Guitar Amps For Beginners

or Starting To Get Loud!

Which guitar amp do I use? Size, Watts, tubes, transistors, this that. Way too much info to process if your just starting out. The following is a little information to help your choice when purchasing that first amp. There really is so so much more information than I am going to be able to put in this post.  This will get you started though. I will write a more encompassing article at a later date. Right now buy the best amp you can for your budget and sound is the best advice I can give you.  

How Do I Pick An Amp:

I read in an article once that if you asked a dozen guitar players if they had the choice of playing a really expensive guitar through a really cheap amp or a really cheap guitar through a really expensive amp, which would they choose? Most would choose the really cheap guitar through the really expensive amp.  The reason for this was that your amp is the most important part of a good solid sound. Your guitar is also important but the amp far and above outweighs it. Keep this in mind when picking one.

Tubes:

Tubes were the original building blocks of the electronics industry.  They went in everything from radios, to eventually televisions and yes guitar amplifiers.  When the tube was king the electric guitar was just getting started. It only made sense that they needed a way to make the guitar able to compete with the large orchestras of the day.  This was pre rock and roll. Those orchestras needed a way to make an acoustic guitar loud enough to hear. In my opinion tonally nothing can compete with the brilliant simplicity of the design and warmth of the glowing tubes.

 

A tube amps sound is nice and warm, unique sound with a high dynamic range compared to a transistor amp

Tubes are simplistic in design and easy to replace if needed

A tube amp is extremely heavy and bulky

A tube amp requires more maintenance than a transistor amp.

A tube amp is more likely to break down if not handled in the proper manner

Low resistance to shocks. They don’t like being bumped around and dropped.

Relatively short lifetime compared to transistors. Not to say they don’t last but they tend to break easier than a transistor amp.

A tube amp is expensive to produce so it only goes to figure they will cost more to buy.

A tube amp produces a lot of heat

A tube amp requires some time to warm up enough to play

At louder volumes a tube amp creates an overdrive that is virtually impossible for a transistor amp to create.

A tube amp is a power hog and uses way more power than a comparable size transistor amp.

 

Transistors:

A transistor amps sound is much cooler some would say sterile when compared to a tube amp

A transistor amp is much smaller and lighter compared to a tube amp of the same power

A transistor amp requires less maintenance than a tube amp

A transistor amp is less likely to break down when handled a little rough

A transistor amp does not produce as much heat as a tube amp

A transistor amp is ready to play the moment you hit the power switch

A transistor amp is unable to create the beautiful overdriven sound of a tube amp.

A transistor amp uses less power than a comparable size tube amp

A transistor amp amplifies the sound purely without any distortion.

A transistor amp runs much cooler than a tube amp

A transistor amp contains complicated electronic circuitry.

Many transistor amps come with built in effects so you don’t have to go out and buy them when your just getting started.

Wattage:

How powerful should my amp be? How many watts do I need? In the beginning many people are often misled by the wattage of an amplifier.  Often they compare it to a stereo. While a 100 Watt stereo system is nice and can fill up a living room with some good sounding music a 100 Watt amplifier will rattle the rafters of most houses.  They are good for gigs at nice size clubs not your living room. If your starting out and only practicing in a small room 5 to 10 watts could be the best size. If on the other hand you are starting to practice with other people (drummers, bass players and so on) a little larger amp may be right for you. 30 to 40 watts would be great (My first practice amp was 20 watts).  It was plenty loud for the small room we were practicing in. When you graduate to a larger stage in a club you may want to upgrade from there. When doing this though remember that more than likely you will be playing through a PA system and your amps will have microphones to pump that sound through even larger speakers. Many times you will have a soundman running your signal through those speakers.

 

A Special Note For Tube Amps: When gigging and using a PA system remember that a smaller amp will begin to produce that overdrive at a lower volume so if thats part of your sound get a smaller amp so your not at odds with the soundman, bar owner and patrons. I’m currently using a 30 watt amp for just this reason.

