Best Virtual Guitar Amps (Jan 2023 Update)

Just picked one of these and it's been a joy to play. Pretty easy to use with quite a few options. Was able to dial in some tones that sound like my $800-1k tube amps. Honestly this amp is the best bang for your buck amp available imo. I really love the Waza Craft Greenback speaker. I love the .5, 50,100 watt options. Haven't even explored the software yet but I'm confident enough in this amp to give it a 5 star already. This of course is keeping in mind the fact it's essentially a budget amp price. You won't regret spending the money imo. Awesome job, Boss. 🤘 🎸Jason Faust

Sound: Right out of the box? I didn’t even adjust EQs. Set volume and gain, and started playing. Took 0 effort to get 98% of the way to my live tone that is an Orange Rockerverb 100W MK2 and Marshall 212 with V30s. Features: I love the Tone Studio. I did have to pull a star from Ease Of Use because it may be confusing if you’re not good with computers. Ease of Use: If you can’t get a good sound out of this amp, return it, sell your guitars, and find a new hobby. That’s how easy getting a good sound out of this is. Quality: Seems pretty decent. I wouldn’t call it robust, but it doesn’t FEEL as cheap as the price would suggest. Value: 100% worth the price. I’d have paid $100 more for it if I’d have known how good it would sound. Manufacturer Support: I’ve dealt with Roland/Boss in the past, and they’ve always been wonderful. The Wow Factor: Looks good, sounds good, price is good. A perfect practice amp, that could stand in for a small venue in a pinch. Naturally my live rig is a bit much for my apartment, but this is just what the doctor ordered. Overall: Solid state amps have come a long way. A REALLY long way. I’ll be honest, being a tube snob, I had very low expectations. I could have set the bar in the same area as I would a $2,000 and it still would have hopped it effortlessly.Kenny

Every guitar player on God's green earth should have one. The different tones offered with the app inspire you to play differently. It allows you to play along with the songs you love, and download the tone. It also tells you the chord progression to the song. It's an amazing Amp, and if nothing else the GREATEST speaker in the world. I could absolutely ruin my neighborhoods night with the most absurdly clear version of my favorite songs. But I could Also practice at midnight with out waking up my roommates using my headphones.
Amazing tones made by professionals. If you care about being a musician… you need this Amp. This Amp was recommended to me by John Moyer… of disturbed.Teryn Surratt

As a practice amp, you will soon lose interest if the tone is thin, boxy and generally sounds like crap. The Spark is none of this. An incredibly wide range of tones are available via the app with sounds that you just don't expect to come from such a small package. The sound is loud, rich without the boxiness that you seem to get with amps loaded with small speakers. If you've used PG's Bias software, you'll be in very familiar territory – great emulations that have a depth that rivals some of the serious modelers available now. The effects, while not giving you a massive selection, supplies pretty well every type of effect you would ever need. The reverbs and delays are particularly good and while more than good enough for noodling at home, are more than up to the task of recording. The unit is quite sturdy with a timber cabinet and looks great – very traditional with an "English" type of styling. Using the Spark as a Bluetooth player for music is more than up to the task – good bass, clean mids and treble and loads of volume. The app overall is very good with some truly inspiring practice opportunities, though the function where the app analyses your playing and constructs a suitable backing track is hit and miss and is probably the weakest part of the app. Bluetooth connection for both control functions and audio playback is stable and very quick to pair with your device. Overall, I don't think you will find and amp sounding this good with the flexibility and functions available, from anywhere else and that is before taking into consideration, the extra functions the app gives you.Mick G.

I bought this amp on the back of all the rave reviews on YouTube etc. For me, it's just not a finished product yet. It feels very "beta". The hardware seems robust and of good quality. The modelled sounds are very good, albeit very bass heavy. But most of that can be EQ'd out. There are several problems I couldn't live with, and had to sell it on. The hum problem which is due to the supplied, un-earthed PSU was very apparent in my example. I contacted Positive Grid support about the issue in December 20, and as of selling the amp at the start of March 21, I had not yet received the replacement PSU. There are temporary workarounds, but I wanted the problem sorted permanently. As said above, the sound is very bass heavy. The amp models' EQ can be used to deal with the guitar tone, but music playback through the unit via Bluetooth has no EQ control, so the sound quality is very poor. In addition to this, the playback level is far too high. When using as a Bluetooth speaker it is very difficult to get the volume low enough using the tiny trim pot volume control for comfortable listening when sat in close proximity to the unit. The Auto Chords feature is a gimmick and needs serious work. It only works for E standard guitar tuning. For example, when listening to a song in dropped standard tuning such as "Yesterday" (guitar tuned down one whole step) Auto Chords will show fingerings for F, Em, A7 etc instead of the G,. F#m, B7 shapes that are required. At the very least, a "transpose" button is required to allow for dropped standard tunings that are very common. When using the tuner, you have to look at the lights on top of the amp. The app should have a screen that displays the tuner on your connected device when in use. The app metronome tempo can only be set by tap. It should have the ability for the user to enter the exact required BPM by inputting the figure required, or selecting the tempo with up and down or + and – controls. All of these niggles were too much for me to live with. Hopefully Positive Grid implement the changes in future releases, but I won't be buying Spark again until they do.Paul

