Good Small Guitar Amp For Sale (2024 Update)

If you're expecting an amazing Marshall sound, you might want to invest in some of the bigger amps Marshall has to offer. If you think you can get a concert level sound out of this little guy, you will not be the happiest person. However, that level of "high" expectation would not be very reasonable or even realistic for such a little amp. This is a very cute, small amp that will help you plug your guitar so you can practice quietly in any room in your house without annoying your wife. It will distort if you crank the volume all the way out, and if you're used to the full sound of a bigger Marshall (like I do) it might make you feel like you're hearing your guitar over an old telephone (just my opinion). However, if you calibrate your instrument volume & tone you can find a happy medium. With that said, for the price it is a very nice solution to practice and if the sound seems too weak for you, you have the choice of putting headphones. I personally use it just for practice on the fly, it serves it purpose, but then again I was not expecting the best sound output. So I am happy with the purchase.BeeZee

It's basically a toy amp. I can see it being used as a portable amp for non-serious performance. Personally, I like it for a quick jam and for (relatively) quiet practice in my apartment setting. Won't disturb my neighbors but it does get noticeable at the highest volume. That and the overdrive knob are the two main controls. By default it just does a clean sound but overdrive lets you toggle in some gain for that distortion. It has a good look that definitely models after its bigger brothers.Rick

I don't know what some of you guys expect from this thing, but be realistic: it's an inexpensive 5 inch tall, 1 watt amp. It's not designed for anything but sitting in a chair and entertaining yourself or a couple of people. Within that context, I enjoy this thing and sometimes get it off the shelf and play around with it for awhile. Also, when I owed somebody a 1 minute long riff for his podcast and my main amp was getting some regular tech service, I plugged my American Standard Strat into this thing, mic'd the amp, used the OD channel with the volume and tone both on 10, played the part, then added tons of bass, reverb, and chorus to it in post, and it sounded great and nobody ever knew that I recorded the part using a 5 inch tall amp. It is what it is as long as you don't expect the world.Steve

This is a great little amp. The sound is clear, and it fits in my son's backpack for when he needs to take it to school.ktw1050

It arrived earlier than expected. Just what we needed to have our son practice His Bass playing for school . At home . Thanksjistilwel-5

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

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

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

Mighty sound in a micro package. And it's not a compromise on a traditional tube amp or head. Lots of options, channels and tonal choices. Build quality excellent too. Check out Bluguitar's YT channel Academy of Tone for all you need to know about the AMP1 and the brand.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Open the box, tested with a Katana 2×12 cab, sound was awesome. Same goes to a Laney 2×12 but sounded much more better. Considering the size of the Amp1, the Nanotube is a real deal. Drives is authentic. Growls like the full tube amp head. Cleans nicely from high to low gain. Tried again with a Yamaha powered speaker and speaker out to a BluBox, cuts through with the band easily. Everyone was so impressed with the sounds. Amazing tones.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Overall: I've been looking for portable, potent, Plexi and then some Marshall tone and kept trying little modelers. Most sounded fine, but I struggled to get them right. I have so many great Plexi sounds…and then some…in my Kemper, but wanted something to fit in a gig bag. I remembered having seen Jack Gardiner's video about this and LOVING the sounds he got. When I played this at NAMM 2020, Hall D was just too loud to really appreciate it. But I remembered liking it. So I ordered it. Wow! Let me tell you, I like it so much I just ordered the Remote1 switch for it to use it for more than just a travel option! This thing sounds phenomenal!More often than not, clean channels sound like afterthoughts. This amp has a beautiful clean channel and when combined with the boost gives you excellent, chimey, pushed clean and Vox-like tone. Henning Paulie had Thomas Blug on and they got really close to his Morgan AC30 style amp. Frighteningly close! Well, it really does it! And the dynamics of this amp are incredible. Even with the boost engaged, I can roll the volume down and clean up the vintage and classic channels nicely! I have a lot of amps. This hangs with the big boys easily. And it takes pedals as well as any big amp. I am so happy I can stop looking for a plexi for my gig bag. zZounds has a great return policy. It won't hurt to try it. But I promise you won't likely send it back. I know I won't. This is a keeper.Randy

