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From time-tested favorites to new-tech modelers, the amplifier choices available today can make a player's head spin. Here's how to find the amp that's right for your sound and style
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SOLID STATE AMPS: Power aplenty in a durable amp
PROS: Stable, reliable circuitry. Rugged enough to handle regular movement from home to rehearsals, jams, and gigs.
CONS: Less complex tones than tube amps.
In solid-state amps, transistors, rather than tubes, amplify the guitar’s signal, enabling the amp to produce more power with less distortion. Many of the clean tones favored by jazz and country players are tailor-made for solid-state. Technological refinements over the past few decades have made solid-state amps better than ever, but the limitations of transistors make it more difficult for these amps to deliver the sweet and subtly-to-savagely overdriven tones of tube amps.
Rugged and reliable, solid-state amps hold up much better under the rigors of transportation between practice and gigs, so they can be a perfect solution for gigging guitarists.
Vox Pathfinder 15
Behind the Pathfinder’s handsome
vintage-style packaging lurks a versatile, sweet-sounding practice amp with tremolo and reverb—features that aren’t widely available on many similarly priced amps. $169 list/$119 street. www.voxamps.co.uk.
Peavey Bandit 112
Versatile and powerful, the 80-watt Bandit 112 has a three-band EQ you can use to shape your sound and a very cool power level selector that makes the amp loud enough for a full-bore rock combo or quiet enough for bedroom practice without sacrificing tone. $479 list/$384 street. www.peavey.com.
Marshall AVT150HX Half Stack
If you want to eliminate all doubt that you’ll be heard above your band, try the Marshall AVT150HX half-stack setup, which includes a speaker cabinet with four 12-inch speakers. $1,728 list/$1,129 street. www.marshallamps.com.
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