It is a great amp. Very good sound and options for the price. It is not heavy which is a big deal to someone who has had back surgery. I gave it a 5 in spite of one big complaint. When you turn it off you hear a loud "POP!" Wow, is that loud is what I thought the first time I heard it. I read about it online and there is a simple fix. Find an old set of ear phones or ear buds that you would use on a cassette player or a Sony Walkman. (Yes, these are ancient electronic relics from the past for you younger people. You might ask your parents if they have a cassette player and borrow the ear plugs.) Just plug that earphone jack into the "PHONES" input BEFORE you turn it off. THEN you only hear a little blip when you turn it off. THEN just pull the jack out of the "PHONES" input before you start it next time.chasmigu

This amp is better than I thought. I've had it for over a year. I use it for practice sessions (classic rock mostly), and I haven't gone over '4 1/2' on the volume (it does give good feedback if you want it). I did upgrade the speaker to a 12" 'Celestion' Vintage 30 and am absolutely happy! This could easily be mic'd for larger venues. Lightweight, powerful enough, and the effects are a good assortment. One small glitch…when using the footswitch, there is a short, instantaneous volume boost when the pedal is pressed for distortion. Could possibly be a problem for recording. Besides that, 5 stars for me.Myk

After playing acoustic guitar for 15+ years and rarely plugging in, I finally decided to make the plunge and try out an electric. I was advised by a buddy to not buy too big, that 15W-20W would be plenty to practice with. So, I found this little Champion at Sam Ash, and so far it's been great! I bought the display model and have had no issues at all with it. Great sound, enough presets and effects to play around with, and sounds great clean too. Having a blast and loving it.Nate-O

Based on a friend's recommendation, I purchased a new Boss Katana 100 MK 2 in June 2021. The first thing that impressed me was it's power…it seemed to be a real 100 watts in a portable and lightweight package. I was able to dial in some useful tube-like tones right from the start with the clean channel. The Katana warmed up quickly to single coil or hum bucking pickups. The tone "variations" are also very useful for dialing in the right sounds to your liking. The delay adds the right amount of sparkle to your overall sound…very cool! Unfortunately, I was not able to get much help from the Boss Tone Studio when I downloaded it to the amp. (The response was: "Amp not connected"). Another disappointment is no Boss Tone Studio for iOS users…really guys? The required Boss foot switch is another issue…look online to see pedal "hacks" that use standard one-button or two-button formats. (Save a few bucks with a regular pedal). All in all: I'm very pleased with the amp. The line-in is a great feature to use with backing tracks along with the headphone jack for late night practicing. The basic amp tones has a realistic tube texture that reminds me of Marshall, Fender or Vox models.Scotty, M.

I have had the 50 watt for several months which is a great amp, but decided I wanted more foot switching options provided by the GA-FC controller. I figured if I was to buy the 100 watt it might as well be a 2X12. The 100 2X12 sounds awesome. And it is really loud to play at home even on the .5 watt setting. I'm tired of messing with tube amps and effect pedals so the Boss Katana series is just what I need. I have not dived in to the software and deep settings on either amp yet. These are apparently had to get. SAM Ash had it on backorder from Boss. The web and phone support at SAM Ash is great. Chris from phone support helped me complete the order and was super knowledgeable and helpful throughout. He even called me back a couple of times to update status and follow up once it was delivered. Oh… And the 2X12 is way heavier and bigger than the 1X12.Pupster

Huge sounding and a lot of power for such a small amp. The Spark Control App gives you loads of choices from classic sounds to the most modern of amps out there today. You also have tons of effects to use in conjunction with all of these modeled amp choices. All of these possibilities can be saved as your own personal presets which can endlessly be tweaked to make you sound and play your best. You can also use the Jam Along feature which syncs to iTunes, Spotify, etc. while also displaying the chord changes as you play. The Spark amp also connects easily to any DAW for professional sounding quality recordings. This amp does it all for a fraction of the price.Javier

Used it only for practice. Unusable for live performance. Every update was a fiasco and after 11 months, it only works as a Bluetooth speaker as the Amp section gave up. Google that issue and found it happens to many other users. Defective chip and Positive Grid helpdesk is not responding.Cory

The amp is awesome. Well built and solid, very pleasant to look at, easy to use and the sound! Oh man, the sound of that little amp is just beyond belief. Full and rich, it fills the room as though it were five times the size. With the app on my android phone, fine tuning the sound is easy and intuitive, and you can save your sounds as presets if you wish. But even without using the app, the presets that ship with the amp are simply stellar. In my opinion, the amp is well worth the price.Richard L.

The Ac-10not only looks the business but it has since real depth and warmth to its tone. Clean – it’s bright and has the chime you’d expect. Turn up the gain and your tone breaks up but still retains clarity. Having the gain wide open and master volume down means you can still have the saturated crunch but not disturb others . Perfect for home use but would not be out of place in a small pub gig. Takes pedals will and with a multi-fix like a GT 100, if you disable the amp sim and use like a conventional pedal board, you don’t lose any quality of the AC10’s natural tone. A masterful amp and it even smells nice with those tubes cooking.Mark R.

