Autor: Marco Roth

These days it’s more difficult then ever to find and to decide what kind of „Amp“ to use for Rock Guitar playing.

In the early days there were the tube amps to amplify the sound of the guitarist so everybody could hear them. No PA’s or sth like that.

Then later the transistor or solid state amps evolved, digital processing happened, Impulse Responses (IR’s) and Loadboxed were created and today we even have (standalone) Software that gets us an amount of sounds unimaginable.

So in this article i will talk about three „types“ of WAYS to get great rock tone.

These types are:

1.) Normal Tube Amp with Cab – like we know and love it.

2.) Software Amps and Cabs – the NEW and silent way.

3.) The Hybrid way – Use a real tube amp but via loadbox and audio interface with IR’s in your PC/DAW and so as silent as the software only solution

Lets be real. Most of us don’t have the luxury to crank a tube amp and rock all day in our Villa without bothering anybody. Of course those people exist and i envy them…:D

Most of us live in a flat or small house and have to be considerate with our neighbours. And even a small 1-5 Watt tube Amp will be the reason for some noise complaints. Of course today with almost every amp has mastervolume you can enjoy higher gain settings while keeping the volume down. But lets be honest…it’s not the same as a loud tube Amp.

Sooo…what can we do about that. Lets start with the Software solution. You plug your guitar cable into your audio interface, set the buffer low (capable pc needed) and get creative and as loud as you want and your hearing can take. Thanks to the use of headphones.

There are a lot of Software Amps out there (for me the Kemper and other things like that go into the same category) and they are so evolved today, that you can get great results. Good to know: A lot of my Backing Tracks a created with Software Amps.

This is a great and fast way to just get playing guitar. And to be honest…fast is important for me. If i get creative and first have to set up my amp(it’s not always setup to just start playing), plug the cables in etc this creativity can go away. So fast pacing is (for me) important to keep the fire burning. With the software i just have to turn on the computer (almost always running anyway) and plug my cable in and start rocking. So that’s a great solution and i’m thankful for it!

But wait…there is MORE! And to be honest…this is for me the best from both worlds and till this day my favourite way to play at home.

I’m talking about the HYBRID WAY!

Here we use our tube amp and connect it to a loadbox. The loadbox will „act“ like a speaker but almost without noise. You will here the fan spinning but thats it. This loadbox we then connect to our audio interface and now we have our beloved tube amp connect to the PC/DAW. But wait. That’s not it! We still need a cap otherwise the sound won’t be good. There are some brands that offer nice Impulse Responses of the most famous caps. Personally i use the caps from Redwirez. They also offer an Impulse Response loader. (No advertisment! I just like their product!) So now you have the signal of your tube amp and feed this into the IR Loader or your DAW with the IR Loader Plugin loaded. Chose a cap like a 1960 Lead, tweak the sound a little bit and start rocking. The best thing here is, that you still have the feel of a real tube amp. This i miss sometimes with some Software Amps and of course it’s silent!

So here you go. Three ways to rock in 2025. Enjoy 🙂

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This might be one of the most asked and most „mystical“ questions when it comes to playing Rock Music on Guitar. Right after you decided which way in case of amp or software you wanna go.

There are so many different typs of amps and different brands. One, two, three, four Channel Amps etc. But we are past that and already decided!

It’s always a good thing to check the manual first so you understand how your amp works and what the different knobs do to your sound in the different channels.

For example: It’s possible that the eq of your amp is only working on a certain channel. And so on. I think you know what i mean 🙂

But enough of the talking. Lets get into THE SOUND

Lets use my Engl Gigmaster 15 as an example. Keep in mind that there is no right/wrong/perfect Tone. It’s all personal preference, what kind of song you play, if you play in a Band (there you have to be careful with frequencies and let room for the other instruments and vocals) or want to play just for yourself and your taste.

Imho a good way to start is always to just put all of the settings of your Amp at 12 o’clock and go from there. In this case i’m on channel one of my tupe amp and looking for a nice cleanish Rock Sound. Cleanish means for me right on the edge of breakup. So if you go a little bit harder on your strings the amp will distort a bit more and if you go light you have almost no distortion. For me this dynamic setting that reacts a lot to my playing is a nice basis. And a nice basis to use pedals with, too.

Now you just play a bit and listen to the sound. Is there sth you really don’t like? Like to much bass or not enough treble? Even if you don’t know what exactly it is that you don’t like don’t be discouraged. Just go to your eq and go step by step. Adjust the bass and go full left and full right. So you see what this does to your sound. Do the same with the other settings. So you get to know your amp and more important you learn about sound. So it doesn’t matter what kind of amp you use. Imho this is a nice practice and a good way to get exactly the sound you like and with that GREAT Rock Tone.

Lets get to it and rock on 🙂

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