How To Make Your Cheap Guitar Amp Sound Amazing

At some point in your guitar-playing career, you’ll likely acquire an affordable (or cheap) guitar amp. Sadly, you might notice that your first experience with your new amplifier is a little unsatisfactory. But while these cheaper amps aren’t going to sound like something worth thousands of dollars, there are a few things you can do to make them sound amazing for the price!

All amps are a little bit different, but the main things you’ll be dealing with are the EQ and the amount of Gain or Distortion. Learning how to dial in the EQ and set the appropriate amount of gain for your playing style is the most important aspect to nailing down a great guitar tone.

Remember, almost every amp has a sweet spot. Take your time, fiddle with those knobs, follow the tips in this lesson, and you’ll get your cheap guitar amplifier sounding a lot better. Even a $50 solid-state amp can sound better than a $500 tube amp if you know how to get the thing dialed in just right!

Amps used: Fender Frontman 10G, Peavey Rage 158, Line 6 Spider IV 15

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[MusoraOfficial]

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[MusoraOfficial]

Not everyone is lucky enough to own an expensive amp. So here's how to get the most out of something more affordable! Hope you enjoy the video. :)

[misterknightowlandco]

Wtf is wrong with all you complainers out there!?! We all know these amps will never sound like high end studio amps. A fender frontman 10g will never sound a boutique amp. This video is to help kids and beginners get the best out of what they have. Lighten up people!

[alphadogstudio]

Tip #1 instead of spending $150 on a reverb pedal just ad it to the $100 you were going to spend on the amp and get a $250 amp with reverb and a better speaker

[joejitsumusic]

"Lemme grab a cheap squier guitar" ...Grabs a squier classic vibe

[timgrohman]

This was fun to watch. One suggestion...and this goes for a lot of the demos I’ve seen. When you switch from setting to setting, and then amp to amp, I think it’s important that you play the SAME riffs at first. That way we can hear the changes you’ve made to the amp settings, in a more controlled way. Rocking through a different riff-while completely awesome!-makes it difficult to compare apples to apples. (I think you did do that that near the end when you picked up the Squire) Thanks!

[SermonFapple]

Converting a "baby amp", as I like to call em, into a head and plugging into a nice cab really stretches the lifetime out of a cheapo amp like the rage or frontman.

It's super easy, as amp mods are concerned. Remove the speaker and head from the cab and chop the cabinet to a more manageable size and use the speaker cables to make a line out. Put the amp housing back and WAMMO! You got a cheap amp head!

fender frontman tends to be 8 ohm
peavey 158 will work with 4 ohm
Just check the back of the amp for impedance as it SHOULD be listed somewhere near the power cable (though some manufacturers leave it out)

Just a little money saving tip from your friendly neighborhood commenter!

[JK-hubc]

I like how I’m watching this video with my mini toy amplifier hoping that I might be able to get a good sound with it when it has like 3 knobs that are labeled “volume”, “gain” and “tone”.

[JohnSmith-kieq]

Best mod you can make to any small practice amp (especially solid state) is to fit a "speaker out" jack and run the signal to a speaker cab.

[stogie]

I had that exact peavey rage amp during my youth and it kicked ass. Good reliable amp.

[PanhandlePrepping]

Good points... roll EVERYTHING back (including the pots on your guitar) and bring it all in slowly and in very small increments.

Quit diming everything!!

[Dad-Gad]

I spend 95% of the time playing my electric unplugged anyway .

[JamesDeanLP]

The front man 10g was my first amp
Honestly I still use it because I like the tone but it does kind of bring me to a point I’m not sure if they mention
“How to make an amp sound good” depends ENTIRELY on the listener
For example i always run all the knobs at 10 on that amp (besides volume) because that’s the sound I like but that’s directly against what they said
So it’s more important that you play your amp and see what you like instead of just listening to people tell you what sounds good

[jameskellam]

I used the rage as my gigging amp for 3 years. The only complaint I ever received was from the club owner saying the amp on a chair wasn't acceptable. The crowd didn't care. Those were my minimalist lazy days. Late I had a Deluxe Reverb. Then later a JCM 50w half stack. I've used cheap multifx, pro pedals, etc.. in the end no one seems to care but me. That Marshall sure sounded nice. Was it worth it to haul that big heavy rig to a local yes! Could I have used a rage and a small zoom multistomp? Definately. Use what you have and don't let gear snobs dictate your life. Music is supposed to be fun!

[foxorian]

I have an old, cheap Crate MX15R ($25-$50 on used market today, ) and it sounded pretty bad no matter what you'd do to it. Perhaps it was just age, (it was from the late 90's, ) but the generic 8" speaker in it just wasn't doing the job. I got a new Celestion Eight Fifteen (4 ohm) for like $29 and installed it in minutes, and the amp sounded WONDERFUL after that. Better overdrive, better clean, better bass, present mids and detailed highs -- made it sound better than most $300 new practice amps at the store. A friend had a CUBE-20X with the same speaker specs and got himself an 8 Fifteen as well, to pretty great results after. Before getting a new amp entirely, TRY putting a new speaker in it first because you'd be amazed at how fresh it can make an amp sound for a fraction of the cost of a whole new amp.

Note: I probably wouldn't try this on Line 6 amps though. They put tweeters in there that may not match well to other brands of speakers.

[patrickcaldwell]

Sorry, sorry .., Randi 6:53 did you say ‘back in the day ?’
When was ‘ back in the day for you ? Like, , Thursday 2 weeks ago ?

[chrisdunnettmusic]

Good video but one thing to keep in mind, very often on Major label albums guitarists have tracked amazing and BIG guitar sounds using a small practice amp. So, I agree there are ways to make a not so great sounding amp sound better but just wanted to clarify that just because an amp is small and cheap doesn't mean it will always sound bad

[petemitchell]

Just picked up a Peavy Rage 158 for $30 at Goodwill. Like new condition. So fun to play.

[aiyanaela]

I like the bit where it says even a $50 solid state amp can sound better than a $500 tube amp. I love my little portable 10g amp!

[JosephGallagher]

Use your guitar's volume knob, that's pretty much the only tip you need. Max the volume on your tiny lil' thing and use your volume knob to control gain