Best Mini Guitar Amps 2020

The AC15 is the quintessential Vox guitar amp, and arguably the sound of the 60's British Invasion. Its bigger brother, the AC30 was designed to compete with the growing stage (and crowd) volumes. While the small but powerful voice of the AC15 gave rise to many electrified groups in the 60s.

Today, this tube amp retains the Class A flavor it is famous for while employing more consistent construction and materials. It has a bright voicing that can be too bright for some. Thankfully, it has a tone cut control that lets you shave off some of the excess highs.

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Compared to vintage Vox amps, the Greenback speaker gives it a more modern tube amp sound. This gives it a tighter bottom end. It still has the same clarity and chimey tone as the original, but more open and overdrive friendly.

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This makes the AC15C1 more versatile than what you'd normally expect from a vintage AC15. For a more traditional sounding speaker look at the AC15C1X instead.

It can get quite loud for a 15-watt amp, but it's not advisable to drive this amp too much, as it loses some of its clarity at high volumes. If you need more projection, better go for the more powerful AC30 version.

All in all, the AC15C1 is the best low watt tube amp for fans of Vox Tone. It has everything you need for a vintage 60s-style tone. With reverb and tremolo, many classic sounds can be achieved from The Beatles to The Shadows and beyond. It's the best clean amp for modern indie rock chime and jangle as well.

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The Rocker 15 is a 15 watt tube combo amp derived from the Rockerverb. It carries over Orange's signature dirt tone with extra features that make it more practice and recording friendly.

At 15 watts and with a 10 speaker, this tube guitar amp is not meant for big stages. But it has plenty of volume for rehearsals and small venues.

Since 15W is quite loud for use at home. But the amp comes equipped with a power attenuator, a power reduction circuit, which lets you lower the power rating to 7W, 1W, and 0.5W. This makes it useful for recording and practice at low volume levels.

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Of the two channels, the Dirt overdrive channel is the amp's strong suit, with gain, volume, and 3-band EQ controls. Since it utilizes two EL84 tubes in the power section, it has a British voiced tone.

This works well with Orange's thick and saturated overdrive which can go to high gain levels as you tweak the gain knob. There are no other amp voicings to switch to, so if you're not a fan of British flavor dirt tone, then this is not for you.

The clean channel has a neutral sound that doesn't add much and only has a volume knob. It's a bit too flat sounding for those who want chimey cleans, but it does work well with pedals.

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The Orange Rocker 15 is true to its name, a small amp that can rock genuine tube amp tones at lower volume, perfect for home recordings and practice. The 1-watt tube amp setting is great for recording while the 0.5 watt is good for silent practice.

Since 1948, the Fender Champ 5 Watt tube amp has been a practice and recording standard for many blues and country artists.

It's been used on several iconic recordings such as Eric Clapton’s Layla, Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way, Aerosmith’s Shame, Shame, Shame and ZZ Top’s La Grange.

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Many players of this generation, like jazz guitarist Julian Lage, have also found their voice in the Champ. It's one of the most instantly recognizable small Fender amplifiers.

This valve amp is a custom shop reproduction of a vintage Fender Champ, as such build quality is top-notch. It also means that it hits the mark when it comes to tone, albeit at a higher price tag. Even the Weber speaker used is designed especially to be as accurate to the originals as possible.

This small Fender amp also comes with a tube rectifier. A rectifier converts electricity between AC and DC (most rectifiers are currently solid state). This helps produce the compressed tone and “bloom” common with these designs.

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At 5 watts, it is not intended to be a main stage amp, although there have been acts that use it live by miking it up. It is one of the smallest and lowest in wattage on our recommended list.

The 57' Custom Champ also competes as the best low watt tube amp for recording. It gives you big league tweed tone in a small Fender amp.

This experience is usually reserved for those who can pay top dollar for a vintage model. The 57' Custom Champ is the best 5 Watt tube amp in this price range. It makes the classic tone more accessible for the rest of us who just want to plug in and play.

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It may not be enough for a loud band in live use. But for practice, recording, or playing a light jazz gig, the 57' Custom Champ is a small tube amp that packs a punch. You don't have to be a fan of Fender amps to appreciate this highly rated amp.

The Monoprice Stage Right 611705 is a compact 5 watt tube amp that has similar innards to the iconic Fender Champ, but at a more affordable price.

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This small tube amp sports a 12AX7 preamp tube and a 6V6GT power tube, and it drives an 8 Celestion Super 8 speaker. This combination gives you genuine tube amp tones that you can enjoy at lower volumes, and at a substantially lower cost.

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This 5Watt amp only has two knobs, volume, and tone. Tone behaves like an EQ, while the volume knob serves as the gain knob. Like old tube amps, raising the amp's volume knob adds grit and overdrive to the tone. You can then clean up the tone by dialing down the volume knob on your guitar.

To steer away from being a straight-up clone, it has a distinct input selection switch, it works like a power attenuator but with a twist. The switch lets you choose between 5 watt and 1-watt power ratings. The 5 watt tube amp setting is easier to overdrive and has restricted lows to reduce low-end mud. The 1-watt tube amp setting has a full range clean sound.

Given its 5 watt rating, this amp is meant for more intimate use, like quiet practice and recording. It doesn't have enough volume for rehearsals, let alone stage use. Don't let this discourage you as I still think it's the best tube amp for home use.

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This guitar combo amplifier is housed in a cabinet with a rear port. And it comes with simple vintage-style aesthetics. Given the price, don't expect it to have premium components and features like genuine hand wired circuitry.

All these perks and quirks make it the best low watt practice amp in this price point. And it helps that it's one of the cheapest tube amps in the market.

For Bruce Egnater, the number one influence of a guitar amplifier's tone is the tone stack. The Egnater Tweaker series was originally planned to be a modular amplifier with different swappable components.

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Down the line, Bruce Egnater decided to use toggle switches to enable the user to choose between a British, American, or AC (Marshall, Fender, and Vox respectively) tone stack. In addition, A vintage/modern switch, a normal/bright switch, and a tight/deep switch provide additional options for tonal customization.

And tone customization is exactly what this amp is for, allowing for a wide range of parameter control while retaining genuine tube and analog circuitry. More importantly, all the tones and voicings sound good and respond really well. The Tweaker 15W does all this while retaining a small profile and a very accessible price tag. The 15 watt amp also looks classier than it actually is.

Being a single channel amp with no digital brain. So there is no amp modeling, channel switching, or preset management. This means that there is no way to instantly change the amp voicing. This limits its versatility in live performances but isn't much of an issue when recording or practicing.

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If tone customization is high on your list, and you want to do so without resorting to digital technology, then the Egnater Tweaker head is for you. It's the best clean amp to use as a pedal platform.

The Dark Terror is a compact, 15/7W all-tube amplifier designed for heavier, saturated tones. It is great in the studio for getting more power amp saturation without overloading more sensitive mics like condensers.

The preamp has 4 stages of gain like many modern high-gain tube amps, while maintaining the ethos of being able to drive the power tubes at lower preamp gain settings.

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True to the Terror line, the Dark Terror features a very minimal control setup. It's a single channel amplifier with Volume and Gain controls that interact with each other to achieve specific tones.