What Is An Ampless Guitar Rig?

As you know, guitar amps can be pretty big. They often take up a lot of space and they’re heavy to lug around. Even worse are valve amps. You’ve got to really crank them up to get into that tonal sweet spot, and the valves themselves are also quite fragile. So as much as we love the classic amp, they’re just not very practical these days! Heaven forbid anyone actually takes one gigging. That’s where the “ampless” rig comes in — the concept of a full guitar setup for the home, stage or studio — but without being a big, back-breaking box. Here are the popular options:

• Amp pedals (preamps, power amps, cab sims)
• Multi-FX floor units
• Pedalboard amps
• Rack mount guitar rigs
• Silent practice guitar amps

Featured 'Ampless' Rig Gear

How Do You Build an Ampless Guitar Rig?

A guitar rig most often features 3 key components: guitar, pedals, amp. Remove the amp from the equation, and you need to get a bit creative to ensure that your rig can deliver the goods. With more and more guitarists turning to streamlined rig solutions, manufacturers are fighting to keep up. Now, there’s plenty on the market to answer demand.

Preamp Pedals

A guitar amp traditionally has 2 main components: preamp and power amp. The power amp sends power to your loudspeaker, while the preamp lets you shape your sound with gain and EQ controls.

A preamp pedal is this tone-shaping component in pedal form. As with guitar amps, preamp pedals come in either a solid-state or valve form. Your choice depends on what you’re after; valve preamps offer a dynamic, responsive tone with natural overdrive, while solid-state preamps are consistent, reliable and occasionally more affordable.

Preamp pedals come in all shapes and sizes, from Mooer’s mini preamp range to Victory’s V4 valve-powered units. A guitar preamp pedal should always go early in your chain, often first. By putting the preamp early, you get the same effect as having an FX loop: preamp > FX > power amp/cab sim.

Recommended Preamp Pedals

Power Amp Pedals

As mentioned above, a guitar power amp is what sends power to a passive speaker, allowing it to make a racket. These also come in pedal form, and are often more affordable and compact than their amp counterparts.

It’s worth noting that power amps are used in conjunction with passive speakers, not as a direct output. This means that you technically need a cab or speaker to use one, so it isn’t technically “ampless”. But what it will allow you to do is use any cab without needing a head or combo of your own. So you can still rock up to gigs or sessions without carrying an amp!

Power amps come in pedal, rack and standalone head form. Again, they don’t all fit into the “ampless” category, but there’s plenty of choice. A power amp pedal should always go last in your effects chain.

Recommended Power Amp Pedals

Cab Sim Pedals

While power amp pedals are designed to be used with a speaker cabinet, cab sim pedals emulate the cab sound — with no additional gear necessary. Plug your preamp pedal, distortion pedal or effects chain straight into a cab sim pedal, and it’ll come out the other side sounding like a full-blown guitar rig.

This means that you can use a cab sim pedal as a direct output — straight to your interface or front of house PA system, unlike power amps. A cab sim pedal is a great solution for realistic guitar cab sounds without the associated back pain. Pretty good deal if you ask us!

Depending on what you’re after, there’s plenty of cab sim options on the market. Compact and simple, larger and more comprehensive — from Two Notes to TC Electronic. Again, a cab sim pedal ought to go last in your effects chain.

Recommended Cab Sim Pedals

Multi-FX

The multi-FX unit is nothing new — they’ve been around (and very popular) for decades. Offering a broad range of sounds in one concise unit, it’s an undeniably attractive prospect.

The reason we’re including multi-FX units in this article is because many popular offerings now feature built-in amp sounds. This means you can craft an entire rig in one handy unit, or have it at the end of your chain acting as your cab sim. Brands like Line 6 and Headrush have blurred the lines between modelling amps and multi-FX units in recent years — to the delight of the guitar world!

Pedalboard Amps

Okay, there’s another type of product to consider too! A pedalboard amp essentially combines a preamp pedal with a power amp or cab sim pedal — or offers the functionality of all three, like Victory’s V4 Series pedals. These all-encompassing “amp-in-a-box” pedalboard amps are designed to replace your existing amplifer entirely, so that you can have literally all of your essential sounds beneath your feet along with your other effects pedals.

