Best Tube Guitar Amps For Home Use

okay so I love guitar amps I don't know why exactly but they're one of my favorite parts of being a guitar player specifically tube amps now if you follow this channel you know that I play everything I play tube amps modelers hybrids amp modeling pedals I like it all if it sounds good I like it but there's something special about tube amps specifically I think it's the sort of mechanical nature of them it's the tactile nature of them they get hot they smell when they're warm and the sound there's just something about playing through an amp that's got tubes and transformers and it's moving a speaker and moving air in the room that is proven really really hard to replicate in the digital realm not impossible but really hard now the current kovat crisis and everything else that's going on most of us guitar players are stuck playing at home whether you are a hobbyist or someone that just plays for fun playing at home recording your own stuff or someone who is used to gigging and touring and doing session work who's now stuck at home and so I started thinking about what are my favorite tube amps for home use what are the best tube amps out there in my experience for home use so in today's episode of gear talk we're going to talk about that [Music] now before we get started this is by no means a comprehensive list I'm gonna stick to amps that I've personally played and used and owned I'm not gonna take a look at the entire guitar amp market that would be way too long of a video and I'm not going to talk about amps that I haven't personally used an experienced first hand the other thing is some of these amps in this video were given to me but I was not paid by any of these companies nor was I asked by any of these companies to feature any of their gear in any of my videos everything I say in this video is my own personal opinion based on my experience my air conditionings kicking on and if you want information about any of the amps that I talked about they will all be linked in the description box down below those are affiliate links so if you buy something through one of those links I make a small Commission which really helps me out in making these videos so with all that out of the way let's jump into the video so before we start looking at actual amps let's talk about what makes a tube amp a good candidate for home use first of all the power rating I think any amp over 15 watts that doesn't have a power scaling feature or a master volume or anything to tame the output of the amplifier is not a good candidate for home use now if you come from 50 watt amps 30 watt amps or even 100 watt amp so you may hear 15 and think well that's really low power why not go for a 20 watt amp 15 watt amps are actually incredibly loud and if you live in an apartment or townhome or have neighbors close by you can absolutely piss a lot of people off with a 15 watt amp if it's really pushed so personally I think amps that are in the 5 to 10 watt range or ideal but I would not recommend going with something larger than 15 watts of output unless it has some kind of power scaling or attenuation or master volume feature built in the next thing is size most of us don't have a ton of space to devote to a home studio or a music room setup now while we all love Marshall stacks and half stacks they're great on stages and to take on the road I think a good home guitar amp is gonna be on the smaller side oftentimes this means 112 combos but they don't have to be combos I'm a big fan of head and cab setups because you have more flexibility in what you can do with the amplifier you can have the head sitting next to you on a desk and the cabinet in another room miked up or you can utilize something like a virtual cabinet or a 10 you ATAR or ir loader to simulate the cabinet a little more easily with a head set up and the third thing I like to consider is number of speakers and size of those speakers the more speakers you have the more surface area of speaker you have moving the air effectively giving you more volume output again the idea here is to get great tone at a reasonable volume that's not going to make your spouse or your neighbors hate you for playing your guitar so generally I would stick with a 112 or smaller set up maybe a 110 or no more than a 210 cabinet just my opinion also the feature set of an amp is really important like I mentioned a moment ago does it have a master volume or power scaling or attenuation feature built in or like more modern amps does it have some kind of virtual cabinet or IR loader or direct to recording software solution so you can bypass a speaker cabinet altogether the feature set of an amp can really affect whether or not it's a good candidate for home use so with all that in mind what are the best guitar amps for home use first off the fender blues jr. this is the mazda miata of guitar amps this is the amp that I always recommend to people who say I need an amp for home use that's not gonna break the bank fender blues jr. I want to be able to gig with it too and play small to medium sized clubs fender blues jr. I want to be able to modify it and make changes and kind of make it my own sound fender blues jr. it needs to be reliable and not cost that much because it's going to be used in bars and get drinks spilled on it fender blues jr. this is one of the best amps on the market for a budget tube amp home friendly gig friendly modding platform amp out there they've been around for ages I think the first generation came out sometime in the mid to late 90s and I've owned this one since 2011 this is a blues junior 3 they since have a new version out the blues junior 4 I've never played it I don't know how it compares but as you can see I have used the crap out of this amp I've done all different types of mods to this thing including a presence control a bias trim pot a filter cap mod a tone stack