A guitar amp you use is really significant to your sound. Overall it is probably more important than the guitar as far as your sound goes.

There are three main jobs that the amplifier does for electric guitars. The first job is making the sound louder. The second job is acting as a resonance chamber for the guitar, changing and coloring the sound, in the same way the hollow body does for an acoustic guitar. The third job is changing the character of the sound using distortion, tone controls and sometimes other effects.

There are many misunderstandings and myths about the loudness. Even websites near the top of a Google search write some complete nonsense on the subject. The main job is to make the guitarist’s sound loud enough to be heard when playing with the rest of the band. The drummer is usually the one who determines how loud everyone else needs to be to hear their own sound and be heard by the other members of the band.

One piece of misinformation often seen is the myth that when playing at a larger venue you need a bigger amplifier. This is actually the reverse of the truth and anyone using the amplifier to get the sound to the audience rather than the PA system is going to get very bad sound results.

Guess what amp Angus Young of AC/DC uses for his solo’s, on stage? A really big one right? No! A 50W amp, and he plays some very large gigs! At larger gigs the player is likely to be further from the drummer plus will have their own monitor mix anyway, so the amp doesn’t even need to be as loud as when practicing with the band.

Another major misunderstanding is with wattage levels. It actually requires ten times the wattage to produce twice the volume of sound.

As mentioned above the amplifier also colors the sound by adding resonance. The amplifier speaker cabinet is designed to do this job, which is in some ways the opposite design strategy than for most other speaker cabinets which sound better the less resonances they have. Amplifier cabinets can be either open-backed which tend to have a looser more airy sound or closed-cabinets which produce more bass frequencies and a tighter bass end.

The electronics used in the amplifier also change the character of the sound by adding deliberate distortions, tonal changes and sometimes other effects. Guitar amp basics have been covered in general by this article.

Want to find out more about How to Buy a Guitar Amp, then visit Thomas Goldman’s site on how to choose the best one for your needs and learn a LOT more details about Guitar Amp Basics.

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