Lists updated on May 9th, 2022. This article is about guitar amplifiers in a pedal format, not simple preamp-style pedals or amp/cab simulators.
Most electric guitarists agree that having to carry an amplifier around to gigs and rehearsals sucks royally. This sentiment tends to grow stronger as the years go by, when lower back problems due to protracted “amp shlepping” start materializing.
Luckily for us and future musicians, the ongoing trend of circuit shrinking has been making it possible to fit powerful amplifiers inside increasingly smaller enclosures – as small as stompboxes.
The Best Guitar Pedals For 2024
In this article, we take a look at the best power amp pedals you can buy to make your life easier by replacing your bulky and heavy amp head with a much more portable and lightweight solution.
Ready to buy? Please use our affiliate links to Sweetwater, Reverb.com, Amazon, and the other independent stores – that’s what’s allowing us to keep this site alive at no cost to you!
...click here to expand a brief chapter about it. For the uninitiated, it can be confusing to understand how the guitar signal gets amplified inside a guitar amp. A classic misunderstanding is due to mixing up preamp and power amp stages. These days, there are a lot of pedals on the market carrying the “preamp” descriptor. These are also called “amp-in-a-box” overdrives, but that’s slightly misleading because amps, to be such, need something else. These are really just overdrives that simulate the sonic character of an amp, i.e its preamp stage. What they can’t do, is feed a cabinet – that’s what power amps do. This article is about pedals that can be plugged directly into your cab, because they have a power amp inside. While the function of a preamp circuit is to amplify your small guitar signal to line level, it still isn’t loud enough to drive a speaker cabinet. That is why amplifiers have a power stage, which amplifies the signal coming out of the preamp section to a suitable level to drive a speaker. The video below by Paul Davids clearly explains these separate stages. Power amps can be based on a tube or solid-state circuit. These sound different and work in completely different ways – more about it here. Power tubes like 6V6, 6L6, EL84, etc, are much bigger than preamp tubes and have more headroom. They are usually going to stay clean unless you really push them. Using either hybrid tube/solid-state design or solely solid-state (transistors), the pedals on this list feature both the preamp and power amp stages and are all capable of driving a speaker, effectively replacing your amp head! — The Advantages of a Pedal Amp Not convinced yet about replacing your amp head with a pedal-size amp? ...click here to expand a brief chapter about it. Besides their portability, amp pedals are extremely useful for quick and easy recording or intimate rehearsals. In the studio, they can give you access to a new range of tones for exponentially less money (and space) than a new amp. This being said, some are powerful enough to replace your 200w head without regrets even in the loudest live context. Some come with preamp sections or let you insert gain/preamp pedals before them (through FX Loops) to create your own tonal combinations, while others include extra effects like reverb and tremolo, just like the old Fender amps. All things considered, though, it seemed logical to organize this article by wattage, and by type of circuit – with an added final section about stereo pedal power amp. Where should a power amp pedal go? It should go at the end of your chain, just before the cabinet. If your device has an FX loop you can place other pedals between its preamp and the amp section as you see fit. — How Much Power? Ohms vs Watts As you probably know already, wattage is an important spec related to power amps. This is because watts = electrical power, and the more watts you can send to a speaker/cabinet the more volume it can generate. But that’s not the whole story… Cabinets and speakers have another important spec: impedance, calculated in “Ohms.” In most cases, a lower ohm value implies a better quality speaker, but 4-ohm cabinets require twice as much power as 8-ohm ones to deliver the same volume, so keep your cabinet’s Ohms in mind when choosing your power amp, because if you have a 4-ohm cab you will need more power, while if you have a 16-ohm one you may not want to push 200w into it! Therefore, it’s always good to be careful when matching a powerful amp with a high-ohm cab, because the latter can blow up