Best Small Guitar Practice Amp for Home Use

Wondering what the best small guitar amp for home use is? As someone who has taught guitar students for decades, here’s my advice…

Don’t get the amp used by your guitar hero.

Why? Because your guitar hero is playing on a big stage in a large venue in front of thousands of people and you’re probably playing in your house for only yourself.

If you get the same type of amp a touring guitarist uses to play live, you’ll blow your windows out!

When you play at home, you don’t need a big amp. You don’t even need a medium size amp. In fact, even a small amp may be overkill.

I have a little 15 watt Fender Pro Junior with a 10 inch speaker and guess what? It’s not even the best practice amp. As soon as I hit 2 or more on the volume dial, I’m putting on a show for my neighbors!

Some of the biggest things that hold guitarists back from playing regularly and making progress are the inconvenience and dullness of practicing. Let me explain…

If practicing is too loud and you’re worried about disturbing others then you’re less likely to practice. When you do practice, you’re more likely to be self-conscience about your playing because you know others are listening.

Also, it gets lonely and boring playing all by yourself. 🙁

The solution? The best practice amp for home use is a small, low-powered one that sounds great at a low, comfortable volume.

Better yet…

The best small guitar amp for home use is one with headphone and auxiliary inputs. Connect your phone or computer to the amp, pull up your favorite songs and YouTube videos and then jam away like you’re part of the band.

If you’re wearing headphones, no one will hear you. You’ll be in your own world and it will be great. 🙂

The online music instrument marketplace, Reverb, recently posted a list of their Best-selling Amps of 2018. Small, low powered amps dominate the top of the list.

My favorite amp on the list? The Yamaha THR10. Why? Because:

• It’s small enough to sit on your desk or end table
• It has tiny speakers and all the volume you’ll ever need for home use
• It has a headphone input so you can play silently
• It has an aux input so you can jam with music
• It has a variety of great effects and sounds
• It’s a piece of cake to use

The Yamaha THR is an ideal practice amp because of its small size, low volume, headphone and aux inputs.

What does this all mean? The Yamaha THR10 is the best practice amp because it makes it EASY for you to plug in and play and have a GREAT practicing experience.

And it’s cheap.

If not the Yamaha THR10, get something similar with the same features and see how much more use you get out of it than a regular amp. ?

With the right type of practice amp designed for home use, you’ll not only play more but you’ll have more fun and make more progress.

Convenience, ease of use, and fun are what it comes down to when choosing the best practice amp for home use.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to plug into my practice amp, put on my headphones, connect my computer, and jam along with Joe Bonamassa’s Live At The Greek Theatre. You can do the same. The first song, “I’ll Play The Blues For You,” is all G minor pentatonic scale. Try it!

Guitar Practice Amp Update

I also really like the Boss Katana amps. Here’s a video of me showing you how to use one of them. This video can help you use most brands of practice amps because they all have similar features.