Ive been playing 35 years and this is probably the best all around practice amp ive ever heard. Pros- looks great, sounds very good, cleans thump and chime, distortion can wail. Its loud for its size. Seems built well. Have had no bad issues. Cons- clean isnt near as loud as w the gain cranked up. No reverb. In short if this amp was 50-100W and had reverb and an external speaker jack id never play another amp. Good job VOX.jjsrvfan

I'm a Fender fan to the core. I love their electric guitars and amps but their Amps aren't even affordable anymore. They've completely out priced themselves and either you are going to pay for a severely overpriced bare bones amp or a severely overpriced amp with far more electronics than a lot of us care to deal with. This is a great sized combo amp that's easy to use and has a great sound and plenty of power and all at a great price!!! There is no reason Fender couldn't do more of this…combo's that aren't easy to use with plenty of effects and a fair price for blue collar musicians. I used a Fender Princeton Chorus combo this same size mic'd through a sound system for over two decades and it started having issues. This was the closest amp I could get (and afford). The 100 has everything you need in a combo amp and at a fraction of the price of everything else Fender makes. Buy it! You won't be disappointed!Josh

I bought this amp because my gig amp died a cyber twin 2-12s 100 watts that was about 16 years old. I have had many Fender amps they were great. I do country and 50s and 60s rock and roll. I figured 100 watts would put it out there and it does. At performing volume, the distortion is a pure heavy metal on the clean channel. Mine is not much good for high volume for my type of music. I have an old champion 110 75 watt that I will be using It has worked for me when the others were down. Not sure what to do.stev_majo

Sound: With the second channel .First it had the twin reverb and super sonic voicing with a chain loop for pedals I was set on that alone. When it got to the house and realized I didn't need my pedal chain and it sounds amazing even though ill still use my pedals here and there. The bassman, tweeds , Princeton all clean or dirty are amazing to play . again to get those sounds with out the tubes and speakers is amazing.. You get volumes that punch against you that are clear without any nasty whitenoise or unwanted sounds. the dirty settings added with the compression build in make all that possible. Outta all my guitars I enjoy to plug into this amp .My 63 firebird , g400 s.g. and my jaguar Ease of Use: Its real easy for me to get the sounds I need .I'm well aware of all the amps they used for the voicing.For new players it might take a little to understand but with no time you'll understand how to dial it in and add the right effects to the amp models to get those amazing fender amps . Quality: Only had it for a week but as for holding it up and down 3 flights of stairs at the studio in Philadelphia id say the strap is well build . Speakers have not blown but I have not had to dial all the way up amps loud as it is half way . Value: yes it is im surprised its not another $100 more.Wish more companies would do this. Manufacturer Support: No problems yet . But in the past fender has always been amazing to me. Overall: (DON'T LET THE $399 TRICK YOU)When dialed up there are so many different fender amps you have here. First off the blackface style clean channel is just amazing. id say that its a twin or deluxe especially when you dial in the spring reverb only thing missing to call it that are the speakers/tubes but fender has made it very clear they can accumulate that sound with out the tubes . I know the tubes will make a difference but not much to this amp unless you have the trained ear for tubes you can't tell.The 2nd channel with all the voice modeling Id say every setting is 99.7 spot on with the models . I love this amp .After watching a few videos online of the 100 I decided to go with it .My friend has the champion 50 so I have already played through this style of amp. When I saw the 2×12 combo version with a double channel pedal it was set in stone . I love combos more than any kind of amp . I came on zZounds looking for an amp to hit the road to the higher states of the new England area of the states in November and December and a long ride from New Jersey to Chicago and Milwaukee in January . the amazing price for a well build and sounding amp there was no way i wasn't gonna leave the website with out another toy.So after adding to the card I headed over to guitars and ordered the squier 70s classic vibe jaguar .One of my favorite things about this amp is I don't have to change out the speakers to get that sound I want. its easy for me to use because I know how to dial in the right sounds to get the sound of the amps in amp unit.Mike

I have played through the almost decade old THR10c, which is a fantastic little amp. Through a SM57 in front of it and out to the PA and you can sound great. But I thought that by now, with Yamaha buying Line 6 about 5 years ago, the newest version of this little amp would have some state of the art effects. Wrong! The effects, and the apps that control it are seriously out of date. I mean, the reverb, tremolo and chorus are fine. But they remain exactly as they did ten years ago. No upgrades and nothing fancy. The app is poorly designed and not that easy to use. and there is no way that I have found access the THR10C classic blues models all in one place. So its actually hard to get the classic blues and country sounds that I need all in one place. I went back to my THR10c and sold the new one.Bruce

dial in your sound in seconds not minutes, I look at it and then I want to play my best, those amp lights man, wow, dim the lights you will see. No instructions needed. if you need to move some Air for clubs shows or band practice this is not the one for you. What it does is creates a killer vibe for personal guitar growth, very organic and the tones? Man, you have got to play through it to believe it. It will cover any genre and crash most all the competition in the personal practice amp catagory. its about quality tones at lower DBI, it's not a marshal and it doesn't want to be. You can boot this sting up 3 at night and sound like your at an arena in your bedroom without waking up the neighbors and your flat-mates. No getting up or leaning over the amp to adjust setting like a marshal. No LCD's to mess with with or crummy menu diving. Traditional Bluetooth audio is pretty decent for using the amp speaker for guitar youtube vids and playing along instrumental tracks. Someone else said terrible sound, what??? you have got to be kidding me, id call that person an amateur guitarist. the biggest stars have these in the studio, tour buss and green room, hotel room. amazing for writing sounds, its the sound you have always wanted without going deaf sounds good anywhere. saves your hearing from the ringing. if you want to expand this sound on stage get the 30 which has proper outs for studio and stage, and re-amp it. leave it on a partially cleanish tone for your genre, then output to normal amp setup, the smiles will come. Of course many are still going to need their volume pedals but in a lot of situations, if you know how to gain control and then crank it for a lead/ chorus, (id drive it out to the mains / monitors for ramp) but it sounds amazing as you turn it up, the character truly changes, for the better. it's pretty wild. its pretty good about feedback. iv heard people hook these up on tour or use them in the greenroom preshow, it's that good. stick with the new models that are lighter and sound better. these are industry standard personal practice amps. again, if you are gigging you will need some sound reinforcement, but I would find a way myself, it's just not that hard to figure out. it's never fed back at me once and I'm jamming right infant of the cab on me desk. no surprise loud feedback sounds like other amps. small, light goes anywhere. probably need that case if you travel a lot. metal, country, hard rock, pop, blues jazz, hip hop, it nails it. the 30 could drive your current big amp. whatever magic is going on with the sound, full gain w guitar at full gain, is something that has to be heard not seen.J

