16 of the Most Iconic Electric Guitar Amps

Controls - Master Volume (Gain), Boost, Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble, Boost Footswitch, Bypass Footswitch.

There are several fine Tweed style pedals out there - as I've covered on this site many times before - including in my 2019 Compact Selection. While none seem quite as enticing as the recent Tubesteader proper Tube-powered Egg Nog Preamp - based on those classic early Fender amp circuits. It's been on my hotlist for a while - and will undoubtedly be in the reference collection very soon! A great sounding tube version of that classic - in a really neat form-factor.

Controls - Presence / Middle, Bass, Treble, Level / Gain.

For the Bassman I could not look beyond Boss's still cool, albeit long since discontinued Fender FBM-1 collaboration. With 2 dual-concentric pots - which gives you 6 elegant controls over Boss's COSM modelling technology. Meaning you can tune it in very precisely to your requirements. There is no shortage of Fender Bassman style pedals, while I feel the 2007 Boss one is one of the most notable. Actually only very recently added to my reference collection!

Controls - Treble, Bass, Hi-Cut, Level, Gain, Boost, Sag, TBIAC Footswitch, Boost Footswitch.

I have no shortage of great Vox style pedals - while very few of those are actually AC30 Top Boost variant - in fact only the Menatone variety has a second Boost Footswitch for that purpose. So while I have quite a few really decent voiced Vox-in-a-box style pedals - only the Menatone one really fully fits the bill. I recently covered the most suitable compact editions where I already own the majority - and I feel the Menatone one is a particularly worthwhile recommendation!

Controls - Gain, Volume, Tone, Preamp Boost (Standard Mode Only), Presence, Bright / Smooth Switch, Deep / Tight Switch, Overdrive / Clean Boost Mode Switch, Standard / Classic Mode Switch (Classic is only the Gain, Volume and Boost knobs active, with Presence Optional, and Boost out of the circuit).

The JTM45 is frequently equated with the Blues Driver style overdrive - for which there are numerous fantastic alternatives. Pretty much at the top of the tree for me is the Snouse BlackBox 2 - particularly in the white and gold edition which I was very lucky to get my hands on last year. The standard black colourway edition of course has the exact some circuit - while I understand the the current waitlist for this pedal is over a year long! Should be plenty of second-hand options for you though!

Controls - Level / Gain, Treble, Bass, Vibrato / Reverb.

Another classic Boss 2007 COSM modelling collaboration with Fender - again utilising a 2 x dual-concentric knobs configuration to rended 6 parameters - importantly including that amp's Vibrato Modulation as well as Reverb. Again there are several very decent black-face Fender style pedals out there. While for me the most fitting version is the Boss / Fender collaboration.

Controls - Master, Variac, Vol II [19] / Body [22], Mode 19/22 : Plexi/JPM & JCM800, Vol I [19 & 22], Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Internal Trim-Pot for Boost Level.

The Tsakalis Room #40 is a fantastic all-rounder MIAB preamp - and one of the very few with both Variac and 3-Band EQ controls - essential for recreating those magical EVH tones. This is particularly strong for its Plexi voicing which is why it finds favour here. The MI Effects Super Crunch Box V2  is another MIAB box which is great at this task - the Room #40 takes it though by a hair!

Controls - Volume, Gain } Brilliance, Normal, Bass, Mid, Treb, Power Gain.

There are a number of Hiwatt Amp style pedals out there - several mini, and a few medium enclosure formats including one by Tech 21 NYC. While the undisputed master of the compact pedal Hiwatt style - is Brian Mena's Menatone MenaWatt pedal - recently released in its 3rd major iteration as a V3. The MenaWatt pedal sports 3-Band EQ and no less than 3 different circuit Gains - Brilliance, Normal, and Power Gain - to properly wring out every inch and nance of Hiwatt tone. I've already been in touch with Brian - and V3 MenaWatt will very soon be entering the Reference Collection - it's a killer sounding preamp! There are further internal trim post and dip-switches to further refine the pedal's output.

