How Do Guitar Amps Work?

How they work.

What are guitar amps These are amplifiers that amplify the sound coming from the guitar and passing through them

What are guitar amps? These are amplifiers that amplify the sound coming from the guitar and passing through them. The amps drive the guitar loudspeaker. When a guitar is played some sound waves are generated. These waves are then converted into an electrical signal, and fed into the guitar amplifier. Sometimes the input of the guitar amp is not compatible with the minute signal emanating from the guitar; in such a case the signal is first sent to a pre-amplifier. From the pre-amplifier the output is fed into the guitar amp.

Stages Of Work

The guitar amp works in four stages. These stages are the input stage, signal modulation stage, signal amplification stage, and the output stage.

Input

In this stage the signal from the guitar or the guitar pre-amp is fed into the guitar amp. The amplifier has some input female jacks; the signal cable is attached into these jacks. Sometimes the guitar signal is very weak, and cannot be fed into the guitar amp directly. In such situations the signal is made to pass through the guitar pre-amp before reaching the main amplifier. The impedance match between the available input signal impedance and the particular guitar amp''s input signal impedance must be ensured. If there is any such impedance imbalance, it invariably causes distorted guitar sound on the loudspeaker.

Most amplifiers come with a pre-amp stage incorporated in to them. It removes the hassle of passing the guitar signal through a separate pre-amp. With such amplifiers the signal from the guitar can directly be routed through the amp itself.

Signal Modulation

The electric guitarists do not like the idea of plain music coming out of the loud speakers. They are happy if the guitar sounds can be jazzed up. The twangy, the funky, and the heavily distorted sounds are well liked by them. For example if a guitarist wants to incorporate the heavy metal rock sound into his guitar sounds, the input signal will need to go through the required heavy distortion. Similarly to produce wa-wa sounds or reverb etc., the input signal must undergo modulation before the sounds are finally amplified. The equalizers and tone control knobs too need to undergo the signal modulation stage.

Signal Amplification

It is at this stage that the actual amplification happens. That is why this stage is known as the business stage of a guitar amp. The outgoing signal at this stage is the same as the incoming signal from the modulation stage. The only difference is that the output is of much greater amplitude. In short, the signal amplifier simply and faithfully amplifies the incoming signal.

Output

Output stage is the last stage of a guitar amp. In some amp there is a sub-stage of output driver stage, but some have just a simple output stage. If your guitar amp is not of a good quality, it will just feed the outgoing signal from the amplification stage directly into the loudspeaker. The good quality guitar amps ensure that there is a signal conditioning output stage that matches the output signal to the input specifications of the loud speaker.

A serious guitarist is supposed to have a good working knowledge of guitar amps. If you are knowledgeable, you will always go for a good guitar amp. A good guitar amp makes all the difference to the reliability and predictability of the musical sounds that finally come out of the loudspeaker, when you play your guitar.

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Bugera 6260 Ultimate Guitar Amp Head Review

The Bugera 6260 is a Boutique-style 2-channel tube amplifier. It outshines for classic rock, alternative rock and raw metal bands due to its rocking power and road-worthy reliability. This highly powerful amplifier comes equipped with massive 120-watts of shear power and a 2 channel vintage designed EQ section (with Bass, Mid and Treble) and reverb.

The Bugera 6260's classic 2-channel preamp design (Clean, Crunch, Lead) is loaded with 5 x 12AX7 valves for precision attack with terrorizing gain and punch. Both channels offer a classic (Peavey 5150 -style) presence control for more redefined tweaking capabilities to add more to the incredible tone. In addition, you will revere the detail in the defined reverb tails individually controllable on each channel. Two outputs with added impedance switching to match virtually any speaker cabinet, from 4, 8 to 16 Ohms.

This monster comes with a 4-way, rugged, metal footswitch selector. Making switching channels and effects loop in a live situation a smooth progress. This boutique-style valve head is constructed using precision assembly, hand-built for perfection, you can be confident the beast will stand the test of time. Use double hum buckers and play metal or use single coils and play blues for more of a mellow and a clean sound, you can use this amp in any diverse situation. Best of all, it keeps up with your loud audience of hungry fans while it maintains excellent clarity.

