How many amps do you really need?

[Stringswinger]

I am sure that the "how many guitars do you really need" thread made us all think a bit about that. How about amps?

I have recently retired from regular public performance and have downsized to two amps, A Henriksen and a Quilter. One gets me the classic solid state jazz amp sound (Henriksen) and the other gets me the classic tube amp sound (Quilter).

I have always liked both of those sounds and for the one sound my path since the 1970's has been Polytone to Acoustic Image/Raezer's Edge to Henriksen. Fpr the other sound my path has been Fender to Mesa to Quilter.

It is my view that unlike special guitars, most amps depreciate and deteriorate, so I have never had too many at one time. But at this time just two will do. I have the following:

Quilter Mach 3
Henriksen Bud 6
Raezer's Edge Stealth 12ER (to supplement either of my two amps when I need it)

What are you amp holdings and needs?

[DawgBone]

I NEED two amps to accomplish gigs/recordings in case one amp fails so I gotta couple Twins. My gear collection is pretty boring since I'm mostly about redundancy rather than just GAS-ing over new stuff.

I have an old Gibson/Maestro that makes a great recording amp but it needs work. I'd have sold it a long time ago but it's one of two items I own that I am sentimental about since it was my old man's and is also the first guitar amp I ever played through. If it didn't sound good I'd get rid of it but it sounds killer and is also a pretty rare model, with only a few hundred ever made.

[pauln]

I have played the same guitar for almost 40 years but I do like to have multiple amps. I also like to take two amps and have never had to pull the second out; but I have used the Deluxe input jumpered to the main amp a few times as a monitor for the bass player to hear me on large indoor stages or outdoors.

Deluxe Reverb reissue
about 30 years old
bright cap open

Super Reverb reissue
about 25 years old
no mods

Super Reverb 1965
61 years old
tone is very distinctive, stock CTS ceramic speakers, each speaker weighs at least 10 lbs., had dry rotted slouching off Tolex, now finished pine.

Twin Reverb 40th anniversary
21 years old
plaque on back cabinet, badge on back of chassis, only 400 made, early style blonde rough Tolex with wheat grill, 6l6 set manufactured on the original GE equipment, speakers labeled Fender Special but they are Eminence
very strong loud good looking amp, I often pull a power tube from each pair to reduce power

Twin Reverb reissue #1
about 15 years old
top front cab edge is slightly rounded
I use a 12AU7 in V3 as the reverb driver, it is about 1/4 the gain of a 12AT7 and places the ambient no splash reverb about half way on the control knob

Twin Reverb reissue #2
about 15 years old
top front cab edge is sharper
no mods

[bluejaybill]

I have 5, though not all for jazz:

Fat Jimmy Gigmaster 20- A Fender amp variant that includes some features from tweed, brown and BF eras. Great trem and verb, and a control to make it nastier (reduces negative feedback). My favorite for jazz, and great for blues/rock as well, and my main amp.

DV Mark Little Jazz- A surprisingly good amp for the classic jazz sound, I keep it in my office for practice, or move it down to the music room to play in stereo with the first amp. Not bad for $350 or whatever I paid on special for it.

'66 Deluxe Reverb- Everyone knows how great these are of course, I've had this one since the '70's ($75!). All original and has seen a lot of gigs. Unlike many, I don't really care for it for jazz, YMMV

'64 Vox AC15- Just the greatest for clean chimey Vox tones to almost Dumblesque lead sounds. An all-timer.

'67 Marshall JTM45- Because you gotta have a Marshall! Well, not really any more, but this early one has all of the classic Marshall tones, and if you turn it down it's a terrific (loud!) jazz amp, which I think is what Jim Marshall intended it to be. It's essentially a tweed Bassman circuit with British parts.

Not sure how much longer I'll stick with the classic old ones, I don't really need them any more, but they are fun to have around for now. I could get by with the Fat Jimmy and the Little Jazz.

[entresz]

I have a Quilter Aviator Twin Ten, and a Fender Deluxe Reverb Tonemaster; I do most of my gigs with these. The 'fendery' sound suits most things I play.

I also have a DV Mark LJ, and the Jazz 60 head that I use with a JBL D130 speaker. For purely jazz sounds these are great amps.

Somewhere in the middle tonewise sits my Roland JC-80, which is a very cool amp with a unique sound, but a struggle for me to get in/out of the car.

[DawgBone]

.