Upgraded from the original cream colored THR10 after finding out that all three of the original THR10 amps (boutique, classic, and high gain) were consolidated in one amp and that the speakers underwent an upgrade (10W->20W). Sonically, the tones in this amp are superior to those of the original THR10, which makes practicing and playing very satisfying and inspiring. Note: Boutique and high gain amps can only be accessed through the desktop or mobile THR remote app. This isn't the case with the larger THR30 amp. All amp models can be access through the unit. The remote app also allows the user to change cabinets to further tweak tone. Here is why I rated this product 4 stars. * Mobile THR remote app crashes all the time. I've been using the remote app on my laptop exclusively. Yamaha rep informed me that this tends to be the case with iPhone users. Doesn't seem like they plan on fixing this anytime soon. * Setting the unit up as an audio interface was not clear at all. The original THR amps required downloading the yamaha steinberg usb driver and selecting this as your driver in your DAW. After configuring your MIDI and audio source in the DAW, you would then get sound. Well, that's not how it works on this amp. I reached out to yamaha after repeatedly getting errors from my DAW about the yamaha steinberg usb driver. Long story short, tech service couldn't figure out the issue and told me to request an exchange for a new unit at GC. After hooking up the new replacement, I got the same error. Turns out you have to download the ASIO THR10ii/30 driver on yamaha's site, not the most current yamaha steinberg usb driver. Select this driver in your DAW. Then you have to go into the app's settings and check the box for "record dry." Now you can configure your MIDI and audio source. I'm baffled about how yamaha's own techs did not know that the steinberg usb driver is not compatible with the THR10ii/30 amp.Ben G.

The good: small, portable, can run off batteries. The wireless connectivity is really nice. Sounds decent for what it is. The bad: The interface on the unit itself and the app are confusing to say the least, and you are pretty limited in the use of effects. The ugly: all those free Katana patches being posted on the Boss site? Incompatible. All the patches for regular Boss Katana amps WILL NOT WORK on this unit. Thanks for that Boss.Alexander

Overall: I may be mis-reading the manual but I've yet to figure out how to keep the wireless transmitter charged. I'm not new at this having gotten Line 6's wireless transmitters when they first arrived on the scene. They were easy to use and worked as advertised. While I am a huge Roland/Boss fan, I'm thinking they may have missed the mark in the "ease of use" category on the Katana Air. From a sound perspective, the amp, when plugged into a wall socket sounds great; just what you'd expect from a Katana amp. And when the transmitter is fully charged, the same can be expected. The problem arises when trying to figure out how to keep it charged. When running the amp on batteries only, this seems this seems to be problematic in that the amp stops charging the transmitter when the batteries are low. The problem is you don't know the transmitter is dead until you try and use it.My most predictable approach is to plug in the amp with the provided DC cable and do my charging while the amp is "hard-wired" to the juice coming from a wall socket.Once the transmitter is fully charged, in this manner, I can disconnect the amp and run it on a fresh set of batteries. This will afford you a "temporary" wireless operation. The transmitter that I received didn't have any where's near the claimed lifespan. I'd be curious to see how other's experience with the Katana Air played out. I will keep fiddling with the KA and if I discover what it takes to make it truly wireless, I'll get back to you in a follow up review. Strangely I did keep this item, hoping for a downloadable software cure.There is a nice free ap that accompanies the KA…..It allows you to change all of the amp's audio settings and to download free patch sets. This works well with my iPhone 7+.Martin

I've been seeking a modern, portable, reliable practice amp that can satisfy BOTH Acoustic and Electric guitars since Line 6 introduced their Amplifi series. I loved the Amplifi's techie saturated concept but no matter how bad I wanted it to work… it was always a low-fidelity 'noise' amp first without the ability to produce clear, hi-fidelity sound for either my acoustic or classical guitars. Designing an amp that can accurately reproduce hi-fidelity, low distortion sound begins with a good designed, quality build and above average components. As the old proverb states, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear", you can build a noisy amp but don't ever expect it to reproduce quality sound. Amplifi is the sow's ear. I thought about testing their newer Amplifi 30 but after many bad experiences testing a 75 and reading that I was not alone … I lost all confidence that they could do HiFi right. The Katana Air checks many of my must-have boxes and it worked without a hitch. It was designed as a small practice amp and not a single solution for all your gigging needs. Adding in the convenience features like smart-on and multiple wireless features that include power/updating/tuning/modeling/backing tracks/guitar, makes this the practice amp I have been waiting a long timefor. Finally, I can take an amp sailing without worry of 'butt cleats' or adding more hazardous lines to my boat.pete1tod

What an awesome little amp! And plug the line outs into something bigger and you can well and truly deafen yourself with sonic pleasure. Pretty straight forward to use but you do need to watch your levels when changing amp models – they can vary a lot. Longer battery life would be a bonus and I'll def need a little bag for it. Fast service and good price from Better Music. Thumbs up from me.John H.