Experiment your sound with the Bugera 6260, swap out the 12AX7 preamp V1 or V2 to a 12DW7 to cut back on the gain... Want more gain? Throw in a JJ high-gain 12AX7. It is a nice mix with the bass being so tight for chunky rhythm. -- The two channels, blue (clean) and razor (distortion. Gain, Bass, Bass, Treble and Level for the first channel, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Level, for the second). The Bugera uses four hand-selected and matched Bugera 6L6 power-tubes and five Bugera 12AX7 preamp valves.

Bugera 6260's boost channel is insane with the master volume krank-driving the tubes and pushing the 6260 to the edge of flesh peeling delight. Stereo effects loop is also a nice benefit for the Bugera 6260. Using the Blue side with the "green" channel on the pedal will give a pronounced silky tone with a little edge. Switch to the razor, crank the bass, scoop the mids, drive the gain and the Bugera turns into a massive Godsmack type territory. Run ovation through the blue channel, giving the tone a nice little grunge. Best part, Bugera 6260 isn't a noisy amp (or this might be a flaw for you (vintage head enthusiasts)

Bottom line, the Bugera 6260 has a brutal range raw metal tones. A hefty fuzz tone, and usable cleans. 120-watts of insane power provides plenty of head room and more than enough for two 4x12 speaker cabinets to enthrall a huge audience at a live gig. Road-worthy dependability and priced for a gigging musician... And still enough cash left over for a pack of guitar strings and a case of beer.
Charlie is the owner of Gear-Vault.com and Gear-Monkey.com. Both sites are geared toward the music community. Gear-Vault is a newly launched music gear auction. Gear-Monkey is a music talk forum. Both sites reflect his love for music.

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Tube, Valve amp for Guitar

For decades, it's been a general opinion that tube (or valve) amplifiers sound better than solid state amps.

First of all - what is a tube amp? A tube amp is a type of guitar amplifier that operates on valves (or vacuum tubes) instead of transistors. The sound you get from a tube amp is warmer and fuller that what you'd get from a solid state amp.

Valve amplifiers range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, so the choice is really confusing! If you're reading this article, you've probably decided that it's time that you want to crank your volume past the 10 mark on your current practice amp or the tone just isn't satisfying you anymore.

There are a few things you have to know in order to make your decision. First of all, the type of music that you play, so that you can decide on the amount of gain that your amp needs to have. What is gain? Gain is basically a synonym for distortion. If you play mostly "clean" music (virtually, no amount of distortion), you won't need a lot of gain. If the music you play is blues or rock, you'll need a mild amount of gain, depending on how distorted you want the sound to be. If you play metal, you'll need a high-gain tube amp.

The most notable clean amp of all tube amp history is the Fender Bassman, the holy-grail of clean sounds. Generally, you'll want to look at Fender and Vox. Most tube amps have the amount of gain necessary for blues or rock (Marshalls, the expensive Buddas, the budget Blackhearts). Finally, if we're talking metal, you're going to want to look at Peavey, Mesa Boogie, ENGL.

The second aspect of a tube amp, why many people crave them, is the dynamic. Dynamic is the ability of the tube amp to sound clean when you're hitting the strings softly, and distorted when you're hitting them hard. This allows a great amount of expression. You're going to have to listen to an amp to see if it has this quality.

You'll also have to listen for definition, which is the ability to amplify every single note your play clearly. This is very important, otherwise you'll sound all muddy. The best way to test this is to play some chords, even fewer amps possess this quality.

Lastly, you'll just have to listen if it possesses the basic tonal characteristics that fit you. If the basic sound of the amp is bad, it will sound bad anyway you will adjust the equalizer, amount of gain, anything. It's not uncommon that you find bad tube amps made by prestigious brands. There's no such thing as "not knowing" if it sounds good or not, and although store employees can help you with various information such as amounts of gain, number of tubes, etc. they always want to convince you to buy the products you're trying. If you don't buy it, you can always come back another time and try it again, but if you do, you'll just lack motivation and it will harm your playing. This is important because tube amps aren't as cheap as a practice amp. Always try before you buy!
My name is Andrei Popa, and I've been playing electric guitar for 6 years now. I've bought and sold a lot of gear over the years, filtered all the guitar playing information I've received and have generally been through a lot of trial and error. I maintain a gear reviews website at http://guitar-gear-demos.blogspot.com