If you’re thinking of adding a pedalboard-sized amp to your rig, check out our picks of the best examples on the market today.
Pedalboard amplifiers are the ultimate portable amplifier situation. When many of us are getting the core of our sounds from our ’boards, why not go the extra mile and move the amplification solution to the floor too? Luckily, there are lots of fantastic space- and back-saving options out there if you’re so inclined.
Before we dive in, a quick note: not all pedalboard amps fill the same need. The main difference is in the form of power amplification: some pedalboard amps are a very literal interpretation of those two words, effectively a full-blown amp head scaled down to fit alongside your pedals. These are capable of running via a speaker cable into a traditional cabinet, bearing the power-amplification stage needed to drive a cabinet.
Fender In A Box Guitar Pedals
On the other hand, some pedalboard amplifiers offer cabinet simulation. This signal can then be fed straight into an audio interface or mixing board. There’s a lot of crossover between the two camps, but these are the two core approaches you’ll find in this corner of the gear world and it’s important to understand them, before you run a 100-watt signal into a mixing desk and something explodes.
Boss’ latest floor-based multi-effects processor boasts an impressive 154 effects and 23 amps, alongside 100 factory preset effects chains and 200 slots for your own. Each effect chain can be put together with up to 15 modules, and the state-of-the-art AIRD (Augmented Impulse Response Dynamics) technology the virtual amplifiers use helps separate the unit’s simulated ‘in-the-room’ sounds from the rest of the pack.
Aside from its flagship feature – a touchscreen interface that allows drag-and-drop rearrangement of effects blocks – interacting with the unit also happens through tactile parameter knobs, a number of footswitches and an expression pedal. I/O is incredibly extensive, with a number of options for running the unit either as a traditional multi-effects, into a mixer or audio interface, or as an interface itself via USB.
Is This Fine For A Budget Beginner Guitar Amp?
For its wide featureset and impressive hardware, the GX-100 is also notably affordable, a good £300 less than its larger sibling the GT-1000.
No, you haven’t accidentally switched over to our best overdrives list: Blackstar’s new Dept. 10 pedals on the surface might just seem like tube-driven boost and drive pedals, however, they’re loaded with CabRig – Blackstar’s impressive proprietary cabinet and amplifier simulation tech, which has a bevy of deep-edition options available via software.
So, essentially, you have the best of both worlds – the sounds of overdrive and distortion achieved by a real preamp tube, combined with the size, weight and customizability provided by state of the art DSP cabinet simulation. The sounds can be run via XLR into a mixer or an interface, or the pedals themselves can work as discrete interfaces via USB. And, the pedals can still function like regular two-channel overdrive or distortion pedals when run into the front of an amplifier.
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Universal Audio is, of course, no stranger to the world of DSP. This trio of new pedals from the brand, under its UAFX line, zeroes in on the amplifier side of things (following modulation, delay and reverb pedals, also released as a trio), with black-panel and tweed Fender combos and a Vox AC30 represented in the lineup.
Each amp emulator pedal includes a speaker cabinet, mic, and room tones derived from the award-winning OX Amp Top Box. As a handy bonus they’re all also incredibly compact, making them a great option if you want to add amplifier emulation to your own pedalboard rig, or just use them as a much more compact alternative to the full-sized combo amplifiers – have you ever tried to fit an AC30 in the front pocket of a gigbag? It’s pretty tricky.
The StompMan falls into the more traditional categorisation of “pedalboard amplifier”, being essentially a standard amplifier head shrunk down to the size of a pedal. Its power amp section is rated 50 watts at four ohms – more than enough for enough stage volume to compete with a drummer, and fill out a venue without mic’ing up the cabinet.
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Onboard, you’ll find a preamp section driven by Hughes & Kettner’s Spirit Tone Generator, with controls for gain and tone. The power amp has controls for sagging, master volume, presence and resonance, as well as a configurable solo boost to kick up the master volume level as needed. There’s also an effects loop for inserting pedals between the preamp and the power amp, and the right footswitch can be configured to either engage the effects loop or remove the preamp from the chain, if you’d rather just use the power amplifier of the StompMan.
While it’s not as feature-packed as some of the more digital-heavy units on this list, it does retain a fully analogue signal path – which might be important to you – and is significantly more affordable. If you’re looking for a simple way to drive a cabinet, one that can be easily placed on a pedalboard, the StompMan could be just right.
The third entry in the Mako series from Walrus Audio, the ACS1’s name helpfully stands for Amp and Cab Simulator. It packs a lot of the core features of a pedalboard amp into a tiny enclosure, no bigger than your average Tube Screamer. There’s a selection of amps inspired by three stalwarts of the world: Fullerton offers Fender-y cleans, Dartford some AC30 bite and London some Marshall roar. And for even more flexibility, you can load your own cabinet IRs on top of the six options offered stock.
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Excitingly, amplifier models can be chosen independently for the left and right channels, boiling down a dual-amp stereo rig into something that fits in the front of your gig bag. While it might not power a speaker cabinet by itself, it’s a great option to run straight into the front-of-house. And, in these times when home recording is more prevalent than ever, it’s a wonderful pairing with a dual-input audio interface for a full-sounding and perfectly silent home-recording rig.
The latest from digital modelling giants Neural DSP, the Quad Cortex spares no expense when it comes to processing power. A sleek, black enclosure houses enough CPU muscle to run a plethora of effects and amp models in series or parallel, or play the 1993 video game Doom. The only real limitation to the sound you want to coax out of it will be option paralysis: on top of 50 amps, 70 effects and 1, 000 impulse responses, the Quad Cortex can profile your favourite stompboxes. Perfect if you don’t want to subject that Klon to the rigours of the road.
The ability to profile your own rig is especially handy considering the Quad Cortex’s size. While it’s by no means gargantuan, it is big enough to make fitting it into a bigger rig a little tricky. The Quad Cortex is designed to effectively be a pedalboard, on top of being an amplifier and audio interface.
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If the Neural DSP Quad Cortex is a high-powered laser sword from space year 2900, then the Orange Terror stamp is a hammer. A lot simpler, but you still wouldn’t want to get hit by one. Metaphorically. Or literally, for that matter, as the Terror Stamp is effectively a pedal-sized version of the Orange Tiny Terror, complete with the same sturdy metal design.
On board you’ll find a real glowing tube in the preamp stage, ideal if you want a more compact rig but don’t fancy abandoning analogue technology just yet. A solid-state power stage kicks out 20 watts into a speaker cabinet if you’re so inclined, but there’s also a cabinet-simulated headphone output for either silent playing or running direct.
A handy feature is the ability to switch between two master volumes with the footswitch for a truly clean solo boost, as well as an in-built effects loop to make full use of the amp’s on-board gain. Which, true to Orange’s stylings, there’s no shortage of.
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As powerful as it is compact, the HX Stomp uses the same Helix DSP engine found in Line 6’s other effects units. This means you can use six simultaneous amp, cab, and effect blocks, with support for parallel signal splitting and stereo effects.
Those looking for a flexible piece of kit will be pleased to hear that the HX Stomp, as much as it can work as a complete rig in and of itself, can happily sit in front of an amp or other ‘regular’ pedals. The “four cable method” also allows you to use the HX Stomp simultaneously in front of an amp and in its effects loop. This means you can have an effects box to play with at home for direct recording or silent practice, and when needed you can still bring the volume with a powered cabinet or a regular amp.
For something called the Simplifier, this sure has a lot of connections. Luckily, they’re all in service of one thing: giving even the most rats-nest-esque stereo rigs an elegant, understandable signal
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