When I buy something that does so much but I don't need to read any manuals to operate it I know I've made the right choice. Sounds are fantastic, my favourite amp so far is the boutique, it feels very natural, not boomy like my previous desktop type amp. The effects are great, particularly the reverbs. I find myself taking it out of our little 'work from home office' while my wife or the kids are in there and noodling in the living room or the kitchen with it because I haven't had to faff around with power cables 🙂 It has a flat setting so I use that when I'm playing around with modeller settings for gigs rather than dragging out my powercab at home. The app is really easy to use and opens up a nice compressor plus cab options etc. The clincher for me over the smaller units is the 1/4 inch line outs, I can chuck it in the car and it's there as a back up incase my gigging amp packs up. I'm no bass player but I play a bit at home and this sounds way better than going into a guitar amp or using a bass amp on amplitube on my pc. This is easily the best music purchase I've made in recent years and I'm playing more music because of it 🙂Archie W.

I have a Marshall 1974x that I have not touched since I bought this THR30II. There is no real comparison but this Yamaha is so addictive. Clean tones are superb the crunch channel in classic mode is a my fave. The onboard effects are really good. I just shelled out e few Bob on a thorny flanger and this has a perfectly good flanger built in. The hall reverb is beyond good. In summary rock tones are good but cleans/crunch are fantastic. I trusted other reviews of this amp against things like positive grid/katana etc but this just hits the spot. I love playing the slow Peter Green blues stuff it’s perfect. It’s not a one trick pony it has loads of nice tones perfect for home use at friendly volumes than the Marshall 18 watt. Highly recommend.HappyYammyTHR p.

Recently bought this thing after saving up for months. I pretty much ripped it out of the box, plugged it in, powered it on, went through the very quick and simple setup process, and in minutes it was ready for use. I’ve now had it for a few days and already it has made my life a ton easier. Being a musician that goes on the road a lot, carrying around an amp can be a huge hassle. The Kemper eliminates that hassle, while also maintaining an amazing tone. A few things to keep in mind, though:

1. It doesn’t create an EXACT carbon copy of your amp, but it comes EXTREMELY close, so close in fact that I, having played guitar for around 7 years, can barely tell the difference, and the very microscopic differences there are, are nothing that can’t be ironed out with small tweaking to the EQ, specifically the high end

2. The volume may vary depending on how the venue has their sound system set up, so that’s something to be mindful of. You may switch on and blow eardrums at some places, or you may switch on and barely hear anything in other places, so be mindful of that.

3. You will have an amazing tone, so just be mindful of that as well. Even the stock profiles sound great, but the Kemper is taken to a whole new level once you start using your own profiles, as well as commercially sold profiles, such as the ones from Tone Junkie.

The built in Performance mode also allows for a seamless switch between up to five different rigs at the click of a button, which would be impossible to do using only analog gear.

The Kemper can be a pretty big learning curve, though, especially for people like me, who have used analog gear for years, and were even leery of making the switch to digital at first. But after the initial learning curve and getting familiar with it, I promise you will be glad you made the switch.Brandon Johnson

I bought the 600w version after a ton of research and inner debate. I had solid state rack stuff in the early 90's and hated it. It always had something missing from the tone, it seemed shallow and fake. I turned into a die hard tube guy after that. I pledged never to buy any computer amp ever again. I dismissed the Kemper at first. But once I saw some videos and heard some profiles, I was a little interested. I couldn't get past buying a computer and having 1000's of tones at the turn of a knob. Once I heard it live, thru a cabinet in a rehearsal space, I was floored and very surprised. My friend went from a 68 Marshall to a 6505 to a Fender Twin Reverb with a turn of a knob in seconds. I've owned very expensive tube amps with very distinct tone signatures I thought could not be replicated. I was 100% wrong. I profiled my Engl head and did a blind test to see if I could tell the difference in tone once I shaped it up. I honestly couIdn't tell the difference. When I guessed, I picked the Kemper 4 out of 5 times. I went to the rig exchange and found a profile that was reasonably close to a 59 plexi. I tweaked it for 10 minutes. Within that 10 minutes, I saved thousands on a new tube amp. The Kemper is a perfect fit for the skeptic. There's a million forums and tutorials out there so you'll never feel lost. Once you learn the menus and how to dial in a tone or profile an amp, you're hooked. This is the most versitle amp I've ever owned. I am completely satisified.Rob

Like the title says, you can find 1000's of these for sale used and there's good reason for that. It doesn't sound like tube at all. I think it's good for the studio where I've used one. But live? If you're fine with a solid state head, then fine. The modeling really isn't any better than higher end Line 6 modeling. This past labor day, Great White was playing a festival near by. They had a total of 8 Marshall 4×12's on stage with 4 DSL 100 heads. Not one of them was powered on. So I looked around for what they were going to use, I saw 2 Kemper Profiler heads. 1 for each guitarist. The sound was absolutely terrible. Neither amp sounded anything close to a Marshall or like tube for that matter. You could hear the cab emulation a mile away. At this price point go another direction. Unless your application is purely studio.guylemieux

Recently bought this thing after saving up for months. I pretty much ripped it out of the box, plugged it in, powered it on, went through the very quick and simple setup process, and in minutes it was ready for use. I’ve now had it for a few days and already it has made my life a ton easier. Being a musician that goes on the road a lot, carrying around an amp can be a huge hassle. The Kemper eliminates that hassle, while also maintaining an amazing tone. A few things to keep in mind, though:

1. It doesn’t create an EXACT carbon copy of your amp, but it comes EXTREMELY close, so close in fact that I, having played guitar for around 7 years, can barely tell the difference, and the very microscopic differences there are, are nothing that can’t be ironed out with small tweaking to the EQ, specifically the high end

2. The volume may vary depending on how the venue has their sound system set up, so that’s something to be mindful of. You may switch on and blow eardrums at some places, or you may switch on and barely hear anything in other places, so be mindful of that.

