Best Low Watt Guitar Tube Amp

Marshall Origin 5W

• Don Makoviney
• Last Updated: September 22, 2020

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When I am asked to recommend a small great sounding tube amp for a budget price, I always recommend the Marshall Origin 5W. It sounds great right out of the box, has a very active user community for support, and can be modified easily to get precisely the sound want.

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Our Pick

When I am asked to recommend a small great sounding tube amp for a budget price, I always recommend the Marshall Origin 5w. It sounds great right out of the box, has a very active user community for support, and can be modified easily to get precisely the sound you want.

Why You Should Trust My Recommendation

I’ve played electric guitar since I was in grade school, in multiple bands and as a singer-songwriter. My first amp was a solid state Peavey Stereo Chorus 400. I’ve performed and worked on amps by Fender, Marshall, and Laney. I have a certificate degree in electronics and am intimately familiar with circuitry and sound analysis.

More on me here.

What Makes A Great Micro Tube Amp?

Why would you want a tiny tube amp in the first place? Guitar Player Magazine explains:

A tiny tube amp pushed into saturation typically delivers warm, beautifully compressed distortion, minus the deafening roar that a larger amp produces. And in a recording studio or a practice session— or even on a gig where low levels are mandatory—amps that use one 6V6 or EL84, or even just a 12AX7 dual triode for power, may be the perfect thing to plug into.

There are generally two types of guitar amps:

Amplifier Heads & Cabinets

These are just the amplification circuitry, controls, and jack. They look like this:

And you add a speaker cabinet to them like this:

You can use any cabinet (with a few caveats).

We won’t be reviewing heads and cabinets in this guide. For those, check out our picks for best budget amp head.

Combo Amps

Combo amps have the amplification circuitry and the speaker all in one unit. For this guide we’re sticking with combo amps for simplicity, as well as aiming for 5W of power for all our guitar amplifier contenders. There are some smaller (as low as 1W) and higher (as high as 15W), but 5 watts is a good level, because just enough to crank in the studio, and powerful enough that you could put a microphone in front of it club performances in a pinch.

A great tube micro amp will also be reliable, not a maintenance headache. You can usually find this out by asking experts (which I did) as well as perusing reviews, like these on Amazon (which I also did).

The amp should also come stock with a decent sounding tube and circuitry.

We aren’t too worried about how they “look”. Reliability and sound quality are our cardinal attributes we’ll be looking for. Great sound, and low maintenance will keep you playing and recording for years.

How We Picked

Budget Pick

A trusted and slightly cheaper practice amp is the Bugera V5 5 Watt Amplifier. I’ve personally had my Bugera for a couple years now and after using and owning multiple amps over the years, I still find myself going back to my V5. It comes in handy during jam sessions or band practice due to how portable and surprisingly loud it is. It has such a beautiful blues crunch to it that just doesn’t compare to any of my other amps.

It also has an amazing built in reverb that sounds surprisingly natural. The gain adds an awesome drive to the tone as well. It’s also super easy to upgrade the parts to get your desired sound and there’s lots of web communities who upgrade these bad boys if you’re looking for a place to start. If you like warmer sounding amps, this one is definitely for you.

The Metal Pick

A great low budget and low watt amp perfect for metal and heavy effects is the Blackstar HT-5R MkII Tube amp. It has an built in EQ perfect for getting higher and cleaner tones perfect for any hard core guitar sounds.

Conclusion

This was a fun guide to write as these micro tube amps are available in various funky shapes, sizes and colors. Interestingly, many of the off-brands in this category are as good or better than some of the well known brands.

If you (or the person for which you’re buying) has slightly different needs, start with our recommendations and adjust from there.

Regardless, the best way to get great sound from your amp is to experiment, tweak, and play often.

So get your amp and start playing!

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Tell Me If There's A Deal For This

Originally published: January 5th, 2015

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