Get the facts on guitar amps with answers to ten FAQs from the experts at Premier Guitar.
What is a guitar amplifier?
An amplifier is to your electric guitar as a blast of electricity was to Frankenstein’s monster: it gives it life. In simple and traditional terms, it receives the signal created by your electric guitar’s pickups, processes and boosts that signal, and amplifies it through one or multiple speakers.
What’s the difference between an amp head and a combo amplifier?
An amp basically involves two sections. The first comprises a chassis, control panel, and circuit that process the signal, while the second comprises a speaker section which is connected to the circuit. Sometimes they’re both housed together in one box called a combo amp. Sometimes the first part is housed on its own, and can be connected to a separate speaker cabinet. That is an amp head.
What types of amps are there?
There are four main types of amps: tube (or valve, as the Brits call ’em), solid-state, hybrid (both tube and solid-state), and modeling.
What’s the most popular type of amp?
The tube amp. From the 1950s onward, tube amplifiers have dominated stages around the world, but solid-state amplifiers emerged in the 1960s as an alternative to the perceived unreliability of tube circuits. These days, loads of touring and studio guitarists are opting for modeling amps and even amp pedals.
What’s a tube amp?
Tube amplifiers are named after the glass vacuum tubes that form a key part of the amp’s circuitry. The signal is usually passed through two sections of tubes—preamp and power amp—which impart different characteristics to the resulting sound depending on how an amp’s controls are set. A lot of players describe the tube sound with words like warmth, sag, punch, and chewiness. You can check out our in-depth guide on tube amps for more info.
What’s a solid state amp?
Solid-state amps are those that don’t use any tubes at all, and instead use transistors to affect and amplify your guitar’s signal. Here’s an explainer on solid-state amp tech.
What’s a modeling or digital amp?
These are entirely digital modules that mimic or ‘model’ the function of amplifiers. They can be paired with real speaker cabinets, or with digital impulse response (IR) programs, which in turn mimic what a speaker cabinet does in various rooms. Given their size and ease of use, more touring guitarists are choosing them
What are 1x12s, 2x12s, and 4x12s?
These are shorthand terms for speaker cabinets that hook up to an amplifier. The 12 refers to the size of the speaker cone: 12 inches. The preceding number refers to the number of speakers in the cabinet. A 1x12 has one 12-inch speaker, a 2x12 has two 12-inch speakers, and so on. These are also sometimes designated as 112, 212, and 412 by manufacturers.
What type of amp is best?
You’re not gonna like this answer, but it’s the one that’s right for you. Whatever sounds best to your ears is the best amplifier for you. Don’t worry what the forum overlords and trendsetters are doing. They’re not listening to your playing, you are, so your own satisfaction comes first. Consider various factors: How often will you play through the amp? How loud or quiet do you need it to go? How big or small do you want it to be? What style of music are you playing? What’s your budget? Add ’em up, do your research, and pick what fits your style.
Where can I read more about amplifiers?
Try “Are Digital Modelers For You?” and “Top 10 Tips For Buying An Amp” at premierguitar.com.
A full circuit recreation of the mythic Peavey Decade practice amp packed into a pedal enclosure.
The latest innovation from Acorn Amplifiers, the Solid State, is a full circuit recreation of the now-mythic Peavey Decade practice amp packed into a pedal enclosure. The Acorn Amps Solid State incorporates the TDA series class-AB power amp device utilized in the original amp design, giving you the most authentic reproduction available in a modern pedal format. Two separate output jacks allow the Solid State to be used as either a preamp in your pedal chain or as a standalone 10 watt amplifier plugged directly to a speaker cab; they can even be used together at the same time. Additionally, a toggle switch lets you select between sending the signal out before or after the power amp circuit for maximum tonal versatility.
Features
- Full 10 watt solid-state guitar amp circuitry (preamp and power amp)
- Low, Mid, & High controls to dial in your tonal frequency
- Two separate output jacks to use with a speaker cab or normal pedalboard wiring or both together at once
- Two footswitchable tone modes - Normal and Saturation
- Toggle switch to send the signal out from two different points on the circuit path as well as a mute switch for quick studio tracking
- Bi-color LED indicator that lights up green in Normal mode and red in Saturation mode
- True bypass & powered by 18VDC pedal power
Preorder now at acornamps.com.
Light weight, heavy tones, and a very accessible price.
Tube-like touch sensitivity and dynamic range not common for solid-state amps.
Doesn’t come with a footswitch.
