Category: Amps & Cabinets

Celestion speakers and metal guitarists’ amps go hand in hand like love and marriage. They’re one of the most popular speaker brands across genres, found by default in high-end amps from companies like Marshall and Vox. But what is it that makes Celestion speakers so special—and which one is the right one for your style?…

A good 4×12 cab—nothing can beat it if you’re going for pure power. These babies are responsible for the soul-shaking walls of sound pouring down from many rock and metal stages, allowing the big performers of the ’70s and ’80s to get around the limitations of early sound systems. Venues and studios have much more…

Finding a great 5AR4 / GZ34 rectifier tube sounds fine but what exactly is an rectifier tube? Well, they’re one of those elusive inner components of the amplifier. You need one for the amp to function, but it never directly affects the guitar’s signal. Just because it’s not in the signal chain doesn’t mean it’s…

The NS10M from Yamaha is a powerful speaker that functions equally well in a home theater or home audio context as it does as a stage monitor. Making the most out of this impressive piece of gear means having the right amp driving it. The most important thing is to get an amp that provides…

A bedroom metal amp makes a lot of sense since it’s super convenient to practice in your home. After all, if you live in close quarters with other people, they might not appreciate your riffs as much as you do. The louder your standard amp, the harder it will be to get the volume low…

Marshall and Blackstar—if you’re looking for a classic British amp tone, odds are you’re looking to buy one of these two. The companies share a similar aesthetic, both in terms of sound and design. And there’s a very good reason for that: Blackstar was founded by former Marshall sound engineers in 2007, nearly 50 years…

The doom metal subgenre is often said to go back to the iconic band Black Sabbath, though it really came into its own in the 1980s when the Candlemass album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus gave the genre its name. While there’s a lot of variety in modern doom metal, they all share a plodding, bass-heavy sound…

Finding the right vocal amp for screaming is a bit difficult. The human voice is a pretty complicated instrument, sonically speaking, and it’s difficult to capture its depth and nuance right in an electronic signal, especially when screaming. The kind of microphone you’re using is the most important factor, but once you have that piece…