Guitar Amplifiers Under $300 – Great Values

If you’ve read my article on the different types of guitar amplifiers and are getting ready to make a purchase, then this buying guide is for you.  I’ve reflected on the hundreds of hours I’ve spent researching and playing different amps. And I’ve broken down my top favorites which all fall into the ‘combo’ category.  I’m confident that no one buying their first or even second amp needs a half or full stack amp set-up cranking out 100+ watts of power.  You’d be amazed how loud these amps are when played in a garage, basement or bedroom. This article focuses on my top recommended electric guitar amplifiers that can be purchased for $300 or less.

Let’s get started!

Recommended Guitar Amplifiers Under $300

Rank	1st	2nd	3rd
Brand	Boss	Positive Grid	Marshall
Model (w/ Amazon Link)	Katana 50 MkII	Spark 40	MG30GFX
Technology	Solid-State	Solid-State	Solid-State
Power	50 Watts	40 Watts	30 Watts
Speakers	1 x 12″	2 x 4″	1 x 10″
Gain/Master Volume	Yes	Yes	Yes
Equalizer	3-Band	3-Band	3-Band
Onboard Effects	Yes	Yes	Yes
MP3/Line-Input	Yes	Yes	Yes
Headphone Output	Yes	Yes	Yes

1^st Place – Boss Katana 50 MkII

• The Boss Katana family of guitar amplifiers consistently overwhelms intermediate and advanced guitarists for its ability to create tube-like natural sounding tones from an affordable solid-state amp. They can’t believe that they aren’t listening to a thousand dollar tube amp!
• With simple turn of a dial, you can set this amp to play clean, crunch, lead or brown tones. And from there, you can use the onboard gain, equalizer, boost, delay and reverb effects to dial in the exact tone your searching for, know matter what genre of music you like to play.
• For players who don’t have a full stage or garage to play in, there is a power control dial. This lets you tone down the power output of this amp from 50 watts, down to 25, and then down again to 0.5 watts. In reality, most new guitar players are setting up their rig in a spare bedroom, den or office space. These power controls let you get nice crunchy overdrive and distortion without waking up the neighbors.

2^nd Place – Positive Grid Spark 40

• When the Spark 40 amp came out from Positive Grid, there was a lot of hype. And I mean a real lot of hype. Amazingly, this affordable guitar amp has lived up to expectations and has many very happy customers…including me!
• Truly an amp for the digital age. This incredible sounding desktop box comes with its own app for your phone or tablet. And the app is amazing. For example, once you learn to play some chords and melodies, the app will actually listen to your style and feel. It will then generate bass and drums to accompany your guitar playing in real time! It also has a massive library of songs and gives you the ability slow down the tempo or loop specific sections. This is super helpful in making sure you are learning to play the notes correctly. And lastly, it comes with a whole bunch of virtual guitar effects pedals. So you can build modify an effects chain to your hearts content!
• The two speakers in this amp are small, but they are mighty. And the whole amp acts as a bluetooth speaker! So you can stream music directly from your phone and play in back in high-def sound!

3^rd Place – Marshall MG30GFX

• Marshall is famous for its punchy overdriven sounds. And this digital amp has four distinct channels to get you rockin’:  Clean, Crunch, OD1 and OD2. For true guitar newbies, OD means overdrive.
• It also includes a wide range of built-in digital effects including reverb, phaser, flanger, delay and chorus effects. This is like having a $1,000 worth of stomp-boxes right at your fingertips.  It also includes an MP3/Line-In jack and headphone output jack.
• The controls on the front face of this amp are super intuitive and easy to use, without being over-complicated or confusing.  So if you want a tremendous range of tones made easily available to you, but you don’t want to hassle with more involved control panels and screens, then this is the amp to get you rocking right out of the box.
• And let’s face it, you just can’t go wrong with a genuine Marshall amp. The distinctive gold metal finish front plate and dials have been powering rock’s guitar hero’s for decades. And now it can be your turn!

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Summary of Buying Guide for Guitar Amplifiers Under $300

All three of these guitar amplifiers will satisfy the needs of every beginning guitarist as well as intermediate guitarists when practicing at home. I wouldn’t recommend that a professional guitarist take these amps to perform at a gig. But given that you’re at or near the beginning of your guitar journey, that’s not your concern at the moment. So try one of these out and get busy learning and loving to play guitar!