3. You will have an amazing tone, so just be mindful of that as well. Even the stock profiles sound great, but the Kemper is taken to a whole new level once you start using your own profiles, as well as commercially sold profiles, such as the ones from Tone Junkie.

The built in Performance mode also allows for a seamless switch between up to five different rigs at the click of a button, which would be impossible to do using only analog gear.

The Kemper can be a pretty big learning curve, though, especially for people like me, who have used analog gear for years, and were even leery of making the switch to digital at first. But after the initial learning curve and getting familiar with it, I promise you will be glad you made the switch.Brandon Johnson

I bought the 600w version after a ton of research and inner debate. I had solid state rack stuff in the early 90's and hated it. It always had something missing from the tone, it seemed shallow and fake. I turned into a die hard tube guy after that. I pledged never to buy any computer amp ever again. I dismissed the Kemper at first. But once I saw some videos and heard some profiles, I was a little interested. I couldn't get past buying a computer and having 1000's of tones at the turn of a knob. Once I heard it live, thru a cabinet in a rehearsal space, I was floored and very surprised. My friend went from a 68 Marshall to a 6505 to a Fender Twin Reverb with a turn of a knob in seconds. I've owned very expensive tube amps with very distinct tone signatures I thought could not be replicated. I was 100% wrong. I profiled my Engl head and did a blind test to see if I could tell the difference in tone once I shaped it up. I honestly couIdn't tell the difference. When I guessed, I picked the Kemper 4 out of 5 times. I went to the rig exchange and found a profile that was reasonably close to a 59 plexi. I tweaked it for 10 minutes. Within that 10 minutes, I saved thousands on a new tube amp. The Kemper is a perfect fit for the skeptic. There's a million forums and tutorials out there so you'll never feel lost. Once you learn the menus and how to dial in a tone or profile an amp, you're hooked. This is the most versitle amp I've ever owned. I am completely satisified.Rob

Like the title says, you can find 1000's of these for sale used and there's good reason for that. It doesn't sound like tube at all. I think it's good for the studio where I've used one. But live? If you're fine with a solid state head, then fine. The modeling really isn't any better than higher end Line 6 modeling. This past labor day, Great White was playing a festival near by. They had a total of 8 Marshall 4×12's on stage with 4 DSL 100 heads. Not one of them was powered on. So I looked around for what they were going to use, I saw 2 Kemper Profiler heads. 1 for each guitarist. The sound was absolutely terrible. Neither amp sounded anything close to a Marshall or like tube for that matter. You could hear the cab emulation a mile away. At this price point go another direction. Unless your application is purely studio.guylemieux

The portability alone is supremely useful. The best travel amp ive ever used! Definitely worth the few extra hundred for the wireless version. Great sounds, its got a surprising kick for a 10W amp. Super convenient having an acoustic and bass amp as well! super versatile and stylish combo amp!lukanthon-16

Excellent piece of kit – for those like me living at close quarters with others, I'd even go so far as to say essential. Eight basic amp sounds (five for electric guitar, plus acoustic, bass and 'flat' response amps), each with three variants accessible via the accompanying amp, and a raft of effects. It's obviously portable and wireless-equipped – handy when I get chucked out of the living room – and serves as a pretty decent bluetooth speaker in its own right. My only quibble is that there are only five storable presets – even a simple punk rocker like myself could have used a few more when the amp has so many sounds to offer! That said, this is a proper game changer for anyone who needs quality tone at domestic volume.Joe

With C19 I was looking for a good home tube amp and the Revv D20 way exceeded my expectations. The sound is terrific. Works well with my hx effects + pedal board. Attenuates onboard from 20w to 4w. And when I need to be quiet (headphones) or just want to pull tones into my DAW, the Two Notes torpedo is really good. I'm really glad I bought this Amp.Ira

Great sounding amp and the built in two notes cab sim is great. Great metal tones but you’ll need an overdrive pedal to really get the most out of it. Clean tones are gorgeous. MIDI is simple to use to change the channel and various other parameters too. Highly recommend for anyone wanting to silently record but with the option to power a cab too!Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

What a fantastic amplifier this is. Worth every penny. The High and Low power settings both give different sounds and are equally usable. For more gain I use a Korg Nu:Tekt Over Drive pedal, they go very well together. I use beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones with the cab sim output every day! Have not stopped playing this amp since it arrived and I would say to anyone looking for an amplifier like this that if they are in a position to do so, then buy it without hesitation. My Shergold guitar and my Gordon Smith guitar go so well with this amp- both guitars have Humbucker pick ups and definitely give me the kind of tone that I have been looking for since I first heard JoyDivision more than 40 years ago. The amp works well with my Gibson ES330 guitar too which has P90 pick ups and is sort of an upmarket Casino. If anyone knows the sounds of Bernard Sumner with both the Shergold Masquerader and the ES330 then this amp sounds a lot like his setup without the punishing volume of his Vox. I have also been able to get the Neil Young Cortez the Killer tone pretty convincingly too. No regret at all in buying this amplifier and if it breaks would buy another without hesitation. I should perhaps add that this is the first Valve Amp that I have ever bought after many years of building my own Valve Amps.David C.