if it’s fed too much power. Also, if you are a real nerd, you may want to look into the differences between Cass A, B, AB and D power amps. • Best Power Amp Pedals with Tubes Many electric guitarists are in love with tubes, and for good reason. Tube-based amps tend to confer to the signal a character that’s pleasing to the ear, often described as “warmer, ” “rounder, ” “smoother” and “more full-bodied” than the one imparted by transistor (aka solid-state) ones. Tubes also respond in a more natural-sounding way when saturated: they clip more gradually than a solid-state device, which makes them more touch-sensitive and responsive. On the other hand, tubes wear out more quickly and are more fragile than transistor-based designs – on average, they start sounding bad after around 8-10k hours of playing. While you might have to spend a little more, having a tube preamp as the front end of your amp can help you retain some of the organic saturation, compression, and warmth of an all-tube amplifier. Tim Marcus of Milkman Sound says “There is no substitute for the marriage between a magnetic guitar pickup and the first stage of a tube amplifier, and this is something that is missing with modern pedalboard setups.” Here’s a list of the best pedalboard tube power amps. Milkman The Amp 100 $799 | Click title for video. Buy it on eBay, Reverb, or Amazon. A true boutique gem, the 50-watt version of The Amp features a Class D hybrid tube/solid-state amp that can fit on your desktop (or your pedalboard, although it’s not super-compact). It uses a 12ax7 preamp tube that can be pushed or overdriven just like any tube amp. The power stage can be run into a speaker or DI out into a recording interface or PA. It also works in “pedal mode, ” as a gain stage or tone sweetener. The Amp 50 also features classic onboard effects found in many vintage amps: spring reverb and tremolo. Its bigger brother, the Amp 100, gives you more power and adds a footswitch-triggered boost circuit, but loses the reverb footswitch, which is very handy indeed. The reverb is a digital circuit with controls for decay and blend and can deliver very musical reflections ranging from room to the classic drippy spring reverb. Just like The Amp 100, the 50 has optional cab simulation and can be run at pedal level, into a speaker cab, or into headphones for at-home playing. Here are some other quality alternatives with a tube-based circuit: Victory V4 The Sheriff Amp$999 | there are 5 flavors of this 2-channel, 4-valve preamp followed by a solid-state, 180w Class D power amp. This is the Plexi in the series. Each channel has saparate Gain and Master knobs, while sharing 3-way EQ, reverb and cab sim with presets by Two notes. It has headphones out and generous routing. The other 4 V4 units offer a variety of British and American amp tones1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video Zzounds | Sweetwater | More Reverb Amazon Orange Terror StAmp$199 | an affordable, Tube/Solid State 20-watt class A/B hybrid amp with an effects loop that is small enough to fit on a pedalboard. Runs at 8 or 16 ohms, so it’s possible to drive several types of cabs, but also includes headphones out with a cab simulator for late-night practice or DI recording.1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video Zzounds | Sweetwater | More Reverb Amazon Milkman The Amp 100$799 | A pedal-format power amp that gives you 100w of power, in a black case, with an added FET boost circuit that can push or overdrive the tube preamp stage, consisting of a single 12AX7. The 2nd footswitch controls a digital spring reverb with knobs for Decay and Blend. Just like its little brother the 50, it boasts optional cabinet simulation, pedal level output, and headphone output.1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video eBay | Reverb | Amazon audio kitchen the big trees$1, 049 | A boutique amp in pedal chassis. All valve class A 2.5 watt original design with clean and dirty channels. Can be used in your pedal chain, as a tube DI, or driving a speaker cabinet. Two band pre-gain EQ provides a range of tone and gain options, and the stepped drive
Best Guitar Amplifiers For 2023
In this article, we take a look at the best power amp pedals you can buy to make your life easier by replacing your bulky and heavy amp head with a much more portable and lightweight solution.
Ready to buy? Please use our affiliate links to Sweetwater, Reverb.com, Amazon, and the other independent stores – that’s what’s allowing us to keep this site alive at no cost to you!
