
Find the best practice amp to help you progress faster. Our resident guitar teacher cuts to the chase to give you his stand-out picks.
Under $200 | Under $200 Product Image | Product Title | *GEARANK | **Sources | Check Prices |
93 | 5100+ | ||||
95 | 1425+ | ||||
96 | 4700+ |
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94 | 850+ | ||||
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*Gearank = Rating score out of 100.
**Sources = Number of gear owner and user opinions analyzed for these product Gearank Ratings.
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Itโs a great time to be a student guitarist. There are now so many outstanding practice amplifiers that better cater to practice and learning.
It used to be that your options were limited to basic solid-state combo amps. But there are now different types of guitar amps to choose from.
If you want to practice while on the go, then portable amps should be high on your list. If you want sonic versatility, then go for a modeling amplifier. There are also desktop-friendly combo amps that are great for practice setup, while having the recording capability for home studio setups.
Whatever your preference may be, there is a perfect practice amp for you.
What makes a Great Practice Amp
Before we go into the ins and outs of the best practice amps, let us first define what a good practice amp should be. The short answer is that it should make playing guitar enjoyable for you and the people around you. It should make practice sessions fun and productive.
The long answer will depend on your setup, practice space, and playing style. If you want simplicity, then solid-state practice amps are for you. If space is an issue, then go for a little amp. If you want multiple amp sounds, then go for modeling practice amps.
Below are the best practice amps that cover the requirements mentioned above. If youโre looking to make practice fun and take your musicianship to the next level, this guide is for you.
Best Practice Amp under $200
The Blackstar Fly 3 is an affordable combo amp that allows you to practice virtually anywhere, thanks to its compact profile and ability to run on six AA batteries.
At less than 2 lbs, this amp is as portable as it gets, while giving you good room level tones with its 3W amp section and 3″ speaker.
It also has an MP3/line-in jack for playing along with your favorite tracks, while the headphones out allows for quiet playing.
All these features make it ideal for use during trips and hotel stays, especially when paired with a good travel guitar.
As expected, it features Blackstar’s ISF (Infinite Shape Feature), which lets you change the amp’s voicing from American to British with just one knob.
- Power Rating: 3-Watts
Speaker Size: 3โ
Channels: Clean, Overdrive
Effects: Tape Delay
Controls: Gain, Volume, ISF, Delay Time, Delay Level
Input/Output: 1/4″, 1/8″(Aux In)
Extras: ISF, Can Run on 6 x AA Batteries
Weight: 1.98 lbs
Iโve always been a fan of Orange amps for their signature British crunch, and the Crush 20 doesnโt disappoint. Right out of the box, it delivers rich, dynamic overdrive that makes power chords feel massive and solos sing with sustain.
The simple control layout keeps things easy, yet the amp is responsive enough to give you a great range of tones just by adjusting your guitarโs volume.
The dirty channel is everyone’s favorite, it gives you that classic Orange grit without sounding overly compressed. The 8โ speaker pushes more volume than expected, making it loud enough for jamming but still manageable for bedroom practice. The speaker emulation feature added to the headphones out is also quite good.
For all its strengths, itโs not perfect. The clean channel is decent, but it lacks some sparkle. Thereโs no onboard reverb or effects, so youโll need pedals for more sonic variety. It also lacks an aux-in for backing tracks, which wouldโve made it a better practice amp.
Still, if you love that raw, classic Orange tone, this is one. of the best solid-state amps at this price.
- Power Rating: 20-Watts
- Speaker Size: 8โ
- Channels: 2
- Controls: Clean/Dirty Switch, Dirty, Treble, Middle, Bass, Gain, Clean
- Amp Models: None
- Effects: None
- Inputs/Outputs: 1 x 1/4โณ, 1 x 1/8โณ (Aux), 1 x 1/4โณ (Headphones)
- Dimensions: 12.8โณ x 14.67โณ x 7.75โณ
- Weight: 15.8 lbs
Fender continues to be successful in the guitar practice amp market. The LT 25 is chief among their popular offerings in the sub $200 price range. This amp is rated at 25-Watts and has an 8″ speaker, housed in a modern and sleek-looking cabinet.
