Electric Guitar Amplifiers
Electric Guitar Amps help amplify your sound at home or on stage. Electric Guitars are by nature built to function with Guitar Amplifiers because their solid-body (and a lack of soundboard) cannot amplify itself like an Acoustic Guitar. For this reason, investing in a high quality, optimal output Guitar Amplifier is essential. Guitar Amps are, in their most basic form, a wooden cabinet with a loudspeaker that is tuned to distort the audio signal from an Electric Guitar. Guitar Amps also have the added advantage of modifying the tone of a guitar using EQ controls - mostly Gain, Volume, Voice, Treble, Bass, and other FX controls.
Electric Guitar Amps come in various sizes, wattage, and speaker counts to suit every artist's needs. For large venue guitarists, a medium-large sized amplifier, preferably with combo speakers (two speakers in one cabinet), FX controls and a dedicated Line Out is a must. This is the preferred setup for guitarists who require the versatility of the FX tuning and a personal monitor when performing. For small-medium sized events, a medium sized amplifier with FX is optimal. Practice Amplifiers can be smaller in size, with lower wattage and built for portability and basic FX options. Some brands like Blackstar, Boss, and Orange have an Electric Guitar Amplifier in every price and wattage range. These brands are on the expensive end of the spectrum, but have long been the go-to brands for passionate guitarists, owing to their superior sound quality, exceptional amplification capability, and durable build grade. However, the affordable options by Laney and Behringer are perfectly suited for beginners, as practice amps, and as backups.
Do Electric Guitars really need a Guitar Amp?
Yes. An Electric Guitar was designed to work with a Guitar Amplifier. An Electric Guitar does not have a soundboard or hollow surface to reverb and amplify sound off of. For that reason, an amplifier helps provide amplification to the tones produced by your electric guitar. Moreover, most Guitar Amplifiers have effect controls and audio manipulation tools which are a must-have for electric guitarists.
Can I use an Electric Guitar Amp with Keyboards or Drums?
No. Using a Keyboard or Drum with a Guitar Amp negatively affects the amp because both Keyboards and Drum Kits have a larger frequency range than the Guitar Amp can support, in turn damaging the unit. Guitar Amps also generally tend to have a distorted sound which is not ideal for Keyboards and Drums. Both these instruments require a clean, high-frequency amplifier that can also support multiple inputs.
How does an Electric Guitar Amplifier work?
A basic guitar amplifier consists of three main components: a preamp, the power amp, and the speaker (sometimes two in number). The preamp is responsible for inputting the raw guitar sound into the power amp. The sound processed by the preamp is based on the tuning of the EQ by you as the artist. Once the power amp received the equalised audio signal from the preamp, it amplifies the signal to a significant level and sends it to the speaker for output. For more powerful requirements, a stacked setup is used - the top stack containing the preamp and the power amp (called the amplifier head) while the bottom cabinet contains the speaker alone. In this manner, a large-scale venue with stacks of speakers can be powered by the artist’s amplifier head alone.
Can an Electric Guitar Amplifier be used to play music as a regular consumer speaker system?
Technically, yes. However, the audio quality will be subpar because of the distortion quality and low-frequency range support of Electric Guitar Amps.
What is the price range of an Electric Guitar Amplifier?
An Electric Guitar Amplifier starts from AED 150 and can go upto AED 15,000 in the professional range.