I bought this amp to have a small, cheap portable amp to play harmonica through. For that, it is decent enough. I use a Shure bullet mic and the amp produces good enough tone and is plenty loud for practice or small gigs. When I plug my tele into it the clean channel is decent and clear, but the overdrive channel is junk and hurts my ears. I would rather run the clean channel and use a fuzz or distortion pedal. So that being said it is decent enough to practice licks on and it is tiny so it tucks away easy. If you look around you can find a bigger amp with more features used for the same price but if you want a new amp, this one is probably worth what they charge for it. I would only buy it if you have a specific purpose for it though.Roy

It's small, and pretty portable. However, the sound quality is trash, given the speaker is tiny, but the overdrive is just horrible. If you buy this, try returning it. If you can't return it, just get a fuzz pedal and leave it on clean. Imo, just buy the mustang lt25-50Hotdog Games

I have the cousin of this amp the sp10 with only volume, bass and treble controls and overdrive button. The reason I'm making this review is because this amp might get overlooked and I believe it's a very decent practice amp. When I was learning to play guitar I only used the clean channel because the overdrive channel sounded horrible ie. fizzy. Couple years later, after getting better at playing guitar and developing proper touch, I realized that you have to use your guitar volume to add the amount of overdrive, distortion and fuzz. Basically, turn the volume on the amp to the desired volume level and then use your guitar volume knob to add in amount of distortion you want. You also have to mute strings otherwise you'll get mush. These amps are really musical if you know how to play guitar. The best feature is its portability and plug and play. It's loud enough for home use playing by yourself to backing tracks. For learning guitar you really don't need anything more than this amp, imo.Jerry

Having been messing around with an acoustic for far too many years I decided to treat myself to an electric, and started the search for an amp. I had a few options but went with the Crush 20RT and haven't regretted it. For its size the sound quality is great, and the eq controls allow you to get a nice range of distinct tones. Having the dirty volume away from the gain dial takes some getting used to, but isn't a deal-breaker, and if you find the rather small switch to swap between clean and dirty channels a bit fiddly, you can pick up a foot switch which connects nicely on the back of the amp. Built in reverb is nice, but if you are big on using reverb I'd imagine you'd want to get a dedicated pedal. Tuner seems hit and miss, and again more accurate results will be obtained via a stand alone product. Both good features to have, especially as a starter amp. Overall, highly recommended!Kevin E.

This is definitely the best sounding practice amp I've ever used. The gain channel has several different levels of gain, all sound great. Anywhere from a slightly crunchy overdrive sound to sizzling distortion. I've never had an amp this size handle metal tones so well. The clean channel handles distortion pedals well and maintains the tone of the amp, and if you wanna add a little something extra, putting an overdrive in front of the dirty channel really pushes the mids through. All very impressive for an 8 inch speaker.
The big downside to this amp… is that its deceptively loud. At bedroom volume, it sounds kinda like a shoebox. but bump the volume knob even just a little bit and the full, rich tone punches you in the face, far too loud for playing in an apartment at 10pm. Kinda defeats the point of buying a small practice amp. The clean channel is even louder than the dirty channel.
I'm not knocking off any stars from my review for this however, because it has a headphone jack that actually imitates the speaker response quite well. So if you wanna play this amp late at night, plug in some headphones or you'll wake up the neighbors.
The only practice amp I've ever liked more was the old marshall valvestate, and those are hard to find these days, so this little amp fills that void well.Noah Nicotine

