Vox guitar amps and the Beatles' early years are as synonymous with one another as peanut butter and jelly.

In keeping with the group's gradual splintering during the late '60s, though – and simultaneous pursuit of more individual musical paths – the Fab Four experimented with a wider range of gear as the years went on.

As Paul McCartney told GP in a 1990 interview, though, his personal fondness for the Vox amps of the Beatles' early days never faded.

Asked by GP if he ever spent time at home toying with tones, Macca said, “I do that mainly in the studio, which is almost like home. I can go in and just goof, and sometimes I just work on guitar sounds. I can get a nice clean sound fairly easily.

“It's the pumped-up sounds that I like to experiment with,” McCartney continued, “I've got one of the old Vox AC30s that Jeff Beck used to call ‘the old Beatle bashers.’ I once asked him if he used them, and he said, ‘What? Those old Beatle bashers?’ Then he realized what he'd said [laughs].”

In the same interview, McCartney – typically pigeonholed as the Beatle most inclined to buttoned-up, more old school pop – expressed his personal preference for gnarlier rock tones, despite his reputation.

“I love the sound of them [Vox AC30s],” he said. “I actually love the straight sound. It's pokey. It's not too clean. I'm not a big fan of clean in rock and roll. It's funny, in a way, because I guess I've got a reputation for being a fairly clean rock and roller. But my taste doesn't extend that way.”

Just as so many guitarists were in the mid-1960s, McCartney – not to mention John Lennon and George Harrison – found himself influenced by the ferocious tones achieved by Eric Clapton in his work with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Cream.

That aggression, in turn, influenced perhaps McCartney's finest guitar moment in the Beatles' catalog, his fiery guitar solo on the Harrison tune, Taxman.

“Turned on” – as he put it to GP in the same 1990 chat – after his exposure to the nascent British blues-rock scene, McCartney “went and bought an Epiphone. So then I could wind up with the Vox amp and get some nice feedback.”

The notion of rich, warm tube tone still looms large in guitarists’ imaginations. So much so that some manufacturers are still making strides to capture an authentic rendition of that technology in a smaller and less power-hungry form for use in compact circuits, even while so many others are embracing the digital technology that ably imitates such tones without a tube in sight.

By adding these four new Valvenergy Series 2 pedals to the four that already exist in Series 1, Vox is further embracing the Nutube technology invented by Korg several years ago, which has also been used in a series of Vox mini-amps under the Nutube banner.

Invented and patented by Korg, the Nutube, according to its maker, is “similar to a conventional vacuum tube, has an anode grid filament structure, and operates exactly as a triode vacuum tube. Also similar to a vacuum tube, it creates the same characteristic rich overtones.”

It’s worth noting up front, however, that you can’t replace existing dual-triode preamp tubes, such as the common 12AX7, with a Nutube. And while a Nutube uses far less power and produces less heat, it also produces significantly less gain. All that aside, it purportedly presents a clever means of achieving tubey richness and compression in circuits designed to employ it.

Pedals in this Series 2 selection include the Power Burst, Fuel Injector, Tone Sculptor, and Smooth Impact, listing at $199.99 for the first two and $219.99 for the second two. All are housed in a rugged aluminum box measuring 4.5 by 2.5 by 1.5 inches, the top of which displays a color and etched design unique to each model. Controls are unique to each pedal, but every one carries a small oscilloscope front and center that displays the circuit’s effect on the waveform as you play, as well as the pedal’s on/off status. Also common to all is the inclusion of space for a nine-volt battery inside, with Vox’s recommendation that you use an adaptor (not included) when possible due to the pedals’ considerable power consumption. The latter means that a minimum 600mA supply is required.

Vox also tells us that a buffered bypass is engaged when the pedal is switched off, as required for the Nutube to function smoothly in these circuits. Each pedal has side-mounted jacks for input and output, plus a nifty Link feature on a 1/8-inch jack at the front that can link two pedals to automatically turn one off when you turn the other on, thereby minimizing the toe tapping. This feature arguably made more sense with the Series 1 pedals, which were all amp-in-a-box style, enabling faux channel switching, but might still be handy to instantly turn off the Power Burst booster while turning on the Fuel Injector overdrive, for example.

I tested each of these with a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson ES-355 into a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo and a 65amps London head and 2x12 cab.

Fuel Injector Tube Overdrive

In addition to the shared features, the Fuel Injector carries knobs for drive, tone and level, plus a two-way mini-toggle for Natural or Fat mode, the latter position inducing a thicker voice that Vox proposes is particularly useful with single-coil pickups.

In use, this OD largely exhibits its own flavor rather than aping any of the classics of yore, while its oscilloscope displays the circuit’s impact on the overtone spectrum as you play. Within the Fuel Injector’s unique character I found good note-to-note clarity, which avoids getting muddy in power chords, along with some raspy bark and aggression at the core and a little fizz at the edge of the note that hints toward old-school ’70s distortions. There’s a pretty good range of gain-induced flavors from the drive knob, from mild overdrive (yet still with this pedal’s own personality) up toward a more distortion-leaning overdrive. The Natural/Fat voicing switch is effective, and I like that it doesn’t tip into being too boomy in the latter position, but adds just enough grunt to thicken up thinner-sounding guitars.

Fuel Injector Tube Overdrive

CONTACT voxamps.org

PRICE $199.99 street

CONTROLS Drive, Tone, Level, Natural/Fat voicing switch

EXTRAS Input and output, buffered-bypass switching, oscilloscope, center-negative 9V DC input (600mA minimum required)

SIZE 4.5"x2.5"x1.5"

ASSEMBLED IN Vietnam

KUDOS An original overdrive with a distinctively aggressive character when pushed.

CONCERNS Might be a little hard-edged for players seeking smoother TS-style overdrive.

Power Burst Tube Booster

Graced with a single boost knob for gain, plus a three-way mini-toggle for Treble, Natural, or Middle voicing, the Power Burst is a straightforward, yet relatively versatile boost designed to offer a degree of variable coloration to its gain staging. In this one, much like the Fuel Injector, the oscilloscope displays the harmonic complexity added to the sound wave as you play, and particularly as you turn up the boost knob.

While boost pedals can seem a dime a dozen at times, I found this one surprisingly good sounding, with an appealing character that lands somewhere toward the middle of the neutral-to-colored spectrum. The three-way voicing switch adds significant versatility, too, although it might prove something many players would like to switch on the fly depending on the guitar in use.

Arguably the Middle (mid boost) position can sound a little choked with some guitars and amp settings, but it’s handy if you need added grunt from a thin instrument. I really like the fact that the Treble setting adds sparkle to the upper register without emasculating the lower wound strings, and Neutral does much as it says on the box. With the boost knob up much beyond noon the hint of compression at the front — whether from the Nutube or merely the circuit itself — tips the Power Burst into low-gain overdrive territory, but with excellent articulation and less color than most drive petals. All in all, a useful and relatively versatile box for all its simplicity.

Power Burst Tube Booster

CONTACT voxamps.org

PRICE $199.99 street

CONTROLS Boost, Treble/Natural/Middle voicing switch

EXTRAS Input and output, buffered-bypass switching, oscilloscope, center-negative 9V DC input (600mA minimum required)

SIZE 4.5"x2.5"x1.5"

ASSEMBLED IN Vietnam

KUDOS A versatile booster pedal with an appealing character.

CONCERNS Not entirely neutral, if that’s what you’re seeking.

Smooth Impact Tube Compressor

The Nutube-equipped compressor of the bunch carries controls for tube gain, comp and output, with a three-way voicing/feel switch delivering Vintaged, Natural or Sag, plus an oscilloscope that displays its gain reduction upon attack and the speed of ramping up as the note swells.

In use, it’s a good-sounding compressor that simply does the job expected of it, but with appealing, if subtle variation from the three-way switch and the rather nifty added bonus of the tube gain knob to drive it. Generally, the first test of a good compressor is finding out how much you miss it when you turn it off, and indeed I heard a degree of that “blanket over the amp” thing when switching off this one.

With three flavors of comp readily available — subtle, yet distinct variations — and the three-knob versatility, it’s still very easy to use, yet a bit more flexible than some of the simpler compressor pedals out there. On one hand, it’s arguably not as overtly colored or characterful as some of the most-revered units on the market, but it’s a good-sounding rendition that has an appealing personality and does well at this price point.

Smooth Impact Tube Compressor

CONTACT voxamps.org

PRICE $219.99 street

CONTROLS Tube Gain, Comp, Output, three-way Vtg/Nat/Sag switch

EXTRAS Input and output, buffered-bypass switching, oscilloscope, center-negative 9V DC input (600mA minimum required)

SIZE 4.5"x2.5"x1.5"

ASSEMBLED IN Vietnam

KUDOS An effective comp benefitting from three feel/voice modes.

CONCERNS Possibly a touch subtle for those seeking more colored compression.

Tone Sculptor Tube Preamp Equalizer

This graphic equalizer features six sliders for frequency-band-dependant boost or cut of +/-10dB at 100Hz, 250Hz, 570Hz, 800Hz, 2.2kHz and 5.6kHz, plus a level slider capable of boosting or cutting by 12dB in either direction. On this one, the oscilloscope presents a graphic display of the relative levels of several frequency bands as you play when switched on.

All in all, it’s a handy and effective EQ, which pretty much does what you would expect from such a pedal. Effective at everything from a scooped smile curve that made the Voxy London head sound more black-panel Fender, to a pushed mid hump with a little level boost to convert the tweed combo into a mini Marshall, it also works well as a simple clean boost, with added frequency-carving flavors to taste. Beyond all this, though, I enjoy the way it adds a little compression to the front of the note while still remaining clear, and maxing out the level slider at 12dB is easily enough to crunch up the front end of your tube amp.

Tone Sculptor Tube Preamp Equalizer

CONTACT voxamps.org

PRICE $219.99 street

CONTROLS EQ sliders for +/-10dB at 100Hz, 250Hz, 570Hz, 800Hz, 2.2kHz and 5.6kHz; Level slider for +/- 12dB

EXTRAS Input and output, buffered-bypass switching, oscilloscope, center-negative 9V DC input (600mA minimum required)

SIZE 4.5"x2.5"x1.5"

ASSEMBLED IN Vietnam

KUDOS A simple but effective EQ, useful for tonal changes or frequency tweaked boost.

CONCERNS Might seem a tad pricey for what it does.

Following a quartet of “cloud” models, Prince’s Vox HDC-77 is the latest electric guitar from his collection set to be sold at auction.

A 1994 blue "cloud", a yellow model, his "Blue Angel" six-string, and his iconic “Cloud 3” have sold for a combined $1.9m in recent years, with the “blackburst” Vox estimated to sell for up to £300,000 ($383,000).

