Welcome to the cheap guitar amps website. Here you can find suppliers for all types of inexpensive guitar amplifier, so you can see all the different sizes and power ratings and designs.
With a wide variety of choices in electric guitar amps – for bass guitar, guitar bass, acoustic electric, all the guitars amps imaginable – see all the guitar combo and amps with guitar effects built in. Whether you have years of experience, or you’re just starting guitar lessons, with the right amp you can control your guitar’s loudness and tone to get exactly the right sound for your music.
Selection of Guitar Amps: four primary types
Tube Amps
Amplifiers which get their tone from traditional vacuum tubes are believed by many guitarist guitarists to have a warmer and fatter tone. They also have a type of comfortable and organic sounding distortion when overdriven. Tube amps seem to have a certain feel that you just don't get from solid-state electronics, and sometimes they seem to sound louder. Although tube amps are famous and popular for distortion many tube amps will have two channels for your guitar so you can play either clean or distorted. One issue often overlooked is that, because tone comes from a vacuum tube, expect occasional maintenance, as you will need to replace the vacuum tubes from time to time.
Solid-State Amplifiers
Amplifiers that use solid-state electronics have improved year after year after year. And the sound is getting better all the time. The solid-state amps use transistors instead of tubes, and these transistors are more precise in a way (so great for bright or clean sounds), but they do not permit distortion with the same softness and organic sound that tubes provide. These solid-state amps are highly reliable and therefore popular for touring musicians or musicians who gig frequently and must haul the amp from location to location.
Hybrid Amplifiers
Many engineers believe that the sweet tone of the tube-type amplifier derives primarily from the first stage of amplification, which is called the preamp. So hybrid amps use a single tube in the preamp to create a tube-preamp sound, and then use the more effective and powerful (and economical) transistors or other solid-state electronics in the power section, to do the heavy lifting and make the pre--amplified sound real loud.
Modelling Amps
(also called digital amps) -- these are usually solid-state amplifiers with additional circuitry which allows them to emulate many sounds, including distortion designed to sound like the distortion that comes from a tube amp. In addition, modeling amps, using specialized digital processors, will often "model" specific brands and models of tube amplifiers, cabinets, microphones, and miking positions. In effect, these amps attempt to stuff many different amplifiers into one box. To a surprising degree, they succeed.
Other Inexpensive Guitar Amp Considerations
Combination Amplifier
Usually known as "combo" amps, these amplifiers combine the tube or solid-state electronics along with the speaker in its enclosure as one unified box.
Head and Cab Amplfiers
In this configuration the head contains the tubes or solid-state electronics in one box, and in a separate box the speakers are enclosed. For larger amps, this serves the practical purpose that the weight of the amp is now separated between two boxes, making it easier to haul around and set up.
Power Ratings
Practice amps are built to be small, as their primary purpose is convenience not perfect sound. Combo amps have become better and better over the years, and more powerful for their size, so many guitarists now use combo hands even for sizable venues. However, for large auditoriums and other large venues Head and Cabinet amps are still the rule to create a thundering wall of sound. Downside? They are heavy, large, and more expensive.
Saving Money
Get the Right Amp for the Job
If you are just beginning to learn, and not very familiar with different kinds of amplifiers and effects, and if will be working mainly on your own and not gigging with other musicians, then starting with a small practice amp (perhaps a modeling amp) might be a good way to begin your learning of the different sounds and effects which can be created.
On the other hand, if you know you will be playing with others then a moderately priced combo amp is often your best bet. And simply with the trip to the nearest large guitar store, and listening to compare the sound of tube amps and solid-state amps, your ears and your budget can tell you which way to go in this regard.
Of course, if you are a mongo-great touring guitarist whose hordes of screaming fans fill vast auditoriums, then probably you shouldn't be trying to save too much money because you are going to need a fortune in amp cabinets, because you need power!
Where to Find your Guitar Amp at a Cheap Price?
Online Discount Musician Stores
We've often heard these online stores reported as having great deals --
Your Local Music Store
Big chain stores like Guitar Center sometimes run sales. Be sure you know your amp, and audition it before buying. But remember, many smaller guitar stores, in order to get your business, will match online-discount pricing, and smaller guitar stores can often provide you superior customer service.
Amazon
Sometimes great values, sometimes not, depending upon the seller.
EBay
Frequently the price-value winner, especially if you’re willing to buy used. It’s hard to beat EBay. Just look at this huge selection of best-value guitar amps, instruments, and amp effects available right now –