Being part of Fender’s Mustang line, the LT 25 is unapologetically a full-on amp modeler, with 25 digital effects, 50 presets, and 20 amp models. These are more than enough to cover a wide variety of musical styles.
As expected, its best voicings are ones that emulate classic Fender tube amps. They get the sparkle down nicely, albeit lacking a bit in the low end, because of its smaller speaker. Low to mid-gain amp models also sounds quite good, with enough sensitivity to reproduce the nuances of your guitar playing, which is great for fine-tuning your technique.
While it can cross over to high-gain territory, the result is not as good, mostly because the small speaker gives it a trebly voicing, and lacks the heavy bass that modern metal tones need.
For a versatile practice amp modeler, Fender was able to keep the control panel intuitive, and they did so by assigning more complex parameter control to be done via USB using a software editor. You can also use the USB connection to record your playing in DAW software.
Other features include built-in tuner, color display, aux input, and headphone out. It also helps that the LT25 feels solid and its sleek modern design looks nice.
The Fender Mustang LT 25 is a modern practice amp with classic tone sensibilities.
- Power Rating: 25 Watts
- Speaker: 1 x 8″
- Models: 20
- Effects: 25
- Controls: Gain, Volume, Treble, Bass, Master, Preset Control Switches
- Input/Output: 1/4″, 1/8″ (Aux), 1/8″ (Headphones)
- Extras: USB Connectivity, Built-in Tuner, and Tap Tempo
- Weight: 14.9 lbs.
Best Practice Amp under $500
Initially, I was skeptical of Yamaha’s THR amps. How much tone can a tiny desktop amp deliver? But after listening to the THR5, I was quickly blown away. Yamahaโs virtual circuitry modeling technology captures the warmth and dynamics of real tube amps. It goes beyond the usual clean and overdrive channels without compromising sound quality. And the stereo speakers add depth that feels almost like playing in a well-miked room.
Whether you’re jamming late at night or noodling on the couch, it makes practice feel more inspiring. The amp models cover a lot of ground, from sparkling cleans to thick, saturated leads. Built-in reverb, and other built-in effects like delay and chorus sound fantastic, adding just the right amount of polish to your playing. Plus, it runs on batteries, making it perfect for impromptu outdoor jam sessions or travel.
Given its compact design, this isn’t an amp to use for performances or rehearsals. It wonโt be cutting through a loud band mix. Also, the lack of a footswitch option means switching between sounds mid-song isnโt as convenient.
But if you want a practice amp that sounds and looks great while taking up minimal space, this is a winner.
- Power Rating: 10 Watts
- Battery Life: ~6 hours
- Power Source(s): AC Adapter / 8 x AA Batteries
- Speaker: 2 x 3.15โณ
- Controls: Amp, Gain, Master, Tone, Effect, DLY/REV, Volume, Tap Tempo
- Amp Models: 4 Virtual Circuitry Modeling
- Effects: 8
- Input(s): 1 x 1/4โณ Guitar Input, 1 x 1/8โณ Aux in
- Output(s): 1 x 1/4โณ Headphones
- Extra Features: 2-Channel USB recording
- Weight: 4.4 lbs.
- Dimensions: 6.57โณ x 10.67โณ x 4.72โณ
The Spark 40 is pitched as a home practice amp for electric guitar, bass guitar, and acoustic guitar, which is a lot to pack into one unit. If that’s not enough, it’s also a pretty capable Bluetooth speaker as well. It’s intended to be used with PG’s “Spark Amp” app via Bluetooth which is available on the Android and IOS app stores.