'67 Marshall JTM45- Because you gotta have a Marshall! Well, not really any more, but this early one has all of the classic Marshall tones, and if you turn it down it's a terrific (loud!) jazz amp, which I think is what Jim Marshall intended it to be. It's essentially a tweed Bassman circuit with British parts.

You don't really hear this brought up because they are so well known for gain/rock tones. I always thought the same thing about the plexi too. The EQ is extremely powerful and effective. The clean tones are completely overlooked yet they are almost unparalleled by just about any other amp before or since.

[213Cobra]

Maybe more here than you want to know. Some context provided by what I had and how I got to what I have now. Also, note that while I've been playing guitar since 1968, I didn't get my first electric until 1990. My first amp then was a Mesa Studio 22+. I replaced it after a couple of years and got a brace of tube amps between 1992 and 1998 that I kept until mid-2025:

Mesa Boogie Mark IV
Mesa Blue Angel
Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue
Fender Blues Deluxe
Mesa Subway Blues v1
Crate Taxi 30
Big Industries Ronnie Montrose 9V battery powered portable amp

Then in 2010 I added a Mesa Boogie Mark V and a Carvin Vintage 16. Both the Marks had EVM12L speakers. All the Mesas were in hardwood cabinets. That's about 375 lbs. of amps.

Of those amps, I used the Blue Angel the most, with the low-power options on the Mark IV next. Did I need all of them? Not strictly, but I sure enjoyed having the range of sounds they made available.

Now, in 2026 I am into my fourth year of my wife having suffered sudden onset of fronto-temporal dementia. This rapidly turned our world upside down. One thing I had to do quickly was to get us into a smaller, more contained property to keep her safe, the effects of which rippled through everything about what we (especially me) owned. The guitars population plummeted (somewhat reflated since, after getting her diagnosis and verdict that no treatment is available). Some hifi was downsized. My inventory of astronomical telescopes is about to be cut down. My library of books was slashed by 2/3rds. Managed to keep the music and video libraries intact. I dealt with guitars in 2023. Property in 2024. Amps in 2025.

After selling all my tube amps, I started with a used Little Jazz, to see what the solid state jazz sound is like these days. It had been 30 years since I played a Polytone. The Little Jazz was so cheap ($220 on Reverb in spotless condition) I may just keep it. But I don't need it. It turned out to be a gateway drug to Henriksen, as the LJ is kind of a one-trick pony. So, aside from having the LJ and using it seldom, in the last year I have assembled my three essentials and still have the Big Industries Montrose:

1/ Henriksen Bud Six. Reminiscent of my Mesas, I splurged on getting it in a maple Humphrey cab.

2/ Wavelength Twenty Four 5W tube head with Wavelength open-back wood cab in which there is a Celestion Gold 10" Alnico speaker.

3/ Wavelength Noggin tube headphone amp for guitar.

I like the Bud Six and can get a pretty wide range of sounds from it, especially by using a pedal or two in front of it to boost its versatility. But especially after getting a Charlie Christian repro guitar with a faithful CC pickup, I had to get a compact tube option to go alongside the Bud Six. I used to have a bigger house and sufficient distance from neighbors to use my old tube amps as intended. Now, too much people proximity for that. That's where the 5W Wavelength comes in and the 10" cab. Beautiful sounds from that amp. Gordon Rankin is rooted in hifi but has a guitar-related side hustle. The Twenty-four has an all-octal circuit -- 6SL7 input/driver, 6V6 single-ended power, 6ZY5G rectifier. I may try some other speakers in the cab, but the 10" Gold Alnico has a lot of guts and beauty as is. I also sometimes use a Tech 21 Q\Strip semi-parametric guitar EQ with the Twenty Four. BTW, the Q\Strip isn't made anymore but if you find one and appreciate EQ, buy it. It has two parametric midrange bands along with bass and treble. It's a MOSFET-based emulation of clean recording EQ from a 1960s Rupert Neve studio console. There is also clean boost, but the main event is the EQ, which is both squeaky clean and toneful.