...click here to expand a brief chapter about it. For the uninitiated, it can be confusing to understand how the guitar signal gets amplified inside a guitar amp. A classic misunderstanding is due to mixing up preamp and power amp stages. These days, there are a lot of pedals on the market carrying the “preamp” descriptor. These are also called “amp-in-a-box” overdrives, but that’s slightly misleading because amps, to be such, need something else. These are really just overdrives that simulate the sonic character of an amp, i.e its preamp stage. What they can’t do, is feed a cabinet – that’s what power amps do. This article is about pedals that can be plugged directly into your cab, because they have a power amp inside. While the function of a preamp circuit is to amplify your small guitar signal to line level, it still isn’t loud enough to drive a speaker cabinet. That is why amplifiers have a power stage, which amplifies the signal coming out of the preamp section to a suitable level to drive a speaker. The video below by Paul Davids clearly explains these separate stages. Power amps can be based on a tube or solid-state circuit. These sound different and work in completely different ways – more about it here. Power tubes like 6V6, 6L6, EL84, etc, are much bigger than preamp tubes and have more headroom. They are usually going to stay clean unless you really push them. Using either hybrid tube/solid-state design or solely solid-state (transistors), the pedals on this list feature both the preamp and power amp stages and are all capable of driving a speaker, effectively replacing your amp head! — The Advantages of a Pedal Amp Not convinced yet about replacing your amp head with a pedal-size amp? ...click here to expand a brief chapter about it. Besides their portability, amp pedals are extremely useful for quick and easy recording or intimate rehearsals. In the studio, they can give you access to a new range of tones for exponentially less money (and space) than a new amp. This being said, some are powerful enough to replace your 200w head without regrets even in the loudest live context. Some come with preamp sections or let you insert gain/preamp pedals before them (through FX Loops) to create your own tonal combinations, while others include extra effects like reverb and tremolo, just like the old Fender amps. All things considered, though, it seemed logical to organize this article by wattage, and by type of circuit – with an added final section about stereo pedal power amp. Where should a power amp pedal go? It should go at the end of your chain, just before the cabinet. If your device has an FX loop you can place other pedals between its preamp and the amp section as you see fit. — How Much Power? Ohms vs Watts As you probably know already, wattage is an important spec related to power amps. This is because watts = electrical power, and the more watts you can send to a speaker/cabinet the more volume it can generate. But that’s not the whole story… Cabinets and speakers have another important spec: impedance, calculated in “Ohms.” In most cases, a lower ohm value implies a better quality speaker, but 4-ohm cabinets require twice as much power as 8-ohm ones to deliver the same volume, so keep your cabinet’s Ohms in mind when choosing your power amp, because if you have a 4-ohm cab you will need more power, while if you have a 16-ohm one you may not want to push 200w into it! Therefore, it’s always good to be careful when matching a powerful amp with a high-ohm cab, because the latter can blow up if it’s fed too much power. Also, if you are a real nerd, you may want to look into the differences between Cass A, B, AB and D power amps. • Best Power Amp Pedals with Tubes Many electric guitarists are in love with tubes, and for good reason. Tube-based amps tend to confer to the signal a character that’s pleasing to the ear, often described as “warmer, ” “rounder, ” “smoother” and “more full-bodied” than the one imparted by transistor (aka solid-state) ones. Tubes also respond in a more natural-sounding way when saturated: they clip more gradually than a solid-state device, which makes them more touch-sensitive and responsive. On the other hand, tubes wear out more quickly and are more fragile than transistor-based designs – on average, they start sounding bad after around 8-10k hours of playing. While you might have to spend a little more, having a tube preamp as the front end of your amp can help you retain some of the organic saturation, compression, and warmth of an all-tube amplifier. Tim Marcus of Milkman Sound says “There is no substitute for the marriage between a magnetic guitar pickup and the first stage of a tube amplifier, and this is something that is missing with modern pedalboard setups.” Here’s a list of the best pedalboard tube power amps. Milkman The Amp 100 $799 | Click title for video. Buy it on eBay, Reverb, or Amazon. A true boutique gem, the 50-watt version of The Amp features a Class D hybrid tube/solid-state amp that can fit on your desktop (or your pedalboard, although it’s not super-compact). It uses a 12ax7 preamp tube that can be pushed or overdriven just like any tube amp. The power stage can be run into a speaker or DI out into a recording interface or PA. It also