It really is a smooth and polished experience that ‘just works’ while offering a ton of useful options. This is a good thing because there’s no PC or Mac software available to control the amp via USB (apart from firmware updates). If you’re uncomfortable about relying on a mobile app for much of the amp’s functionality then this isn’t for you.
Pairing to the app via Bluetooth is fairly simple and, thankfully, doesn’t require any sort of registration. It seems to be happy to pair with new devices, so if you’ve got the amp in your hands, you can do it. Once paired, you can connect at any time, which takes a few seconds. I found the connection to be solid while you’re using the app, but if you put it in the background, things can get a little glitchy, and you may need to reconnect.
Controlling the amp models and effects in the app is fairly straightforward. The signal chain is laid out as a virtual pedalboard with 6 effect pedal type slots and one amp model as below:

You can’t change the order, but each pedal type slot (apart from the Noisegate) has various modeled pedals available. This offers a reasonable number of options without things getting too overwhelming. I count a total of 42 pedal effects, 25 Guitar amps, and four amps each for acoustic and bass guitar, not including the optional Jimi Hendrix expansion pack.
There’s a great list of the effects pedals here and the amp models here. It’s not the ‘everything plus the kitchen sink’ approach that you can get in more expensive units or PG’s software modeling apps, but there’s a pretty good selection. They did a good job emulating the preamp and power amps of popular amp models.
The effects and amps are more or less fixed apart from firmware updates. They have added new effects and amps in a couple of firmware updates, some for free as well as the Jimi Hendrix expansion pack that’s available for $20. I’m all in favor of being able to access new paid options via a store section, but they add these as selectable options in the main interface, which is annoying.
The fact that you’ve loaded them on the amp, taking up memory that could be used for other effects, doesn’t sit well with me either. I’d really like to see the capability to download new effects/amps on the fly via the app in future iterations as PG does in their BIAS apps.
On the other hand, the Spark “ToneCloud” provides over 10k Amp-and-FX presets for Guitar and Bass, covering all manner of styles, artists, and songs from Metallica to Dire Straits, ‘Dirty Flexi’ to ‘Acoustic Ambience’. You can easily download these to your phone and amp, but you do need to create an account. You can also share your patches via Tonecloud and they rank the most liked and downloaded in a variety of categories.
At the time of writing, the number 1 patch is, in fact, “Metallica” with over 155k downloads. It’s a great heavy patch that had me playing those Locrian-style riffs for longer than I’d planned. They can be a great source of inspiration or distraction, but more importantly, they can help players find the tone they’re looking for without having to tweak all those parameters themselves.
The models themselves are quite good, and the amps and effects are realistic, but there is an issue that we’ll get to in a moment. Positive Grid was previously known for its excellent ‘BIAS’ software modeling apps, and that experience shines through here. Apart from realistic amps, the effect that blew me away the most was the stereo reverb which really can make it sound like the reverberations are coming from the room you are in rather than the amp.
On one patch, I could swear there was an actual reverb spring sitting several meters from the amp. I don’t know how they achieve this and it’s a bit uncanny. For some patches, you may actually want to tone it down a bit.
The Spark 40 on a table. Ideally, it should be closer to the edge to reduce low-frequency build-up.
When it comes to sound, though, there is an issue that we need to talk about. It has divided users between those who don’t hear it, those who don’t mind, and those who think there’s a problem. For me, the moment I started playing through the amp the sound coming from the speakers was overly ‘bassey’ for electric guitar. You won’t have to look far to find many others experiencing the same, describing it as ‘Muddy’, ‘Muffled’, ‘Boxy’, ‘Wooley’, and complaining about the lack of brightness.
It’s surprising for such small speakers, really, but they do put out a lot of low end, and that can obscure the high end, particularly the high midrange that’s so important for guitar. Personally, I can still hear and appreciate the tones which do sound good themselves but alongside a certain ‘rumble’. I found myself using the bridge pickup to get the same tone as the bridge/neck mix on my humbuckers but that didn’t quite work.