A regular on Prince’s stages, including his famed Montreux Jazz Festival set in 2013, it was a regular during the musician’s HitNRun tour, which visited the UK, US, and Canada between 2014-15. Those shows proved to be his final electric performances, with the Piano & Microphone tour concluding shortly before his death in April 2016.

Another HDC-77, this time with an ivory/white finish and a psychedelic body pattern, was also employed during this era, though the "blackburst" seems to have seen more stage time.

Vox launched the guitar in 2010 – a highly contoured body and a three-way switch for its CoAxe pickups to dish out humbucker, single-coil, and P-90-esque tones, were notable features.

3rdeyegirl – made up of guitarist Donna Grantis, bass player Ida Nielsen, and drummer Hannah Welton – had served as his backing band for the HitNRun tour, with the guitar’s last recorded usage at the White House. Prince played it during a special performance for Barack Obama in 2015.

“Cloud” guitars were a notable family of sidekicks during Prince's illustrious career, with other prominent, unorthodox, models including his crazily shaped Schecter custom shop symbol guitar.

But it was Nielsen who had turned him into Vox guitars. The bassist confirmed this with a 2019 tweet that read “I bought one for me, and then he liked it so much that I got one for him, too.”

The guitar has been in Grantis’ private collection until earlier this year, and according to the London-based auction house Sotheby's, the HDC-77 “hasn't been played since Prince last performed with it,” extending a chance for bidders to battle for an unblemished piece of Prince’s history.

The Vox’s sale is part of Sotheby's inaugural Pop Culture auction. It will bring artifacts from the worlds of music, film, and entertainment for the auction block, with three Noel Gallagher-played guitars and a Steinway grand piano that once called Abbey Road Studios its home, also set to be sold.

Bidding takes place online between August 29 and September 12. An in-person exhibition of the listings will take place at London's New Bond Street from September 9.

Visit Sotheby's to learn more about Prince’s Vox HDC-77 and the other artifacts that make up the Pop Culture collection.

In what is being hailed as “the amp find of the century,” John Lennon’s first Vox amp, a 1962 AC15 Twin, appears to have resurfaced after falling out of sight for 60 years.

A sharp-eyed Beatles fan came across it in an online auction, a feat made even more impressive considering the once fawn-colored combo amp was disguised under a coat of black paint.

Lennon purchased the amp, bearing the serial number ‘4583,’ in July 1962 from Hessy’s Music in Liverpool. It would feature at early Cavern Club shows and EMI sessions, including those that produced Please Please Me and Love Me Do.

Official verification is still to be made but the serial number is a match. There’s also photographic evidence to further the claim that this, one of only 30 AC15 Twins produced at that time, is the real deal.

Guitar World was invited to view the amp at the Cavern Club, where it was the subject of a photoshoot.

Its owner has remained anonymous but is represented by Nathan Hodgson, the man who discovered Jeff Beck’s prototype Ibanez signature late last year.

Recently retired and a hobbyist collector, he spotted the amp on the auction site Gardiner Houlgate in December 2023. He was excited at the prospect of owning a Vox much like Lennon’s first, not knowing it actually was his amp.

“There was only a £1,000 reserve on the amp, so I asked for more pictures,” the owner told Guitar World, via email.

“When I got the pictures checked, with the specification [and serial number] in the Vox book, I suddenly noticed it was the same as John Lennon’s amp. I couldn’t believe it.”

A bidding war ensued, with the owner speculating he wasn’t the only one to make the connection, ultimately parting with £16,000 to win the auction.

“I kept on bidding with excitement and some nervousness,” he says. “In my head, I said, ‘This is John Lennon’s…’ I had a limit of £15,000 – must be mad, I thought! Once I bought it I was happy, relieved, excited. All these emotions!”

Guitar World reports that the amp is in surprisingly good shape, given its 60-year journey, of which the last 20 years saw it kept in storage.

It came to the owner fitted with Celestion Greenback speakers. Period-correct Goodmans speakers have since been installed and its fawn finish has also been restored.

After Beatles manager Brian Epstein secured a Vox endorsement deal in 1963, the amp is believed to have been sold, with Lennon getting a larger AC30 amp in its place.

As GW says, there is a small doubt that this is Lennon's amp as “some unscrupulous traders have been known to swap chassis between cabinets, so the cabinet and serial number could be original but the internals sourced from another amp.”

However, it adds that the scarcity of these amps “presents a potential barrier to any bad actors in sourcing the components to create a ‘fake’.”

The owner says he is unsure of what to do with the amp once it is verified, but a sale, with a portion of proceeds going to the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, founded by Paul McCartney in 1996, seems likely.

While famous amps are “notoriously tricky to value” compared to their stringed counterparts, Hodgson says conversations with multiple auction houses have drummed up of a figure of £100,000 to £250,000 [approx. $123,000 to $320,000].

To read more about the amp, its history, and incredible re-discovery, head over to Guitar World.

The Italian guitar builders of the 1950s and ’60s were ahead of their time. I remember lamenting as a kid that my favorite psychedelic bands played such bland-looking guitars. The light shows, the fashions, the album covers and the amazing music were all so forward thinking, but more often than not the guitars they used were tobacco sunburst Gibson ES-335s and Gretsches.

Occasionally, someone would wield the teardrop-shaped Vox VI and, of course, Cream-era Clapton had his Gibson SG painted in psychedelic colors by the Dutch design collective the Fool. But let’s face it: If any of those musical visionaries had played the Italian-made Meazzi Hollywood Zodiac featured here, that brand would today be cemented in rock and roll history.

WEIRDO FACTOR

The shape says it all. It’s like a calmer and more elegant reversed version of Yamaha’s mid-’60s SG2C, a.k.a. the Flying Banana.

But shape aside, this is a straight-ahead, no-nonsense, meat-and-potatoes workhorse. Not being guitarists, the Meazzi brothers outsourced their early design work to the visionary Antonio Wandrè Pioli, who was known for his highly original shapes.

From the early ’60s forward, they commissioned the Polverini brothers of Castelfidardo, Italy. This is one of their builds.

PLAYABILITY & SOUND

First and foremost, this electric guitar has a singularly unique voice, thanks to its pair of single-coil pickups with global volume and tone knobs.

The bridge unit is super bitey and punchy, and while the neck pickup has some of the same aggressive features, it can easily be mellowed out by using the nicely voiced tone knob.

The pickup selector’s middle position is awesome and sounds almost out of phase. All three sounds work well either clean or with distortion, retaining a uniquely snarky punch.

But while this guitar sounds exotic, the build is solid. The black-lacquered maple neck sports beautiful walnut binding and a rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and a zero fret. The surface-mounted tremolo system is quite smooth and accurate to retune.

Meazzi had its own version of what we now generally refer to as a Tune-o-matic bridge, with one smart tweak: The bridge has six adjustable saddles and a small lever near the low E that can be toggled to free up the saddles for intonation changes, then locked securely back into place. Nice!

The open tuners have tulip-shaped buttons, much like Hofners of the same period, and the whammy bar boasts the guitar name, beautifully inscribed into the highly polished chrome.

VALUE

When new, the Meazzi Hollywood Zodiac retailed for about half of what a Fender Telecaster sold for. My friend bought the guitar shown here from an Italian seller at auction in 2018 for $1,100, but other models from the same line have gone for twice that.

WHY IT RULES

It has a unique shape and sound, it’s easy to play, and it’s light! While it looks slightly quirky, this elegant build is very practical, and also looks great when hanging horizontally.

Thanks to Doug Agnew for the loan of this groovy guitar!

Got a “Whack Job”? Feel free to get in touch with me at rtcarleton@gmail.com

The words classic and Vox might bring to mind that musical-instrument manufacturer’s iconic three-letter logo inscribed on the front of a 1960s British amp. But Vox guitars had their brief moment in the spotlight too during those heady years of the British Invasion.

These quirky cousins of the familiar AC30 and AC15 combos established a look that remains familiar today, even if the instruments themselves are less well known than the tube amps they accompanied in the catalogs of Jennings Musical Industries (JMI), the brand’s original owner.

Consider the 1966 V223 Mark XII 12-string shown here. Many guitarists will be familiar with its six-string sibling, the Mark VI, which Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones famously used. It’s a strikingly original design, but Vox had created others before it came up with this teardrop-shaped model.

Desiring a guitar line to accompany its amps, which were rapidly attaining broad popularity, JMI commissioned the London Design Centre in 1962 to come up with a design, resulting in the original Vox Phantom series.

More coffin shaped than the rounder Mark series that joined the fold in ’63, the Phantoms were assembled in JMI’s Dartford plant using necks and other parts made in Recanati, Italy, by guitar maker Eko, along with some U.K.- sourced components.

The Phantom and Mark series were produced through the ’60s, taxing JMI’s already overstretched facilities. In 1966, the company moved guitar production over to the Eko factory, and both lines show signs of this quirkily stylish Italian manufacture.

Despite its very different looks, the Mark XII is essentially laid out like a Stratocaster, with three similar single-coil pickups (Strat-like in themselves, yet with a telltale rectangular cover), three control knobs and a three-way switch.

The vibrato tailpiece found on this Mark XII would be odd on any 12-string, and not very desirable from a tuning standpoint. Regardless, it’s a cool visual feature and makes for some bold and unusual sounds.

The unit was a JMI creation called the Hank B. Marvin, named for the influential guitarist of the Shadows, a U.K. beat group best known for its instrumental hit “Apache.” The design was essentially taken from the Bigsby template, with a roller bar added to aid string tension.

Other unusual construction features of the Mark XII include the channeled metal double-T bar, which is set within the bolt-on neck for stability, a clip-on padded back cover to guard against buckle rash, and a zero-fret in place of the traditional string nut.

The 12-string Vox models arrived in ’65 after George Harrison popularized the electric 12-string sound the year before with his Rickenbacker 360/12. The Mark XII hit the U.S. market in ’66, the year this example was made.

A glance at the Vox U.S.A. price list for that year shows the V223 Mark XII retailed for $369.90, plus $44.90 for the Deluxe plush-lined contoured case, which was about $50 more than you’d have paid for a Fender Stratocaster of the same era.

In addition to Brian Jones’ endorsement back in the day, various models of Vox six- and 12-strings were seen in the hands of guitarists with Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Hollies and the Dave Clark Five.

Come the new wave, the Cure’s Robert Smith would play a Mark VI when assisting as guitarist with Siouxsie and the Banshees, and, later still, Coldplay’s Chris Martin would strap on a Mark VI.

In any era, the model’s styling remains as distinctive as ever.

Essential Ingredients

• Bolt-on maple neck with internal “double-T bar” support
• Ebony fingerboard
• 25-inch scale length
• Hank B. Marvin vibrato unit
• Three single-coil pickups
• Distinctive “teardrop” body shape

Guitar Player would like to thank RetroFret for showing us this fantastic example.

