A portable guitar rig makes it much easier for you to play with friends, or play gigs, and both those activities will accelerate your development as a musician exponentially. Usually, as an electric guitar player, your amplifier will be your heaviest piece of gear, so finding something portable, which you can conveniently pack into your car or carry on transit, will make your life so much better in the long run.
A Couple Handy Tips for Portability
Before getting to a few amp recommendations for your on-the-go playing lifestyle, as a couple tips, you might find that using a dolly, and/or using a head + cabinet could be a couple extra lifehacks to further ease your travels.
a. Try Using a Dolly
With a simple, foldable dolly, you can stack your amplifier onto it, and roll it around like a piece of luggage. Plus, you can sling your bag full of cords and pedals on top of the rolling amplifier. I’ve found using a dolly so incredibly handy for gigs — especially ones downtown where you’ve got to park 4 blocks away and find the location.
With a collapsible dolly, you can more easily carry around an amp that supplies you with enough power to jam or perform with a drummer, or multiple other musicians. The beauty of something like this is that, with a dolly, a lot of “non-portable” amps suddenly become portable! Bringing a Vox AC30 or Fender Deluxe Reverb to your friend’s place for a 3 hour jam seems like overkill, but with a dolly – why not bring it?
Really, there are tons of these collapsible dollies on Amazon or even probably at your local hardware store. I chose this out because it collapses nicely, and has a built in bungee cord to ensure your gear stays secure. With this addition to your rig, you might not even have to buy a newer, portable amp.
So, that’s tip number 1 for portability – try getting a dolly, and like I said – maybe that’s what you really needed, and you actually don’t need to buy a new amp!
b. Consider Not Using a Combo Amp
Though, another tip you’ll hear for portability is that, with a head and cabinet, you might find it’s easier to keep your setup portable.
For one, with your amp controls (the head), and the speaker (the cabinet) separate, rather than combined in a combo amp, you can more easily pack the trunk of your car, since they’re separate pieces.
Though, also, your setup is more modular; you can buy one small head and different sized cabinets for different playing situations, and that way you can easily tailor your amp setup so it’s the smallest size necessary; for a quiet gig, you can bring a small cab, and for a louder gig, you can bring a larger cab.
That being said, combo amps are definitely also quite convenient, involving less cables, and less chances of forgetting pieces when you leave the house, so the product recommendations will involve both combos and heads and cabinets.
Below are some more ideas to help get you started for thinking about your portable setup portable, but first check out the products we’ll recommend here,
How Much Power Do You Need? – A Step Above a Practice Amp
If you’ve read our article on the best guitar amps for home use, you know that around 10W of power is the top limit when it comes to at-home practice amps.
It’s pretty clear that for a gig, you will need more juice.
But how much more?
Well, it depends. Numerous factors determine the actual amount of power.
The size of the venue, the number of people/instruments in your band, as well as the actual genre of music you’re playing all have an effect on this.
Chances are that you, as a beginner, won’t be playing larger venues anytime soon.
So, generally speaking, for a smaller venue, you’re going to be good around anywhere from 20-80 Watts.
However, do have in mind that the actual type of amp you’re using is important as well!
Tube amps are generally “more powerful” than solid state and other types of amps.
Without getting into too much detail, let’s just say that you need fewer watts from a tube amp than from a solid state one.
The bottom line is: around 80 Watts for a solid state, and 15 – 40 Watts or more for a tube amp.
In terms of speakers, one or two 12” speakers are just fine for most occasions.
Going Through a PA System – Is it a Good Idea?
An alternative to running just on your amp is going through a PA system as well as the speakers on your amp.
This allows you to push more sound off the stage with a slightly less powerful amp.
It’s also convenient as you will be able to hear yourself playing through the amp, and you’ll still be loud enough for the crowd, as they will hear you through the PA as well.
However, this means that you will have to carry around additional microphones for the best possible sound, or simply rely on the venue to provide you with this extra equipment.
This being said, it’s probably better just to go with an amp that’s got enough juice, and if you can go through a PA, even better!
Solid State, Tube, or Digital?
If you’re thinking about a gig amp and planning a gig in general, you should already be familiar with the differences between various types of amps.
Tube amps offer a brilliant, crystalline sounding clean tone, with that sweet, natural overdrive break-up at higher gain and volume settings.
Solid state amps are highly practical, low maintenance, and affordable.
Digital amps, while offering numerous interesting and useful features, can sometimes sound too, well, “digital”; that is, they can sound “low resolution”, though you’ll more than likely be able to try all sorts of different sounds through modelling abilities.
So, depending on the genre of music you’re going to play the most, the features you find to be the most useful, and the overall tone and sonic characteristics that you, personally, find to be the most appealing, some types just feel better than others.
With all that being said, let’s take a look at some popular amps for portable use!
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