Now let me first state that Guitar Center is the only place I'd buy this from, to try it out and return it to the store. Guitar Center is the BEST. This little amplifier is the WORST. I bought this specifically for it's cabinet output and the fact that it can run on a 9 volt battery. I own four other mini amplifiers, two of them are pedals and the other two are Blackstar Fly 3 (with the extension cabinet.) Here's the crux of my review: The Blackstar Fly 3 is louder and sounds far better than the Orange Crush Mini, even if that Crush Mini is powering a larger speaker cabinet (a 2×10, in this case.) So yes, two 3" speakers in the Blackstar are louder, and the sound quality is far superior to the Orange Crush Mini driving a 2×10" cabinet. The Crush Mini's 3" speaker is unusable, sounds very tinny and is very low volume. Now, I also have two pedal amps that run on 9 volts, an Electro Harmonix 5mm and a VHT Redline 6. The 5mm is amazing, and the VHT is very good also. So if you want to drive a cabinet with a pedal size amp you can put in your pocket, try the Electro Harmonix 5mm. The VHT Redline is also very good and has the added features of an aux in jack and headphone out jack. An adapter cable to use a battery can be had (I have a few of them.) Avoid the Orange Crush Mini, the Blackstar Fly 3 is far superior.John

Took them a while, but Boss have blown the competition out of the water with an amp that sounds as great as it is versatile, and provides an amazing platform that’s as at home in the studio as it is in the rehearsal room.Zach G.

This is an amazing amp. Mesa Mark Vs are among the legendary and now I know why. Can run all the way from sparkling cleans to Metallica and everything in between (blues, 60s 70s 80s rock, etc) It has changed the way I play and in many cases made my distortion, boost and overdrive pedals irrelevant. For some people Vox, Fender, or Marshall amps make them really happy, but for me, this is it. Some tips: It has a lot of adjustability which makes it so versatile, so read the manual when you get it or you could get lost. Plenty of YouTube videos out there on how to adjust it. Also, with its small speaker and 25/10 watt adjustment it may appear to be a bedroom amp, but it's not. It is a very powerful amp and bedroom volume is just breathing on the master volume (less than 1 on the dial, if there were numbers) But all is not necessarily lost! My solution was to buy a JHS Little Black Amp Box volume knob and put it in the effects loop ($65) and the volume became very controllable while being able to crank up the tubes and get that amazing Mesa sound. I'd guess an eq pedal could do the same. The only question is which one is better for you: the 10' speaker 5:25 or the 12' speaker 5:35? Weight, size, cost, and use will decide that.Phil

I bought this amp…… then I sold this amp…… then I went out and bought another!!! That's how much I missed it. For Jazz tones you will not find a better amp in this size (1×8"). I also have a Roland JC-40, which is also a great Jazz amp! The DV Mark is warm and clean, no breakup at all, tons of headroom. I was surprised at how much bass frequency it pumps out, which was a pleasant surprise I must say. I actually had to roll the bass on the amp back a ways to lighten it up a bit. It has an xlr out, which is helpful in larger settings – it also has an aux in, which is really cool. It's my only amp with an aux in and it's nice to be able to play backing tracks through it. Great practice amp too! My only complaint with it is the Reverb feels too "springy" to me. I know this is personal taste and some may think it's wonderful – but I'll end up using my Strymon Flint for the Reverb, which is fine. It takes pedals, like Reverb and Modulations well. Overdrive pedals have to be played with to get a sound that I like (again this amp isn't your 'break up' sound, which is okay – it's not intended for that). All in all, this is a great little amp, good for smaller (coffee shop) venues or bigger (with xlr out or mic'ed). Perfect for Jazz. I don't have any problems with the fan that other reviewers talk about. It doesn't really bother me. All the DV Mark amps seem to have fans (that I have seen) – this is just them I guess. I think it's quiet and I'm not recording with it right now – might try that later. Get it – you won't be disappointed.bill

I was skeptical about the overall quality and that small speaker, however…….tone is full and I did not have to fight it to get a good sound out of it. I wanted a small amp to move around the house. I will use this amp at low volume only. No fan on this one. Nice, warm jazz tone with the archtop. The reverb sounds a bit weird, like there's some delay in there but the good news is that I like to add some delay and I use it sparingly anyway. Not sure how this would perform in a band setting but for my needs, it's perfect.Rchtop

