Cheap Guitar Amps

Electric Guitar Amplifiers

Are you in the market for a guitar amp? And you'd like to know more about electric guitar amplifiers?

If so, do you know another guitar player who has more experience? (It will be even more useful if he or his group plays the kind of music that interests you most, because different electric guitars and different guitar amplifiers may shine in one kind of music, but maybe not so much when used for some other style.

How it basically works --

On your electric guitar (or electric bass) are mounted some "pickups" beneath the strings. These are essentially simple devices. It's a coil of wire, or often two coils of wire, and usually in the middle of the coil of wire is a magnet or a magnetized piece of metal. The guitar string is right above and fairly close to this magnetic metal piece, and therefore the guitar string is *inside* the magnetic field which surrounds this coil of wire.

You can't see the magnetic field, and it drops off fairly quickly with distance, so the string must be close. When you pluck or strum that string, it wiggles. The guitar strings must be metal; it won't work with nylon strings. Because now we have a moving piece of metal inside a magnetic field.

When you wiggle a piece of metal inside a magnetic field it actually creates a small current. In fact, electricity itself is often created by some sort of a motor or a natural force like a waterfall causing a metal part to rotate rapidly inside a magnetic field. In the case of a dynamo, a large electrical signal is created. In the case of a guitar string, a very small electrical signal is created.

As you can imagine, the guitar string wiggles back and forth, at a certain frequency, and so the electrical signal created is a wiggling signal, at the same frequency. The wires from the coil(s) of wire in the pickup(s) are then attached, one way or another, to the output jack of your electric guitar.

You use a cord to connect the outjack of the guitar to the injack in your amplifier, and the amplifier then receives the small wiggling electrical signal at a certain frequency. The circuits inside the amplifier use either vacuum tubes, or solid-state electronics (transistors and such) to control a larger voltage. This larger voltage comes from the power cord which you've plugged into the wall socket.

This larger voltage is now carrying the same wiggling signal at the certain frequency, and this larger voltage is now capable of "driving" one or more speakers.

The speaker is very much the reverse of the guitar's pickup. The speaker contains a very large coil of wire, and inside the coil of wire is a metal piece, which can slide back and forth inside the coil. Attached to the metal piece is the "speaker cone" which may be of paper or of metal, but it's much like a large dinner plate or shallow bowl, and it can be vibrated by the moving metal piece.

The speaker receives the wiggling voltage of a certain frequency, and this voltage is fed to the large coil of wire, which creates an alternating magnetic field, which moves the piece of metal. Because the center of the speaker cone is attached to the piece of metal, the speaker cone is now vibrating at that same frequency.

Presto! Loud sound of a guitar!

Shopping for an Electric Guitar Amplifier

Perhaps using some advice from an experienced guitarist as a guideline, visit a large music store if you can. Take your guitar. Now "audition" different amplifiers in your price range. If you have more than one guitar, you might want to try several of them.

Make sure all the amp's switches and controls work correctly, and you don't really want to hear a lot of popping, or crackling, or static, or hum. If your guitar has multiple pickups, try them all to make sure you like the sound. In general they should sound approximately equally loud, though this may not be perfect. (You've probably noticed that the front and back pickups have a different sound, and so they may not have exactly identical loudness coming through the amp.) When checking different pickups, you probably want to have the amp's "EQ" (equalization) knobs set to the middle, neutral position, for example, neither boosting lows nor cutting lows, and neither boosting highs nor cutting highs. This is so you can hear the pickup fairly accurately.

Generally, effects that you add separately will be more powerful and cost effective than effects you find built into the amp, but some effects features are frequently added to amps. EQ and compression, for example, may be common.

Probably it's best to avoid buying a lot of gimmicky effects that are built into the amp, unless you are sure you will be using them.

Service and Guarantees

If you choose a popular "name" brand, and buy from a dealer who can handle repairs, you're in a safer position. (Of course, it would be good if you can find out whether this dealer does repairs quickly or slow; it would be a bummer if you had to wait for weeks or months with your amp out of commission!)

Size and Power

One of the biggest factors that will impact your wallet is: how powerful?

Guitarists frequently overestimate the amount of power that they will need. Are you playing in your own home? At the local coffee house? At a noisy bar? In a larger venue? In an auditorium? In a football field on a stage with the Rolling Stones?

If you approach the power you "need" modestly, you can afford to buy a higher-quality, smaller amp that will serve you better in the long run, be more reliable, and which will weigh less and be easier to set up.

If you are playing gigs, of course it's wise to have just a little more power than you expect you'll need, because this means the amp can operate well within its limits. It can just laze along and do fine, and you don't have to run it full out.

Be sure to check how the amp can change the sound of your guitar. In general, an amp which can give you a wider variety of sound will be the more useful on the gig.

Research and Window Shopping

You can educate your mind and your ears with some judicious window shopping. If you have access to a guitar store where one of the guys working there plays the guitar, then he may be helpful in bringing you up to speed.

Research online can be helpful, or it can be confusing. For example, if you visit "Harmony Central" you will find reviews on many kinds of musical gear, including guitar and bass amps. The guitar magazines are *stuffed* with information. And in fact this kind of research can easily become information overload, plus these writers may be getting all technical (showing off) and talking about how you *need* this and you *need* that, and maybe you don't need any of that at all, so balance this kind of "research" with plenty of hands-on trying out of amps whereever you can.

Your body and your ears are a better judge of what *really* works, for you and your music. Trust them.

