Do You Need An Amp For An Electric Guitar

Hey there! This is Kurtis @ Lambertones here. If you’re reading this, playing an electric guitar was likely a pretty exciting moment when you started. Maybe you’ve just picked up a beginner guitar and are exploring how it all works. Perhaps you’ve been playing acoustic guitar for a while and are transitioning to electric, and you've been wondering what happens when you connect your guitar to an amp. There’s something about hearing that full, rich guitar sound through speakers that brings it all to life. In this post, we’re diving into whether or not you need an amp to get the most out of your electric guitar, and what your options are if you’re not ready to buy an amp just yet.

Do You Need an Amp For An Electric Guitar?

This post will help you determine whether you need an amplifier for your electric guitar based on how you plan to play, practice, and/or record. We’ll talk about what an amplifier actually does, how it affects your guitar sound, and some modern alternatives for guitar players who don’t want (or need) to go the traditional amp route.

Whether you're jamming in your bedroom, recording into a DAW (digital audio workstation), or planning a live rig that will work in church or stadium, this guide will help you understand what you need to know before buying an amp.

What Is an Amplifier?

An amplifier (or amp, for short) is a device that boosts the small electrical signal from your electric guitar into a full-volume sound that can be heard through a speaker. In a previous post comparing single coil pickups to humbuckers we talk about how this tiny little signal travels through your guitar, into the cable, through your pedal board, etc etc all the way to the amplifier, where is amplifies that little sonic frequency.

Amps do two main things:

1. Amplifies the signal so you can hear your guitar at a usable volume.

2. Shapes your tone: different amps affect your sound differently depending on their components, circuitry, and settings.
   

There are several types of amps:

• Tube amps: Known for warm, responsive, natural sound, but require more maintenance.

• Solid state amps: Reliable, affordable, and often ideal as a practice amp.

• Digital amps: Use modeling technology to emulate authentic tube amplifiers and also sometimes effects in one unit.

• Headphone amps: Small, personal devices that let you plug your guitar directly into headphone jacks and practice silently.

Do You Need an Amp to Play an Electric Guitar?

We’re not here for “technically’s”, so I’m going to say: Yes, you need an amplification method to play electric guitar. Otherwise you’d stick with the acoustic you have lying around, right? You can absolutely play a guitar without an amp. The strings will still vibrate, and the pickups will still react and generate a signal. But without amplification, you will not be able to hear it in its intended form.

So the better question might be: Do you want to hear your electric guitar the way it was meant to sound? That’s where amps (or modern amp alternatives) come in.

Using an amp isn’t just about volume. It’s about unlocking your tone, giving you clarity, dynamics, and drive. Distortion was a happy accident when guitar players pushed their amps beyond the intended power use. In the 50’s, guitar players started poking holes in their amplifier speakers to get a “rumble” that created the distortion faze with fuzz shortly after, and the rest is history, forever changing music and rock n roll. 

Whether you go with a classic tube amp or a digital amp setup through an audio interface and studio monitors, the right rig makes your guitar come alive in the appropriate environment.

What is the Purpose Of an Amplifier for Electric Guitar?

Volume Control

Let’s face it, an unamplified electric guitar is useless unless you simply want to practice muscle memory with your scales. An amp brings your playing up to a listenable (or performance-worthy) volume.

Tone Shaping

An amp adds character, EQ, gain, and sometimes built-in effects. Even with the same pickups, a Strat will sound wildly different through a Vox than a Fender. Understanding the different amp circuit types is helpful to getting you closer to your baseline tone. The most common circuit styles are Fender, Marshall, Vox, Dumble, Mesa Boogie, and Trainwreck. Reading about these is pretty tech-heavy, so I would recommend spending some time on YouTube to get a listen to how those circuits sound, or better yet, if you have a local guitar shop with a decent amp room, go and spend some time strumming! No knowledge is as valuable as firsthand experience. 

Expression and Dynamics

The way an amp reacts to your picking, how it breaks up at high gain, or blooms with sustain, these amp qualities shape your tone, guitar skills, and performance feel.

Recording and Performance

Whether you mic up your amp or reamp the guitar signal through an interface and DAW, an amp is a crucial piece of your guitar sound in both live and studio settings.

How to Choose an Amp for Electric Guitar

Define Your Playing Environment

If you practice at home, you might not need a huge amp. A 10 or 15-watt practice amp or a headphone amp is more than enough. Live players on bigger stages might need more headroom and power.

Consider Your Tone Goals

Chasing vintage or authentic tube tones? It’s hard to beat a tube amp. If you want modern versatility, there’s an increasingly impressive list of digital amp modelers that may suit your situation better.

Budget and Portability

Beginner guitar players may not be able to invest over $1,000 on their first amp. Solid state and digital amp emulators can be much more manageable in price, but to be real, there’s not too many solid state amps we’d ever recommend. If you don’t have a ton of cash but want the best tones possible, a Line6 HX Stomp or the IK Multimedia ToneX are the best choices. But we’ll get into those a little later.

Compatibility With Gear

Will you connect your guitar to pedals? Record through an audio interface? Solid state amps do not “take pedals” well, so if you have an effects rig you’ll want an amp modeler or a tube amp setup. If you’re doing studio recording, a Kemper Profiler is an incredible digital amp solution for seamless guitar recording with the very high-quality built-in interface. 