Just got this today and was really surprised at just how well it sounds with my archtop guitars. Digital reverb sounds great on this amp. for only an eight inch speaker it really fills a good size room with it's rich jazz tones. Was going to buy a "Henriksen Amp" but they are way to much $$$$ for me. Glad I bought this amp to add to my collection. Time will tell if it holds up electronically. Cooling fan is really quiet and mounted on the inside of the amp. Amp is only 15 pounds great for playing on my front patio. EXL – 1, T50 Slim. and AF – 95 guitars!Paul

Loud and clear..My next door neighbor could hear my Acoustic as I played gently Dust in the wind..The effects are great, chorus, delay and reverv are perfect…I don't do gigs or street …just play at home and at 1/4 level enough hear through out house (large farm home) Sit on your couch and Jam, is what I wanted..Ibanez acoustic and Ibanez Electric sound great thru it so Charvels and Epiphones…Love it…it does not disappoint in any way to me…Great product.Mario.

Got this amp for playing in the bedroom. I'm playing an Epiphone Les Paul Vintage Edition guitar via a VOX StompLab SL1G. I've been able to get good sound through the amp with some nice warm tones. Beefed things up a bit with some grunge and it handled it very well. At higher volumes the speaker remains clear and free of cracking as I have had in other smaller amps. It's a steal for the price and does what it was intended to do.ShaunH

I'm working out of the country and have a small apartment so a big amp is out of the question. This this sounds great at all volume levels and fits in my big suitcase. It's light so it doesn't even make my bag too heavy for air travel.Big T 13

I think they're amazing little practice amps if you can pick one up for under 50 bucks you won't be disappointed I highly recommend themwinvillanth

This is an amazing amp. Mesa Mark Vs are among the legendary and now I know why. Can run all the way from sparkling cleans to Metallica and everything in between (blues, 60s 70s 80s rock, etc) It has changed the way I play and in many cases made my distortion, boost and overdrive pedals irrelevant. For some people Vox, Fender, or Marshall amps make them really happy, but for me, this is it. Some tips: It has a lot of adjustability which makes it so versatile, so read the manual when you get it or you could get lost. Plenty of YouTube videos out there on how to adjust it. Also, with its small speaker and 25/10 watt adjustment it may appear to be a bedroom amp, but it's not. It is a very powerful amp and bedroom volume is just breathing on the master volume (less than 1 on the dial, if there were numbers) But all is not necessarily lost! My solution was to buy a JHS Little Black Amp Box volume knob and put it in the effects loop ($65) and the volume became very controllable while being able to crank up the tubes and get that amazing Mesa sound. I'd guess an eq pedal could do the same. The only question is which one is better for you: the 10' speaker 5:25 or the 12' speaker 5:35? Weight, size, cost, and use will decide that.Phil

I am a funk/Rock/Metal guitarist. I get paid to play funk, but I listen to metal and love to play it. This amp along with it's little brother (Mark V 25) will cover it all convincingly. How do I know? I eventually bought both. The 35 was needed for practice with the band.. (Loud Drummer)Todd

Bought this as a Christmas gift for my best friend. The seller shipped and it arrived in a very timely manner. The product feels good in my hand as if it's made from good craftsmanship. My friend was confused at first as to what it was when he opened it, but when I explained the item and he plugged his guitar into it he loved it. All my other friends thought it was cool when he opened it and said that it was unique and hadn't seen anything like it. We sat in the living room while they all passed the guitar around and tried out the amp which sounded really good for being so small. The item turns on automatically when the guitar is plugged in. My friends said they liked that it had a vintage sound to it. Tried this item with a bass and it didn't work too well, we'll stick with a guitar ha. Thank you for a well-made product.Marco G.

It's a bit of a novelty; at this size you're not going to get the sound of a Marhall stack. But it's perfectly functional and I love it as a cable connection tester for doing complicated FX chain wiring. There's a decent clean tone at very low volumes, but I wish those lasted a little farther up the volume control. Otherwise a very nifty little piece of gear.Steve

Very cool novelty gift! Pretty loud for something so small and the sound quality was good. Not great but good quality. I didn’t expect anything that sounded wonderful from a box so small but overall, it is a very cool unique gift.jordanm951