Huge sounding and a lot of power for such a small amp. The Spark Control App gives you loads of choices from classic sounds to the most modern of amps out there today. You also have tons of effects to use in conjunction with all of these modeled amp choices. All of these possibilities can be saved as your own personal presets which can endlessly be tweaked to make you sound and play your best. You can also use the Jam Along feature which syncs to iTunes, Spotify, etc. while also displaying the chord changes as you play. The Spark amp also connects easily to any DAW for professional sounding quality recordings. This amp does it all for a fraction of the price.Javier

Used it only for practice. Unusable for live performance. Every update was a fiasco and after 11 months, it only works as a Bluetooth speaker as the Amp section gave up. Google that issue and found it happens to many other users. Defective chip and Positive Grid helpdesk is not responding.Cory

The amp is awesome. Well built and solid, very pleasant to look at, easy to use and the sound! Oh man, the sound of that little amp is just beyond belief. Full and rich, it fills the room as though it were five times the size. With the app on my android phone, fine tuning the sound is easy and intuitive, and you can save your sounds as presets if you wish. But even without using the app, the presets that ship with the amp are simply stellar. In my opinion, the amp is well worth the price.Richard L.

I have bought and sold several amps over the past few years, and I think this one's the keeper. It reminds me a bit of the katana 50 in that it has lots of features – but it is far easier to figure out how to use. I wish it had a slightly smaller footprint, for portability's sake, but the sound and usability make up for it. I also wish manufacturers would provide more useful documentation, but there are lots of helpful videos on the web. From clean, to crunch, to filthy – and some Fender Vibratone if you like – this amp can do just about anything.CR

Sound: Its odd they make you choose a rating for manufacturer support seeing as I imaging you would only contact them if you had an issue with your new item and zZounds didn't resolve it Overall: Its way louder than I expected. We don't turn it up past 3. The distortion sounds great. The amp modules sound great. For metal and grunge which my daughter plays its fantastic. I used the acoustic channel for jazz ukulele and it sounds great as well.James

I work at a guitar store so we recently got these amps in, I have to say that it genuinely shocked me? For the price and for what you get, it's pretty darn good
I'm really picky with my amps, so much so that I've only had one amp my whole 5+ years of playing and seeiing this new amp really, made me wanna get one, don't think of it as a legit replacer to a real 6405 or a XXX Head and Cab, think of it as a beginner amp, something to get started one, yes it has a lot of knobs and buttons that may seem intimidating, but take some time to get to know the little beast? You're gonna be kicking fun with this thing for hours.
It has some pretty alright effects besides the amp itself, the only thing I will say is that when passing 4-5 on a distorted amp like the 6505 it rumbles, and not in a good way as well as the whole amp kit app, IOS only? That's a bummer
Besides that, great amp.David Romero

I bought this for an upcoming camping trip and I am very happy with the tone and volume when using AmpliTube. I usually use an AXE-FX III through 4000w of FRFR speakers so I am really spoiled tone wise. I wasnt expecting much but at the price point it was worth a try and I must say I am quite pleased.galacticore

I didn't have huge hopes for this, but the second I turned it on the hissing white noise sound that came out made it clear that this amp was not for me. Even without anything plugged in and all of the knobs turned to zero, as much as I turned up the volume, that's how much noise I got. This DID not work at all for me with the Amplitube phone app, but did with the Amplitube computer app – with some significant drawbacks. The audio level was low, and when I turned it up to get some usable volume, that ever-present background noise just killed the tone. Sorry, but I cannot recommend this.B.G.

Product looks as good as advertised but have not had a great opportunity to make use of it as yet. Looking forward to getting to grips with it in more detail ASAP.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

This is a really good bit of kit (apart from the way it looks, which isn't the best!). It makes a great Bluetooth speaker for streaming music – plenty loud, with good (faked) stereo separation, and the bass isn't bad for a small speaker. The guitar modelling sound good, and works well at low volume. And I can get 3 sound sources running simultaneously, which is useful : 1. A guitar plugged into the Input 2. A keyboard plugged into the Aux In 3. Music streamed over Bluetooth So, the sound is good, the connectivity is good, the downside is the software: 1. Tone Room works well, once you've got it to work at all. I had to try several different drivers from the VOX web site before I finally got Tone Room to connect from my laptop over Bluetooth. I eventually gave up trying to get Tone Room to connect from my Android phone. 2. The bundled JamVOX III software is incredibly ancient (last updated in 2013!!!), and doesn't manage to chop out the guitar solo's particularly well on the songs I tried it with. 3. There's not much of a community out there uploading tones and patches etc. Finally, I could have paid less elsewhere, but I really appreciate The Captain's video reviews, so I decided to pay an extra £10 to get it from Andertons.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Overall: I bought this after getting tired of waiting for my Positive Grid Spark to ship. I watched some videos and pulled the trigger. zZounds had the amp at my door in 24 hours. Wow! I immediately dialed up what I expected to be my primary sound — the "Brit 1959" amp. Absolutely horrible. The sound was weak and uninspiring. Even with the pre, post, and eq's dimed, the amp was nowhere near an early era Malcolm Young tone. (The target.) The JCM 800 and the Orange Rockerverb sims aren't bad–but those amps have completely different drive characteristics. At this point, I had not yet written-off the Adio completely. I streamed my iTunes through the Adio via Bluetooth, and this was the final nail-in-the-coffin. The plastic cabinet has a very specific resonant frequency that is only augmented by engaging the "Wide" mode. The songs I have known my whole life sounded completely different when played through the Adio. Even streaming "Avengers Endgame" through the Adio unpleasantly colored the audio. And again, engaging the "Wide" mode only degraded the audio further. I am returning the unit to purchase a Yamaha THR10II–which is what I should have done in the first place. (Damn your review, Lee Anderton!)They made me fill-in "manufacturer support." I have had no experience with Vox customer support.Brian