The Spark 40 app’s backing tracks and smart jam options
Positive Grid has taken software and hardware integration to another level, with the Spark 40 producing a compact amp that’s crazy versatile and a system that ‘just works’ for home practice use. They’ve shown the way forward in this respect, and once you’ve seen what they can do, it’s hard not to want more – like an inbuilt looper, downloadable effects, a wireless guitar connection, and what about battery power?
You’ve got to pinch yourself and remember this is a sub $300 amp. It’s not without flaws, either. For some, the bass-heavy sound is an issue and while it can be addressed, it is a hassle. But there are legions of fans who love the sound straight out of the box.
- Power: 40W Class D
- Speaker: 2×4″
- Models: 30
- Effects: 40
- Controls: Amp Type, Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Master, Mod, Delay, Reverb, Output Volume, Music Volume, Four Preset Buttons, Tap/Tuner Button
- Input/Output: 1 x 1/4″ (Input), 1 x 1/8″ (Aux-In), 1 x 1/8″ (Headphones), USB
- Extras: Smart Jam, USB Audio Interface
- Weight: 11.46 lbs.
As someone who loves high-gain amps, I was excited about the SLO Mini, and it did not disappoint. It nails that legendary Soldano lead tone, smooth, saturated, and incredibly articulate, even at lower volumes. Whether you are chugging out tight metal riffs or ripping through a solo, this amp head delivers the sustain and aggression I crave.
Despite its small size, the SLO Mini packs a serious punch, and with 30 watts, itโs loud enough for small gigs when paired with a decent cab. The simple three-band EQ and presence control give enough shaping options, though itโs pretty much designed for one thingโhigh-gain heaven. The built-in effects loop is also a nice touch, making it easy to integrate pedals.
That said, itโs not the most versatile amp. The clean tones are serviceable but nothing special, and it doesnโt do mid-gain tones as well as some other amps in its range. It also lacks a headphone jack, which is a bit disappointing for a mini amp.
Still, if youโre chasing that iconic Soldano gain in a compact package, this little monster is worth it.
- Power Rating: 30W
- Speaker: N/A
- Models: N/A
- Effects: Crunch/Overdrive switch
- Controls: Gain, master, 3-band EQ and presence
- Input/Output: 1 x 1/4″, 2 x 1/4″ (8/16 ohm)
- Extras: N/A
- Weight: 4 lbs.
Things to Consider When Buying a Small Amp or Practice Amp
Practice Friendly Features
Having to use multiple pieces of equipment just to practice is detrimental. Thankfully, more and more guitar amplifiers are being equipped practice friendly features.
Theย types of ampsย that are good for practice should, at the very least, have an AUX-in and a headphone-out. The AUX-in allows you to plug in a different device and have its audio come through the speakers (some amps even come with backing tracks, though they are more limited than what you can find online). This is a huge help if youโre running through backing tracks. A headphone-out lets you play through headphones, which is a must-have feature for silent practice. Thankfully, even compact traditional amps are now being equipped with headphones out, but it still is important to keep an eye out for this feature.
There are also two features that are becoming more popular on practice amps: a metronome and a looper. A metronome plays notes at a consistent speed, which, when you play along with it, can help you develop your sense of time.
A looper records a small section of audio and plays it back, allowing you to essentially be your own rhythm guitarist (which is great for practicing improv.). Another noteworthy feature to look out for is auto-accompaniment or those with built-in backing tracks, which can make practice more fun and interesting.
Finally, amps with built-in power attenuation allow you to lower the power rating so you can get good tones at bedroom volume levels.
Portability
There are two main reasons why portable amps are great for practice: they are easy to move around both at home and for warming up before gigs.
Portable amps are easy to carry around and bring to any room, and sometimes, simply changing the location where you are practicing at home can help improve your overall experience.
Being able to warm up before going up on stage also helps prepare you for your performance. Portableย Amp Headsย are also becoming a thing, these compact amp heads are viable for small venue gigs and is also great for home recording. More importantly, they aren’t compromising the sound department too much.
