Guitar Amps – What They Are And How They Work

guitar amps

History of the Amplifier

Guitar amps have been around for roughly 70 years now, started during the 1930s. The earliest amps had very poor high treble and bass responses. During the ‘60s era, the guitar amp greatly evolved to where it is today. Guitarists of that era experimented with purposively overloading their amp to create Distortion. From that point on, most amps were provided with preamp distortion controls.

Types of Amplifiers

There are two types of amps: solid state and vacuum tube amps. Solid states are lighter and easier to repair than tube amps are. A lot of guitarists prefer the tube amp due to the tube amp’s analog sensitivity, which they claim makes tube amps sound better.

Solid state and vacuum tube amps come in combo (speakers and head) packages or separately.

How Amps Work and What Watts Mean

Amplifiers basically take the vibration (sound) of the string(s) and amplify it, thereby increasing the sound. Each amplifier has a certain number of watts. The higher the number of watts, the louder the sound produced by the amp is. Generally speaking, those who wish to play shows will want to get amplifiers with at least 30 watts, preferably at least 50 watts, especially if they plan on playing at larger venues.