Most pedalboard amps allow you to plug straight into front-of-house PA systems with convincing amp tones. As most examples boast cab IRs, they can imitate the characteristics of real-world guitar cabs so that they sound natural to the ear. This means that you can turn up to a gig with just your guitar and pedalboard! Guitar amp pedals are therefore great for recording too, as you can connect them directly to audio interfaces with no need to set up microphones, etc. Some of these can even be connected to traditional speaker cabs — just like an amp head.

Honourable Mention: Rack mount Gear

We thought it’d be worth mentioning rack mount guitar gear. While it’s a cool alternative to a traditional amp, some might argue that it’s not that dissimilar in terms of practicality. But it undeniably has its own merits.

You’ll see lot of pro guitarists and gigging musicians using rack mounted equipment because it’s uniform and easy to transport everything in one go. Preamp, power amp, cab sim, FX — you name it — there’s a chance it’ll fit neatly into a single rack mount case.

Preamp vs. Power Amp vs. Cab Sim

A preamp is an essential component of any ampless rig. It’s what largely shapes the core of your tone. If you intend to use your rig with a guitar cabinet or passive loudspeaker, a power amp is a necessity.

If, however, you want to go fully ampless (i.e. no cabinet) then a cab sim is crucial. Without it, your tone may sound raw and unnatural. The sound of a cab plays a major role in your overall sound.

Many manufacturers combine variations of these three components. Strymon’s Iridium (below) combines 3 modelled preamp sounds with 9 guitar cabinet impulse responses, while Orange’s Terror Stamp packs a valve preamp and solid-state power amp into a pedal-sized enclosure. There’s plenty on the market and we expect there’s more on the way…

Ampless Pedalboards vs. Multi-FX Units vs. Rack Mount Gear

So we’ve dissected the options for your ampless rig — which one will suit you best?

The idea of the ampless pedalboard is the one that’s gaining the most traction. Multi-FX units and rack mounted rigs have been around for decades, and remain popular. But the ampless board is the flavour of the month (at the time of writing, at least)!

The ampless pedalboard offers you full control, right in front of you at your feet. This is an attractive prospect for guitarists who like to tweak in real-time, whether live or in the studio. The same could be said for multi-FX; it may require a bit more menu-diving, but the plus side is you’ll probably have plenty more options to choose from.

The rack mount gear option is the outlier, but attractive for gigging guitarists. Easy connectivity, consistent sound and no corner-cutting. These are fully-fledged guitar rigs in the traditional sense, but without the associated hassle.

Can You Gig With an Ampless Guitar Rig?

Yes. Tempting to leave it there, but it’s worth noting that you can gig, record and practice with an ampless rig too — that’s the beauty of it.

Wind the clocks back a few decades. Imagine telling a pro guitarist that they could have everything they need to play a stadium show with multiple sounds at their disposal — without an amp. They’d have laughed in your face — but now that’s not just a reality, it’s the preferred choice of more and more guitarists. Could it work for you?

Silent Practice Guitar Amps

Although many traditional practice combos feature headphone compatibility, these nifty little gadgets take it to the extreme. Handheld-size silent practice amps are completely speakerless and small enough to fit in your pocket. All you have to do is connect your guitar and your choice of headphones or earphones, and you’ve got classic amp tones straight to your ears only. A great choice for those late night sessions or sunny excursions.

Recommended Silent practice amps

One of the top picks in the silent practice category are the Boss Waza-Air guitar amp headphones, which combine both the amp and headphones into one sleek package. Although they sit at the top of the price range, they’ve changed the game for home practice. You won’t find better sound quality, customisation and a true “amp-in-the-room” experience. Other great, more affordable alternatives include the Fender Mustang Micro and Vox Amplug range.

Summary

Pros of an ampless rig

• No more lugging amps around
• Better real-time control over your sound
• More tonal flexibility — you can easily swap out components
• FX loop-like functionality
• No more unreliable cabinet mic’ing on stage

Cons of an ampless rig

• No super-cool amp to admire
• No cab noise on stage — you’ll rely solely on monitors
• You might need to learn to tap-dance (is that a bad thing?)

There you have it — that’s our take on the “ampless” revolution. What do you think? Share with your guitar pals and discuss — we’d love to hear your feedback (not that kind of feedback, thank you)!

Useful Links

• Preamp pedal guide
• Power amp pedal guide
• Cab sim pedal guide
• Guitar multi-FX guide
• Preamps vs. power amps – what’s the difference?
• What is a guitar impulse response?
• Guitarist’s guide to recording
• What is the 4 cable method?