How Do Guitar Amplifiers Work

guitar amplifier

Executive Summary about Guitar Amplifiers by Max Cane

Guitar amplifiers amplify the sound fed into it from the guitar and drive the guitar loudspeaker. The sound waves generated by the guitar string is converted into minute electrical signal with the help of the guitar pick up and then fed into the guitar amplifiers (or simply guitar amp). Depending on whether or not the input of the guitar amplifiers can work with the minute signal coming from the guitar, the guitarist may need to feed the guitar signal first into a pre-amplifier and then take the output from the pre-amplifier to feed the guitar amplifiers.

The working of guitar amplifiers typically has four stages – input, signal modulation, signal amplification and then finally the output stage.

1. Input Stage

The input stage of the guitar amplifiers accepts the input signal either from the guitar pre-amp or directly from the guitar itself. If the guitar signal is too weak to be fed into the guitar amplifiers, the signal should first pass through a guitar pre-amp. It is very important that there is proper impedance matching between the available input signal impedance and specified guitar amplifiers input signal impedance.

2. Signal Modulation Stage

Many guitar amplifiers have equalizers and other tone control knobs, which also come under the signal modulation stage.

3. Signal Amplification Stage

The signal amplification stage is the ‘business’ stage of any guitar amplifiers.

4. Output Stage

This is the final stage of all guitar amplifiers. In some cheap guitar amplifiers, the outgoing signal from the signal amplification stage is directly fed into the loudspeaker. However, good guitar amplifiers have proper signal conditioning output stage where it is ensured that output signal is properly matched to the input specifications of the loudspeaker.

Every good guitarist should have good knowledge about guitar amplifiers.

Brands of Guitar Amplifiers

Executive Summary about Guitar Amplifiers by Victor Epand

Some well known brands of guitar amplifiers

1. Carvin Corporation

Carvin was founded in 1946 by Lowell Kiesel, and originally manufactured guitar pickups. Carvin Corporation manufactures acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitars and accessories, guitar amplifiers, live studio sound equipments, microphones and lighting gears.

2. Korg Corporation.

Korg Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments and guitar tuners.

3. Marshall Amplification.

Marshall Amplification is a British company which designs and manufactures electric guitar amplifiers. Marshall Amplifiers are well known and highly popular among guitarists. Like most professional level guitar amplifiers, Marshall Amplifiers still use valve preamp and power amplifier stages instead of solid state devices.

4. Vox.

Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer, which is most famous for making the AC30 guitar amplifiers and the Vox electric organ.

5. Roland Corporation.

Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. Some of the recent guitar amplifiers from Roland Corporation are Roland SH 201, Roland Juno G, Roland MV 8800 and Roland V Synth GT.