What I Have:

I include this as a way of helping you see the progression that you may go through in your guitar playing lifetime.  Other guitarists have or have had way more amps than I ever will.

My First Amp:

As a beginner I would recommend a smaller amp to jam with at home.  A smaller amp keeps the family and neighbors happy. I have a Peavey Audition 20 that my parents bought me shortly after I started playing.  It has a headphone jack and distortion built in. The beauty of this amp is that it’s easy to carry around and the headphone jack kept my parents happy for the most part.  It also didn’t rattle the rafters when I cranked it up. At 12 watts using this amp I have never had the police knocking on my door telling me to turn down. A little transistor amp is seriously your best bet when starting out.  You will have plenty of time in the future to search for that elusive “killer tone” that all of us are in search of. A smaller amp lets you store it and move it around easily as well as keeps the volume down just enough to keep other family members and neighbors off your back.

My Second Amp:

When I first started going out to jam I needed something a bit bigger.  I was always getting blown away volume wise with the little 12 watt Audition 20.  I saved my money and got a larger Fender Blackface Deluxe amp that sounded pretty good. This was a 20 Watt combo amp. I used this amp for quite some time when I first started gigging too.  It always needed to be miked in order to get some decent volume compared with the other guys in the band though. I wound up selling this amp in order to pay some bills though.

 

The Next Step:

After playing out for a while I discovered another Peavey amp that I really liked. It didn’t take long to make the decision to purchase my Peavey Delta Blues 210. This amp is a 30 watt tube combo amp that has tone for days and cranks to a rich nice sound loud enough to fill most clubs (I still use a mic for larger places) When this amp cranks and those tubes get to groovin’ you get that beautiful rich overdrive that you can only achieve with a tube amplifier.  I’ve actually been offered way more than I paid for this amp by other pickers. That alone tells me I picked a winner and should probably keep it.

Another One Of My Amps:

I also have a 1966 Fender Super Reverb amp.  This is not an amp I would recommend for beginners.  This is a very expensive amp and is capable of extremely loud volumes.  This amp was my stepfathers and unfortunately after he passed it sat in a room for a couple of years before it was passed on to me.  When I first fired her up I heard a bad noise and smelled a burning smell. This particular amp is not only expensive and valuable I have a huge sentimental attachment to it.  Finding someone to work on a workhorse amp is a lot different than finding someone to repair my “family heirloom” amplifier. When I first started playing I did get a visit from “John Law” cranking this amplifier up. The parents were not happy though I did notice a smile on my stepfathers face when I had to fess up on their arrival home.

 

Recommendations:

Go Used:

• Going used saves you a ton of money over buying new.

 

• Make sure you make some noise through it before you buy.  Check all the channels, pedals, knobs so on and so forth before you buy.

 

• My Fender Deluxe and Peavey Delta Blues 210 were/are both used and they’ve been with me for years.

 

• Going used may also net you much more amplifier for the money.

 

Playing Level:

Remember your playing level.  If you are just starting out you hardly need a 100 Watt Marshall to learn your first chords.  Too much amplifier will only make your neighbors and family really hate when you practice, this in turn will make your life miserable.

Related Questions:

How Much Do Guitar Amplifiers Cost? The cost of a guitar amplifier can vary greatly depending on condition and type of amplifiers. A quick google search for amplifiers at sweetwater.com netted me some current prices for new amps.

 

Are there other types of guitar amplifiers? Like everything when it comes to music, Yes yes and yes.  There are tube amps, transistor amps, hybrid amps, modeling amps, full stacks, combos and half stacks.

 

Is a transistor amp just as loud as a tube amp?A 100 Watt transistor amp is the same power as a 100 Watt tube amp.  Tube amplifiers however do sound a bit louder by 10 to 12 decibels. Now I don’t understand the science of this whole process but it has to do with the level of overdrive created by the tubes at maximum volumes.