There are times when a regular guitar amp – even a small combo amp – isn’t practical. Whether you want something small enough you can fit in you guitar bag when you go travelling or you want an easy way to busk with your electric guitar, a battery powered mini amp can be really handy.
In this guide let’s look at some battery powered portable guitar amps and what to expect from one. We’ll look at what they’re good for, what they can’t do and some alternatives for people who travel often or need a different option.
In most situations it’s easy to get access to a power outlet and run a regular guitar amp. When you’re practicing at home, at band practice or performing live, you can safely assume you’re going to have access to power.
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One common need for a battery powered amp is busking. While there are larger options available than the mini amps covered in this guide, you might just be starting out and want something a bit more affordable. It’s also handy to be able to fit your amp in your bag or strap it to your belt while you play.
These mini amps are also handy for guitarists who often travel. One of my student regularly needs to travel for work and uses a Blackstar FLY3 while he’s travelling. He simply throws it in his bag and can jam away in his hotel room at an appropriate volume level.
One feature you should consider when choosing a battery powered amp is rechargeable batteries. Some amps may have a built-in rechargeable battery while most don’t. But even if an amp doesn’t have a built-in rechargeable battery, you can still get the same advantage by buying your own rechargeable batteries. They’re more expensive to buy than regular batteries, but the big advantage is you only need to buy one set instead of constantly replacing regular batteries.
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You will either need a 9V or AA batteries so check the description I’ve included for each amp to make sure you buy the right type and amount.
There’s also a 2-pack available instead of the above 4-pack if you don’t need that many spares (although they’re handy for guitar pedals).
If you need AA batteries, you will likely need 6 of them. I recommend an 8 bay charger like this one so you’re able to charge all your batteries at the same time. There are a lot of 4 bay chargers available which is a pain when you need to charge 6 of them.
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The above charger can also charge AAA batteries which is handy if you have other things at home that use AAA batteries.
It’s important to understand how volume and sound quality changes as you move towards smaller amps. Make sure you know what to expect before you buy a smaller amp and you’ll be happier with the results.
The wattage of guitar amps is one of the most misunderstood areas of guitar gear. If you see a 50-watt amp and a 100-watt amp, you would think that the 100-watt amp can produce twice the volume, right? Well it’s not that simple. In fact, a 100-watt amp is only 3dB louder than a 50-watt amp. That’s noticeably louder, but nowhere near double the volume.
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This is why a small 3, 7 or 10-watt amp can still produce a loud volume. A 10-watt amp at full volume is only 6dB quieter than a 40-watt amp at full volume.
The point to remember here is that an amp’s watt rating shouldn’t be thought of as the volume rating. A 3-watt mini amp can still produce a loud volume. While it will be quieter than a 100-watt amp, the difference between the two isn’t as significant as you might think (it’s only a 15dB difference).
If we think of a 4×12 stack as the ‘gold standard’ of guitar tone, as we move to smaller amps, we end up with lower perceived quality in tone. Of course there are plenty of small combo amps that sound amazing, but there is a relationship between speaker size and perceived sound quality.
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The 12″ speakers in larger combos or stack amps can produce excellent quality tone because the large speaker size gives us a better frequency response. As the speaker size becomes smaller, the range of frequencies the speaker can produce decreases. This is why a small practice amp can sound thin and weak compared to a large combo. The smaller speaker size struggles to produce lower frequencies. This is why bass guitar amps often use 12″ or 15″ speakers – the larger size helps with the lower frequencies.
All of this means the tiny speakers in a mini amp are very limited in what they can produce. Don’t expect amazing tone from any mini amp with a 3″ or 4″ speaker. While some of the mini amps can still produce a surprisingly decent tone, they just can’t compare to something with a larger speaker.
While this might put a lot of people off of mini amps, remember that the main benefit of one of these amps is to have something you can easily pack into your guitar bag to take with you. If you want good quality tone, you need to sacrifice portability and get something bigger.
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You’ve probably seen the Marshall MS-2 at some point. It’s an iconic amp due to its tiny size and because it keeps the classic Marshall stack look. A lot of buskers can be seen playing with one of these strapped to their belt. In fact, that’s probably the main benefit to this amp – it gives you that classic look and you can strap it to your belt.
There’s not much else that can be said about this amp. Compared to the other options it doesn’t perform very well and it’s quite basic with features.
I couldn’t find any mention of the speaker size and I didn’t have a tape measure when I tried one out. So while I’m not exactly sure what the speaker size it, it’s a pretty safe guess that it’s a 3″ speaker seeing as the amp’s width is 4.3″.
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If you’re a fan of Marshall amps, it might be worth it for the look alone, otherwise you may find a far better option from one of the below amps. While the advertising may say it gives you “authentic Marshall tone”, you really can’t expect a tiny amp like this to produce anything that comes close to a typical Marshall tone.
Blackstar make some fantastic sounding amps so it’s no surprise that the FLY3 is one of the most popular mini amps. While a lot of mini amps sound like trash, the FLY3 is actually quite impressive for such a tiny amp.
The ‘ISF’ knob is an EQ/tone control that adjusts the sound from a more British sounding amp toa more American sounding amp. The ‘EM. OUT’ on the headphone jack stands for ’emulated out’ which emulates the sound of an amp’s speaker output. While you shouldn’t expect anything amazing for recording, it’s useful for quickly recording any ideas you have or plugging into a bigger set of speakers (eg: home stereo system).
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The tiny control for the delay level might seem annoying, but the chances are once you set it to a level you’re happy with, you’re probably not going to touch it ever again.
There is also a Bluetooth version called the FLY3BLU which is the exact same amp, but allows you to connect to a smartphone for backing tracks or listening to music.
The FLY3 is possibly the best mini battery powered amp available at a decent price. While it may not be as good as the BOSS Katana Mini, it is significantly cheaper.
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While the Katana Mini is on the more expensive end of mini amps you can currently buy, it’s also one of the best available.
Compared to the Blackstar FLY3, the Katana Mini is more than twice as powerful and has a larger speaker. When we’re talking about amps of this size, the difference in power and speaker size plays a big part in how good this amp sounds. Remember that this doesn’t mean it will be twice as loud as the FLY3, but you will definitely notice a difference. Compare the Katana Mini to the Marshall MS-2 and you will instantly hear the huge difference in quality. This is why unless you’re a big Marshall fan, I highly recommend either the FLY3 or the Katana Mini over the MS-2. The sound quality of the Katana Mini is surprisingly good for an amp of this size.
You can see from the photo above that the controls are nice and simple and give you plenty of control. There’s a three-way selector switch to choose between the three channels: brown, crunch and clean. While there are no other inbuilt effects on this amp, it does the basics extremely well.
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It’s an impressively solid choice for a decent price. It’s quite comparable to the Yamaha THR5 yet less than half the cost.
The Yamaha THR5 is the most expensive of the mini-amps listed in this guide (the Roland Cube-ST
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