What makes guitar amplifiers a complimentary accessory to a guitar that makes it a necessity to have? Well in some they are somewhat known as a pair that fit together perfectly as you can’t have one without the other, it would be as if you would have cereal without the milk or in a more musician side of things, having a drum set without the cymbals. Hopefully that didn’t confuse you too much with those metaphors and what not, but actually help you have a clearer understanding onto why guitar amplifiers are needed.
What are guitar amplifiers needed for?
As already stated and known worldwide, when it comes to electric guitars they play a big role in practically every types of music there is today, but in that equation a guitar amplifier has always played a big part of that. The main use of an amplifier is for those times that you want to amplify your sound, if you go to a concert or a performance event it is a must that you use an amplifier, for an acoustic setup or for practising purposes it isn’t very necessary to use an amplifier.
A guitar amplifier may seem complicated and be hard to comprehend, but it general its simply electrical wires all together and once you fully sit and look into it, it wouldn’t take a very long time to understand what is exactly inside. There are different features on an amplifier that differentiates each one, from their tubes, valve, solid-state, the watts and so on.
Types of amplifiers?
Tube
The tube is one of the many parts that make an amplifier work, being one of the main contributors which are also known as a vacuum tube. Being a small air-tight piece of glass that has specific metal parts within it, which would heat up and result in the voltage rising and flow through a different magnet, this would result in a loud sound from the speaker.
It is commonly known that a tube should heat up before they are used as well as leaving you amplifier run for approximately 30 seconds before you officially begin playing. You can find two power switch on almost all amplifier, one being the on switch and the other being the standby mode. The reason behind using the standby mode would be to protect the amp by only putting the voltage to the heating area of the tube. A guitar amp has two different types of tubes being the pre-amp tube and the power tube. The pre-amp tubes creates the voltage that comes from the guitars pass through amp strong enough, whereas the power tubes are used to make the amp loud.
Solid State
The solid-state amps are known that way as they use transistors for the preamp and power sections, being very reliable and rarely need any repair to them. Having a clean tone to them with a few amplifiers having the options of the distortion, these solid-state amps are fairly popular to use if you are looking for something that is sturdy and easy to transport around. A lot of the practice amps that are cheaper than the rest tend to be solid-state amps.
Modeling (digital)
A modeling amp uses a digital processor that would simulate the sound of an old fashioned tube technology. These amps are programmed and have various built-in effects such as the delay, chorus and many more, something else that is also included would be a digital or analog outputs that are used to connect to a recording interface or even a PA system.
Features in an amplifier?
There are many features that can be found in the different types of amplifiers, some of these features are the reverb, effects and son on.
Reverb
Depending on the amp they may use the spring reverbs, in which it gives off a very natural and soothing sound, this is in comparison to the other that would use a digital reverb.
Built-in Effects
Various amps today have their own built-in effect, such as tremolo being another effect that many of the amps would feature. The modeling amps would usually already contain built-in digital effects.
Which amplifier would be the best to choose from?
- There are so many brands out there that are known for their guitar amplifiers, so at times it can be difficult to choose out of so many options. Usually what makes the process easier would be to either read up the specifications online, compile a list of the ones that caught your eye and after go to a music store and test them out to see which is more suitable for you. Some of the brand that make stand out the most would usually be the most popular or the ones that are used by your favorite musicians, you can take a look at Orange Amps, Blackstar, Ampeg, Mesa Boogie, these are just a few of the brands that do not disappoint with their amplifiers.
Mesa Boogie John Petrucci JP 2C
A limited edition amplifier from Mesa Boogie, in collaboration with John Petrucci being an avid user of the brand.
- Wattage: 100 or 60 Watts
- Power Tube Type: 4x Mesa 6L6
- Channels & Modes: 3 Channels/ 5 Modes
- Graphics EQ / Reverb / FX / Solo: Two Graphics EQs, Reverb & FX Loop
Blackstar HT Club 50 MKII
The HT Club 50 MKII is a versatile amp that provides all the right tones that you would need.
- EQ: 3band EQ, ISF (OD Channel), 2 band EQ (Clean)
- Footswitch: 2x ¼ “ (2 way, 5 way)
- Number of Channels: 2 channel, 4 voices
- Total Power: 40W
- Preamp Tubes: 2 x 12AX7
- Power Tubes 2 x EL34
- Reverb Dark/ Light
All that were mentioned above are just one of the various different types of amplifiers that each brand offers. If you are interested and want to know more about each brand you can search through their sites to find which local music store would have what you are looking for. It is always better good to test out the amp before making a purchase, it is best not to make an investment in something you will never touch.