$499
Orange Super Crush 100
orangeamps.com
Tube amplification remains the gold-standard for most players. But the growth and acceptance of digital modeling has made the issue much less black and white. In this more open field, where the presence of tubes has ceased to be a must, solid-state amplification may be finding a new audience. And light, inexpensive, and excellent sounding options like Orange Amplification’s Super Crush 100 may expand that audience even further. Taking inspiration from the company’s all-tube Rockerverb, it’s a flexible, 2-channel, solid-state, 100-watt, class A/B amp that can be had in head and 1x12 combo versions for $499 and $699.
Just Stacked Enough
The Super Crush 100 isn’t lean on features, but it’s pretty easy to navigate and work with. There’s a built-in digital reverb and a balanced XLR output that you can put to work via Orange’s CabSim speaker emulation technology, which offers closed- or open-back options via the CabBack switch. A channel switching footswitch isn’t included, but you can manually switch channels from the front of the amp. If you anticipate moving between clean and dirty a lot, Orange’s FS-2 footswitch ($41) is a worthwhile investment.
Like all Orange amps, the Super Crush 100’s control panel can be a little confusing to decipher if you’re new to the brand. Pictographs rather than words describe the function of each knob, but knowing what’s what becomes intuitive quickly. Otherwise, the layout is pretty straightforward. Master volume and reverb are shared by both channels. The dirty channel’s controls include volume, treble, middle, bass, and gain. The clean channel has controls for treble, bass, and volume.
- Mic Centered 1" Away: Clean
- Mic Centered 1" Away: Dirty
- Mic Centered 1' Away: Clean
- Mic Centered 1' Away: Dirty
- Mic Left of Center: Clean
- Mic Left of Center: Dirty
A Clean Slate
To gauge the Super Crush 100’s ability to, well, crush, I ran the amp through a Celestion-equipped 1x12 cabinet and tried it out with an Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Sport and a Schecter T-7 7-string guitar, as well as a Line 6 M9 patched into the fully buffered effects loop for delay.
The clean channel has two gain stages and sounds warm, if not super loud. With treble and bass knobs at noon and the channel volume up around 3 o’clock (and the master volume set more conservatively), the Orange had the lively feel and sound of an amp pushed right to the brink of distortion, but remained balanced and even in the high and low ends. Low E-string notes were robust and fat. And though I expected some solid-state brittleness from the highest strings, I was pleasantly surprised that the treble tones sounded just as full.
At lower volume levels (noon or less), the Super Crush 100’s clean channel is a fantastic pedal platform. The overall character at these settings is somewhat neutral and darker than a sparkly Fender-type clean. But if you’re like me and occasionally have a hard time matching certain pedals with the super sparkly voice of some Fender amps, the Super Crush’s capacity for optimizing pedal pairings will impress.
The Super Crush 100’s clean channel is a fantastic pedal platform.
Crushin’ It
Over on the dirty channel, I started in with the gain set low and noticed something interesting. Between the full-counter-clockwise and 9 o’clock positions, the gain control doesn’t deliver much in the way of volume or dirt. At 11 o’clock the amp starts to sound and feel discernibly loud but remains relatively clean. Once you get to about noon, though, power chords sound robust and beefy, and I found the sweet spot for both crunchy rhythm and lead guitar to be right around 1 o’clock and 3 o’clock. Within this range you can summon enough grit and sustain for heavy rock soloing and rhythm rock, or liquid, near-infinite sustain. Solos feel effortless and energetic at these settings—especially with a bridge humbucker in the mix. And even with this much gain, there’s lots of crisp definition and low-end clarity, and the amp feels responsive and fast. It’s also touch sensitive, with a dynamic range beyond what I’ve come to expect from a solid-state amp. At the 1 o’clock gain setting, I could clean up easily with a light picking touch or sound hyper-aggressive and commanding when I hit the strings hard.
Recording Ready
The Super Crush does a great job of facilitating creative recording, too. The XLR and CabSim emulation—which I routed to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, MacBook Pro, and GarageBand—make it easy to lay down tracks and take on silent recording tasks. The CabSim’s open- and closed-back options offer very different characteristics and, at least for the track I recorded, the open-back setting sounded more present and alive than the closed back. But both options are very useful, and the closed back will offer more low-end thump if that’s what you’re after.
The Verdict
If you’ve always lusted after an Orange Rockerverb but don't have $2,000 to spare, the Super Crush 100 is a killer alternative at a quarter of the price. While some tube purists might decry the lack of certain glassy tonalities, it still shines in the top end without sounding brittle and has lots of low-end power. But many more-convenience-minded players will revel in the Super Crush 100’s low maintenance and light weight (25 pounds) and amazing bang for the buck.