Best Guitar Amps

The Top Ten
1 Marshall

For whatever reason, Marshalls have always stood out to me as the most natural sounding amplifiers. When distorted or clean, they are clear and articulate. With the right guitar, Marshalls can do anything from the Beatles to Metallica and do it well.

Yeah, I've got a Marshall too and I am fond of it, I mean you can jack anything in it, from guitars to keyboards, cd players, computers etc. They sound excellent too, and they are so clean to look at!

Solid, dependable, clean or dirty Marshall does it all. Best amp for resale value. Best amp for replacement parts.

2 Mesa Boogie

My Mesa Mark V35 gives me a clean channel that rivals the finest Fender, with all the sparkle and tone you could want. At the same time, a kick to the dirty channel opens up a box of crunchy, overdriven power. No pedals required!
This amp also has forced me to play better because it responds to every playing nuance. Amazing.

You think you played the best sounding amps in the world - until you play a Mesa. they ARE the best amps in the world. Sound, versatile, build like a tank and changing the tone knobs makes a HUGE difference. They are touchy to dial in but once you have it set, Bubye to the rest. Yes, they just sound that much better.

3 Fender

I play blues, rock and almost all kinds of music, my fender has a way of expressing the sound in the way I have tried to create it. I do not use many pedals (tuner, distortion, treble boost, wah, looper) and the foundation is set for my interpretation of music.

Clean and dirty sound is top drawer, even in the smaller amp range. The Fender Princeton is the best for studio and small gig work, Twin Reverb for anything bigger or if you want the best "blues" out of your Tele or Strat... Or 335 etc etc.

Love my Fender Deluxe 65 Reissue and just sold a sweet Fender Super Champ to purchase a Fender Super Sonic 22 which has a great burn channel along with two classic Fender clean tones... in my humble opinion

4 Peavey

Peavey Masterpiece 50 is the best amp on the market at this time. The craftmanship, style, components, cascading gain with infinite tone settings, quality, service and reliability make this the best boutique amplifier on the market. Yes, I own one and will be buried with it.

The 5150/6505 is a great series amp. The cleans are mediocre but it does every type of distortion exceptionally well. Ignore the "better than a Line 6" line as EVERYTHING is better than a Line 6.

The Peavey Butcher 2 is definitely an amazing amp that can't be beat. It has great vintage tones.

5 Bogner
6 Blackstar

I have a club40 and a very basic pedal board. It's very versital and plenty load for any gig I've played. It's built well and I would recommend it to any player looking for a tube amp under $800. I play a PRS se245 and play Christian rock mostly, it handles everything I need no problem!

I own a Blackstar HT5-R and Studio 20. Excellent Amps for the money...nothing can touch them for tube amps in this price range. Very versatile, lots of dirt. For clean playing I use a Vox ac30c2...excellent chimey amp for old rock and blues but compared to Blackstar, the price is prohibitive.

7 Vox

Everyone is always looking for that sound, the sound of the great music from the 60's-70's. Most of the groups at this time used Vox for their amplifiers. Some of the most beloved and coolest songs of the last century were recorded using Vox amps.

Vox amplifiers always seem to have a clear distinctive tone no matter what you may be playing and even their pathfinder series seems to deliver the excellent tone you get from top end amps.

I have a AC 30 Super Twin. It has served guitarists for 48 yeras, and will certainly serve a 100 more. Sold build anyone?

8 Engl

The ultimate in modern rock and metal sounds. I've owned Marshall, Diezel and line 6 but Engl is the go to for premium sounds and plug and play.

Very underrated amp... excellent! Go to your nearest engl distributor and give it a test run, I guarantee you will not be disappointed

I've owned everything from mesa to fender to kustom. The Engle 530 preamp is the BEST!

9 Orange

Warm clean sound and unbelievable natural overdrive,. Amp needs no effects to sound great

No other amp like it in the world. If you can spring for the bucks, its worth the cost. DOES IT ALL>

Simplistic and versitile at the same time. Worth the high cost

10 EVH

I have a marshall jvm 205, and dsl 40c. they're great amps and both have nice cleans, but my Eddie Van Halen 5150lll rig has fat juicy tones and gain on tap. the clean channel has to be backed down a bit to keep it from overdriving the front end, but its just got monster tone.

The Contenders
11 Randall

I have been playing the Rg80 series for more than 10 years live every weekend. This amp was built for the road. All it needs is to be turned on.

12 Egnater

This is a great amp. I took a few min to look over the amps wiring. It quality product, inside and out.

13 Diezel
14 Hughes & Kettner

The best, the H&K Matrix 100 solid state is better than every other SS on the market. Also the Tubemeister, Coreblade, and Switchblade tube heads dwarf every other amp head on the market, and are half the price of most Engl amps.

If you haven't played through a newer H&K then you don't know what you're missing. I have a Coreblade and had played a Tubemiester and both are outstanding! By far some of the best sounding amps ever.

Played the above listed top four. Simply can't hold a candle to the H&K lower wattage head units. They excell with the lower watt amps.

15 Line 6

Most flexible amp on the market. The DT all tube series was designed by Bogner and when it's combined with L6 HD500X foot controller effects board there is nothing that compares to this combination on the market. You can model thousands of presets from your computer and save them to the controller. This should be number 1. I have owned.. Eddie Van Halen 5150, Hughes & Kettner TirAmp, Mesa Boogie, Fender Hot Rod deluxe, Marshall.. The Line 6 with the HD500X beats them all.

Have Line 6 spider 2 30 watts, sounds more bass and treble, then cut off mid than my Marshall Valvestate 8040 40 watts which has more on mids. Have watched Megadeth's Dave Mustaine's gear on YouTube, he said that Line 6 sounds better than Marshall amp. From Michael John S. Manahan

16 Laney

This amp was used by Black Sabbath. Should be higher.

17 Fame
18 Roland

If you want quality sound like no other and and simply the best effects on the market like boss get yourself a Roland cube. Like the gx40 or gx80. All cube amp by Roland come with the best boss effects and so much more

I have a mini cube I use my line 6 for a cup holder...

19 Carvin

I'm incomplete as a musician without my carvin 2 x 50 watt sweat clean channel and monster fully valved overdrive dripping lusious tones.
I've owned Fender twin reverb & pro reverb and many Marshalls and even been sold the Blackstar, and nothing can tough mt ever faithful Carvin!

Been playing over thirty years and have used them all... Carvin has tone as is built to last. Did I say Tone!

Hard to tweak your way into a bad tone with the V3. My Marshall now lives in the basement with Grandma.

20 Dr. Z

The only Musical Amp, sounds like your guitar, not the other way around, made to be played loud and it'll rip your eyes out and kick you in the nuts!

21 Bugera
22 Matchless
23 Soldano

So many guitarists have used the SLO-100, Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Mark Knopler...
So many saying that the iconic sounds are other amps, but it's a Soldano!

24 Yamaha
25 Rivera

A diverse palette of sound is obtained with tweaking the diverse tone knobs and filters. Can't be beat in functionality and power. When the Marshall JVM 410 came out to Marshall it was the amp to emulate.

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