OK, I do jokingly refer to this as the "Vox Tone Purse" because it's gotten such flack over its looks. In person I think it looks fine, and I don't really care that much. Here's the deal – I generally have to put my stuff away when I'm not playing, I live in a small place. Sometimes I don't feel like getting out the pedalboard and bringing an amp into the living room, etc. In those cases I grab the Adio and sit it on the ground next to me. This thing sounds plenty good for what I use it for. Generally practicing or noodling while watching sports. I like clean-to-slightly crunch tones with reverb. I don't use the other effects much, and I've played around with the Tonelab app a bit, but not much. I just dial in a tone and play. The tones I get are satisfying and good enough – I like the tones out of my amps better, but for a small practice amp I'm fine with it. About the 50 watts – there is plenty of volume but this thing will not keep up with your average 50 watt, 12 inch speaker combo amp. It's not that kind of thing. The 50 watts is likely for clean headroom, and it's probably 25 watts per speaker. You have to use the app to control effect parameters beyond speed or depth – not a big issue. You get plenty of variety in the available amp models – I use all of them up to the Plexi and don't really touch any of the high gain stuff. Not my thing. To my ear it sounds good for clean to mildly dirty tones and has plenty of EQ and gain options which easily cater tones to single coil or humbucking pickups. Lots to like. I give it 4 stars just because nothing is perfect, but I'm very happy with this amp and use it all the time.AL

I have 3 of these amps so far and love them. You can't expect a big tube sound because it's not that but rather a smaller very useful sound. I customize them slightly with an 8" speaker that fits in them and do a few other little things. For very little money you can have a killer little tweed looking amp. Works great for rockabilly and roots music with an archtop for me and takes any pedals well. Can't beat these little work horses.Travis

Beautiful cover and vintage tweed appearance. Good for an office. If it got ripped off you would get over it quick. Have to use pedals or limited functionality makes practice boring rather quickly. Clean very good. Gain option is unfortunately toy-like and useless. Just leave it off.Records Reills

Cool little amp. Been spending some time playing with it. Love the tweed look. Wish they hadn't put the Rogue plaque on the front of the grill, and had kept true to the Champ 600 look by putting it on the top of the amp over the speaker. The clean channel is good, wish it had some built in reverb. The distortion channel is good too. I ran my "Bluesdriver" pedal into it and it sounded even better. I will likely change out the stock speaker for the Eminence 6.5 speaker to try and coax a little more sound out of this great little amp.KWB MUSIC

I was really surprised at how good this amp sounds. Years ago I tried Line 6 and was not at all happy with the tone; but this is another story. It does take me awhile to dial in a specific classic rock tone, but when I do, it sounds better than any other amp that I've tried. I have tried the Marshall Code, Blackstar id Core, Vox Valvetronix, Boss Katana; as well as some all tube amps. The only other amp that is a close 2nd is the Fender Mustang GTX; also a great amp. The Spider V is fairly easy to operate. It offers lots of choices for amp models and cabinets. I like that it has variations of a mic'd cabinet. The parametric eq is a plus. I haven't played around too much with the effects yet, so I can't comment on that. The only negative thing I could say is that when you're editing a preset and want to hear how it sounds before you save it, you only have a short time before it goes back to the Home Screen. This really is a small price to pay for the quality of the amp and all the versatility it has. I like the App too. Musicians Friend got me a great on this as well; and their agent is following up making sure that I'm satisfied. The funny thing is that I came across this by accident. I placed an order for a Peavey amp that was on back order. I called Peavey multiple times, but they never returned my call. I also emailed them, but they didn't respond to that either. As far as I'm concerned, Peavey doesn't have any customer support.crrkr

Been playing about a year, so my review is from the perspective of a complete newbie. The things I like- Lots of presets, mobile app functions, computer interface, and loads of user created effects available. Nice and loud, but no real basis of comparison to say if clarity is better or worse than other comparable amps. Don't likes- The micro-usb interface. I had to get an adapter and it's just not as good a connection as nearly anything else would be. IMHO, micro-usb is far too flimsy. Connecting to PC is far more problematic than just using the spider mobile app. It's probably a little more complicated than it should be for a beginner, but it's feature rich for the money.Nic T

I had a Line 6 120w amp for years that I regrettably sold a while ago and was looking for another amp. I looked at all the amp reviews I could find and decided that the new Katana was the way to go. I got the Katana home and absolutely loved it but the second day I had it it started a really loud buzzing that I couldn't stop. It probably was an easy fix but the fact is the amp was way too powerful for my purposes and their software wasn't compatible with the new Catalina OS. I returned and started looking again. I saw the 60w Spider V and the price was excellent so I made an on the spot decision to buy another Line 6 and I'm really glad I did. The tones this amp can get are incredible. There are so many amp models and cabs that you can dial in pretty much any tone you want from a crispy snapback country clean to the most vicious heavy metal and everything in between. You can use the presets as they are or you can use them as a baseline and tweak to your own liking or you can start from scratch and build your own rig from the ground up. The controls are intuitive and easy to use but there are some features where you'd have to be a professional to really know how to use or even care to use. The software and the mobile app are so easy to use and give you all the options at your fingertips. The amp comes with a lot of presets that I find are completely useless but there are a lot that are excellent as I already talked about. There are only four empty slots for your own custom presets and I wish there were more but if you use the mobile app you can have your own tone library on there. I bought the FBV3 foot controller so that gives me a lot of flexibility to have various effects. One of the limitations is the lack of good effects though. There's enough that if you work at it you can get a decent sound but there could be some better ones. Overall I would recommend the amp. Don't listen to the naysayers or the amp snobs, it's a quality amp and extremely versatile.Just Plain Joe