Guitar Tube Amp Heads For Sale (2024 Update)

Not only does this 5 watt lil' monster have enough power to rattle the windows, it also has class! At only 9 lbs. the Bugera T5 Infinium has enough "UMFF" to push your favorite 4X12" cabinet into the stratosphere! It's better having this reverb built into this lil' madman than not having any at all. Just like 9/10 of the other amp heads in its class. The 1 channel, "all tube" head has warm cleans. Push in the PHAT switch and crank the volume and gain and you get saturated distortion that will blow you away! All of that in a 9 lb metal cage like package for only $200! You won't find another 5 W head with all of that for this price. I love my T5 Infinium from Bugera!brmul-8207

What it's not: Not a $1k boutique tube amp. Not a mid-size club amp (unless you have great monitors and a good sound guy). What it is: A well designed, very affordable little monster that will give enough stage volume at 5W for rehearsals in a full rock band or small club, and will also allow you to drive the output stage at that 1W or 1/2W setting for recording at home. The amp sounds best at 5W and driven into either a 4ohm cabinet or two 8ohm cabs. If you use it to drive an 8ohm cab, you are getting only 70% of its potential. I only use el84 based amps. i love their dark, throaty sound, and while this amp doesn't have the punch or snap I get from my 15W custom built el 84 amps, it sounds great for rehearsal or recording. I am a little bit worried about long-term build quality. The input jack is plastic. I have a hard time seeing that surviving a year of rehearsals without breaking. This is a great supplemental amp for rehearsals and recording. Very smartly designed. Good feature set. And if you like the el84 style sound, it delivers it above expectations at this price range. I'm thinking of getting a second one.klktrk

In these days of small solid state, practice amps, this little amp gives you tube tone and more at a very affordable price. A 12ax7 preamp tube and an EL84 power tube provide the tone along with built in reverb, 2 band EQ, gain and a "phat" overdrive switch for added crunch. The three stage attenuator is a nice touch. The stock Bugera tubes are OK but I switched them out with Tung-Sols which provided a rich creamy overdrive more to my liking. Great sound when plugged into my Orange 8" or 12" cab plus headphone jack for late night playing. Great amp for the price!Isom

I bought this amp on a wim and I'm glad I did. I wanted a light weight little tube amp to lug around to play small gigs with. I'm old and I don't like to bring out amps that are just too loud and bulky. After swapping out the tubes a couple of times to find what my ears liked, it just perfect. I'm not going to tell anything about how it sounds because that would not mean anything. We all search for a individual sound that is on YOUR head. I will day this. The amp is a great platform to mold into that sound we all are looking. I purchased 2 of the single 12" cabs. O opted to do this instead of the 2 x 12" because I wanted to keep the weight down for moving it around. The 18 watts is plenty loud enough to cut through and be heard. I like the amp so much that I use it for every show. I can play small to large gigs with no worries. When we play bigger events I just run into the board but still use the cabs for monitors. So I can hear my rig. The days of having to lug a full 100 watt stack are not needed anymore. So all in all this a great little amp and it will satisfy most everyone with a little adjusting. I also love that tube replacement is just plug and play. It will tell you if your tubes need replacing and it's self biasing.worldtrdex

Classic Hughes and Kettner tones in a little monster of an amp! Plugged it into a 12 x 2 cabinet and DAMN! this thing is beautiful to listen to. Clean or over driven, this amp is a pleasure to play guitar on. However when overdriven the nuanced variances between different guitars are not well appreciated. The overdrive is more muddy and less nuanced in my opinion. Comparing different strat styles here with different pick-up combinations. Tele sounds different. Chambered SG style sounded the same as other strat style guitars with humbuckers. Parker and Ibanez S series with infiniti 2 pickups sounded distinctly different. Have not played neodymium pickups on it yet but I'm hoping that will clear up some of the mud.arcticwynd

Compact size Versatile Great for Home music room. Studio Clean Channel pristine quiet Lead Channel with boost very nice Takes pedals well Built in attenuation 1-5-18W FX Loop nice! Sounds great with 8 or 16 ohm speaker Great valuechhl