Among the continuity of changes emanating from my wife's condition is that my guitar playing is increasingly shifted into late night. Sometime very late. I get more playing in between midnight and 4am than any other part of my day. Hence the addition of a tube guitar headphone amp. Back to Rankin for that. All his gear includes top-tier parts, including both of his amps here being stuffed with Blackgate capacitors. In the case of the Noggin, Gordon built a 20Hz - 20kHz low power hifi mono amp with a guitar input. So it isn't voiced as a guitar amp. More like a Henriksen head with just a tone knob, but all-tubes. Plug straight in and it's obvious EQ is needed before the input. It certainly can be played with its tone control as the only EQ provision but with most of my archtops, I can't tune out enough bass that way. So, the Noggin benefits greatly from a combination of cabinet simulation and basic, 3 band EQ. Gordon sent along a Universal Audio Enigmatic to try with the Noggin. I don't have a lot of patience for endless pedals swapping and evaluation. The Enigmatic works great for this. It's primarily intended as a Dumble emulator plus, meaning there were a lot of Dumble variants and you can find Fendery and Mesa tones too. Then there's the additional speaker and amp simulation files available from UA's app and store. Haven't gotten into that yet. What's on the pedal suits me just fine for now.

I keep the petite BIG Industries Montrose as my patio camp. It's clean to about 11:30 position, gets dirty and more after that. Amazing what 9V can do with a sealed-cab, 6" speaker.

So that's my new amplifiers configuration now. Four compact amps assembled for a purpose. A lot smaller and a LOT less weight than my former array. Pics below.

Phil

[marcwhy]

Same as the "guitar" thread: "N+1 !"



Amps are a lot of fun, and I enjoy hearing my guitars through different amps to "find" new sounds (more so than trying effects pedals) and "feel!" Recent purchase: a Mojotone "GA-5" combo, put together by a local guy (this was Gibson's take on the Fender Champ)! Yep, not enough "headroom" for loud, clean sounds, but surprisingly loud, and it has worked well when I brought it to a local (not loud) jazz jam! It has one knob: Volume (what else do you need?!), and I replaced the speaker with a Fat Jimmy alnico 8, so it sounds sweet! I have other "serious" amps for actual gigs, but this thing is a blast!

[Stringswinger]

'64 Vox AC15- Just the greatest for clean chimey Vox tones to almost Dumblesque lead sounds. An all-timer.

'67 Marshall JTM45- Because you gotta have a Marshall! Well, not really any more, but this early one has all of the classic Marshall tones, and if you turn it down it's a terrific (loud!) jazz amp, which I think is what Jim Marshall intended it to be. It's essentially a tweed Bassman circuit with British parts.

.

I had a recent Made in China Vox AC30. I could get a decent jazz sound out of it, but it was heavy and having no easy way to change tubes made me never even want to try it on a gig. A guy from Brazil was leaving San Francisco for a world tour and needed to sell it fast, so I bought it knowing that I could demo it and get my money out easily and even make a profit.

Years ago I had a Marshall and it has a story. I owned a restaurant in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district from 1981 until 1987. One of my customers was a fellow called Baja (his real name was Mark something or another) and Baja was a coke dealer who lived on a houseboat in Sausalito. One day Baja told me that Jerry Garcia was a customer of his and that Jerry had a Marshall for sale and he asked me if I had an interest. I bought the amp. It was a 1968 Super Lead that had been hot rodded by an outfit called Magic Music Machines in the East Bay. It came to me with a 4X12 cabinet made by Alembic (who were in Marin County at that time). I have two regrets about that amp. One, that I did not keep it and two, that I did not ask for a letter of provenance. Had I done both of those things, it would probably be worth quite a bit today. But I could not get a clean sound that I liked with that amp. It was always saturated with gain. I suspect that is also why Jerry parted with it. And I ended up parting with it. IIRC, I paid $800 for the amp and cabinet and I sold them for $400 each so it was a break even.

Those were my only British amps.

[John A.]

I need two, but have 3 (or 4)

Need:

- Quilter Aviator Cub -- my main amp for most of the gigs I do and for playing at home (loud or quiet as I need it to be, light, great sounding and versatile). I had a Princeton Reverb in this spot in the line-up before, but replaced it with the Quilter for the lighter weight and greater verstatility (and to cash out on the Princeton, which paid for the Quilter and a Les Paul)
- Fender Champion 20 -- grab and go for jams and/or gigs at small venues, people's homes, etc., and as a second amp when people come to my place to jam. Sounds amazing for the size, surprisingly loud, and stupid cheap.

Nice to have:
Roland MicroCube (bordering on need, because I've gotten a lot of use out of it) -- for practicing in the park, vacations, etc.. Sounds pretty good, somewhat usable with other players, e.g., jamming with someone playing acoustic or an unmic'ed singer at house gig, but it's borderline for that.


Don't need:
I also have Positive Grid Spark GO. This is a small bluetooth speaker integrated with an app that has amp models. So call it half an amp? For my uses it's pretty much redundant with the MicroCube, except that it's not really usable for anything but quiet practice. It was an impulse purchase, and if I had to dump something it would go first.

