A beginner’s guide to buying a guitar amp
Trying to figure out what guitar amp to get is like trying to make a decision when buying a car. Sure an automobile is much more expensive, but they both cost money and you need to make sure that they do what you need them to.
Stick with trusted brand names when buying an amp. I can’t tell you how many off the beaten path amps that I have purchased that didn’t work well. If you feel the love for vintage coming on already, wait till you’ve got a little bit more experience under your belt so that you can make better decisions on down the road. If you are a beginning
guitar player and need an amp, this is obviously no time to start up a rare collection.
Your budget doesn’t need to exceed five hundred dollars, and in many cases you can get a high powered practice amp for around three hundred. A practice amp will generally contain one, 12 inch or 10 inch speaker, which is plenty of sound. However, if you think that you might be jamming with some people any time soon, I would suggest going ahead and getting an amp with two, 12 inch speakers.
You don’t necesarilly need a lot of wattage to pump out the sound, but if you’re going with a lesser known brand name then maybe you consider looking in the higher wattage department, but this all depends on what you want out of your amp.
If you plan to study rock styles of music, then you’re obviously going to want some effect goodies, but I always remind people that even if they want to stick to just clean playing (no distortion), having a nice array of effects is a good thing for tweaking your
sound. Some people always say that too many effects is just covering up poor playing, and I agree with this, but there are some nice recipes out there to get a great tone, clean or distorted.
Now days amp technology has improved so much some guitar amp models can actually record a little bit of music, loop it, have plug in features for stereo headphones (so you don’t bother mom and dad), and some even have USB connections made available for easier recording purposes.
I don’t think that spending so much time on an amp is as important as trying out a lot of different guitars, but it never hurts to experiment with different ones in a store. If you are new to guitar playing and the thought of walking into a store and plugging in is terrifying to you, don’t worry about it. This is widely accepted and commony practice in the lair of a musician consumer. Twist the knobs around, ask questions about what does what, and see if any kind of tone stands out to you.
After this the next step is to get a little instruction to learn and master guitar. There are plenty of easy learn and master guitar courses that will help you take your guitar playing where you want it to go.
About the Author
1953 Gibson GA-40 vintage amplifier