fender amp

How to Buy a Guitar Amplifier ?

Tone is the combination of your guitar, your amp, and your fingers. Channel switching is very nice to have. For most tones, the entry level amps of the major manufacturers are great buys. Channel switching? Cheaper amps tend to only have passive tone controls, (i.e they only cut frequencies). The high/0db input is for guitars with passive pickups, and the low/-6db is for guitars with active pickups, which have a higher output signal compared to passive pickups. The one, lower input is padded to help control input distortion, which can sound pretty bad. Next are the controls. Generally, you will find a volume control, a bass control, a middle control, and a high control. Sometimes, the volume control will be labeled post gain. On amps with channel switching, a pre gain control is usually present. If the amp does have channel switching, I strongly recommend purchasing the footswitch that goes with it. Let the amp do the work.