[Danny W.]

How Many Guitar Amps Do You Own?

[jads57]

Depends on your gigging situation,at least for me. And I went Quilter years ago and have been very happy! So I have 3 total.

But apparently with newer direct options and better monitoring, you might not even need one at all?

[rpjazzguitar]

I was happy with the Little Jazz. I use it regularly at home. It isn't quite loud enough for everything I do though.

Lately, I've been playing out with a JBL Eon One Compact. I can get my sound out of it. The big advantage is that I can run vocals though it with separate 6 band EQ. It has a built in mixer. So, for 19lbs it solves a couple of problems.

There's one venue though where the only place I can put my amp is in front of me. The JBL has a closed back. The LJ has a rear port - you can hear it from the back, but it doesn't sound like it does in front.

So, I have an open back JC55 which I use in that situation.

None of them are clearly great sounding amps in some more general sense. The best amp I ever tried was a Hot Rod Deluxe. It sounded warm and rich to me. But I don't want to lift it.

I've tried a bunch of the well-praised amps. A Twin, Polytone, Aviator Cub and Blu come to mind. One of the best sounds I ever got on a gig was a Crate GFX15 ($99 new) mic'ed through a good PA. I'd still use it but it developed an intermittent problem (no sound).

So, my answer is three amps. Quiet, loud and one for when I need an open back.

[DawgBone]

Depends on your gigging situation,at least for me. And I went Quilter years ago and have been very happy! So I have 3 total.

But apparently with newer direct options and better monitoring, you might not even need one at all?

As long as you don't mind being at the mercy of the soundman, which would mean some gigs would be great, and others, a disaster waiting for downbeat to happen, LOL. I will say it is tempting to throw one of those modeler stompboxes in the cable bag for a j.i.c situation rather than trucking another amp around.

[bluejaybill]

You don't really hear this brought up because they are so well known for gain/rock tones. I always thought the same thing about the plexi too. The EQ is extremely powerful and effective. The clean tones are completely overlooked yet they are almost unparalleled by just about any other amp before or since.

For sure, the JTM45 is tube rectified so warm sag, it can do the clean Hendrix "Little Wing" thing, or nice jazz tones on the normal channel. And everything in between.

A lot like a great tweed amp. It's basically a two tube tweed Bassman, from what I have read.

[Greywolf]

need ? 3: 1 acoustic amp with XLR outs for gigs and recording , 1 tube amp for the more rockin gigs, and a bass amp

As I've hosted a weekly Open Mic for the past 3 years , at times it calls for more , when we have jam nights for special occasions.

My current gig amps are a Mesa Rosette (300w /2 discrete ch/ XLR outs) and Fender SFX 2 (200 w / 2 discrete channels XLR outs) both delightful . I bring a 30th anni Fender Blues jr for the Electric folks. If Bass is needed I use a DSM Humbolt Bass Simplifier DI , which is great. They make a few guitar versions, and for on the go they are hard to beat.

[JazzerEU]

Two amps, primary and a backup, back when I was gigging, using a tube amp, I always had a solid state combo in case something went south with the tube amp. For those who play call of duty remember “switching to your secondary is faster than reloading”

[vernon]

I only “need” one amp, but I have four… all vintage Fenders from the mid-60’s. My only real extravagance. Amplification is magical!

[pilotony]

Been playing since 1961.

1. Polytone Mini Brute. (reverb inoperative). Great Jazz sound. Mostly serves as a back-up for my two other amps;

2. Fender Twin; and,

3. Fender Princeton Reverb Re-Issue.

[Gilpy]

When I got my Carr Rambler I lost interest in other amps. I use it for everything and have a Quilter Aviator 8 for backup. (Never needed yet)

[Spook410]

Once I learned how to apply amplifier modeling and speaker IR's, 'how many amps' was no longer a relevant question. Of course it's not been inexpensive and has required a bit of patience. If you're happy with a combo amp your life will be simpler.

[Navdeep_Singh]

Need? Only one for both jazz boxes and acoustic guitars. The best there is, out there. the John Buscarino Chameleon amp head and cab. You can’t go wrong. It’s perfect for both jazz and classical and steel string acoustic guitars.

[Archie]

One is too many and a hundred’s not enough.

[vernon]

One is too many and a hundred’s not enough.

I believe that one came from AA concerning alcoholic beverages…. but I get your point.

[Hammertone]

How many amps do I need? Fewer than I have.

Anyone need a nice 1973 Ampeg V-4 full stack?