So, you’ve gone ahead and bought yourself that swanky brand new electric guitar, which by the way cost you an arm and of course a leg, and now you are feeling like a heavenly cross between Joe Satriani (His Highness) and Steve Vai (His Majesty)! Of course, you are probably asking for too much if you wish to play like them, but that shouldn’t stop you from enhancing your guitar playing skills! This is where a guitar amplifier would come into play!

Guitar Amps - Guitar Amplifiers

So, what exactly is a guitar amplifier? Having made their first appearance in the early 30’s, Guitar amps have been in existence for well over 70 years now. The first few amps to come had very poor bass responses. However, over the years, the treble and bass responses were improved drastically and today, the guitar amplifier is greatly evolved what with guitar artists of the 60’s deliberately experimenting with their amps to create that special distortion effect.

From there on, amps have always been provided with certain preamp distortion controls. Distortion playing is considered to be one of the most important aspects of playing the electric guitar.

Different Types of Guitar Amplifiers

There are two basic types of amps, namely the vacuum tube amp and the solid-state amp. In addition, there are other types of amps that use a combination of the vacuum tube and solid-state technologies.

Most guitar amps, especially the cheaper ones, tend to use the solid-state technology, as they are easier and lighter to get repaired when compared to the vacuum tube type. On the other hand, many professional guitarists will tell you they prefer using the vacuum tube type because of its analog sensitivity that helps make the amp sound better.

Vacuum tubes and solid states are available either in a combo package or can either be packed separately. So, if you are not one of those overtly choosy guitarists, then the combo package should do for you. But if you happen to be looking for the right ’sound’, then you should probably ‘mix and match’ your speakers and heads for the perfect sound experience.

Working of a Guitar Amplifier

As the name suggests, a regular guitar amplifier would amplify the sounds that are fed into by the guitar, while at the same time driving the guitars loudspeakers. With the help of a guitar pick, the sound waves that are formed by the guitar strings are converted or transformed into tiny electrical signals and are eventually fed into the amp.

So, depending on how well the amp can work along with the signals emanating from the guitar, a guitarist can decide whether or not he needs to feed the signal into a pre-amplifier and then use the output of the pre-amplifier for feeding the amp.

Simply put, the guitar amp works in four different stages, which are:

  • The Input Stage – This is the stage where the amp accepts the input signal from the electric guitar or even from the pre-amp. Under normal circumstances, with the help of an input signal cable, there are input jacks that are installed into the amplifier. So, if the signals are too weak to be fed directly into the amp, the signal will first be made to pass through the pre-amp.

  • The Signal Modulation Stage – As opposed to common misconceptions, plain in and plain out is not the way that most guitarists like their sound quality to be. Everyone wants their guitar to sound funky, twangy, jazzy and even heavily distorted! To get these sounds, the input signal has to undergo modulation before it can actually be amplified. So for instance, if you want your guitar to sound heavily distorted like a heavy metal rock sound would be, the input signal would have to be fed directly into the modulation stage where it would probably undergo the necessary yet controlled distortion process. The same would apply for other sound effects like the reverb or even the ‘wah-wah’ sound.

  • The Signal Amplification Stage – To me, this stage is something like the ‘business’ stage of the amp. This is the place where the real sound amplification takes place! A good amp will diligently magnify any signal emanating from the Signal Modulation Stage. Thus, it is the ‘business’ or job of the amp to amplify the incoming signals.

  • The Output Stage – The last and final stage of a regular amp, the Output Stage is where the outgoing signal from the Amplification Stage is fed directly into the guitar’s loudspeaker.

Overdriving your Guitar!

The overdrive is a type of sound that is generated from a valve power amp and is a highly desirable sound. With so many output designs being created, there us a wide variety of trademark sounds being designed, and can be heard on many of our modern recordings. However, the only drawback of the valve powered amp is that it can only produce an overdriven sound in one volume, which is usually pretty loud!

So, if you are looking to be a good guitarist, you better do your homework on the guitar amps out there. Getting the best guitar amp is extremely important, that is if you want to have a predictable and reliable sound output while you are strumming away!

By Natasha Bantwal

Electric Guitar Amplifiers

As an electric guitarist, your guitar amplifier is one of the most important features in defining your sound, so be as picky as you can when it comes to choosing you amp.

How to record guitar on your computer | Lazarus Graveyard

As touched on above there are many hardware and software solutions for this – you can actually plug a microphone into your recording interface and use it to record your guitar amp – or you can use a hardware unit like the POD XTL.

Things To Know When Shopping For A Guitar Amplifier

Guitar amplifiers are a major part of your tone. Some amps can do many things well, while others excel at producing specific tonal qualities. When shopping for.

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