The 6 Best Amp heads (2023 reviews)

The orange amps amp head is the best feature-rich head on the market today. This little guy is a standout with that thick Orange sound. Building on the outstanding micro platform, the micro dark comes equipped with a transparent, fully buffered fx loop, so you can use your favorite pedals with ease. It's warm-sounding with a very thick and loose low end, particularly in the last third of the gain knob.

The shape knob has a very useful sweep that gives great tones for recording. As far as tone goes it covers the whole spectrum, clean, crunchy, and make you take a dump of distortion. Even though it is lightweight and it is built sturdily, the construction is decidedly pedal like with a metal chassis, external power supply and quality switches and connectors. It is good for jamming along with a band also.

The tonal range is absolutely amazing and the volume is very impressive.

Why We Like This:

Perfect for just some kind of sounds
Wonderful gain, great for metal and rock
Great clean tone and nasty/tasty gain
Highly recommended for rock and metal players

Best practice Amp: Orange Amp Head

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Not everyone likes to purchase head for their daily usage, but the orange amp head would be an anomoly. There are plenty of better, more powerful, and more flexible amps out there. It’s basic, only three knobs, but really that’s all you need. It handles pedals extremely well, particularly because of the effects loop. It has such a broad range of tones and shines in all aspects. On it’s own, it sounds great, but it really shines when you pair it with pedals. It has a buffered effects loop built in. It’s easy to take anywhere. It’s got a heavier, darker tone.

Why We Like This:

Great sound, running various guitars/effects out of a 2x12 cab
Great sound and tone with simplicity
Good brand reputation

Best For simple But killer Guitar Tone: Vox Amp Head

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Vox line of head come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. It sounds like a tube amp and it has the warmth and responsiveness of a tube amp. With variable wattage, 12.5/25/50 watt, it can be small enough to practice in an apartment but big enough to get over a drummer. The clean sound isn't as chimey as a Fender. It gets plenty loud, has a wonderful clean sound, and plays well with peddles.

The manual ohm knob allows some additional manual control of the output of the power amp. There is no gain knob on the clean. The tone is a beautiful, warm, round clean.

Why We Like This:

Drive pedals push the tube with a wonderful, sagging tube distortion
More lugging a 40lb or 50lb tube combo around
Great tone, great pedal platform, great small amp gigging option

Best For jamming At home: Hotone Amp Head

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Next on the list, we've got yet another head that manages to win our hearts. It's the hotone amp head and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient head you can buy. It has seen several different guitars with several different pickup configurations. It is very cute and very portable, can even fit in the guitar case or in the pocket of a gig bag. It comes with the gain and volume maxed, your close to vintage van halen brown sound. It can even mic for the right gigs.

This is an amp head only and you will need to plug it into an external speaker via 1/4 guitar jack. It's fun to play. The EQ and gain settings are responsive. It is perfect for night time practice after the kids go to sleep. It does a pretty good job of giving you the plexi tone at low volumes.

Why We Like This:

Amazing power and tone in an amp head the size of a pedal
Great monster rock sound for home play and practice
Crunchy-munchy tone with cascading od going in

Best For buck: Valeton Amp Head

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate head. The valeton amp head is exactly that - it's a simple head that hits all the right notes. The simple 3-band EQ, 1-Channel with Gain Control, and built-in digital spring reverb means you can get all your practice tones in the one amp. It is perfectly clear and crunchy throughout the whole of it's sweep. It can do completely clean, crunchy to haywire, and anything from subtle reverb to surf. It's compatible with 8 or 16 Ohm cabinets.

The cabinet has a removable panel about the size of one rack space that fits an amp. You can definitely use it with headphones only, with the guitar and also with an auxiliary input. It allows for quiet practice sessions.

Why We Like This:

Simple controls easy for beginners to dial in their tone
Cleans are crystal clear and most importantly, warm
Small compact design making it easy to take anywhere

Best Metal Amp: Other Amp Head

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate head. The other amp head is exactly that - it's a simple head that hits all the right notes. This is a great sound head for hard rock and classic metal. It can work with 4, 8 or 16 ohms, but the ideal and for all its preferable potential of 4ohm, with 8 gives approximately half power. It also needs a noise gate, 6 band eq and a tube screamer to shape the distortion at the beginning of the signal chain before the amp distortion.

The tone out of the Bill Lawrence 500xl and the pearly gates pickups match what comes out of axe effects for this same rig. That foam configuration tightens up the low end and keeps it from making the "thwack" sound from too much bass reflection. If you are on a budget and want a good metal amp, this is a good investment for under 300.00 bucks.

Why We Like This:

Sounds killer, very convenient and properly made control of the sound
Solid control shafts, heavy duty appointments
Good brand reputation