works in “pedal mode, ” as a gain stage or tone sweetener. The Amp 50 also features classic onboard effects found in many vintage amps: spring reverb and tremolo. Its bigger brother, the Amp 100, gives you more power and adds a footswitch-triggered boost circuit, but loses the reverb footswitch, which is very handy indeed. The reverb is a digital circuit with controls for decay and blend and can deliver very musical reflections ranging from room to the classic drippy spring reverb. Just like The Amp 100, the 50 has optional cab simulation and can be run at pedal level, into a speaker cab, or into headphones for at-home playing. Here are some other quality alternatives with a tube-based circuit: Victory V4 The Sheriff Amp$999 | there are 5 flavors of this 2-channel, 4-valve preamp followed by a solid-state, 180w Class D power amp. This is the Plexi in the series. Each channel has saparate Gain and Master knobs, while sharing 3-way EQ, reverb and cab sim with presets by Two notes. It has headphones out and generous routing. The other 4 V4 units offer a variety of British and American amp tones1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video Zzounds | Sweetwater | More Reverb Amazon Orange Terror StAmp$199 | an affordable, Tube/Solid State 20-watt class A/B hybrid amp with an effects loop that is small enough to fit on a pedalboard. Runs at 8 or 16 ohms, so it’s possible to drive several types of cabs, but also includes headphones out with a cab simulator for late-night practice or DI recording.1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video Zzounds | Sweetwater | More Reverb Amazon Milkman The Amp 100$799 | A pedal-format power amp that gives you 100w of power, in a black case, with an added FET boost circuit that can push or overdrive the tube preamp stage, consisting of a single 12AX7. The 2nd footswitch controls a digital spring reverb with knobs for Decay and Blend. Just like its little brother the 50, it boasts optional cabinet simulation, pedal level output, and headphone output.1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video eBay | Reverb | Amazon audio kitchen the big trees$1, 049 | A boutique amp in pedal chassis. All valve class A 2.5 watt original design with clean and dirty channels. Can be used in your pedal chain, as a tube DI, or driving a speaker cabinet. Two band pre-gain EQ provides a range of tone and gain options, and the stepped drive
Best Guitar Amplifiers For 2023
In this article, we take a look at the best power amp pedals you can buy to make your life easier by replacing your bulky and heavy amp head with a much more portable and lightweight solution.
Ready to buy? Please use our affiliate links to Sweetwater, Reverb.com, Amazon, and the other independent stores – that’s what’s allowing us to keep this site alive at no cost to you!
...click here to expand a brief chapter about it. For the uninitiated, it can be confusing to understand how the guitar signal gets amplified inside a guitar amp. A classic misunderstanding is due to mixing up preamp and power amp stages. These days, there are a lot of pedals on the market carrying the “preamp” descriptor. These are also called “amp-in-a-box” overdrives, but that’s slightly misleading because amps, to be such, need something else. These are really just overdrives that simulate the sonic character of an amp, i.e its preamp stage. What they can’t do, is feed a cabinet – that’s what power amps do. This article is about pedals that can be plugged directly into your cab, because they have a power amp inside. While the function of a preamp circuit is to amplify your small guitar signal to line level, it still isn’t loud enough to drive a speaker cabinet. That is why amplifiers have a power stage, which amplifies the signal coming out of the preamp section to a suitable level to drive a speaker. The video below by Paul Davids clearly explains these separate stages. Power amps can be based on a tube or solid-state circuit. These sound different and work in completely different ways – more about it here. Power tubes like 6V6, 6L6, EL84, etc, are much bigger than preamp tubes and have more headroom. They are usually going to stay clean unless you really push them. Using either hybrid tube/solid-state design or solely solid-state (transistors), the pedals on this list feature both the preamp and power amp stages and are all capable of driving a speaker, effectively replacing your amp head! — The Advantages of a Pedal Amp Not convinced yet about replacing your amp head with a pedal-size amp? ...click here to expand a brief chapter about it. Besides their portability, amp pedals are extremely useful for quick and easy recording or intimate rehearsals. In the studio, they can give you access to a new range of tones for exponentially less money (and space) than a new amp. This being said, some are powerful enough to replace your 200w head without regrets even in the loudest live context. Some come with preamp sections or let you insert gain/preamp pedals before them (through FX Loops) to create your own tonal combinations, while others include extra effects like reverb and tremolo, just like the old Fender amps. All things considered, though, it seemed logical to organize this article by wattage, and by type