Taste? Restraint? “Playing for the song”? Pah! Guitars are meant to be played loud – and how else but through the best guitar amps? Glibness aside, the importance of a good guitar amp cannot be overestimated, whether you’re a tasteful jazz-er or the next Dinosaur Jr. The best guitar rigs are only really as good as the amplifiers they go through, making your choice of amp a crucial one.

For starters, your amp is the final word on the voice of your guitar set-up, and so potentially more impactful than any other element with regard to closing in on your tone. It is, of course, one part of a much larger equation, including but not limited to your pedal signal chain, your choice of pickups, and that highly individual tone you preternaturally hold within your very own fingers.

There are many different variables within amps, from type and size to the minutiae of their circuits. This can make choosing the right one for your set-up a bit more complex than it might seem; luckily, this is also why we’re here with a who’s-who list of what’s what when it comes to guitar amps. 

While not exhaustive, this best-of list is certainly an extensive one. Whatever your needs – be they a good amp for a beginner, a demure combo for quiet rehearsals, or a PA-upstaging backline behemoth – you’ll find something to suit your taste in the following entries.

If you’ve still got some burning questions about amps, tone, and how it all works, never fear; just head to our FAQ section at the bottom to learn more about what truly matters in the world of guitar amplification.

Quick list

Best for home practice

The original Spark hit the scene in late 2019 and changed the face of home practice amps forever. In 2024, Positive Grid launched its long-awaited sequel – and we're happy to say it does not disappoint. This unassuming 50W amp may look like all the other practice solutions on the market, but don't be fooled – it's concealing some very advanced technology.

Powered by the highly revered BIAS tone engine, this amp is capable of recreating some of the most popular tube amps and effects of all time, and when used in conjunction with the Spark app, this plucky little amp becomes the ultimate practice tool.

The revolutionary Auto Chord feature is hands down one of the most remarkable elements of this amp - giving you the ability to figure out the chords in any song from Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. The Smart Jam feature carefully analyses the notes you're playing and creates a backing track in a style of your choice - no, seriously, your amp will jam along with you! Now, if all of this wasn't enough, the app also gives you access to over 10,000 tone presets.

Best budget for gigging

The Boss Katana series has completely revamped a corner of the guitar amp market that had been leaving guitarists wanting for some time. Solid-state combo amps are not often the most inspiring of purchases, outside of industry leaders like Roland’s Jazz Chorus – but with the Katana, Boss has bucked the trend of boring, bringing practical versatility and phenomenal sound to the tighter-budgeted.

This is the Gen 3 Katana 100, a 1x12” solid state combo with 100W to its name; it’s just as at home on stage as it is, well, at home. The Katana 100 has six different amp voicings for you to choose from – including a new-to-Katana ‘Pushed’ mode that simulates an amp being played to its limits.

The Gen 3 edition of this gentle giant also adds USB-C connectivity for recording your amp’s output, a Solo boost button and some smart EQ options – as well as Bluetooth connectivity that enables you to engage a plethora of Boss effects algorithms via the proprietary Tone Studio app. This solid solid-state is loud, expressive and excels in every practical environment.

Best lightweight tube

When Blackstar came out with the claim of having ‘the lightest 50-watt tube amp in the world’, there were more than a few raised eyebrows. We were doubtful too, but it wasn’t just a marketing spiel. This really is a tube combo you can carry with one hand.

EL34 tubes make this combo an amazing pedal platform, giving you a pristine clean or lightly crunchy tone to build your sound upon. On its own, it sounds phenomenal, but where this amp really shines is when you put a bunch of pedals in front of it and drive it hard.

It’s also got some amazing connectivity options. The cab-rig output allows you to send your amp tone straight to front-of-house, or into your recording interface. This ingenious bit of tech, in conjunction with Blackstar’s Architect software, lets you painstakingly choose which cab sound you want, tweaking mics, cab sizes, and room settings.

Best all-tube head

This relatively small English company has really made a name for itself since launching in 2013. Offering competitively priced, hand-made amplifiers that are durable, roadworthy, and most importantly, sound fantastic!

The V40 is a single-channel, all-valve head that offers both American clean tones and British overdrive sounds. Through a series of clever switches, you can shape the tone to exactly how you like it, without any fuss. For example, the "voice" control shapes the upper mids. Voice I mode allows less of these frequencies through to the subsequent gain stage, whereas Voice II allows more through. This may seem like a simple feature, but it really does allow you to dial in your perfect tone - it works particularly well when playing with a band.

It's not just glorious high power on offer though, as the front panel switch allows you to lower the overall power to around 7 watts. In case that wasn't quite enough, you also have the option to use single-ended mode, which selects to just one or other of the power valves in Class A operation, resulting in a minuscule 1 watt RMS.

Best for classic rock

The Vox AC-30 is a cultural icon and favored by the likes of Tom Petty, Brian May, The Edge, and even Dave Grohl - oh, and the Beatles, you might have heard of them? This 30-watt diamond-clad-combo is responsible for some of the most remarkable guitar tones in history and has a sound that is purely its own - and not many amps can say that.

The AC-30 uses three 12AX7 preamp valves, as well as a quartet of EL84s to deliver its fabulously mid-focused sound. There's a power to an AC30 that hits you right in the gut - especially when it's cranked! Dial it back, and you can achieve those sparkly clean sounds that can cut glass if you're not careful.

The reverb and tube-driven tremolo are welcome additions, bringing the ability to soften the sometimes harsh nature of all that mid-range. At the same time, the master "tone-cut" provides even more tone-shaping capabilities. So if you are looking for an amp that will bring those classic British tones, take pedals incredibly well, and look impeccably stylish while doing it, then look no further than the Vox AC-30 C2.

Best boutique amp

The name Tone King is synonymous with extremely high-quality, hand-built boutique amplifiers that look like they have just jumped out of the '50s. The Imperial is one of the first amps produced by the Maryland amp gurus way back in 1993 and has been a firm favorite ever since.

The Imperial MKII clearly has its roots in the sound of the Fender Tweed and Deluxe amps of yesteryear, but with a few modern twists that make it desirable to the contemporary player. This 6V6 loaded dual-channel amp offers two distinct tones - rhythm and lead. The rhythm channel is voiced to deliver those classic '60s clean tones, but - thanks to a few clever tweaks in the new MKII - it also boasts a smooth overdrive sound as well as shimmering cleans. The lead circuit still has its hand firmly in the tweed tone world, but the addition of the "mid-bite" control means it can deliver scorching classic rock tones.

The 20W all valve power could be considered overkill for most home practice sessions, so Tone King has included the Ironman II Attenuator, which gives you the ability to drop the volume to a manageable level without sacrificing tone.

More options...

At this point, Friedman has become somewhat of a modern classic with the likes of Jerry Cantrel, Bill Kelliher and Billy Duffy using the golden-faced amps to devastating effect on stages around the globe. Now, while most of us would love nothing more than playing our Les Paul through a full-fat BE 100 Deluxe or even a Runt, there is one problem - price.

Luckily, Friedman has an incredibly affordable option for those seeking the BE bark without breaking the bank. Enter the Friedman BE Mini, a solid-state take on the famous preamp circuit wrapped up in a handy 30W mini head format.

This stripped-down amp provides only the bare essentials for quality tone, with a single channel set-up that delivers top-class high gain sounds, while the tiny footprint, lightweight nature, and 30W of power mean the BE Mini can be used in a myriad of situations, from playing live, recording in the studio or practicing at home.

Orange expanded their ‘Baby’ range at the start of 2025, via a trio of highly exciting amp heads designed with the packed-tight tour bus firmly in mind. The Tour Baby 100 is one of the trifecta, and it single-handedly solves a bus-load of problems with its tiny, vicious smarts.

For starters, it’s a 100W amp crammed into a Bento box. Not only that, but it’s a two-channel monster with some cool features; the clean channel has a built-in, one-knob VCA compressor, while the dirty channel makes use of a second footswitch-able volume control for boosts and whatnot. On the rear, there’s a balanced FX loop and a built-in DI, as well as dual speaker outs to make your full-stack dreams come true.

The Orange Tour Baby 100 is a solid-state amp head purpose-built for providing rock-solid performance on the road. It’s rugged, it’s loud and it’ll be more than happy doing whatever you tell it to do, thanks to thoughtful design and sheer usefulness. Good thing it sounds good, too.

You can't have a list of the best guitar amps and not include Marshall - arguably the most recognizable amplifiers in the world. Of course, we could have chosen a myriad of models to be featured in this guide, but the one that stands out is the Marshall Origin 20C.

Marshall fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when the iconic amp manufacturer dropped the Origin series back in 2018. Finally, Marshall was going back to their roots and releasing a no-nonsense single-channel tube amp that was a perfect throwback to their past yet included modern features that players demanded. This is easily one of the best Marshall amps in recent years.

The Origin 20C is capable of producing rich, warm cleans, on the edge of break-up blues-tones and righteous rock tones, all by playing with the gain control in conjunction with the power attenuator. This mighty amp also features an in-built gain boost if you find yourself needing more juice and also a footswitch controllable FX loop. So if you have an itch only Marshall could scratch, then the Origin 20C might be the best option out there for you.

Orange may seem like the sometimes forgotten British amp brand behind the juggernaut that is Marshall and the provenance of Vox. Still, they offer a tone that sits right in between the two offering the best of both worlds. The punchy and not too fizzy tone is perfect for rock 'n' roll.

The Orange Rocker 15 is designed to easily switch between the bedroom and the stage - something Orange has perfected with the Terror series - going from 15 watts down to the super neighbor-friendly 0.5 watts. In addition, the "natural" channel features a solitary volume control - not unlike the AC30 - and is designed to let the natural tone of your guitar shine through.

The "dirty" channel, on the other hand, is a little more of a standard affair, with a three-band EQ, gain control, and master volume. Crank this channel to unlock those face-melting rock tones.

While the enormous, deep tone of the Twin Reverb brings a smile to the face of most guitar players, the back-crushing weight certainly does not. The clever folks over at Fender have been tirelessly working away on solving this age-old grievance – enter the Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb.

Most of the other modeling amplifiers on the market are more concerned with simulating as many different amps as possible, giving the player a digital smorgasbord of different tones. This can result in a few great sounds, but usually a few unusable ones with it. Where the Tone Master differs is in its intent. This hi-tech Twin's sole purpose is to perfectly recreate one amp, down to every last detail.

So if this amp looks and sounds like a Fender Twin, what's the main difference? Well, apart from the lack of tubes, it weighs only 33 lbs! This means you can comfortably carry it to and from gigs without hassle. Check out more of the best Fender amps in our guide.