I did countless hours of research watching sound demos of various amps. I wanted an amp that gave me a lot of versatility and would be a good platform for pedals. This amp delivers! A quick note about some complaints I've read/heard about: Yes, there is a volume boost when you hit the lead/boost channel. Some people don't like that. I, personally, don't understand why. If you're wanting to jump into the boost then chances are you're doing a solo (or something similar) where you want to cut through everything. It's really not a big deal as some like to say. Some don't like the aesthetics (i.e. blue lights). You either like it, or you think it's gaudy. Personally, I like it. I think it's tasteful and I enjoy the warm glow of the tubes set against the blue light. Now on to the good stuff! It has tons of clean headroom but breaks up nicely when you roll the gain/master up on the clean channel. This is actually something I don't hear people talk about enough! I was fairly impressed with the sparkling cleans this amp produces and it's one reason I think it will take pedals exceptionally well! The lead and boost channels make this amp scream with sustain for days! The built in DI box is fantastic (I run mine through a Scarlet Box into Garage Band and it sounds superb). This is an excellent choice if you want to record your playing for home studio work or just as a practice tool. Especially considering you can turn the speaker cab off and run everything directly into your computer! Silent playing for the win! Bottom line – H&K did a fantastic job on this one. This amp can do everything from jazz to country, blues to metal, and everything in between. If you're wanting an amp that lets you be versatile then this is an excellent choice.Dusty

This is my first Tube Amp. The reason I really decided to go with this one, was the powersoak feature. It is great for a home studio guitarist. I live in an apartment, and the powersoak feature has saved me a lot of criticism from my neighbors. You can just go straight from the Red Box into an interface, and then you can record completely silent. The audio quality even on low power is really good! The blue lights are really nice, at least for me. Very small and portable. I just purchased a Hughes and Kettner 2 x 12 to go along with this as well. If you're looking for an entry Tube Amp, go ahead and buy this one! I have 0 regrets about this purchase.the-music-dude

I like the little Amp. Bought it to be a back up and it has become the primary. Amazing how loud 1 Watt can be! Nice tone. Super clean sound but can be gritted up nice. Does not loose tone in grit. It is new so i cannot speak for long term reliability, but like what i see so far, Looks on stage are stunning. Drew C Little Rock ARDrew C

This is the amp and tone I have been in search of. It has plenty of gain for metal and the EQ dials in nicely. The clean channel is excellent as well. You will not find a better amp for the price, what a killer value! You could potentially spend a lot of money on an amp of this caliber, but probably won't get any better tone quality for spending lot's of extra $! It has all the knobs, bell's and whistles that you'll ever need, including a four button footswitch; clean, crunch, lead and FX/boost. There are some bad reviews on Bugera amps like when an expelled tube blows a fuse and someone thinks that it deems It a piece of junk. I'm glad I read between the lines when reading reviews!tonyhough64ss

Fantastic product – did some looking around and this was a toss-up between a H&K and this. Chose this due to its punchiness in the clean channel and the choice of overdrive sounds. Love this thing!sttay5511

Be prepared this amp is bulky heavy but sounds beautiful. The clean channel crisp clear. The crunchy gain is FLIPPIN CRAZY great tone. And for the lead channel well its the same depending on how you have your settings. All IN All i am very pleased with this amp and it can only get better with tube modifications. so if you want to blow the doors off of your house then this is the amp!dmenezes99

This is the amp and tone I have been in search of. It has plenty of gain for metal and the EQ dials in nicely. The clean channel is excellent as well. You will not find a better amp for the price, what a killer value! You could potentially spend a lot of money on an amp of this caliber, but probably won't get any better tone quality for spending lot's of extra $! It has all the knobs, bell's and whistles that you'll ever need, including a four button footswitch; clean, crunch, lead and FX/boost. There are some bad reviews on Bugera amps like when an expelled tube blows a fuse and someone thinks that it deems It a piece of junk. I'm glad I read between the lines when reading reviews!tonyhough64ss

Fantastic product – did some looking around and this was a toss-up between a H&K and this. Chose this due to its punchiness in the clean channel and the choice of overdrive sounds. Love this thing!sttay5511

