300 for a distortion pedal is not overkill, especially if you plan to use it as your primary distortion source.

It's still much cheaper than a $2000 amp.

Section Summary

A lot of guitar players who are just getting into effects don't realize that it's better to get distortion from an amp.

Distortion pedals are just a familiar image, which makes a lot of people assume that's the best way to get distortion into your rig. But I would advise bypassing the pedal and instead, if you're able to, invest more heavily into your amplifier.

Even beyond your guitar, it's the most important aspect of your electric guitar rig when it comes to the tone you'll be able to produce.

If you invest more money in your amp, you won't need a distortion pedal at all.

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