The best tube amps for all styles and budgets
Tube amps! While the talk these days may all be about digital modelling, it’s important to remember what these modelling pedals are actually recreating. For many there’s no substitute to having real glowing glass in your rig, whether that’s because you need uncompromising volume or the true touch-responsiveness or unmistakeable power-amp distortion.
But the world of tube amps is big and vast, ranging from affordable gigging combos to premium heads – so we’ve rounded up our best-reviewed picks no matter your budget and style. Let’s dive in.
At a glance:
Best tube head for metal: Victory The Kraken MkII
Best affordable tube combos: Blackstar TV-10B and TV-10A
Best tube combo for metal: EVH 5150 Iconic EL34
Best tube head for recording: Blackstar HT-20RH MkIII
Best british-voiced tube head: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio
Loudest tube head: Orange OR30
Best lightweight tube combo: Blackstar St James 50 EL34 Combo
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Best tube head for metal: Victory The Kraken MkII
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The latest update to the Kraken, Victory Amplification’s flagship metal monster, refines an already great amp into an absolutely fantastic one. As well as an overall refine of the sound, major circuit additions come in the form of a new presence control – good for adding some cutting bite to things – and to a brand-new clean channel, acheived by attenuating the lower-gain, JCM800-based Gain I channel for a spongey, responsive clean sound woth bags of character. But, of course, the main appeal is the Gain II channel – a fire-breathing take on a modded 5150-style circuit.
The result is a near-perfect metal sound: plenty of crunch, more than enough gain, and it can be as aggressive as you like or as compressed as you like. That pretty much covers the metal guitar tonal palette, and the excellent performance at the other end of the gain scale makes this a very versatile offering indeed. Or, you know, good for that 10-second clean intro before 50 minutes of riffs.
Need more? Read our Victory The Kraken MkII review.
Best affordable tube combos: Blackstar TV-10B and TV-10A
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Without putting too fine a point on it, Blackstar’s new TV-10A and TV-10B are aimed squarely at Fender’s Blues Junior – affordable, one-hand-lift 12” tube combos wih simple control schemes that are loud enough to gig. You have either a US or British voice to choose from with the two amplifiers, and Blackstar has taken the bold approach of eschewing it’s normal approach of implementing the anonymising ISF control to instead just give you a straightforward, tube driven sound that takes pedals fantasatically.
Need more? Read our Blackstar TV10B review and Blackstar TV10A review.
Best tube combo for metal: EVH 5150 Iconic EL34
Image: Press
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In the metal world there are few better platforms for chugging than the 5150, and this compact combo is no exception. It balances the tight topology of the 5150 platform with the slighly more aggressive, midrange-forward sound of EL34 power tubes, leading to a metal amp with a character that harkens back to the more Marshall-driven soujnds of early Van Halen, as much as it’s still capable of chugging with the best of them. The Iconic line is also a more affordable range of amplifiers – great for getting a gigging rig together without breaking the bank.
Need more? Read our EVH 5150 Iconic EL34 review.
Best tube head for recording: Blackstar HT-20RH MkIII
The HT-20RH MK III with its accompanying 2×12 cabinet
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Blackstar’s veneralbe HT range has gotten a pretty substantial modernisaton update with the MkIII, including the integration of Blackstar’s awesome CabRig system for direct sounds, and USB-C connectivity. This means that if you want a tube amp that you can record at home with minimal fuss and without having to worry about expensive attenuation systems, the HT-20RH is a great solution – but thanks to its powerful voicing, portability and 20 watts of power, it’s still a very viable gigging option!
Need more? Read our Blackstar HT-20RH MkIII review.
Best british-voiced tube head: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio
Marshall ST20H JTM Studio control knobs. Image: Adam Gasson
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It’s no exaggeration to say that the JTM is part of the very fabric of rock music – after its introduction in 1962, it would shape the landscape of rock and blues by offering massive sounds to an exploding UK rock scene. This UK-made revamp of the JTM harkens back to the very earliest Marshall amps with that fawn cloth and ‘coffin’ Marshall badge. Sonically, the ST20H JTM Studio recreates all of the nuance of the original’s punchy, snarling take on a modified Fender bassman circuit, but there are some concessions to modernity, too. An effects loop and a power-reduction mode make this a very appealing prospect for the modern player indeed.
Need more? Read our Marshall ST20H JTM Studio review.
Loudest tube head: Orange OR30
Orange OR30
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Don’t let the 30 watt power rating fool you here. The OR30 is an unbelievably loud tube head. I did the testing for this amp – it nearly shook my windows out of their frames. The difference in sheer volume between a 30-watt head and a 100-watt head isn’t actually much, as it’s an exponent relationship rather than a linear one – and so all it means is that you get access to power-amp distortion a little sooner. That’s a great fit with this amp’s overall voicing, which is as old-school Orange as you can get – full bore, single-channel, going from dirty cleans to extremely dirty, fuzzed-out drive tones.
Need more? Read our Orange OR30 review.
Best lightweight tube combo: Blackstar St James 50 EL34 Combo
The Blackstar St James EL34 head, cab and combo. All images: Blackstar
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Tube amplifiers are notoriously heavy, but Blacksar’s St James line does a lot to cut the weight down to as low as posssible. The amps use lightweight cabinet constructons and switching-mode power supplies in place of transformers, meaning that these 50-watt combo amps are single-hand lifts and much more maneagable to transport around – and the good news is that the sounds are still there.
Need more? Read our Blackstar St James 50 EL34 Combo review.
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