Be prepared this amp is bulky heavy but sounds beautiful. The clean channel crisp clear. The crunchy gain is FLIPPIN CRAZY great tone. And for the lead channel well its the same depending on how you have your settings. All IN All i am very pleased with this amp and it can only get better with tube modifications. so if you want to blow the doors off of your house then this is the amp!dmenezes99

I recently completed the British 18W head kit from Tube Depot, and can't say enough good things about it! From start to finish, the kit exceeded my expectations. Ordering, shipping, and customer service were top-notch. No issues with components. The instructions and documentation were amazing, worth their weight in gold. The end result was an amplifier that sounds incredible! I incorporated a few of the suggested options- PPIMV, Tremolo HI/LO sw., Tube/SS Rectifier sw., and choke. The sound is amazing, I'm finding it very difficult turning the amp off- once I start playing through the amp I don't want to stop. I would absolutely recommend Tube Depot for anyone interested in building a guitar amplifier. The clear, well-written instructions really made this an enjoyable project. This was my first amplifier build, and I had no issues thanks to the great documentation.Dave R

I ordered this kit with a mod to use KT 66 power tubes. The changes were easy to make and it sounds fantastic. The classic JTM 45 tone at a manageable volume level with the master volume control. Just to test it out I've used a power soak and the tone is exactly the same using the master volume. A couple of real nice features of the design are the negative feedback switch and the ability to switch between solid state and tube ratification (the tube sounds better to my ears). Great product!Clint

Really happy with this amp. Good clean sound with lots of headroom and great with pedals. Higher gain/crunch channel also very nice with a vintage vibe.Tom B.

Outstanding clean amp, very close to it's bassman origins and certainly not the amp you want if you expect tons of gain from the amp itself. It's plenty loud for anything with the right cab and it takes drive pedals (Vintage LM306 Rat, TS, Fuzz Face, and more) better than many amps I've used. If you're not too taken by the EHX logo, there are ways to make your own SOVTEK logo and have the amp of your dreams for an absolute bargain.Warthog Alien Recording & Sound

Loud, well built and versatile. I run both channels with an ABY pedal and blend different sounds that way. It is a very articulate amp and blows away the clean on my rockerverb.Bri

I traded my PRS MT15 for this amp and don't regret it. Only downfalls are are the treble gets sharp when up too much past 1:00, almost like cranking the presence on most amps. I run a boss 7 band through effects loop, problem solved. Boost and effects are a plus but i lightly boost it still for that added grit and tightness. 1st 3 channels sound great but 4th (lead) is kinda zappy but just use Ultra channel and then turn on delay for solos.Jay Chen

Not very happy with this amp. It does not have Bluetooth yet the app don't function right without it. I have tried Apple, Windows with a mio midi. Sometimes it connects most the time it don't. I spend 3x more time trying to get the amp to work than I actually do playing it. I don't recommend h and g products.Casey Curtis

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.

Thank you, Nick at SxFlls Guitar Center! Having told me that he has heard nothing but good things about this amp, I ordered it on the spot. upon receiving, I noticed the quality of build. With a humbucker in the neck position Tele, I immediately dialed in a gorgeous lush attack.. Rolled back the volume, and amplifier responded with a delicious and spacious rhythm tone. Single coil bridge pickup kicked in a spank and yet round full on Tele attack. But the middle position, it was so full of bottom end beef and top end sparkle, thanks to the amps internally bridged channels. For a 20 watt amp, this thing has tons of headroom, and can fill any stage, anywhere. Thank you, Nick. Thank you Guitar Center, and thank you Paul Reed Smith. This a beast of an amp in a small(ish) frame and a great price point for what is delivered in quality and pure TONE.Brian

Not playing professionally now but use it for jamming at home. Am very happy with the JTM 45. Coupled with the 1960AX cabinet with greenbacks creates a great sound. Both these products were returned items. Saved some money and got a good amp setup! Can't even tell they were open box items. Highly recommended!kensettblues

Great amp with vintage Marshall crunch. I tend to play on the edge of breakup and this amp is perfect in that neck of the woods. REALLY loud 30 watt amp and with no master volume you'll need a pedal to get distortion at lower volumes.Tom