What Is the Best Electric Guitar Amp?

So… we’ve arrived at the most controversial and subjective part of this post. Which amp is the best?! I’m going to share my thoughts on what is currently available, and how I think most of us approach the issue of choosing a form of amplification. Hopefully that context will help you identify what is the best electric guitar amp for you.

We’ll break this down into a couple different segments: budget, playback volume, and gigging/tracking musician.

Best budget amp:

This conversation is pretty short! If you’re in the used market, a Vox AC15 or AC30 is easily less than $750 and is capable of producing tones heard on hundreds of records. If that amp circuit isn’t your thing, a Fender Blues Junior will do just about any trick or if you’re browsing the classifieds a Deluxe or Princeton will come up for less than 1k fairly often. 

If you’re not set on an authentic tube amp setup, the best bang for your buck with incredible tone is the Line6 HX Stomp, capable of producing stereo amp models and effects from a single unit for $700, or if you have a pedalboard rig already, the IK Multimedia ToneX has some of the best amp modeling results to exist. Amp-like response with your pedalboard and beautiful tube-like breakup.

Best amp for playback volume constraints:

If you live in an apartment complex, dorm room, or still at home with the folks, sometimes pushing serious air with a tube amp isn’t realistic. The last thing we want to do is limit our creativity by not being able to play guitar when we want. So lets talk about a few options that will give us the “bedroom volume” that we need to keep strumming day and night.

Since budget isn’t the foremost issue in this example we’re opening the possibilities up a bit to give you some options. 

• REVV D25: A 6V6 Fender style 25/5W all-tube guitar combo with integrated virtual cab/IR loading and a celestion V30 speaker. Push air when you can, but plug into your DAW or headphones and use the Two-notes IR tech to experience this amp and more at virtually any volume with full tube dynamic range. At $1,700 you’re getting nearly an all-in-one experience.

• Kemper Profiler, Neural Quad Cortex, or Line6 Helix Digital Amp and effects all-in-one units: Each utilize proprietary technology to “emulate” real tube amps, but connect to your computer laptop through a DAW to experience full guitar tones and a complete effects rig at headphone convenience. Pair it with an FRFR powered cabinet speaker and you can play your digital unit like a real amp at will. These units are incredibly versatile and allow you to take your rig with you in a single unit from the bedroom to the rehearsal space to the stage. We’ve already mentioned the HX Stomp and ToneX as viable digital options, but since budget isn’t the primary focus in this category, we’re going to juice it up with the bigger units that pack a huge punch.

Best amp for the gigging/tracking musician:

This is harder, because when the gear you use is tied directly to your income potential - it means that budget is less of an issue and more of logical decision making process of what allows me to serve my client the best? I’m still a huge fan of digital modelers like the Kemper, Quad Cortex, ToneX, etc. They allow for repeatable results in virtually any situation whether its a bedroom, church platform, Nashville studio, or stadium tour. They require no maintenance or delicate powering supplies, so as long as the units turn on there’s not a whole lot that can go wrong. Most of those units have balanced outputs so you run a single cable from the unit to FOH and you’re done. 

Tube amps on the other hand are very voltage sensitive, and for the touring/session professional they require special voltage regulators for consistent breakup, replacement tubes on hand, heavy duty cases or crates for transport, and in some situations isolation rooms for mic placement and long XLR runs to FOH. If you live in the studio and have a dedicated space for amps, you’re in a real great spot for some authentic tube tones, so congratulations you can shop around!  

That said, if you’re able to maintain and utilize iconic amplifiers for your context then here are some of my personal favorites for you to consider:

• Fender Deluxe: A true classic and used on literally thousands of records in the last 70 years. Fender style circuits work beautifully with low-medium output pickups and are perfect for Lambertones.

• Benson Chimera: Modern 6V6 Fender-style circuit with a twist and a half. Beautiful cleans and tight punchy breakup range.

• Vintage VOX AC30 60’s era: One of todays most popular touring amps and the pioneer of the EL84 power tubes. Most of today’s CCM is recorded with AC30’s, and there’s a lot of Lambertones there too, so you’d be in great company with a set of Crema’s and a Vox.

• Mesa Boogie Mark V: Loves to be pushed hard and maintains extreme articulate tones and warm low end even with breakup. These are super versatile and work well with most pickup styles, but definitely lean more into the crunch and drive side of guitar tone.

• Marshall Plexi or JTM45: EL34 power tubed hard rock machines for saturated gains and huge cleans. A classic for any studio or heavier rock production. 

If you’re wondering how all this fits into your personal sound goals, I highly recommend checking out our post on how to get a good tone on guitar.

Whether you’re chasing pristine cleans, creamy breakup, or amp-less recording setups, it all starts with understanding what each piece of your signal chain does and how it shapes your unique voice as a guitarist.

You don’t need a crazy expensive amp to play guitar successfully, but having the right setup, whether that’s a small practice amp, a full rig, or a modern digital amp plugged into your computer laptop or headphone amps through an audio interface and studio monitors can take your tone and inspiration to the next level while still being bedroom friendly!

So if you’re on the fence about whether to buy an amp, ask yourself: What kind of tone am I chasing? What setup fits my space, budget, and goals?

And as always, if you're stuck, curious, or just tone-obsessed like we are... hit us up here, we love talking about guitar tone and more importantly, love to help you find your sound.