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A lot of time and column inches are spent talking about guitars – about tone, feel, sustain, pickup combinations, bridges and nuts and, above all, woods. Whole libraries of books have been written about the sexy side of slinging an instrument over your shoulder and finding that all-elusive ‘personal voice’.

Strange, then, that comparatively little has been written about the amplifier, particularly as a rubbish guitar through a great amp will sound more or less okay, while a great guitar through a rubbish amp will sound rubbish. The guitar is important, but needs the right kind of reinforcement.

Also, why would anyone these days want to buy an unwieldy amplifier and accompanying speaker cabinet, when pretty much the same sounds can be found in a good 2x12 combo?

There are three elements to consider. First, power. While good combos can punch out 200 Watts or more, heads can go a lot further and with a big 4x12 cab (or even two of them) the more important SPL figure can be upped considerably.

Second, with the extra power comes a lot of headroom and sturdiness. Amps like this are intended to go on the road and are built accordingly. That headroom also makes it possible to achieve good volumes for clean, non-overdriven sound and when that overdrive kicks in there are never any problems of cutting through the other instruments to take the lead.

Third, the plain and simple fact that an impressive stack works wonders for the phallic insinuation so vital for so many styles of rock music. A stack looks cool.
For the dealer, it is a more complex road to tread. Big selling amps tend to come from the bigger companies, which means dealer agreements can be pretty stringent and margins pressured. So-called ‘boutique’ amplifier brands might have margins to suit, but can be a harder sell.

There are bridges between the extremes, with starter heads on the market and smaller operations bringing in carefully controlled Asian models, as well as the big boys such as Marshall, Orange and others including Far Eastern-manufactured products to take their ranges from pro down to entry levels. A beginner or a pub band may not need a full-blooded 100-Watt or more amp and cab – but there’s no getting away from the fact that axemen love having a stack behind them when they strut their stuff.

Marshall
Despite the attempts of many, one name still sticks out when it comes to the amp/cab stack, namely the company that invented it.

Since The Who first appeared with Marshall heads atop two 4x12s and Hendrix and Cream took the format out into the world, guitarists all over have vied for bigger and louder sounds, fronted by that wall of cabinets behind them (many, of course, are dummies for the look alone) and Marshall has been only too pleased to provide the goods.

Whether the JTM, JVM, JCM, the Vintage Modern, DSL, TSL, Vintage, Handwired or Mode Four, Marshall has accumulated a bewildering range of heads that can do pretty much everything anyone might want to do with an electric guitar. The company has the heritage of the classic amps that effectively changed the sound of rock n roll, but has continued to plough resources into R&D to keep on top of the hill it created.

The latest offering from Bletchley is the MG4 series, launched at this year’s NAMM show. It includes one head, the MG100HFX, which brings the aspirational element of Marshall and its very best sounds to a whole new market, with the amp and a dedicated 4x12 ringing up a mere £600 (or less) on the cash register.

The power is there, of course, but this solidstate amp goes a lot further, including Marshall’s Stompware technology, which provides a programmable bank of effects. On top of that, the MG head has the proprietary Frequency Dependant Damping technology, which replicates the interaction between an all-tube amplifier and the loudspeaker. The sound is very Marshall, but the accessibility for more modest budgets is unprecedented.

Mesa Boogie
Another amp company with a heritage dating back almost as far as the Queen (that’s Her Majesty, not the band of the same name) is the great American pretender, Mesa Boogie. Well, after 40 years, pretender is probably a bit harsh, as Mesa has established itself as one of the amp greats in the world.

To celebrate the 40-year landmark, Mesa Boogie has introduced the Mark Five head, which combines attributes from many of Mesa’s classic amps. The Mark I gave the world some of the highest gain ever seen at the time with its cascading preamp, while the Mark II was the first high-gain, dual mode channel switching amplifier. The Mark III took it all to three channels and the Mark IV added to the individual control. The Mark Five is the embodiment of the last 40 years of this Mesa Boogie history.