This may be the smallest amp on this list, but don't let its small stature fool you. The Supro 64 Reverb sounds enormous! Like many entries in this guide, this amp takes inspiration from what has gone before but adds a few modern twists to make it work for today's player.

This fierce 5-watt combo is oozing with vintage style and has the tone to match. The 6V6 tubes and 1x8 Jensen speaker deliver a powerful retro bark that is dynamic and a delight to play. This is the sort of amp that just begs to be played - especially when you set it right on the edge of break up.

The Supro also has a few clever features hidden behind its old-fashioned facade. Located at the rear of the amp is a set of line outputs that offer the ultimate flexibility, whether you want to use them to drive another amp or even for home recording. The "Dry" signal output - as you'd expect - provides the dry signal only, with no reverb. This also stops the dry signal from being sent to the power amp. The "Reverb" output does the same but with only the reverb signal, while the "Mix" output combines the two and doesn't affect what is sent to the power tubes.

No matter the decade, you'll be sure to find a Fender amp sitting pride of place on any stage - from smokey jazz and blues clubs to lively country bars and sticky rock stomping-grounds - they are an enduring presence in every music scene. The big reason Fender amps have been so loved for so long is that they offer a clean, harmonically rich, and mid-scooped tone that always seems to bring out the best in your playing.

The Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb is the ultimate throwback to the silver face era of amps, delivering vintage twang and the touch-sensitive dynamics the original was famous for - all while looking the part as well. For the traditionalist, the aptly named "vintage channel" belts out all the silver panel tone you could ask for, while the "custom channel" is loaded with the iconic Bassman tone circuit for more sonic possibilities.

The 22-watts of power is right in the sweet spot for gigging, allowing you to really push the amp and get the best out of it - although it may be a little much for the house! So if you are looking for the ultimate Fender tone, this might be one of the best guitar amps for you.

It's fair to say that a significant portion of guitar-based bands, at some juncture in their careers, have turned to the Roland JC-120. From Billy Corgan to Dimebag Darrell and Robert Fripp to name a few, the Roland JC-120 has solidified its status as the quintessential choice for achieving impeccable clean guitar tones. Whether that be in the studio or on the road, the JC-120 is a legacy amplifier.

With 120 watts of power, the JC-120 has volume and headroom for days. Due to its solid-state construction, this amp doesn’t have tubes to break up and distort, offering incredibly crystalline sounds, even at the truly eye-watering volumes it is capable of.

However, it's the built-in chorus that has put this amplifier in the history books. True chorus is a stereo effect and the JC-120 manages this by having two separate 12-inch speakers that are powered by their own 60-watt power amplifiers. This set-up allows one speaker to be pitch-modulated whilst the other stays dry. On top of this, there’s also vibrato, distortion, and a spring reverb to boot. It’s truly a versatile beast.

While it might not cater to the aficionados of tube amplifier breakup, the JC-120 isn't aiming for that vibe. Its stereo sound, crystal-clear tones and built-in chorus create a distinctive atmosphere all its own. Although beware, the JC-120 has left its mark on countless iconic records, but it's also notorious for causing a fair share of back problems; it’s a real heavyweight.

FAQs

Realistically, our round-up of the best guitar amps could easily be ten times longer. The field is packed with incredible designs from all manner of manufacturers for all kinds of use-cases. Even when looking at our shortlist above, you might be finding it tough to pick between them.

To help make a difficult decision easier, we’ve put together some rock-solid advice that you can employ when choosing your next guitar amp. Whether you’re after a bare-bones rehearsal amp that’ll cut through those ringy cymbals, a warm-sounding at-home practice amp, or a stage-bound gigging amp, the answers to the following questions will help guide your decision-making.

What you need to know about speaker size

Speaker size is a big deal when it comes to guitar amps. Choosing between a punchy 8-inch or a beefier set-up like a 2 x 12” mainly boils down to your needs and the tone you're chasing. Bigger speaker set-ups with multiple speakers will have better sound dispersion, so if you’re going to play in big venues at loud volumes, something like a 2 x 12” will be better suited for a large, full-bodied sound.

On the flip side, smaller options, like an 8-inch or 10-inch speaker, will have a much more focused, tighter sound. These can be useful for cutting through if you’re playing in a larger group, or as a flavor cab if you’ve got a multi-amp rig. Generally speaking, a 1 x 12” configuration tends to be the most popular; it strikes a sweet balance, packing generous low-end and midrange frequencies and can easily be applied to whatever genre you play.

What tone are you looking for?

It’s all well and good talking about this stuff in principle. Hearing it in reality – and making a decision on what guitar amp to buy – is something else entirely. You might have an ideal tone in mind, but no real idea how the above variables should add up to create it. You might have an ideal amp in mind, but no idea if you should go for a different size of speaker or not.

This is why testing amps in-person is so important where you’re able. Even with the above considerations in hand, it is your hands that make the difference with an amp. You know how they say tone’s in the fingers? It remains true here, as different amps respond differently to your play style. Alexander Dumble famously had guitarists that commissioned him come to the shop and play through a specially-designed test Dumble so he could profile their sound, and match his circuitry accordingly.

Sadly, in-person testing is often inconvenient at best, and impossible at worst. If your local shop is too far away or you want to purchase online, there are plenty of sound demos available online for you to listen to, as well as loads of well-informed reviews to help influence your thinking.

Generally speaking, you can whittle your longlist down to a shortlist by considering the special talents of specific amp brands. For example, a Fender guitar amp is typically geared toward clean tones, great for players who use a lot of pedals and want to build on a good base with effects. With Marshall amps, clean tones aren’t really their forte and they’re much better at providing dirty guitar tones for hard rock playing. If you’re really struggling, it might be wise to see what your favorite guitarists are using as a reference, as what they use might well suit your own needs.

Buying your first guitar amp 

If you’re purchasing your first amp, all of these choices can seem especially daunting. When you’re first starting out, it’s hard to know what it is you really want. For this reason, we’d highly recommend a solid-state modeling amp for beginners, as they have lots of different tones for relatively little money. This means you can find out what it is you really like the sound of, then upgrade down the line when you’ve discovered what you really want.

A lot of these amps also feature built-in effects like reverb, delay, distortion, and overdrive too. This gives you an easier way to emulate your favorite guitar player’s guitar tones, as well as helping you find your own distinct sound.

How we choose the products for our guides

At Guitar Player, we live and breathe everything guitar related. It's our passion and we certainly hope this passion comes through in our buyer's guides. Everyone at Guitar Player is an expert in their field and we draw on this knowledge and experience when selecting the products for our guides.

When choosing what we believe to be the best guitar amps available right now, we combine our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engage in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.

When making our lists, we pay careful consideration to everything from budget to feature set, playability and durability to come up with an accurate representation of the best guitar amp available right now.

Read more on how we test gear and services at Guitar Player.

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Renowned British pedal builder ThorpyFx has revisited the country’s rich heritage of vintage fuzzboxes with a germanium unit that founder Adrian Thorpe has described as “my interpretation of what the ultimate Tone Bender would sound like.”

The aim of the ThorpyFx Boneyard fuzz was to encapsulate all Tone Bender variants ('MK I' to MK IV) in one unit while remaining as pedalboard friendly as possible. 

Achieving its goal in spades, this fuzzbox allows users to dial in their own flavor of classic fuzz while keeping the unwanted idiosyncrasies associated with vintage fuzz pedals to an absolute minimum.

Germanium fuzz units are notoriously difficult and time-consuming to build, hence the Boneyard is being made in limited numbers. 

Getting hold of the right transistors in order to produce a bona fide product is no mean feat (as Boss recently discovered during the development of their limited-run TB-2W Tone Bender compact pedal.)

Similarly, the Boneyard employs the kind of high-quality components we’ve come to expect from ThorpyFx – including 1% metalfilm resistors, and Wima and Panasonic capacitors – though it took them several years to find the germanium transistors featured in this limited run of units.

Thorpe himself is a lifelong devotee of guitar pedals and the Boneyard is a result of years spent acquiring, playing and testing numerous incarnations of Tone Benders.

Made by London’s Sola Sound company since 1965, Tone Benders were one of the first fuzz pedals to appear during the mid-‘60s electric guitar boom.

The first iteration of the Sola Sound Tone Bender – later dubbed the ‘MK I’ – appeared in '65 and was based on the world’s first fuzz pedal, the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone (released earlier in ’62.) With its often choppy character and high output this 3-transistor unit was followed by the so-called ‘MK 1.5’ Tone Bender later in ‘65.

Sporting 2 transistors, the 'MK 1.5' Tone Bender is noted for its aggressive and characteristically gated sound. It is believed to be the inspiration behind the Fuzz Face circuit, although Fuzz Faces tend to sound smoother in comparison.

By ’66, the first version-branded Sola Sound fuzzbox was released in the form of the Tone Bender Professional MK II. Known for its sweet, sustaining tone and powerful midrange this 3-transistor unit is famed for its association with Jimmy Page.

By the late ‘60s, MK III and MK IV Tone Benders (essentially the same 3-transistor circuit) had been developed. As demand for fuzz pedals increased, Sola Sound further established themselves as an OEM, supplying Europe's burgeoning hard rock market with fuzz under various other brands aside from their own including Vox, Park and Carlsboro.

For more information, visit ThorpyFx.

Onstage and on record, Brian May creates an amazing array of tones – from the thunderous counterpoint lines in "Brighton Rock" to the slick, rockabilly-influenced fills in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to the sweetly singing multi-tracked tones of "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Killer Queen". In this rare archive interview from the January 1983 issue of Guitar Player he discusses his recording techniques and specific cuts...

Perhaps your most identifiable sound is the sweet, sustaining tone used in "Killer Queen" from Sheer Heart Attack, "Procession" from Queen II, "The Wedding March" from Flash Gordon, and several other tracks. How is that created?

For those orchestral things, I've usually used a Vox AC30 as well as a small amplifier which was made by John Deacon. This has a little hi-fi speaker cabinet which is about a foot by six inches, and John put a little transistor amplifier inside it. I use it with a treble booster which overloads it. It just makes a good noise; I don't know why. I've gotten that tone out of all kinds of little practice amps as well – just crank them up, drive them nuts. Vox made a little baby AC30, and I've used those on occasion. They're quite good.

For almost everything else, I use old Vox AC30s that have tubes instead of transistors. These have a very flexible, identifiable sound without much coloration. You can get a wide range of sound from them, and they always have that nice little high fidelity edge to them. They use tubes biased in a Class A range. Most guitar amplifiers are Class B, which means they have more inherent distortion in them at lower levels. The Vox AC30s are very clear at low level and then gradually and smoothly go into a nice distortion.

Did you use a Fender on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" from The Game?