mod I've swapped the speaker out I've deleted the reverb added a 3-way power switch with a standby position it's then had a second filter cap mod now quick disclaimer amplifiers are incredibly dangerous do not crack open the back of your amp and start messing around in there unless you are absolutely sure you know what you're doing amp circuits can hold enough voltage even when they're turned off to kill you if you're not careful so do not watch this video and think you're gonna jump straight into modding your amplifier I would highly recommend you taking your amp to a certified amp technician to have your mods and all your work done rather than trying to figure it out on your own now the Blues jr. comes in right around 15 watts it's a 112 combo and it's powered by a set of el84 power tubes which if you know anything about fender amps and el84 is not typically the Fender amp sound we're all used to traditionally that's a 6 v6 or 6l6 power tube but this does the fender clean to edge a break up sound really well and it can get into boxy territory now mine does not sound like a stock blues junior as I said earlier I've modified the crap out of this thing to make it sound bigger and more open and less boxy that is one of the downsides of these when they're new at least the version three they had a really boxy sound they sounded like they looked which is a small box but the tone stack mod and the filt cap mod really cleared that up the best thing you can do to one of these though is swap the speaker out it's easy to do there's plenty of options this has a warehouse ET 65 and that's the best bang for your buck in terms of upgrades for the Blues Judy [Music] the next up on the list we've got the rev D 20 and the g20 now Rev sent this amp out to me late last year and I've really enjoyed using it I think this is where the future of tube guitar amps especially for home players and home session players are headed this is a completely tube analog amplifier circuit with some really cool digital features built in it's got an impulse response loader it's got a virtual cabinet built-in hold virtual cabinet system and you can switch between 20 watts of output or 4 watts of output when running through a cabinet or through the built-in XLR di out which lets you go straight into any recording interface without having to mic up a cabinet or put a cabinet in another room something like this is perfect for home players out there especially if you don't want to go full-on into the modeling world with something like a Kemper or helix or an ax affects this style of hybrid amp I think is really cool it sort of gives you the best of both worlds you've got the all analog amplifier circuitry using real preamp tubes real power amp tubes real output transformers tied with some of the best stuff to come out of the digital amp world the virtual cabinet algorithms the impulse response loaders I think this is really cool option not just for home players but for gigging players as well another notable mention here is the syrup pt 15 Pete Thorne's new signature amp with sir it's a similar style hybrid amp set up a little bit more expensive than the Rev and I actually haven't played one which is why I'm not featuring it in the video but another cool amp nonetheless [Music] [Music] you [Music] next up is the Morgan AC 20 deluxe now I've owned this amp since about 2013 2014 like the Blues jr. it's been on hundreds of gigs I've used it on tons of sessions and this is one of my favorite amps that I've ever played and owned now at 20 watts actually 23 watts this is above that 15 watt power threshold I set at the beginning of the video but this amp has a really cool feature which makes it awesome for home use and that is the power scaling function now power scaling is a feature that allows you to turn down the output level of the amp it's not a master volume and that it's not turning down the output volume it's literally taking the amps wattage from a full 23 watts when this knob is all the way up all the way down to I think like half a watt or point 6 watts all the way down here so essentially this amp lets you choose what power rating you want it to be let's say you want to run it at 5 watts put the power level about there you want the full 23 watts dime the power level knob let's say you want it around 12 watts put it about there the cool thing about this feature is it keeps your tone intact and when I'm playing at home through a cabinet I'll dial the power level down get my tones set get my pedal boards and my effects set to the amps setting and then go to a gig or a session and dial the power level up to fit the room that I'm in now this is the AC 20 deluxe model you can still buy the AC 20 but for some reason they don't make the deluxe anymore and I'm not really sure why and frankly I would go with the deluxe probably over the modern one there's plenty of these floating around used both in a head and cab setup and in a combo set up a 112 combo so I would try and find a used AC 20 deluxe on the markets [Music] [Music] now I think another good candidate for a home friendly amp is something like this this is a port city pearl it's 50 Watts 6l6 powered all clean - BAM now if 20 Watts was over my 15 watt threshold then obviously 50 watts is way over the threshold so you might be wondering why is this amp a good candidate for home use because it's a clean pedal platform amp with a really good master volume now not all master volumes on amps are created equal some master volumes depending on how they're wired in the amps circuit and in the tone stack will affect the tone and the output of the amplifier the high watt custom 20 behind me an amp that I love has that type of master volume where it's affecting not just the volume output of the amp but also the amount of gain that the amp is putting out the Pearl though really just makes it louder and quieter because this is a