There are three channels for three footswitchable sounds and beneath each set of controls lie three more distinct modes, responsible for the voicing of each channel. In some cases these voicings are related by style and create musical differences within a gain structure and sonic theme.

In other cases, both gain and eq are radically altered to achieve drastically different sounds – yet these sounds appear on the same set of controls. There’s a lot for the tone geek to get his head round – months of fun. And with Boogie on the face plate and Westside behind the brand in the UK, this one will make waves.

Peavey
Peavey has been very busy in the head department over the past few months and swathes of new amps were on show on the company’s stand at NAMM.
The massively popular Joe Satriani-inspired JSX series continues with the JSX 50, an all-valve 50-Watt head with five 12AX7 preamp valves and a power amp that is switchable from Peavey 6550 valves to EL34. This is an ideal head for someone looking for the variety and extremity that the original JSX head offers, but with more manageable levels for smaller gigs.

Then there is the 3120, a 120-Watt head, again with switchable valve operation (EL34 or 6L6GC), three channels – a real rocker’s amp, in look as well as sound and at a price that will appeal.

Of even more appealing price is the latest addition to the youngsters’ Vypyr series of modelling valve amps using the Trans Tube technology. The new Tube 120H is, obviously, a 120-Watt head that contains 24 amp channel models, 11 stomp box and another 11 rack effect models, with pre and post-gain control, as well as an on-board looper, tuner and MIDI I/O. Bang for your buck indeed.

Orange
Another stalwart of the British amp scene and another big name that has recently celebrated 40 years of manufacturing the noise boxes for guitar slingers – not to mention the Queen’s Award for Export – Orange has more on offer than ever before.

With an onus on keeping it simple and matching an amp to a purpose, Orange has looked to fill gaps in the market, rather than try to cover every single option. The results are often very exciting – as with the Tiny Terror. This little metal box has caused such a stir that at least two other makers have come up with compact, high powered metal box designs.

The Terror is an all valve, 15-Watt head, with a two-stage preamp and a big tonal range from just three controls. When driven, this little amp has almost as much gain as some four stage lead channels. At mid-gain settings, this valve head has masses of character and its portability makes it perfect for pub and club gigging or rehearsing. It can also switch from 15 to seven Watts for studio use and recording. Furthermore, it comes with its own padded travel gig bag.

For further angles on the Orange range, check out the Rockerverb, Thunderverb and AD series amps – not to mention the 40th anniversary models.

Kustom
The Kustom Quad stacks set something of a precedent with the introduction of the Quad Junior, a 100-Watt head, fully loaded with eight, 24-bit effects, as well as two channels with four preamp modes, but, for their £499, punters will get the whole half stack, with a 4x12 Celestion loaded cab. Serious value for money.

A step up from the Junior is the Quad 200 digital head, with (of course) 200 Watts of power for a similar set of features as the Junior. The 200 is also voiced for what the blurb describes as ‘classic distortion response in high gain modes’. With the dedicated cabs retailing at £299, players can still get a beefy half stack for under £600.

Taking a swing out to the left field, Kustom also has the Wav 1000HD head, a 260-Watt stereo, hybrid amp with four preamp modes, some 45 effects and four memory patches for selection of entire amp settings. It looks different and sounds different, so the traditionally conservative guitar buying public will not give it much of a look, but the more adventurous will be keen to try.

Stagg
Now very much the perennial starter brand (although EMD is taking the brand further up the price scale all the time) Stagg has an interesting amp to offer in the shape of the 250GARH Big Head, a basic, 250-Watt (if 250 Watts can be basic) solid-state, two-channel amp.

There are many that will turn their nose up at the name Stagg being associated with guitar amp heads, but with a sub-£300 price tag, there are a lot of young rockers out there that will be drooling at the prospect of having so much power so cheaply.