Power Rating and Speaker Size
When you see an amp advertised as โnumberโ-watts, thatโs referring to its power rating. As a general rule, the higher an ampโs power rating, the louder it is going to be. For gigging, a 100-watt solid-state amp will usually suffice. But for practicing, as long as itโs audible to you, thereโs not really a set amount of wattage you need. If you don’t want to worry about noise complaints, you’re better off with small low watt amps. This is the reason why most practice amps are small and have low wattage.
Speaker size is another important specification to look at. Generally speaking, smaller speakers have a hard time producing low-end frequencies. This makes the sound they produce perceived as being โthinnerโ than the sound youโd get from a larger speaker – especially when playing with others. However, as speaker size gets bigger, amps get bulkier and heavier.
Those with big speakers also tend to be too loud for use at home. Thankfully, speaker size is not as much of a big deal for solo practice, especially when amps utilize digital modeling and cabinet simulation.
Performance (Tone/Channels/Amp Models etc.)
Tone quality, good or bad, is subjective because what we consider as good sounding is based on personal preference. But there are certain baseline standards on what constitutes great tone, like clarity and responsiveness. But even still, different people will have different opinions on tone. So your best bet at finding a good-sounding amp (to your ears) is to get an amp that has similar voicing (or comes with amp models) that are similar to what your favorite guitarists use.
It is also good to get an amp with tones that you can use for the genre of music that you want to play. If you want to play country, an amp that has decent clean sound is right up your alley. Similarly, if you want a metal amp youโre going to want an amp thatโs focused on high-gain.
A cool component of modern amps is that many have the capability to model different amp cabinets, which changes the shape of your sound. You can set your guitar amplifier to model the response of a 4×12 stack, giving it way more depth and presence. Similarly, you can set it to have a response more similar to a small combo, focusing its tone and punch. You can also set it somewhere in the middle.
Many amps also come with different channels, generally in the form of either a clean or distorted setting. These two settings allow you to easily flip from very clean to distorted, which gives you a wider array of tones you can produce. Amp modelers offer even more sonic flexibility but at the cost of more complex controls.
Built-in Effects
Many practice amps come with digital sound processing that allows for amp modeling and effects. Amps that do this generally include an example of everything, so you have basic settings for distortion, overdrive, fuzz, delay, and modulation (chorus, flange, phase, tremolo, and vibrato).
The benefit youโre going to get from built-in effects depends on what youโre going to want to do. If you want to play a bunch of different genres, odds are that an amp with a bunch of built-in effects is going to be an asset. However, if you donโt plan on using effects, you can get a better deal if you donโt buy one with built-in effects (though this does depend on your budget).
Best Practice Amp Selection Methodology
The first edition was published in 2017. This current edition was published in 2025.
While there is no universal definition of a practice amp, for the purposes of this guide, we defined it as a guitar combo amplifier with practice-friendly features. We limited our scope to those that weigh no more than 20 lbs., with a maximum street price of $500. In addition to meeting those specifications, we only feature those that are available from a USA-based retailer.
We ended up with 70 amps on our shortlist, which entailed analysis of over 129,400 review and rating sources. These rating sources include relevant reviews, ratings, forum discussions, and expert recommendations, including the most recent ones. These were then processed via the Gearank Algorithm, which gave us rating scores out of 100, which we used to recommend only the highest-rated options.
For more information about our methods, see How Gearank Works.
About the Author and Contributors
Here are the key people and sources involved in this guide’s production – click on linked names for information about their music industry backgrounds.
Lead Author & Researcher
For young students, it’s hard to go wrong with combo solid-state amps with modeling flexibility because they will have to jam with others at some point in the future. Desktop-style amps are more for experienced guitarists who want a convenient bedroom amp to hone their skills, record, or simply have fun playing.
Contributors
Daniel Barnett: Positive Grid Spark Review.
Jason Horton: Editing and Illustrating.