of circuit – with an added final section about stereo pedal power amp. Where should a power amp pedal go? It should go at the end of your chain, just before the cabinet. If your device has an FX loop you can place other pedals between its preamp and the amp section as you see fit. — How Much Power? Ohms vs Watts As you probably know already, wattage is an important spec related to power amps. This is because watts = electrical power, and the more watts you can send to a speaker/cabinet the more volume it can generate. But that’s not the whole story… Cabinets and speakers have another important spec: impedance, calculated in “Ohms.” In most cases, a lower ohm value implies a better quality speaker, but 4-ohm cabinets require twice as much power as 8-ohm ones to deliver the same volume, so keep your cabinet’s Ohms in mind when choosing your power amp, because if you have a 4-ohm cab you will need more power, while if you have a 16-ohm one you may not want to push 200w into it! Therefore, it’s always good to be careful when matching a powerful amp with a high-ohm cab, because the latter can blow up if it’s fed too much power. Also, if you are a real nerd, you may want to look into the differences between Cass A, B, AB and D power amps. • Best Power Amp Pedals with Tubes Many electric guitarists are in love with tubes, and for good reason. Tube-based amps tend to confer to the signal a character that’s pleasing to the ear, often described as “warmer, ” “rounder, ” “smoother” and “more full-bodied” than the one imparted by transistor (aka solid-state) ones. Tubes also respond in a more natural-sounding way when saturated: they clip more gradually than a solid-state device, which makes them more touch-sensitive and responsive. On the other hand, tubes wear out more quickly and are more fragile than transistor-based designs – on average, they start sounding bad after around 8-10k hours of playing. While you might have to spend a little more, having a tube preamp as the front end of your amp can help you retain some of the organic saturation, compression, and warmth of an all-tube amplifier. Tim Marcus of Milkman Sound says “There is no substitute for the marriage between a magnetic guitar pickup and the first stage of a tube amplifier, and this is something that is missing with modern pedalboard setups.” Here’s a list of the best pedalboard tube power amps. Milkman The Amp 100 $799 | Click title for video. Buy it on eBay, Reverb, or Amazon. A true boutique gem, the 50-watt version of The Amp features a Class D hybrid tube/solid-state amp that can fit on your desktop (or your pedalboard, although it’s not super-compact). It uses a 12ax7 preamp tube that can be pushed or overdriven just like any tube amp. The power stage can be run into a speaker or DI out into a recording interface or PA. It also works in “pedal mode, ” as a gain stage or tone sweetener. The Amp 50 also features classic onboard effects found in many vintage amps: spring reverb and tremolo. Its bigger brother, the Amp 100, gives you more power and adds a footswitch-triggered boost circuit, but loses the reverb footswitch, which is very handy indeed. The reverb is a digital circuit with controls for decay and blend and can deliver very musical reflections ranging from room to the classic drippy spring reverb. Just like The Amp 100, the 50 has optional cab simulation and can be run at pedal level, into a speaker cab, or into headphones for at-home playing. Here are some other quality alternatives with a tube-based circuit: Victory V4 The Sheriff Amp$999 | there are 5 flavors of this 2-channel, 4-valve preamp followed by a solid-state, 180w Class D power amp. This is the Plexi in the series. Each channel has saparate Gain and Master knobs, while sharing 3-way EQ, reverb and cab sim with presets by Two notes. It has headphones out and generous routing. The other 4 V4 units offer a variety of British and American amp tones1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video Zzounds | Sweetwater | More Reverb Amazon Orange Terror StAmp$199 | an affordable, Tube/Solid State 20-watt class A/B hybrid amp with an effects loop that is small enough to fit on a pedalboard. Runs at 8 or 16 ohms, so it’s possible to drive several types of cabs, but also includes headphones out with a cab simulator for late-night practice or DI recording.1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video Zzounds | Sweetwater | More Reverb Amazon Milkman The Amp 100$799 | A pedal-format power amp that gives you 100w of power, in a black case, with an added FET boost circuit that can push or overdrive the tube preamp stage, consisting of a single 12AX7. The 2nd footswitch controls a digital spring reverb with knobs for Decay and Blend. Just like its little brother the 50, it boasts optional cabinet simulation, pedal level output, and headphone output.1st tap: info, 2nd tap: video eBay | Reverb | Amazon audio kitchen the big trees$1, 049 | A boutique amp in pedal chassis. All valve class A 2.5 watt original design with clean and dirty channels. Can be used in your pedal chain, as a tube DI, or driving a speaker cabinet. Two band pre-gain EQ provides a range of tone and gain options, and the stepped drive
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