Yes. I used one of Roger's really old, beat up, natural wood Telecasters. I got bludgeoned into playing it. That was [Producer Reinhold] Mack's idea. I said "I don't want to play a Telecaster." It basically doesn't suit my style. But "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was such a period piece, it seemed to need that period sound. So I said, "Okay, Mack, if you want to set it up, I'll play it". He put it through a Mesa/Boogie, which is an amplifier I don't get on with at all; it just doesn't suit me. I tried it, and it sounded okay.

How did you process the rhythm strums on the version of "Keep Yourself Alive" on Queen?

That was real tape phasing. This was in the days when you took the tape off the sync head, put it though a couple of other tape delays, and then brought it back with the play head. There is no processing whatsoever on the solo in that tune, as far as I remember. I used John Deacons's small amplifier and the Vox AC30 to do those little three-part chorus thing behind, as well as the fingerboard pickup on the guitar. There is a bit more tape phasing on the end of that track.

Did you play slide on "Tie Your Mother Down" on A Day at the Races?

Yeah, a glass one. That was on standard tuning. The only tuning I've used apart from normal is to take the bottom string down to D, which I've used on "The Prophet's Song" [A Night at the Opera], "White Man" [A Day at the Races], and "Fat Bottomed Girls" [Jazz].

Did you use a slide for "Dancer" on Hot Space?

No, that's guitar in parallel harmonies. Those aren't my favorite harmonies, really. I much prefer guitar harmonies which aren't parallel. There are very few people who have done them. The real interest in guitar harmonies comes from when they're crossing over, diverging, and converging. Somehow on "Dancer" it seemed right to do those parallels.

Browse classic Queen albums here.

Fuzz pedals really began to take off in the mid ‘60s following the release of the Gibson/Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone in 1962. After hearing hits like The Rolling Stones’ "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" demand among electric guitar players suddenly boomed and the effects pedal market began to flourish.

Many readers will already be familiar with those perennially popular giants of the fuzz world – the Tone Bender and Fuzz Face – but there is a lot more to the story. During this first giant wave of fuzz pedals, many other transistorized gizmos surfaced. And while some quickly faded into obscurity, others somehow found their way onto recordings, leaving their indelible mark on music.              

GP spoke to Nick Sternberg – creator of the British Invasion fuzz pedal website fuzzboxes.org – to find out more about this lesser-known chapter in guitar history…

1. WEM-Rush Pep Box

Between 1965 and 1967, there were lots of different makes and models of fuzz pedals. In fact, a lot of old-timers describe how they were often put together by people they knew. "[Pep Box designer] Pepe Rush initially sold pedals directly to musicians from his workshop in Soho, but it is not known when the Pep Box was invented.

By August 1965, however, WEM were involved, and the WEM-Rush Pep Box was a product. I really like the mid ‘60s Pep Boxes. The circuit is loosely based on the [three-transistor] Maestro Fuzz-Tone but it only has two transistors. The sound is pretty terrible (in a good way!) It’s unforgiving. Gnarly. Challenging, even. But all of these boxes are different in their own way.

They changed over from germanium to silicon transistors early on. By 1966, they’d brought in the red elongated enclosures (these were used by The Animals around this time) but some of the earlier units with wedge-shaped enclosures also had silicon transistors.

2. Carlsbro Fuzz-Tone

Unlike a lot of these London-centric fuzz pedals, Carlsbro originated in the Midlands. They are one of the oldest British guitar amplifier/pedal companies going. Their Fuzz-Tone is shaped like a Maestro Fuzz-Tone and is part of this first generation of pedals but it has its own circuit altogether. Even internally, you may be fooled into thinking it’s based on a Maestro, but it sounds nothing like one (it actually sounds alright!)

It’s a three-transistor fuzz pedal that runs off nine volts. It was used by the guitar player in The Sorrows (a cult freakbeat band from the Midlands) on the track “Pink, Purple, Yellow & Red.” The guitarist in Skip Bifferty from Northern England also used it to record the track “On Love.” Carlsbro pedals seemed to be used more in the Midlands and North of England. It has a smoother, more balanced sound compared to a lot of the pedals from the era.

3. Selmer Buzz Tone

In the ‘60s, Selmer had a famous shop in Charing Cross Road, London. They were Gibson dealers and the Gibson/Maestro Fuzz-Tone was being imported by them. The Selmer Buzz Tone is a rare pedal, and there’s a reason so few of them have survived: they sound terrible!

My example came with a 90-degree molded jack on the hardwired [input] cable which doesn’t fit into my Telecaster. There are some myths surrounding this pedal. People always associate it with Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett. We know they used Selmer guitar amps early on, but we don’t actually know if they used this pedal because nobody’s been able to substantiate that yet. Plus, Syd would never have been able to plug that weird jack into his Esquire!

The Buzz Tone may have run off 3 volts, but an early advert from August 1966 talks about it running off 1.5 volts. My pedal came with a clip shaped for a 9-volt battery, however.

4. Vox Distortion Booster

This is a curious one, partly because it’s not a pedal at all, rather you plug it into the amp. The red versions were made in England and the chromed versions were made by Thomas Organ in America. We don’t exactly know when they came out as there were delays in production, but they were announced in August 1965. It’s part of that very first wave of fuzz in England.

The earliest models we know of are based on the Maestro Fuzz-Tone but have two transistors rather than three (much like the Pep Box.) Brian May is known for using a Vox Distortion Booster, and we know he used a germanium one. So, the early Brian May fuzz sound on the Smile records might very well be a germanium Vox Distortion Booster. The silicon versions sounds really smooth and are my favorite, whereas the germanium versions are a little looser and darker sounding.

5. Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround

Buzzarounds appeared in 1966. As far as we know, this three-transistor fuzz pedal is another unique design; it’s not a copy of any other pedal. It has three controls which is unusual. The controls are: Sustain, Balance, and Timbre. It’s the model that inspired the three-knob Mark III Sola Sound Tone Bender.

Unusually, some of the early Buzzarounds have momentary/non-latching footswitches ( meaning you’ve got to hold your foot down to sustain the fuzz sound.) They quickly changed over when they realized it wasn’t very practical.

It has a really loud, angry, explosive sound. People always talk about Robert Fripp using this pedal on [David Bowie’s] “Heroes” but that’s been refuted by Fripp himself. Fripp did own two, however, and he says he used the pedal on the early Giles, Giles and Fripp recordings. He also used the Buzzaround early on with King Crimson. Famously, the guitar solo on "21st Century Schizoid Man,” and on “Pictures of a City.”

In this mesmerizing video of Taste’s 1970 performance at the UK’s Isle of Wight Festival Rory Gallagher demonstrates why he is still regarded as one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived.

Stratocaster tones don’t come much purer than this. Performing the blues standard "Sugar Mama" using just his 1961 Fender Strat plugged into a Vox AC30 via a Dallas Rangemaster, Gallagher explores the whole gamut of classic blues rock Stratocaster tones from sparkling clean-up to biting saturation.

With a huge palette of sounds available at his fingertips courtesy of his Stratocaster’s volume knob (a much-underexplored approach these days!) Gallagher’s performance is the epitome of raw expression and a masterclass in playing dynamics.

Introduced to the burgeoning transistor-based electric guitar effects market of the mid ‘60s as a ‘treble booster’ by London’s Dallas Musical Ltd the Rangemaster was originally intended to brighten up darker-sounding British guitar amplifiers. Working in tandem with the amp, the Rangemaster drives its front end while shaping the EQ, adding treble, midrange and a unique grittiness.

In this clip, Gallagher’s famous ’61 Strat appears with substantially more of its sunburst finish intact (although even at this stage it would certainly fall into the ‘heavy relic’ camp!) 

For many a player, this guitar represents their favorite Stratocaster specs, including a ‘mint green’ nitrate pickguard (1959-1965) and ‘slab’ rosewood fretboard (1959-1962).

Taste were originally formed in 1966 in Cork, Ireland, by Gallagher along with bassist Eric Kitteringham and drummer Norman Damery. Following the disbandment of the trio’s second line-up as featured in this film (comprising bassist Richard McCracken and drummer John Wilson) Gallagher went on to pursue a successful solo career.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rory Gallagher’s eponymous 1971 debut album release – an occasion highlighted by an exciting reissue of the original recording. Half a century on and the Irish bluesman’s legacy as a guitarist’s guitarist continues, with Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, and Slash all citing him as a major influence.

Click here to pre-order your copy of Rory Gallagher’s debut album 50th Anniversary Edition.

The Yardbirds were something of an academy for UK guitar heroes, with Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton all graduating at one time or another. While Beck and his good friend Page were in the band together, they explored some of the hippest new sounds available, introducing the world to the joys of psychedelic rock via the Sola Sound Tone Bender fuzz and various other custom made stompboxes, courtesy of guitar effects pioneer Roger Mayer.

In this clip from the 1966 film Blowup featuring The Yardbirds’ Page/Beck dual guitar line-up, the band are depicted in a London club performing the fuzz-drenched rock ‘n’ roll banger “Stroll On”. During the performance, a persistent crackling sound coming from Beck's Vox amplifier angers him so much that he begins smashing his guitar – a sunburst Hofner Senator – into it. He then slams the unfortunate archtop into the stage floor, carefully lines it up, and sticks his foot through the top.

Job done!

Meanwhile, Page continues playing the 1959 ‘Dragon’ Fender Telecaster gifted to him in 1966 by Jeff Beck, looking on in amusement as his friend completely detaches the Hofner’s neck and throws it into the baying mob of an audience.

Shortly afterwards, Beck can be seen reaching for a ‘proper’ hard rock guitar: his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard ‘Burst.

Get the original Blowup movie here

Infamously strummed using fifths in guitar stores for decades, Ritchie Blackmore’s “Smoke On the Water” riff (adapted from Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” according to the Deep Purple guitarist) is one of the most memorable and anthemic electric guitar moments in the entire history of hard rock.

Tracked during the sessions for Deep Purple’s 1972 Machine Head album Blackmore managed to glean this touchstone tone by plucking (rather than strumming) double-stop fourths using a large-headstock CBS-era maple ‘board Fender Stratocaster.

While he was using both Marshall and Vox amps at the time, a Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster unit was also employed to produce a more biting top end and a subtle touch of distortion. Interestingly, the band’s keys player, Jon Lord, also used a Hornby-Skewes Treble Booster in tandem with a Marshall amp to thicken the already harmonically rich tones of “Smoke On the Water.”

Recorded using a mobile studio belonging to The Rolling Stones, the bulk of the guitar tracks were cut in an empty theater in Switzerland, giving the sound a unique ambience. Having been moved on by the local police for making too much noise, however, the band set up again in an empty hotel where Blackmore then cut his solo using a Stratocaster neck pickup with his amp isolated in a separate space.

