5 amps to go with your electric guitar

The electric guitar is a really cool instrument. But unlike folk guitars, you need to plug them into an amp to get the most out of it. And just like electric guitars or folk guitars, you get so many choices that you’ll probably feel lost trying to pick up your first amp. Fear not, we have a short selection of 5 guitar amps that are perfect for any beginner guitarists out there. The goal being for you to learn without any limits, we focused on versatility so that you won’t get stuck on a blues amp if you want to play metal, or vice-versa.

 

It is however important to remind you that your tastes are your own. So spend some time on youtube trying to listen to the different amps in this list before making a choice, so that you’re sure to find one that you will really like.

 

And if you haven’t decided on a guitar yet, we also have a list of 5 electric guitars for you!

 

If I had to recommend just one amp, it would be this one. It’s a little marvel of modelling, providing you with a wide range of sound from Gilmour-ish cleans all the way to heavy distorsion suited for metal. Everything is easily accessible through the front panel so you won’t lose your mind trying to sculpt your tone. As an added bonus, there is an integrated tuner, always useless. And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also get a license for Ableton Live and Amplitube Fender in case you want to fiddle with recording.

 

Line 6 is the father of modelling amp technology ever since they produced the Pod. Their vast experience really shows with their little Spider amps that are terribly effective. The “Classic” version presented here is the most limited in terms of number of virtual amps available, but it’s still more than enough to get a good start on guitar. And if you want more, you can always check out their bigger brother, with nothing less than 200 virtual amps made available.

 

If you want to play metal, rock or other angry music, you have to go with Peavey. Even though their amps handle clean sound really well, their speciality is definitely in saturated tones, with enough distorsion to rip the paperwall off. And if you want to annoy your neighbors, you can always go with a bigger Vypyr amp to get more Watts out of it.

 

Let’s make this simple: I never managed to get a bad tone out of this amp. And believe me, I tried. The virtual amps sound good, the effects sound good, the speaker sounds good, it’s just overall a great amp. It’s a bit more suited for clean and crunchy sound, you might not get the same versatility in saturated sounds as a Peavey Vypyr, but no one will complain if you play some metal on this thing. Or any kind of music for that matter.

 

Blackstar might be a late-comer to the modelling amp scene, they still hit hard right from the get go. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they only have 6 virtual amps available, all of them have been created with great care. If anyone claim that amp sounds bad, they’re probably haven’t heard it.