A Guitar Amp is essential if you’re learning to play the electric guitar (check out my blog coming  soon). In this article, we’re going to be looking at a few different options and recommendations.

Solid State vs Valve - What are they and what’s the difference?

Valve Amps

Valve amps are guitar amplifiers that run off valves (the things TVs and radios used to run off years ago). Many guitarists swear by valve amps for their ‘warm tone’ and ability to overdrive naturally (often called break-up) by pushing the master volume to its limits which can undoubtedly cause a great tone. Lots of guitarists claim that Valve amps feel more natural than their digital counterparts but they can have their own drawbacks. One issue is what we call ‘headroom,’ if you want to play with a clean tone e.g. no overdrive, you’re going to have to make sure that you buy a louder amp than what you need as turning up a valve up can bring in that natural overdrive that I mentioned earlier, this means you need to spend more money and have something physically bigger and heavier as well. Valve amps also can reach really high temperatures when they’ve been on for a while and also have the added cost of maintenance, having to regularly change the valves, have the amp serviced and biassed (making sure the correct power runs to the valves). Valve amps also need time to warm up when you turn them on and cool down before you move them.

Solid State Amps

A solid-state amp uses a transistor circuit to convert an electric signal into audio signal, so there are no valves involved. This means the amps are lighter, require much less maintenance and are usually a bit cheaper. Unfortunately this means you lose the much desired break-up of valve amps as solid-state amps don’t have any valves to push, they sound the same at louder volumes as they do at quieter volumes. Solid states used to be a bit of a taboo word around guitarists as they were often associated with thin, tinny guitar tones and beginner amps, however in the last few years there has been many improvements in the tone of these amps and it has introduced modeling amps or units. 

Modelling Amps

Modelling amps or units are solid state circuits that model other amps and effects, these can be particularly handy as they allow you to practise with big distorted/clean tones at a headphone volume, so no angry neighbours! They are also handy for when you start gigging and you can save your sounds at home and  just plug your unit directly into the PA (the venue's/sound techs/bands sound system) and start playing, no mess about with the amp on the stage! Some guitarists say that they don’t feel the same as valve amps, but I believe this is because you’re often listening back to yourself through headphones or a PA speaker which characteristically sounds much different from a guitar speaker, it’s just something you have to adjust to! 

Personally I prefer to use modelling amps as I can build my patches at home and they are gig ready at whatever volume I need them at, my back also appreciates it as it’s a lot lighter than a real amp. I have however owned many great valve amps over the years, Vox AC30, Fender Reverb Deluxe which have all sounded great, but I just like the practicality of modelling gear