For some instant Ritchie Blackmore-inspired tones take a look at Catalinbread’s new Dreamcoat and Skewer pedals.

Buy Deep Purple’s Machine Head here.

As a kid playing in garage bands in the ’60s, I lusted over the smorgasbord of electric guitars that became available in that decade. The more garish their shapes and features, the better. 

The Vox Phantom, with its odd five-sided body, wasn’t popular with a lot of rock stars of the day, but it made a deep impression on me and the guitar world at large. Teisco, Silvertone, Liban, Penncrest, Guyatone, and many others created their own copies of it.  

The Domino Californian shown here is just such an example, made by Kawai of Japan for the Maurice Lipsky Music Company of New York City, which also sold a copy of the Vox V222 Mark VI Teardrop. 

The Vox models were an odd choice to replicate, given that few big-name artists other than the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones and Bill Wyman played them at the time. Lipsky’s Domino guitars were sold throughout North America for a fraction of what the originals commanded. 

Today, however, these odd-bodied guitars have become extremely popular, and, not surprisingly, prices on the vintage market have risen to reflect that.  

Weirdo Factor

The unusual shape recalls Salvador Dali’s melting clocks. That aside, the Californian is actually quite nice, with all of the appointments of the day.

Playability & Sound

This Californian has low action and 22 skinny frets on a rosewood fingerboard, mated to a very narrow maple neck whose dimensions and feel are almost like a cross between a Fender Mustang and a Rickenbacker 325C. 

Each of the three single-coil pickups has an on/off switch, and there’s a tone bypass switch that provides a bit of a boost for lead/rhythm options. The two very groovy “ice cream cone” knobs are for global volume and tone. The tremolo unit works very nicely. It has about a half-step of pitch drop, and comes back in tune pretty darn well. 

Look closely and you’ll notice a chrome rocker lever attached to the bridge that brings up a foam-rubber mute beneath the strings. I suspect the foam on mine has hardened over the past 50-plus years, as it not only performs the equivalent of a heavy palm mute but also raises the pitch about a half step. Eat your heart out, Steinberger TransTrem!

The Californian sounds like most of the Teisco/Kawais of the day: raw and ready for garage rock! Its clean tone varies little from switch to switch, but throw on a bit of overdrive and it shows its attitude with a snarky midrange attack unique to this type of Japanese pickup.

Value

The Domino Californian retailed for just $75 – four times less than a Vox – in the late 1960s. Today, it commands up to $1,200, which is close to the neighborhood of what you’d pay for the real deal.

Why It Rules

Apparently, Domino thought the Californian moniker would give the model some cred with the L.A./San Fran crowd, something that this Californian appreciates. Beyond that, this is a solid, far-out and groovy guitar that plays nice, is quite light (just six pounds), and has a wonderful look and sound.

Thanks to GP reader Jeff Byrd, who sold me this guitar at a very reasonable price. My appreciation as well to Paul Connet for the great setup and for bringing the finish and chrome back to life.

Vox has unveiled a trio of lightweight, compact combo mini amps that offer a whole host of amp sounds and effects, courtesy of the company's VET modelling technology.

Said to cover "all bases from practice to live performance", the Mini Go amps vow to deliver a versatile sonic repertoire that can be experienced "at home, on the street, or in a concert venue".

Available in three iterations, the smallest Vox Mini Go 3 features a five-inch, three-watt speaker, while the slightly larger Mini Go 10 features a 6.5-inch, 10-watt speaker. The largest amp of the collection, the Mini Go 50, features an eight-inch, 50-watt speaker.

All three come equipped with a number of realistic amp models based on those found in Vox's Cambridge50. Using the VET modeling technology, the Mini Go amps offer a range of tonal possibilities, including the rich midrange of the legendary AC30, the thick, snarling growl of a 1980s-style stack and the quality cleans of a boutique amp.

Complementing and controlling these sounds are onboard controls for gain, tone and volume, as well as a whole host of built-in effects. Offering chorus, phaser, delay and reverb, each Mini Go promises a hands-on tone-sculpting experience.

Although each Mini Go amp boasts a built-in rhythm machine that can play a total of 33 fully adjustable backing patterns in a variety of genres, a number of extra features are exclusive to the two larger models.

These include an onboard looper function that has up to 45 seconds of recording time available on the Mini Go 10 and 50, and the ability to program three unique amp settings on the Mini Go 50.

Furthermore, the two larger combos have selectable power amp wattage, meaning the amps can be used in any playing environment.

Alongside the combos, Vox has also introduced the VFS3 footswitch, which is compatible with the Mini Go 10 and 50. The footswitch can be used to control a number of functions, including the looper, rhythm machine and effects.

The Vox Mini Go 3, 10 and 50 are available now for $169, $229, and $299, respectively. The VFS3 is sold separately for $69.

For more information, visit voxamps.com.

Vox has spruced up its Bobcat Series of electric guitars with Bigsby vibratos and two new finish colors, Sapphire Blue and Jet Black.

The semi-hollow design is offered in two models, the V90, featuring soapbar-type pickups, and the S66, sporting a trio of single-coils, each with its own volume control.

Other features include maple plywood bodies with weight-relieved spruce center blocks, mahogany set necks, Indonesian ebony fingerboard, fixed tune-o-matic bridges and open-gear Grover tuners.

The guitars are offered with either a B70 or B700 Bigsby, depending on the finish. Both models come with a hardshell case and a neck adjustment wrench.

For more information, head to Vox.

You may be wondering why I’m writing about a bass this month. In my defense, I know a lot of guitarists write and record music at home, and some of us even take a shot at playing a bass part to demo new songs for our bandmates. 

Unfortunately, the necks on modern basses are huge, and the frets so far apart. Back in the ’60s, European musical instrument makers like Hofner, Framus, Hagstrom and Eko (which manufactured Vox guitars and basses in Italy from 1965 forward) made basses with necks so skinny, they felt more like a cello than a bass.  

This semihollow-body 1968 Vox Sidewinder Bass IV, model V272, has one of the narrowest necks made. I find that, after playing guitar, I can easily use it to jam or lay down a quick bass track without feeling like my fingers have shrunk. 

It sounds great and plays effortlessly, and it even has built-in distortion. Clearly, there’s more going on here than meets the eye. Let’s have a look! 

Weirdo Factor

At first glance, this bass looks so normal that it’s almost boring. But then there are those built-in electronics, which include a tone generator that produces a G note for tuning, and an active EQ circuit dubbed the TR-B Boost. But the really cool effect is the onboard distortion, and its appearance here is almost inexplicable. 

Fuzz bass did make an appearance on the Beatles’ “Think For Yourself” and “You Only Live Twice” by Nancy Sinatra, for the James Bond movie of the same name, but otherwise, distortion was used sparingly on bass at the time. Suffice to say, a built-in fuzz circuit was a very forward-thinking feature.

Playability & Sound

This semihollow bass rivals the best of them, including models by Gibson, Baldwin and Hofner. Even with the onboard effects bypassed, it has a rich, warm and punchy tone that would be great for surf, jazz, Motown and many other styles.

It sports two of Vox’s Ferro-Sonic pickups, a fully adjustable bridge (although I wish it wasn’t of the floating variety), a global volume control, and tone knobs for each of the two pickups.

Also of note is its Double T-bar adjustable truss rod, which is why it still plays nicely after more than half a century.

Lastly, the super-fast three-piece maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and 21 frets is as thin as they come. It’s super easy to play and doesn’t become wider on its way up to the body.   

As for the distortion, it sounds fantastic. Unlike other dirt circuits I’ve used with bass, the low end remains intact, perhaps due to the unique Italian circuit and use of flat-wound strings. Better still, there’s a blend knob that lets you dial in the perfect amount of effect.

Value

The Vox Sidewinder Bass IV retailed for $375 in 1968, roughly $2,500 today. I paid about $1,000 for this example last year, but I’ve seen them go for $1,500 and more at auction.

Why It Rules

While the Sidewinder might not feel innately comfortable to bassists, it’s perfect for guitarists, especially if you have small hands. It’s also light for its size. 

My thanks to Craig McFarland, a full-size bass player who plays full-size basses, and who demoed this instrument for me and had a hard time putting it down. 

Fuzz pedals stormed the stompbox scene in the mid to late ’60s, and many of them went on to become sought-after classics. 

For fans of the aggressive germanium fuzz tones that could be wrought from those early units, there’s nothing quite like the Sola Sound Tone Bender and its many variations offered by companies like Marshall, Vox, Carlsbro and Park, to name a few. 

The Tone Bender’s circuit became massively popular, and over the following years its design rapidly evolved, making for a tangled and winding history that is intertwined with some of the most formative music made in the U.K. from the mid 1960s to the early ’70s.  

The pedal itself was the brainchild of brothers Larry and Joe Macari, proprietors of the fabled Macari’s Musical Exchange on Denmark St. in London’s Soho district. The Exchange opened in 1958 in the former premises of the Jennings Vox shop in London’s West End. 

Notably, Macari’s is still in existence, having recently moved from 92-94 Charing Cross Road to Haywards Heath, Sussex, a short train ride out of London.

The Macaris had noticed the soaring popularity of the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, the first commercially available distortion pedal, when it debuted in 1964. Hoping to tap into its success, in 1965 they commissioned former Vox amp tech Gary Hurst to create a version for them.

Reputedly, London studio guitarist Vic Flick, the man behind the fabled riff in the James Bond theme tune, had given Hurst a look at his Maestro Fuzz-Tone, from which the tech created his own variation. Hurst’s slightly modified three-transistor circuit ran on nine volts, rather than three like the FZ-1, making its distortion louder, aggressive and more sustaining.

It ended up in the first 100 or so units Hurst built, which he housed in angled wooden boxes with no visible brand name. Eventually, the Macaris sold the pedal as the Tone Bender under the brand name Sola Sound, with the wooden box giving way to a folded-steel enclosure.

In early 1966, the Tone Bender underwent the first of many changes when the Macaris, looking to simplify their circuit, equipped it with just two transistors and housed it in a sleek sand-cast metal enclosure.

This Mk1.5 version was less gnarly sounding, and just a few months later, they upgraded the Tone Bender circuit with three Mullard OC75 germanium transistors in an extremely simple circuit. Like the Mk1, it featured just two knobs, for volume and fuzz, although the latter received different names on different enclosures.

By this point, the Tone Bender had taken off. Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck both played these fuzzes prominently with the Yardbirds. Page, who used a MkII, continued to slather Tone Bender fuzz all over his early recordings with Led Zeppelin, while Beck, an early Tone Bender adoptee, went on to use the effect on many post-Yardbirds adventures.

Tone Benders also ended up under the feet of Pete Townshend, Steve Winwood, Mick Ronson and countless other British rock luminaries.

