What Is The Best Beginner Guitar Amp?
When you want to learn to play electric guitar, you also need an amp and a cable. This is another area where, as we discussed in our article about beginner electric guitars, the internet can overwhelm you with choices. There are dozens of options available. In this article, we will discuss a few options that we think are important to the beginner, and show a few options that meet those criteria. We actually bought one of these amps for the video below. Let's get into the main things we think a beginner amp should have.
A Beginner Amp Should Be Simple
As you learn to play electric guitar, your teacher will no doubt be focusing on important things like chords, notes, and theory. This is plenty to think about. When it comes time to practice, you want to just plug in and make a solid guitar sound. There are some very cool beginner amps like the Fender Mustang or The Line 6 Spider, that sound good but can overwhelm beginners with all the effects and gizmos they have. That being said, if you are one to tinker, they are a lot of fun. Options like the Roland Cube 10 and the Boss Katana Mini have simple controls that still help you learn how amps interact with the guitar.
A Beginner Amp Should Make It Easy To Practice
A good practice schedule is key to learning guitar. Practicing every day for 15-30 min will go a long way to helping you progress quickly. This can be tough if your schedule only allows practicing when others are sleeping or if you have close neighbors that don't appreciate your rocking ways. All of the options we looked at have headphone jacks so you can play in relative silence. Most of them have an input so you can hook up an MP3 player and jam along with your favorite tracks. Even after playing for many years, both of these features come in handy. The Boss Katana Mini can run on 6 AA batteries. This makes it easy to never miss a practice no matter where you go.
What We Chose For Our Series
With all the options available, we chose the Boss Katana Mini for our series on beginner guitar rigs. There are a few reasons this one made the cut. The Simple controls, the portable battery powered option, and the headphone jack were big reasons. Another huge factor is how it sounds! This tiny thing sounds great. The simple controls are complete enough to teach a new player about how amps work. It also reacts to the controls and to the guitar like much more expensive amps do. In just a few minutes we were able to get a great sound that even an experienced player would be happy to practice with. This is important because I like to share guitar gear that will have a place in your music room for a long time. Even when you want to get bigger more complicated amps, the Boss Katana Mini will still have a place as a practice amp. There are many options that you may quickly outgrow and want to replace. I chose this amp because even when that happens (it will) you will probably still keep this one around.
You also need a good guitar cable. We have high-quality guitar cables HERE that will give you years of faithful service.
No matter what amp you choose to round out your beginner guitar rig, You will no doubt get bit by the bug. Your first amp probably won't be your last.