The 10 Best low Watt Tube Amp heads (2023 reviews)
We consider a low watt tube amp head to be a worthy investment in the long run.
We are here to help you choose the right one for your needs from all the best available products in market today.
Our review process:
Our Top Picks:
Best Overall: Buy: Bugera low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest For Orange Micro Dark: Buy: Orange Amps low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest practice Amp: Buy: Orange low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest For buck: Buy: Valeton low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest For home recording: Buy: Peavey low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest sounding Little Amp: Buy: Hotone low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest With windows: Buy: Boss low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest For Metal music: Buy: Marshall low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest For practice: Buy: Marshall Speaker Cabinet READ REVIEWBest Metal Amp: Buy: Other low Watt Tube Amp Head READ REVIEWBest Overall: Bugera low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon We are personally inclined towards bugera low watt tube amp head, it is not so pricy, but it overachieves its purpose and outstanding in important aspects. The digital reverb sounds better than the typical analog spring and definitely better than the spring you typically find in a small amp. Adding to its impressive list of tone-shaping options, the vintage v5’s high-definition reverb puts the perfect finishing touch to your signature sound. It provides everything from sweetly-purring blues to mind. The convenient, built-in power attenuator allows you to operate the v5 at your choice of 5 watts, 1 watt, or even 0.1 of a watt, so you can get everything from sweet and sassy to maximum tube saturation at any volume level. The Speaker is a 4ohm 8inch TurboSound Speaker which has a good midrange sound overall. The power attenuator is a nice feature as it lets you reduce the output from 5W to 1W or 0.1W. It's definitely a crunchy blues machine with a glassy high end. When it comes to real tube sound at whisper volume, the attenuator is a nice feature that you will enjoy.Why We Like This:
- Great tube tone, controlled distortion from clean to this side of crunch, great reverb
- Perfect amp for home-use and small gigs
- Perfect little tube amp for apartment/dorm life,although not without flaws
- Looks really nice, has a really cool vintage look and feel
Best For Orange Micro Dark: Orange Amps low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon This thing sounds good with headphones, a single 10" or 12" speaker, and a 4x12" cabinet as well. 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. The shape knob has a very useful sweep that gives great tones for recording. The amp simulation on the headphone input is great quality when paired with the appropriate impedance headphone set. You can use it with headphones through the headphone output jack without a speaker cabinet attached. As far as tone goes it covers the whole spectrum, clean, crunchy, and make you take a dump distortion. It is best for loud punchy sounds.Why We Like This:
- Affordable, feature-packed practice or small gig kit in a bite sized lunch box package
- Great buy, perfect for apts & home studios
- Very rich high gain with just a touch of fizz
Best practice Amp: Orange low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon If you often find yourself scrambling for appropriate and satisfactory head, orange low watt tube amp head should be your first option for buying. If you’re trying to find a great practice amp for home or work, this is just the best thing on the market. This little amp roars like a beast. There are plenty of better, more powerful, and more flexible amps out there. Because it is so lightweight, you could easily yank it off of its perch if you walk too far away with your guitar plugged in, and the guitar cord stretches too far. Although you probably aren't going to get over a drummer with it alone, it is perfect for solo jamming, or jamming with a buddy or two. On it’s own, it sounds great, but it really shines when you pair it with pedals. This brings serious power and sound for any player.Why We Like This:
- Great sound, running various guitars/effects out of a 2x12 cab
- Perfect low cost beginner or expert’s amp
- Playing through a 2x12 and sounds really good, fantastic clean sound
Best For buck: Valeton low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon If you often find yourself confused about convenient and suitable head, valeton low watt tube amp head should be your first option for buying. If you need a small guitar amp, this is the way to go. The Valeton, Asphalt Tar-20G sounds remarkably nice for a tiny, solid-state unit. It reacts very naturally to dynamics and cleans up well dialing back the volume. 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. The Headphone Out Acts as a Cab Simulator for Plugging into Speakers/Headphones, or Recording Interfaces So You Get An Amazing Full Tone. It takes pedals very well additionally it is easy to take anywhere. It is perfectly clear and crunchy throughout the whole of it's sweep. The EQ is very effective, and helps you dial in the right tone, along with the gain.Why We Like This:
- Simple controls easy for beginners to dial in their tone
- Tiny metal design is sturdy, and light
- Lot of satisfied buyers