As the Tone Bender’s popularity grew, the Macaris began packaging the effect for other brands. Vox sold rehoused Tone Benders as their own before producing an in-house version in Italy. (The Beatles were among those who used the Vox pedal.) Marshall, meanwhile, packed an MkII Tone Bender circuit into its own distinctive sand-cast metal housing as the SupaFuzz, a favorite of many fuzz fans.

The SupaFuzz shown here is owned by British guitarist James Stevenson, a serious fuzz fan and Tone Bender collector who has played with Chelsea, Gene Loves Jezebel, the Alarm, the Cult and other acts. This SupaFuzz packs all the raw, ripped-Velcro goodness that players love about the sought-after MkII Tone Bender.

“I’ve always loved Tone Benders for their no-holds-barred, no-excuses, out-and-out fuzz,” Stevenson says. “One click of that switch and you’re in a whole other dimension - pure, unadulterated rock and roll!”

The Tone Bender circuit gained a tone control (often labeled treble-bass) with the MkIII and continued to receive further circuit alterations right up to the so-called MkVI versions of the ’70s. Meanwhile, the Macaris went on supplying circuits to other brands, including Rotosound, Carlsbro, Park, CSL and Barnes & Mullins.

The brothers had themselves introduced the brand name Colorsound in the late ’60s, with the thought that each type of effect could be housed in a different-colored enclosure. The Colorsound Tone Bender received a silver box with orange lettering, much like the MkIII Sola Sound version.

Of the various pedals based on the Tone Bender circuit, Stevenson expresses a fondness for the MkV, the last of the Macaris’ renditions before the change to the Colorsound brand.

“The final Sola version, the Mark V, is a great piece of design by any standards,” he says. “It has a dazzling yellow case with Tonebender and Fuzz in psychedelic scrawl, and the legend ‘Hit It!’ by the on/off switch. Great stuff!”

Original examples, and those of any ’60s vintage in particular, fetch big money on the collector’s market today. Fortunately - for shallower-pocketed players seeking some semblance of that raw, wild Tone Bender sound - several boutique makers offer reputable clones today, keeping the seminal fuzz sound alive and kicking under contemporary toes.

Tube amps of five watts or less have been at the heart of some of the most inspired recordings by rock’s legendary guitarists - many of whom used stacks onstage, but favored small “practice” combos from Fender, Supro, Selmer, Valco, Vox and others for tracking mammoth tones to tape.

A tiny tube amp pushed into saturation typically delivers warm, beautifully compressed distortion, minus the deafening roar that a larger amp produces. And in a recording studio or a practice session – or even on a gig where low levels are mandatory – amps that use one 6V6 or EL84, or even just a 12AX7 dual triode for power, may be the perfect thing to plug into.

We in the guitar community often get snickered at for sticking with “obsolete” tube technology, but the fact is that many of today’s new micro amps are highly evolved designs that – besides sounding more organic and dynamically responsive than anything conceived via software – offer such features as footswitchable gain modes, sophisticated tone controls, built in power attenuation, speaker emulated line outs, and other features that weren’t even in the neuron stream when engineers were designing guitar amps back in the ’40s and ’50s.

This round-up focuses on new micro heads and combos from Blackstar, Fender, Jet City, Hughes & Kettner, Kustom, Laney, Vintage47, and Vox, which we tested in a variety of environments using a selection of guitars from Fender, PRS, Gibson, and Gretsch. We also report on three new 1-watt Marshall heads – the JMP-1H, JTM-1H and JCM-1H – that the company released in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

• Our pick of the best guitar amps available today

1. Blackstar HT-5R 1x12 Combo

The diminutive HT-5R packs the bells and whistles of larger contemporary channel-switchers to achieve “beyond bedroom status” in an amp that is nevertheless ideally sized to pedal-down playroom jamming. In a near-physics-defying feat, this 17.5" x 14" x 9" box even includes a 12" speaker. Its two footswitchable channels have independent EQ – a simple tone control on Clean, but three knobs and ISF control for Overdrive – plus global reverb. 

The ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) control is continuously variable between tight, bright, in-your-face “American” tones and warmer, looser “British” tones. The chassis’ underside boasts a series FX loop with level switch, an mp3/ line input, a speaker-emulated DI/headphone jack (with closed-back 4x12" and open-back 1x12" options), and multiple speaker outs.

The HT-5R achieves its 5-watt goodness by using both sides of a 12BH7 dual triode – normally a preamp tube – in a pushpull output stage, rather than following the traditional single-ended format. This implies a sonic signature that’s more “big amp feel in a small-amp package,” rather than the typical mini-class-A deal. The cabinet and cosmetics are mostly businesslike, although the black grille cloth on the review model was a little slack across the speaker front.

Tested with a Tele and an SG, the HT-5R hopped easily from Fender-y cleans to British overdrive and beyond. The Overdrive channel is surprisingly versatile, and runs confidently from chewy blues crunch to high-gain sizzle – all of which are a total blast to play. It’s a gutsy little monster, too – although low end is understandably attenuated in a package this size. The reverb sounds good on the clean channel, but it gets a little lost in high gain tones. The speaker-emulated output is effective for recording and headphone rehearsing alike. All in all, the HT-5R is a surprisingly versatile little tone generator.

2. Fender Greta

Sporting a retro, tabletop-radio look, the Greta is an adorable lil’ thing with a 4" speaker and Volume and Tone controls. There’s also a VU meter that moves to the red the more you push the amp’s Volume control. Using the onboard speaker, the tones are small, funky, and kind of fun. It’s not the sort of town you would want to live in, but a fun place to visit – maybe on a recording session for a lo-fi track, or practicing at home when you need to be super quiet. 

But plug the Greta into a speaker cabinet and stand back – it sounds remarkably real, true, and loud. Gig loud? Well, not really, but certainly something that is worthy of being miked up, as it spews frothy distorted tones that are full of fang-y midrange and sweet top end. Very fun! With the amp’s Volume turned up halfway, you’re afforded some tough, punchy grind, yet you can back off your guitar’s volume for lovely clean tones that compress and sparkle nicely. We typically cranked the Tone control all the way, which yielded excellent results with humbuckers and single-coils. 

The Greta can also run into the front-end of another amplifier – think of it as a tube-powered stompbox with Volume and Tone controls and a 4" speaker! The line out gracefully adds to the Greta’s utility as a studio tool. I even used it to run the Greta in front of my Deluxe Reverb with excellent results. The Greta is a blast to play, it has a small footprint, it sounds cool, it looks cool, and you can’t argue with the price.

3. Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 5

Lunch box amps are getting even smaller – way too small to fit your schwarzwurst and spargel leftovers in, that’s for sure! Case in point: the TubeMeister 5 – a tiny Teutonic tube terror that is potently portable at 7.5 lbs, and includes a padded gig case. 

The key to the ’Meister is its front-panel Drive switch. When it’s not engaged, the TubeMeister stays tight, clean, sparkly, and dynamic nearly throughout the range of the Master Volume control. Strat players will love the glassiness that the TubeMeister offers, as it really enhances the funky “cluck” of in-between pickup settings. Humbucker players will be as happy as can be with the TubeMeister’s ability to yield swift, hammer-like, AC/DC-style tones with a fast attack that delivers tough, barking chords like a lead pipe to the head. 

And, the ’Meister sports an abundance of chime and high-end definition with humbuckers too. Crank the amp’s Gain and an aggressive grind enters the picture with a bounty of tight and powerful low end, as well as musically snarling midrange. Yes, the TubeMeister is dynamic – you can go from gorgeous clean to Iron Maiden with a twist of your guitar’s volume knob. Brilliant.

Kicking in the Drive switch, all hell breaks loose with crushing high gain that manages to stay tight and focused, even when Master and Gain are cranked. The low end can pummel through a 1x10 or a 4x12, and it doesn’t sound hyped, fake, or detached from the notes that are being played. The treble frequencies need to be dialed back a bit with single-coil-equipped guitars, but that’s an easy fix. 

The TubeMeister excels at classic and modern rock tones. I wish the Drive function was footswitchable, but the TubeMeister 5 sounds so good, we can look past that. Plus, the addition of Hughes & Kettner’s famous speaker simulated Red Box direct out establishes the TubeMeister as a fantastic choice for silent recording.

4. Jet City Amplification PicoValve

Designed by boutique pioneer Andy Marshall of THD fame, the Jet City PicoValve rocks the rugged roll-cage look, and boasts a 16-gauge steel chassis, as well as a circuit that can handle nearly any octal-based tube (such as a 6V6, EL34, or 6550). Tube-swappin’-tonetweakers unite! 

The PicoValve is one of those amps that sounds good right from the get-go, no matter where you set the controls. With a Gibson SG and the PicoValve plugged into a 4x12 Marshall cabinet loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s, it was hard to go wrong. In either 5- or 2-watt mode, the Pico’s tones remain coherent and tight when the amp is running full on – even with the Gain dimed. 

What you get by cranking the Master Volume is more touch and tonal sensitivity and power tube compression. The PicoValve’s tones were dynamic, reacting to pick attack and subtle nudges of our guitar’s volume and tone controls to give us some nice sonic shadings. The PicoValve also excels at giving up clean-ish distorted tones – preferably with the preamp Gain about halfway up, and the Master Volume cranked.

With a Telecaster and the amp in 5-watt mode – and the Gain less than halfway up – we were able to elicit some sparkling clean tones that really shined through our open-back Fender 1x10 and 1x12 cabinets. The amp’s EQ is simple and effective, as any setting pretty much gets you exactly what you need without having to resort to excessive knob turning. The PicoValve is thick and meaty with a side of sparkly jangle. What’s not to like about that?

5. Kustom Defender 5H Mini-Stack

You can’t overestimate the timeless appeal of a simple, foolproof, one-knob tube amp, and the Kustom Defender 5H delivers on that Thoreauvian promise right out of the box. No tone control? That’s right! Made in China? Who cares? It’ll cost you less than a hundred bucks for the head, and take you to Crank Town without triggering a knock on the door from the boys in blue. 

Within its lunchbox-sized 12" x 4" x 7" vented-steel box, the Defender 5H taps a single 12AX7 preamp tube and single EL84 output tube to churn out 5 incontrovertible class-A watts. There’s a single volume knob – turn it up, turn it down – and a Power switch. And, along with the three speaker outputs and AC connection round back, that’s it. If you need more, look elsewhere. 

The accompanying Defender 1x12 speaker cab carries a Kustom-designed 12" 16Ω speaker with a 30-watt power-handling capability. It’s a sturdy enough MDF box, with a plywood speaker baffle “for enhanced tone and resonance,” as Kustom puts it, and inspires no complaints at this price point.