Before you purchase this amp, make sure you're only after crunch sounds, and heavier. This thing breathes fire, and even the clean channel on the Ironball, when the gain is turned up, gives you enough distortion as a Mesa. You COULD leave the clean gain down, and keep the Master control up, but then when you switch channels to it's first overdrive channel, you'll be rattling your house with volume. I chose to buy the larger 1×12" cabinet, thinking at the time it would give me more depth of sound, but if I had to do it again, I'd pick the smaller 1×12", since the bigger 1×12" that I have can get a bit bass-y. All in all, if you're looking for good distortion and good crunch-clean, this amp shreds. If you're looking for shimmering cleans, and plan on using it in a channel-switching to clean sounds in a live setting, you might want to go elsewhere. Personally, though, I was looking for heavy distortion, and I'm happy to say that I'll never have to buy or use another distortion pedal again in my life. Also, it responds to picking dynamics and volume rollbacks quite well on all channels. It's built like a German tank. The only reason I gave it a 4/5 is because upon arrival, my stereo footswitch cord didn't work with the channel selecter very well, but that problem is peanuts compared to the value and versatility in this amp.keithdrover

Big punch in a little package. Nice cleans and searing gain. Bluetooth works great. I use it with my 4×12 cabinet and if you didn't see the little mite sitting on top you would never believe it. Accepts the signal from my processor very well. Glad I finally took the plunge and tried it. I now have two. Also got the Meteor. Subtle tonal differences, both seem a necessity. Haven't used the FX loop yet but see no reason it wouldn't work as well.spalev_hvjwt0wt2y

For the money, this is an excellent piece of kit. For a small but powerful, lightweight amp it gives good clear headroom and works well with pedals. FX loop is great. Have gigged with it, using a DI through the FX return – more than good enough. well worth trying out.bill1763

This a very well constructed amplifier that, for it's tiny physical size, performs incredibly well regarding sound quality, and for only 20 watts output produces a sound level that defies belief. I cannot see anyone being anything other than amazed with this product.forresman

This is a great high gain tube amp head. 40 watts is all you need for gigging out and with the wattage reduction setting it makes a great amp to play at home. I upgraded from my boss katana 100 and let me tell you this amp is way more powerful and responsive. You can get some awesome cleans as well as a killer metal tone on the lead channel. It's nice to have an independent clean channel to adjust the EQ from the crunch and lead. I paired this with the 2×12 matching cab. The head is super lightweight/compact and very versatile. The only downside is I wish it had a built in reverb. Aside from that I see no downside to this amp headAlex

Was really looking forward to adding this amp to my collection, as it is perfect to use straight into my audio interface to record. How ever the TSC system showed damaged tubes on the 1st day after unboxing, then the next day it completely shut down, no sound on any of the power soak settings. I was using a brand new speaker cable into a brand new cabinet. Extremely disappointing. I would not buy or want another H&K after this experience and after reading that this problem has happened regularly to other people globally. But i have to say the staff and service from BetterMusic Canberra was 1st class. Very very much appreciatedDarren B.

I recently completed the British 18W head kit from Tube Depot, and can't say enough good things about it! From start to finish, the kit exceeded my expectations. Ordering, shipping, and customer service were top-notch. No issues with components. The instructions and documentation were amazing, worth their weight in gold. The end result was an amplifier that sounds incredible! I incorporated a few of the suggested options- PPIMV, Tremolo HI/LO sw., Tube/SS Rectifier sw., and choke. The sound is amazing, I'm finding it very difficult turning the amp off- once I start playing through the amp I don't want to stop. I would absolutely recommend Tube Depot for anyone interested in building a guitar amplifier. The clear, well-written instructions really made this an enjoyable project. This was my first amplifier build, and I had no issues thanks to the great documentation.Dave R

I ordered this kit with a mod to use KT 66 power tubes. The changes were easy to make and it sounds fantastic. The classic JTM 45 tone at a manageable volume level with the master volume control. Just to test it out I've used a power soak and the tone is exactly the same using the master volume. A couple of real nice features of the design are the negative feedback switch and the ability to switch between solid state and tube ratification (the tube sounds better to my ears). Great product!Clint