If you need to learn about electric guitar amplifiers, do you know another guitar player who has more experience?

It will be even more useful if he or his group plays the kind of music that interests you most, because different electric guitars and different guitar amplifiers may shine in one kind of music, but maybe not so much when used for some other style.

How it basically works --

On your electric guitar (or electric bass) are mounted some "pickups" beneath the strings. These are essentially simple devices. It's a coil of wire, or often two coils of wire, and usually in the middle of the coil of wire is a magnet or a magnetized piece of metal. The guitar string is right above and fairly close to this magnetic metal piece, and therefore the guitar string is *inside* the magnetic field which surrounds this coil of wire.

You can't see the magnetic field, and it drops off fairly quickly with distance, so the string must be close. When you pluck or strum that string, it wiggles. The guitar strings must be metal; it won't work with nylon strings. Because now we have a moving piece of metal inside a magnetic field.

When you wiggle a piece of metal inside a magnetic field it actually creates a small current. In fact, electricity itself is often created by some sort of a motor or a natural force like a waterfall causing a metal part to rotate rapidly inside a magnetic field. In the case of a dynamo, a large electrical signal is created. In the case of a guitar string, a very small electrical signal is created.

As you can imagine, the guitar string wiggles back and forth, at a certain frequency, and so the electrical signal created is a wiggling signal, at the same frequency. The wires from the coil(s) of wire in the pickup(s) are then attached, one way or another, to the output jack of your electric guitar.

The Signal Travels to the Guitar Amp

You use a cord to connect the outjack of the guitar to the injack in your amplifier, and the amplifier then receives the small wiggling electrical signal at a certain frequency. The circuits inside the amplifier use either vacuum tubes, or solid-state electronics (transistors and such) to control a larger voltage. This larger voltage comes from the power cord which you've plugged into the wall socket.

This larger voltage is now carrying the same wiggling signal at the certain frequency, and this larger voltage is now capable of "driving" one or more speakers.

The speaker is very much the reverse of the guitar's pickup. The speaker contains a very large coil of wire, and inside the coil of wire is a metal piece, which can slide back and forth inside the coil. Attached to the metal piece is the "speaker cone" which may be of paper or of metal, but it's much like a large dinner plate or shallow bowl, and it can be vibrated by the moving metal piece.

The speaker receives the wiggling voltage of a certain frequency, and this voltage is fed to the large coil of wire, which creates an alternating magnetic field, which moves the piece of metal. Because the center of the speaker cone is attached to the piece of metal, the speaker cone is now vibrating at that same frequency.

Presto! Loud sound of a guitar!

Shopping for an Electric Guitar Amplifier

Perhaps using some advice from an experienced guitarist as a guideline, visit a large music store if you can. Take your guitar. Now "audition" different amplifiers in your price range. If you have more than one guitar, you might want to try several of them.

Make sure all the amp's switches and controls work correctly, and you don't really want to hear a lot of popping, or crackling, or static, or hum. If your guitar has multiple pickups, try them all to make sure you like the sound. In general they should sound approximately equally loud, though this may not be perfect. (You've probably noticed that the front and back pickups have a different sound, and so they may not have exactly identical loudness coming through the amp.) When checking different pickups, you probably want to have the amp's "EQ" (equalization) knobs set to the middle, neutral position, for example, neither boosting lows nor cutting lows, and neither boosting highs nor cutting highs. This is so you can hear the pickup fairly accurately.

Generally, effects that you add separately will be more powerful and cost effective than effects you find built into the amp, but some effects features are frequently added to amps. EQ and compression, for example, may be common.

Probably it's best to avoid buying a lot of gimmicky effects that are built into the amp, unless you are sure you will be using them.

Service and Guarantees

If you choose a popular "name" brand, and buy from a dealer who can handle repairs, you're in a safer position. (Of course, it would be good if you can find out whether this dealer does repairs quickly or slow; it would be a bummer if you had to wait for weeks or months with your amp out of commission!)

Size and Power

One of the biggest factors that will impact your wallet is: how powerful?

Guitarists frequently overestimate the amount of power that they will need. Are you playing in your own home? At the local coffee house? At a noisy bar? In a larger venue? In an auditorium? In a football field on a stage with the Rolling Stones?

If you approach the power you "need" modestly, you can afford to buy a higher-quality, smaller amp that will serve you better in the long run, be more reliable, and which will weigh less and be easier to set up.

If you are playing gigs, of course it's wise to have just a little more power than you expect you'll need, because this means the amp can operate well within its limits. It can just laze along and do fine, and you don't have to run it full out.

Be sure to check how the amp can change the sound of your guitar. In general, an amp which can give you a wider variety of sound will be the more useful on the gig.

Research and Window Shopping

You can educate your mind and your ears with some judicious window shopping. If you have access to a guitar store where one of the guys working there plays the guitar, then he may be helpful in bringing you up to speed.

Research online can be helpful, or it can be confusing. For example, if you visit "Harmony Central" you will find reviews on many kinds of musical gear, including guitar and bass amps. The guitar magazines are *stuffed* with information. And in fact this kind of research can easily become information overload, plus these writers may be getting all technical (showing off) and talking about how you *need* this and you *need* that, and maybe you don't need any of that at all, so balance this kind of "research" with plenty of hands-on trying out of amps whereever you can.

Your body and your ears are a better judge of what *really* works, for you and your music. Trust them.

Where to Find Electric Guitar Amplifiers at Great Prices?

Online Discount Music 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 –