The real glory of simplicity like this – and, arguably, one of the main points of the micro amp in the first place – other than its premise of keeping down the volume, is that this is truly a plug-and-play machine. Injected with the seminal purity of a Telecaster or an SG Standard, the Defender 5H Mini-Stack delivers everything from shimmering cleans, to throbbing Brit-rock crunch, to mouse-that-roared lead tones. 

Lows are surprisingly gutsy, highs shimmer with harmonic complexity, and it all cleans up nicely at the guitar’s volume control, or simply by easing up your pick attack. This is the kind of amp you decide to buy for that guitar-playing niece or nephew in need of their “first real tube amp,” while secretly deciding you will probably just keep it for yourself. Buckets of fun!

6. Laney Cub 8

Lyndon Laney started out as a bass player in England in the 1960s, and has the distinction of being in a group called Band of Joy, which featured John Bonham and Robert Plant. After those guys went on to bigger things, Laney himself got into building amplifiers. He was quite good at it, too, as Laney amps have been used by a lot of great players over the years, most notably Tony Iommi. While the Cub 8 looks like something Laney might have introduced early on, it’s actually a new design that exudes a soulful, retro look courtesy of its cream pointer knobs, brown top panel, leather-grain covering, and amoeba-shaped front with basketweave grille cloth. Not that the Cub 8 is a heavy amp, but the squishy rubber handle sure makes carrying it a breeze.

With a 12AX7 in the front end, a 6V6 for power, and solid-state rectification, the Cub offers a useful range of sounds that can be optimized for a cleaner response by using the Low input. Keeping the Volume control below 9:00 lets you work in that edge-of-breakup zone that sounds great for blues and jazz, while turning the Volume control up to half or higher allows the amp to go into grinding overdrive that you can easily control from the guitar. The distortion gets a little buzzy when you really start crankin,’ but keeping the well-voiced Tone control turned down, and/or using humbuckers, helps to smooth out the sounds.

Jacking into the High input opens the door to the Cub 8’s most saturated realms. As with many small, single-ended class-A amps, however, the sweetest and most balanced distortion tones are usually somewhere short of a “dimed” setting. Amps like these are also very sensitive to the guitar level, so although using singlecoils will likely induce more top-end bite, they can also facilitate a wider range of tones—and may be the best way to go if you’re already wedded to a boost or distortion pedal for your lead sounds. 

The Cub’s 8" speaker has a midrangey focus that’s very suitable for miking in a studio, though the amp opened up more and was louder when we plugged it into a 1x12 cabinet via the handy external speaker jack. It will safely drive 8Ω or 16Ω loads, so anyone planning to use the Cub 8 for small gigs or rehearsing with a band might consider bringing along an extra cab just in case a little more oomph is needed.

7. Vintage 47 Oahu Suitcase

Vintage 47 makes hand-made, point-to-point wired, period-correct recreations of killer old Valco-style (i.e., Supro, Airline, Oahu, etc.) amps from the ’40s. For anyone who digs what those classic amps can do, this bitchin’ little 5-watt beauty is a must-hear. Sporting super-cool cosmetics, simple controls, and weighing almost nothing, the Oahu Suitcase delivers a surprisingly big range of class-A tones from its 8" hempcone speaker.

Some of the most famous Supro tones can be found on the first Led Zeppelin album, and we wanted to see if the VA-422 could cop them. We cranked the Volume and Tone knobs up all the way and lit into the intro to “Communication Breakdown.” Sure enough, we were greeted by a delightfully fuzzed out, spitty, mean tone that was perfect for the riff. Even with the controls maxed out, the Oahu was very quiet and cleaned up really well when we picked lightly or turned the guitar down a bit. 

The Tone control has a lot of range and can get incredibly bright when cranked. We still found those trebly tones to be very useful, though, and they responded nicely when we rolled the guitar’s tone knob back. The real sweet spot on this amp, though, was when we kept the Volume at about 80 percent and the Tone at about 50 percent. This produced a full, warm sound that was ultra-dynamic. It seemed to bring out the best in any pickup combination and even dealt with the PRS piezo tones no problem. And, in addition to sounding sweet, this amp feels great to play through.

Sticking a mic in front of the Oahu Suitcase instantly showed why so many great guitarists and producers love having amps of this type in the studio. This thing records like a dream, with a lively, punchy rhythm sound that sits in the mix like nobody’s business. This little amp is a winner.

8. Vox AC4HW1

The Vox AC4, one of a series of small amps that the English company introduced in the early to mid 1960s, was basically a renamed AC2 that featured the same complement of tubes: an EF86 and a 12AX7 in the preamp, an EL84 for power, and an EZ80 rectifier. Vox’s new AC4HW1 veers from the original design by using a pair of 12AX7s and an EL84 power tube with solid-state rectification, but retains the stellar look of the vintage classic by featuring period-correct fawn covering with gold piping, brown diamond- pattern grille cloth, pointer-style knobs, and a white handle. 

The controls include Gain, Treble, Bass, and Volume, along with a Cool/Hot switch that toggles between the normal Top Boost sound (Cool), and a brighter, gainier response that results from partially bypassing the tone stack in the Hot setting.

The little combo hides a 12" Celestion G12M Greenback in its compact, semi-closed back cabinet. Removing the 15 screws that hold the rear cover in place provides full access to the handwired circuitry, which is laid out neatly on a phenolic board with flying leads to the pots, jacks, and switches. It’s a show of quality that extends to all aspects of the AC4’s construction and cosmetics.

Though small in stature, the AC4 throws out an impressive amount of sound. The cleanest tones are best tapped by plugging into the Low input and turning the Gain knob no higher than 9:00. In this mode you get a harmonically rich and jangly shimmer that’s evocative of Beatles-era Brit-pop guitar tones. This amp loves to grind, and will do so readily if you pick or strum hard – especially if the Volume control is set high enough to invite power tube clipping. 

Cranking up the Gain quickly brings on more chewy distortion and compression, and switching to the High input transforms the AC4 into a raging little beast with plenty of sustain for solos. The highs can easily be managed in Cool mode by setting the Treble knob fairly low and adjusting the Bass knob for the warmest response, but these controls have less effect in the Hot setting, which is designed to provide a boost in gain and brightness for solos. 

We found the extra brightness hard to manage even with humbuckers, but by turning the amp’s Treble control all the way down and backing off the tone controls on my PRS SC58, we could tame the slice to a reasonable degree. We think it would have been nice if Vox had added a little treble attenuation to the Hot setting, but this amp sounds so cool in its, well, Cool mode, that it’s not a big deal. 

Kept in its lower-gain realms and perhaps paired with a boost or distortion pedal for extra sustain, the AC4HW1 is a convenient practice/small-gig rig that packs an irresistible combination of British accent and “mod”-era Vox look.

Marshall JTM-1H, JMP-1H, JCM-1H 50th Anniversary 1-Watt Amplifiers

As part of Marshall’s “50 Years of Loud Anniversary Celebration,” the hallowed amplifier manufacturer introduced a series of five 1-watt mini amplifiers designed to represent the five decades of Marshall’s existence. Each amp is available as a head or a 1x10 combo. Reviewed here are heads representing the first three decades: the JTM-1H (1960s), the JMP-1H (1970s), and the JCM-1H (1980s). The heads retail for $1,000 and street for $749. Combos run $1,060 retail and $799 street. 

The heads were built in England at Marshall’s Bletchley factory and designed to sound and look period-appropriate. Obviously, not all Marshall amps from any decade sound or look identical, but these little all-tube beauties capture the essential vibe of their ancestors – right down to the switches, knobs, name plates, and cabinetry.

Tone-wise, the amps come surprisingly close to replicating vintage sounds, which is particularly remarkable given the diminutive power tubes in their output sections. All three pack a good bit more gain than the originals, but that shouldn’t be an issue, especially given that back in the ’60s and ’70s players struggled mightily to coax more gain from their Marshalls (and present-day guitarists who plug into actual “plexis” frequently find the sound too clean and unforgiving).

The 1-watters were surprisingly loud when powering a Marshall C110 speaker cabinet ($350 retail/$250 street) loaded with a Celestion G10F-15, and even rocked a 1x12 cab with authority. Should that be a problem when practicing, a Power switch on the rear panel drops the output to 0.1 watt operation, which thins out the tone a bit but still sounds fine.

We tested the heads with PRS P22 and Gibson ’59 Les Paul reissue guitars, both of which paired beautifully with the Marshalls, yielding an impressive range of wondrous sounds. In fact, we can’t remember when we’ve had more fun just plugging in and playing for pure enjoyment. Each model has its own personality, yet they all possess a magic that reminded me of why we fell in love with the electric guitar in the first place. So, while some may find these heads pricey, what’s the going rate for inspiration and fun? Besides, these were limited-run products that weren't manufactured beyond 2012, making them potentially savvy investments as well.

9. Marshall JTM-1H

Fans of simplicity will love this spartan beastie, with its lone Loudness and Tone controls. The JTM-1H sports a vintage style Tolex-covered cabinet with gold piping and a block logo nameplate. The JTM-1H employs two 12AX7 and one 12AU7 tubes in a Class A/B configuration, and Marshall says that the amp is “based on the JTM45 tone stack, as if the inputs had been jumped,” which sounds about right, though with more gain on tap as mentioned previously. 

The sound is big, round, and bursting with harmonic complexity, and the nicely voiced Tone control sweeps a relatively wide range from dark to sizzling. The amp feels right, too, both in terms of playing dynamics and palpable thump – even through the 1x10 cab.

10. Marshall JMP-1H

Very similar in look, sound, and feel to the JTM-1H, the JMP-1H provides separate Bass and Treble controls, along with a Gain Boost switch that dramatically changes the amp’s response in addition to it’s sound when engaged – almost like having two amps in one. The diminutive Super Lead-style head boasts two 12AX7 and two 12AT7 tubes with a Class A “parallel single-ended” power-stage topology. 

The tone controls are effectively voiced, offering lots of sound-sculpting capabilities, especially on lower-gain settings. There’s more high end available than with the JTM-1H, and considerably more gain than you’d expect from a vintage JMP series amp – but the bottom line is that this amp sounds truly magnificent.

11. Marshall JCM-1H

The JCM-1H reaches for the roar and percussive knock of the famed JCM800 Lead Series amps that ruled the ’80s, offering Bass, Middle, and Treble controls, along with Pre- Amp Volume and Master Volume controls, and a front-panel Boost switch designed to provide the extra punch of Marshall’s Jubilee and Split Channel amps. It shares the same tube complement and Class A/B topology of the JTM-1H, but has more high-end overall than either of the other two heads, resulting in the slightly harsher and buzzier tone of the period. 

The additional controls combined with the very effective Boost circuit allow you to dial in scores of glorious tones. Along with its two siblings, the JCM-1H is absolutely adorable and makes a majestic racket.