Best For home recording: Peavey low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon Compared with other head in this category, the peavey low watt tube amp head has a convenient design. The Mini Head has a lot of advantages such as multiple formats for output including a direct TRS cable to a cabinet, USB, XLR Blanced Output, and a 1/8 headphone jack w/ speaker defeat. It's saturated, hairy, and has an incredibly chewy midrange. The clean and crunch channels sound warm and thick with humbuckers. The addition of this overdrive pedal effectively gives you a fourth channel. The footswitch has 2 buttons, the first switches from clean to lead and the 2nd is the crunch on the clean channel. It can hang really well in the mix. The usb out is very clean and captures the voice of the amp, and it has very low latency too. It's easy to get any sound from crunch to a deep distortion.Why We Like This:
- Sounnds claner and tighter, has lots of gain and seperate eq for the channels
- Plenty of volume on tap and good for bedroom practice too
- Minimum hardware requirements may be needed for use with recording software
- Great tone, easy to get any sound from crunch
Best sounding Little Amp: Hotone low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon The hotone low watt tube amp head's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. You can get anywhere from a bright, clear tone to a heavy, driven one without any annoying cracking, humming or sound loss. Really like this thing,it's small portable and has a full sound,it's does sound like British vintage,this is really good for recording as well. The fx loop is also a really nice touch to play around with. It comes with an external power supply and cord. It will automatically adjust to the speakers ohms. It's plexi tone is much closer to the original marshall sound than this amp gets to vox. It is perfect for practicing with your headphones or via a cabinet. It is loud enough for band rehearsal and has a sparkle when clean and an assertive growl when the gain is pushed up.Why We Like This:
- Versatility is perfect too, with its 1/4" out-in jacks for an effects loop
- Incredible sound that fits in your pocket
- Great authentic "liverpool" sound-very vox amp tuned
- 5 watts, even in a solid state amp is pretty loud
Best With windows: Boss low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon Compared with other head in this category, the boss low watt tube amp head has a convenient design. The 50 watt Katana amp has a power consumption listing of 47 watts. It's light weight, can accept a broad range of ohm speaker resistances, and can go from quiet to quite loud. The amp plugs in to a USB-b to usb-a cord to your laptop. It does deliver a more natural, less fizzy distortion and pick attack dynamics. The Katana amps do not use flat response speakers. It does have a small little speaker in it that lets you know it is working, but that's all. The Head is incredibly loud when switched to 100 watts, but it sounds incredible. This is a real gift to the musicians of the world from Boss and anyone who can save up for one of these can use one, knowing they're not missing much over any higher end amps.Why We Like This:
- Good metal tone, good clean tone
- Pedals built into the katana/boss tonestudio are effective
- You can get a wide range of od/distortions
Best For Metal music: Marshall low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon If you often find yourself confused about convenient and suitable head, marshall low watt tube amp head is your end point. The Origin 50 is a great sound amp, can be very loud if you want it to be, is the best value in tube amps PERIOD, and nails classic Marshall tones. While it doesn't have the gain of the EVH it has plenty for classic rock style music especially with an overdrive pedal. It can do very reasonable renditions of a JTM, JMP, and JCM. The rubber feet on the bottom of the head sit nicely on the top of the ORI212 cabinet. This head is an inch wider than the ORI212 angled cab. It’s ok for metal, doesn’t feature a distortion channel. It takes pedals well and the variable wattage is a great feature. This amp is more for the old school sound from bands like ac dc and van halen.Why We Like This:
- Sounds great and no problems with the head or speakers
- Every guitar sounds and feels different through it
- Good investment for long term
Best For practice: Marshall Speaker Cabinet
Buy on Amazon Marshall offers a variety of head for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. The 12AU7 preamp tube being used as a push-pull power tube in this case is purely for bedroom jamming at night. It is a crisp and perfect replication of any wattage dsl. The dsl1 has a 16 ohm output and It requires a 16 ohm speaker. It ships neatly packaged, with a speaker cab patch cord, and footswitch. The "tone shift" button is NOT a metal midrange scoop, it's also a treble reduction. The power handling of this head is too low for this cabinet. The clean sounds actually closer to Fendery, without the sparkles. The stomp box is actually of the metal, solid kind.Why We Like This:
- Great value, well built and studio ready
- Awesome little amp, perfect for jamming with cranked tone at a low volume
- Sounds great thru a 4x12 cabinet
Best Metal Amp: Other low Watt Tube Amp Head
Buy on Amazon If you often find yourself confused about appropriate and satisfactory head, other low watt tube amp head is your end point. This head can produce modern high gain tonality with ease from a v30 celestion 4x12 cabinet. It can work with 4, 8 or 16 ohms, but the ideal and for all its preferable potential of 4ohm, with 8 giving 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. That foam configuration tightens up the low end and keeps it from making the "thwack" sound from too much bass reflection. The tone out of the Bill Lawrence 500xl and the pearly gates pickups match what comes out of axe effects for this same rig. It gives you a lot of control over your tone. The amp controls are pretty tweak-able in and of themselves.Why We Like This:
- Solid control shafts, heavy duty appointments
- Sounds killer, very convenient and properly made control of the sound
- Delivers what they promise