I have recently decided to take up the electric guitar but I dont know which amp to go for.
As the world tour aint taking place any time soon I dont want to pay mega bucks, yet I dont want to be upgrading in six months either!

What features should I be looking for?
Which wattage is good enough for practice yet one which will allow me to crank it up should I so choose?

Any info will be greatly appreciated from this complete novice. Many thanks:thumbsup:

I think you could do with providing a budget... like a limit on how much your willing to pay... obviously the more you can afford the better you can get, and the longer it will last you... I would strongly suggest something around the 30w range... its plenty enough power for playing in a house and won't sound like crap loud, like a 10 or 15w would...

Personally I have a Roland 30w cube, its very good and has a few different amp modelers, EQ on it is ok, few effects and delay/reverb...

you could check out the Roland cube's and also perhaps the amps by Line6?

as I said... a rough idea of your budget would be good... and also what guitar you have, what style of music you hope to play eventually ;)

Originally posted by xafier


Personally I have a Roland 30w cube, its very good and has a few different amp modelers, EQ on it is ok, few effects and delay/reverb...


:confused: I did say I was a complete novice :wink:

Hi xafier. I dont really want to go over £100 mark at this early stage if poss. Guitar is a strat rep. Style is anything from The Who, Stones, The Jam, Cult, Stereophonics........ "Rocky" I guess.

Are the effects, delay/reverb etc worthwhile additions that I will require after learning the basics for this type of playing style.

On saying that, maybe I dont want to tie myself to one playing style???????????
:confused:

If you are just taking up guitar then obviously don't get anything too big and expensive- look at around 30w-50w (if you're serious about playing).

I recommend Marshall ;)

the bands he's mentioned have a lot of varying sound, personally I would reccomend increasing your budget unless your not sure whether your going to stick to playing...

30w would be succificent... you have a choice of either getting an amp that has built in modelers, like the Roland or the Line6 amps... or getting a Marshall or Fender amp and getting a nice distortion pedal...

if your going to play the stuff you mention then you will need a lot of different sounds, The Cult use lightly driven Marshalls, upto Mesa Boogie Rectifiers...

personally your best bet is to go mess around with a few amps in Academy of Sound or Sound Control... I'd suggest Academy Of Sound if your not confident about your playing, which your probably not, as they have a room you can go in thats sound proofed ;)

then you can see what sounds the amps has, and what it will sound like with your guitar...

most artists have a multitude of different amps, pedals and guitars because they all sound different together...

my Strat sounds nothing like my Ibanez on the same settings on my amp... its just the way it goes, especially comparing single coils to humbuckers

but if your insistant on £100, you could pick up something like the 15w Roland cube... or an extra £25 and get the 15w Line6 amp...

I think theres a nice 30w Peavey for around the £120 mark, not 100% sure though...

If you're only just starting out I wouldn't recommend getting an amp with loads of effects.

Start off simple, I've been playing for about 2 years and I only upgraded my amp in the last few months.

Originally posted by xafier

personally your best bet is to go mess around with a few amps in Academy of Sound or Sound Control... I'd suggest Academy Of Sound if your not confident about your playing, which your probably not, as they have a room you can go in thats sound proofed ;)


Sounds like a good idea. Where would I find the above?

Canford Audio (http://www.canford.co.uk) and Studio Spares (http://www.studiospares.com) do some pretty good amps.

Hope this helps

A =)

Originally posted by claycraft
Sounds like a good idea. Where would I find the above?

Academy of Sound is on City Road on your way into town, if you dont know where it is, which you probably do... think Granvel Road and keep going up ;)

Sound Control is on Patonoster Way/Street/Road... just up from where all the Railway round-about roadworks are ;)

the bad thing about Sound Control is they dont have any rooms, so you have to look a complete dick infront of everyone... which sucks :(

and as I've later found Sound Control and Academy of Sound are part of the same company... so get them price matching and beating eachother to save some money ;) Sound Control are the best for matching prices for some reason... they'll even beat most prices you find on the net... which Academy of Sound are generally reluctant to do if its a fair saving...

Originally posted by IanMitchell
If you're only just starting out I wouldn't recommend getting an amp with loads of effects.

Start off simple, I've been playing for about 2 years and I only upgraded my amp in the last few months.

reverb and delay aren't really effects, they're used on most songs by most bands... anything other than that you dont need straight away, but you'd be surprised how a bit of reverb or delay can make your sound more like the song your wanting to play... which can boost confidence :)

I've messed around with all sorts of sounds, I'm a pretty anti-pedal person... although I wouldn't mind a nice Vox Wah pedal just for some Hendrix sounds and to jam into solo's as its used a lot by quite a few bands

Thanks all for info posted to date.

A few more questions:
What are clean and lead channels?
Amp modelers?
EQ?

Cheers! :thumbsup:

Originally posted by claycraft
1) What are clean and lead channels?
2) Amp modelers?
3) EQ?

1) you have two seperate sound set-ups, usually you can use a footswitch meaning you can set-up a nice set-up for acoustic, then stomp on a little box and suddenly your in your lead guitar solo sound :D how this is done varies from amp to amp, some allow a full range of customisation like volume gain, totally independant EQ etc... depends on the expense of the amp as to how much you can alter the channels... and some have 4 or even more channels ;)

2) amp modelers when refering to amps are amps that have basically, selectable different sounds, they have onboard circuitry that has been programmed to model the sound of another amp, so you can play through your 30w Roland/Line6 amp but select a setting that makes it sound like a 60's vintage marshall stack... or maybe sound like a Mesa Boogie Rectifier... amp modelers can be a slightly cheaper way of achieving different sounds compared with buying a normal 30w amp and buying different distortion pedals etc :)

3) EQ is equilizer... like the thing on your home stereo, generally they're just 3 channel, bass, middle and treble... allow for tweaking your sound... like maybe you want to up the bass for something thats heavy and chuggy with plenty of palm muting... or increase the treble for something with screaming solo's :)

Originally posted by IanMitchell
If you are just taking up guitar then obviously don't get anything too big and expensive- look at around 30w-50w (if you're serious about playing).

I recommend Marshall ;)

Any thoughts on the Marshall Valvestate 30 R.
Possible that I can obtain one around the £25 mark. It's about ten yrs old, a bit battered and cost about £180 when new so I am told.

Buy it!

Here are a load of reviews of it:
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Marshall/VS30R-01.html

The other guitar player in my band plays a very similar small Marshall, it/he can sound amazing. He even gigs with it.

Originally posted by xafier
[B]reverb and delay aren't really effects, they're used on most songs by most bands...

Hmm, yes they are! :-)

Thanks to all who offered their advice (Cheers for the link Norbert) :thumbsup: :clap:

I got the Marshall in the end (£40 on Ebay)!

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=20707&TempID=6

thats one i use...and ive never had any trouble with it... never heard it falter at louder levels.

:D just like most stereo equipment the `wattage' usually doesnt tell the full story.