completely clean amp that does not break up on its own at all this master volume control here sort of has a similar effect as the power scaling function on the Morgan it allows you to keep the tone of your amp intact with just turning the volume control down now this amp is a little bit older it's from 2010 compared to the other amps that I've talked about so far in this video so it doesn't have any fancy new features it doesn't have a DI out there's no power scaling or cabinet modeling or anything like that this is just a good old fashioned clean tube amp the thing that this amp does really really well is take pedals if you're the type of person that likes to use pedals for your overdrive sounds your gain sounds you like to utilize a lot of modulation a lot of reverb and delay a clean pedal platform amp is a great candidate for you and because this amp is 50 watts if you are a gigging guitar player somebody that's going to be going out and using it live this has the power to keep up with a band on its own if you put this on top of the two twelve or four twelve cabinet it'll absolutely fill up pretty much any stage you would ever find yourself on so there's plenty of amps out there on the market like this one but something that's a little bit higher wattage and a clean pedal platform amp that has a really good master volume control I think is a great candidate for a home amp [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and finally we have the victory amps sheriff 22 or technically it's the sheriff so victory amps the sheriff 22 now the reason I picked this to feature is because of the output section this is another thing to look for in amps that are good candidates for home use now on the front you can see this is essentially like a marshal style amp you've got two inputs a high and a low gain independent volume controls for each input a 3-band EQ presence control and a master volume now this master volume works a little bit differently than the one in the Pearl this is going to have some effect on the overall tone of the amplifier the more you bring up this master volume control the more you're going to introduce power amp Distortion and the more you bring it down the less power amp distortion and cleaner overall sound you're gonna have along with a lower output now 22 watts I think this amp is too powerful for home use as it sits it's really really loud especially if you put it on something like a 212 cabinet it's a great gigging amp but 22 watts is too much for the house however this amp and amps like this in victories line up have a really cool feature on the back which is a dedicated speaker output that runs the amp at point 3 watts now this is something I'd like to see ant builders do more of because it caters to the home market really well you can take this amp which is a good option for gigging at 22 watts it'll fill up pretty much any stage you would ever find yourself on and it allows you to power a speaker cabinet at home at a reasonable volume and something like this is good for you players out there that are anti digital you don't like something like the Rev or the Cir PT 15 because you don't like the modeling algorithms or the impulse response loader so you don't want to deal with software totally cool I get it this is completely analog no USB cables no computers to plug your cabinet into this output here and you've got point three watts instead of 22 [Music] [Music] [Music] so when it comes to finding the right amp for your home setup there's a lot to consider are you gonna be gigging with it do you want to be able to record direct with it how much volume can you actually get away with using in your house or apartment but it's worth figuring out I think having the right amp for you and your style of playing and your setup is one of the best things you can do as a guitar player so those are some of my favorite guitar amps for home use what do you use at home what's your favorite guitar amps set up for your apartment townhome or home studio let me know in the comment section down below now I have made a video in the past on how to find the perfect guitar amp you can find that here I teamed up with my buddy Ben Calhoun over at righteous guitars to make that one we had a lot of fun doing it so check that out and be sure to check out the links in the description box down below if you're interested in finding out more information about the amps I've talked about in today's video again those are affiliate links so if you buy something through that link I make a small Commission so thank you for that if you want to learn more about tone and how to set up and dial in guitar amps I made a video course dedicated to that and other subjects called the tone course you can check that out in the description box down below I created that video course for guitar players who are trying to step their tone game up to the next level and understand more about how guitars and effects and amps all work together if you haven't done so already be sure to subscribe and click the bell icon to be notified when I'm going live and posting new videos and you can check out the gear Talk playlist down below as well anyways thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed today's video my name is rhett Shull and remember there is no plan B

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 858,549

Rating: 4.8383675 out of 5

Keywords: best amp for home use, best amp for home practice, best amp for home studio, best tube amp for home use, best tube amp for the money, best tube amp for home, Rhett Shull, Tube Amp, Guitar Amp, best tube amp, small amps, best practice amp, best valve amp, best amps for apartments, best bedroom amp, fender blues junior, Revv D20, Victory Amps, Port City Pearl, Morgan AC20, valve amp, combo amp, studio amps

Id: KsCizHUVlxc

Length: 21min 34sec (1294 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020