Ashton
The pretender to the entry-level brand crown is the Aussie-designed Ashton range. Ashton has made staggering inroads into the UK market over the past two years.

As with Stagg, there is a guitar head in among the gear, in Ashton’s case the Bluetongue 100H. This is an all-valve amp, giving 100 Watts of power, through seven 12AX7, 12AT7 and 12AU7 preamp valves (over two channels) and four EL34 power valves. This is not one for the snobs, but beginners will be delighted at the prospect of getting their hands on something so seemingly professional for so little.

Hayden
Hayden’s pièce de résistance is the handwired Speakeasy head. This versatile 50-Watt valve amp is well-equipped for the modern stage or studio, being configured in the classic British style with two channels and two separate signal paths ahead of a shared tone shaping stage.

This provides control over presence, bass, middle and treble. Channel 1 features a valve driven spring reverb and a gain range that moves from clean into a light crunch, while channel 2 offers considerably more gain, ranging from medium crunch to full overdrive, stopping short of full saturation.

Like other Hayden amps, the Speakeasy provides guitarists with the facility to pre-filter the input stage to match the guitar. Vintage single-coils can be beefed up or over-aggressive humbuckers tamed according to taste.

For the guitarist on a budget, the Hayden Peacemaker is a worthy consideration. It draws on the designs of the handwired range and, unlike many Class A amps, the Peacemakers have two channels. One is for vintage tones and the second takes Class A sound and turns it into a modern, high gain and very usable guitar sound with plenty of dynamics. Although vintage in character, all the Peacemakers feature built-in reverb and digital chorus, a channel 2 boost facility, an effects loop and switchable dual master volumes to create versatile amplifiers.

Hiwatt
The Hiwatt Hi-Gain series features the Hi-Gain 100 and 50 heads, which in turn have the same circuitry as the highest end Hiwatts, the Custom series.
Channel 1 is the clean one, with a bright/normal push/pull selector and channel 2 brings in the big bottomed distortion. There are also the Hi-Gain Ser heads, which are the same as the previous, but with Accutronics reverb, FX loop and amp mute, the latter of which allows for standalone preamp use with the amps speaker emulation circuitry.

In the Custom series, Hiwatt has no fewer than five heads, the Custom 7, 100, 50 and 20 and the Studio Stage. This range offers a veritable panoply of sounds, with handwired circuitry and a choice of lots of overhead (the 100) or masses of easily accessible crunch (the 7). With lots of British bands flying Hiwatt, more people than ever are digging through the boxes to find them.

Randall
Touting them as the ‘most versatile all-valve heads on the market’ Randall’s MTS range of heads is headed up (sorry) by the RM100, a 100-Watt amp with three independent modular channels that can be loaded with any choice and combination of the available tube preamp modules.

The beauty of the system is that there is a choice of 12 modules, so guitarists can mix and match to find the right clean, driven or hi-gain sound. Power valves can be picked and chosen, too, giving valve geeks a chance to experiment and the bias section allows users to pop-in and bias a new set of tubes in just a few minutes. The amps are also MIDI compatible and ship with a MIDI footswitch, allowing the amp to be connected to any MIDI effects rack.

For the metal heads, Randall also makes the Kirk Hammett signature amp, the RM100KH, with three custom preamp modules and MIDI to boot.

And now for the rest...
We’re out of space, but the list goes on and on. Vox, of course, has the AC30HH head from the Heritage series, and there’s Line 6 with the popular Spider III modelling heads and Cornford’s MK50H or the monstrous Hellcat. Then Laney has the classy L20H in the Lionheart series and the powerful VH and GH 100s in the Tone Machine series.

There are also thousands of smaller brands. One is the Swedish Elmwood brand, handled in the UK by Richard’s Guitars. Elmwood heads include the M60 and 90 heads and the Bonneville – all classically styled, but offering tonal subtleties that are just sitting and waiting for discerning guitarists to discover them.