Media / Image Credit
Main/Top Image: Original photograph by Daniel Davis, modified by Gearank.com and available under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 license.
All the videos above have been embedded in accordance with YouTube’s Terms of Service.
The individual product images were sourced from websites, promotional materials, or supporting documentation provided by their respective manufacturers, except for the Spark App and Spark on Table pictures, which were taken by Daniel Barnett.
More What is the Best Practice Amp / Small Guitar Amp? Related Posts
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The Best Solid State Amp in 2025
Best Guitar Amp under 500 โ Solid-State and Tube Amps
Ultimate Guide to Best Bass Combo Amp for Gigging & Practice
Best Keyboard Amp For Practice and Gigs
Comments:
15 responses
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Publication of our August 2022 Edition resulted in the following amps coming off the recommended list above:
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The following amps were removed from the recommended list above due to the publication of our March 2022 Edition:
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Publication of our July 2021 Edition resulted in the following amps coming off the recommended list above:
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It would be nice to know the various reasons as to why you remove particular amplifiers from your recommended list.
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Hi Ian,
What happens is that when we produce a new edition of one of our guides, we recalculate the ratings for all the eligible items already in our database, plus we add new items that weren’t rated for the previous edition (new items are coming out all the time), then we select the highest rated options to recommend.
This means there are usually new items that have higher ratings than some of the ones from the previous edition, so the lower rated ones get removed and we add ones with higher ratings.
Some items also get discontinued or superseded, so we remove those as well – there’s no point in recommending something if our readers can’t act on our advice.
Also when prices go up a product may no longer be eligible for inclusion – and we sometimes change the eligibility criteria making some items ineligible – we usually list the selection criteria in the Methodology section.
I hope this helps – feel free to ask if you have further questions.
Jason.
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You actually failed to note that the Quilter Mach 2 is not a “practice amp” (although it also works well for that too), but despite the 8″ speaker, is an extremely powerful and loud gigging amp that will hold it’s own on just about any stage. I had one for a while, but just about the only thing it doesn’t do is Fender bright cleans. It certainly does everything else amazingly well.
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Actually the Quilter Mach 2 meets our practice amp definition stated in the Methodology section as:
- “While there is no universal definition of a practice amp, for the purposes of this guide we defined them as combo electric guitar amps weighing no more than 20 lbs.”
Your opinion of Quilter is one that many guitarists agree with – they appeared 5th on our ranking of Guitar Amp Brands this year.
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I’m looking for a practice amp with built in metronome or drum loops. You mentioned this feature becoming more used in practice amp. Can you tell me amps which feature this?
Thank you and best wishes
Martin-
As a guitar teacher myself, I cannot stress enough the importance of practicing with a metronome, or at the very least, a rhythm guide.
Line 6 Spider V amps have both metronome and drum loop features. Fender Mustang GT amps also have built-in looper which can be used as pseudo metronome/drum loop.
Unfortunately, these amps did not have high enough ratings to make it to the guide.
Thankfully, there are practical alternatives that require no extra purchase – like using a metronome app on a device that can be plugged in or paired via Bluetooth to your amp.
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Our September 2020 update resulted in the following amps coming off the recommended list above:
DV Mark Little Jazz
Fender Champion 20
Fender Mustang I v2
Line 6 AMPLIFi 30
Roland Micro Cube GX
Vox AV15 -
As a result of the October 2019 update the following amps came off our recommended list above but you can still see our analysis of them:
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Today the following amps were removed from our recommended list above, due to having been discontinued, but you can still read our analysis:
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As a result of our October 2018 update to this guide the following amps were removed from our recommended list above but you can still read what we have to say about them here:
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Looking for practice amp with built in looper. The article mentions that such practice amps are gaining in popularity, but doesnโt mention any amps that have them.
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There weren’t any that made it onto our recommended list but the Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 has a looper built in although you have to buy the Peavey Sanpera Foot Controller to use the looper.
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