Alas no demos seem to be available of the MenaWatt, while there are some great sound samples on the Menatone website.

Controls - Drive, Volume, Tone, Accent, Clipping : D (Deep) / C (No-'C'lipping) / B (Bright), Voice : Jazz / Rock, Type : OD / ODS.

There's no shortage of compact Dumble style pedals out there, while readers should know by now that my all-time favourite is of course Demon Pedals' superb Kondo Shifuku - superbly demonstrated by Alberto Barrero above - which demo first led me to this pedal. This has the perfect mix of dynamics and subtle fuzz-rasp on the edges - which makes this such and exceptional overdrive.

Controls - Treb, Mid, Bass, Volume, Bright On / Off, Gain : High / Low.

I was kind of surprised to find out that there was no direct equivalent of the legendary Jazz Chorus Amp - at least not that I could find. The nearest match currently would seem to be the Master Effects JC-Pre - which solely replicates the Clean Channel, while there used to be a larger JC-Pre which had a few more controls and the Reverb, while neither version has / had the Chorus. This is why I did the above Boss JC-2W mockup - which covers all the aspects of the amp. Like I said - I'm really surprised it hasn't been done before - as most other amps have fairly exacting pedal equivalents.

There is alas no demo yet for this pedal - there is one of the larger model though - which I was in two minds about including here as that versions is fairly significantly different to the featured and current compact edition.

Controls - Volume, Top End : Modern / Off / Vintage, Low End : Full / Tight / Medium, Gain, Destity (Clean Character) : Dark Clean, Poweramp (Neutral), Bight Clean, Gain Structure : Low / Medium / High, Presence, Mid Range : High / Low / Mid, Gain Stage ± : Crunch <> OD1 <> OD2, Treble, Mid, Gain Saturation OD1 : Most + / 0 / More *, Gain Saturation OD2 : Most + / 0 / More *, Bass.

Everyone should know by now also that the Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1 is my favourite Marshall MIAB pedal to-date - in fact my favourite Distortion of all time - with no less than 19 gears of Gain that you can ramp up through. Delivering everything from Marshall Cleans to the highest gain JVM style distortion. A seemingly complex pedal on the surface - which is actually much easier to deploy than it looks - everything about this pedal is superb - and it indeed sounds amazing!

Controls - Bass, Mid, Treb, Level, Drive, Gain, Presence, Hi-Cut.

My long-term champ in this area has tended to be the Custom Tones Ethos TWE-1 Trainwreck Express - which I have owned and used for several years now. While I've always wanted to get my hands on Menatone's even more granular Wreck'T take on that amp which comes with 8 controls in the recent V2 edition. I've references the V1 Demo as there's none yet for the V2. I will be doing a full review of this one in a few week's time, as well as the Menatone V3 MenaWatt. It's not by any particular design that Menatone has 3 pedals in this selections - it's just that Brian Mena makes some superb preamp style pedals - and they exactly match the those amps in the selection. We had a chance of a 4th here - with its Dumble Dumbstruck - while that has been discontinued for the slightly larger and significantly more expansive Howie model - recently revived!

Controls - Volume, Presence, Gain, Treble, Middle, Bass, Deep (right-edge).

It was really cool to finally get an official Soldano SLO pedal take on its legendary amp as happened last year. There have been a few decent SLO types over the years - including of course Wampler's SLOstoriton - which I was down to get for a while - I certainly had the opportunity a time or two, while now that I own the official Soldano SLO it's no longer a priority really. Its actually a really great sounding pedal - while at the time it was somewhat overshadowed by the then also recently released Sinvertek N5 MGAT-1;

Controls - Gain, Presence, Level, Rectification : [T]ube / [B]ridge / [D]iode, Bass, Mids, Treble.

There are certainly a fair few decent Dual Rec style pedals out there - while the most authentic sounding one that has come through my hands is the Aura Amps Diamond. It comes with 4-band EQ, and no less than 3 x Rectifier Types onboard. It could actually do with a little more gain and volume, while its tones and textures are really spot-on!

Controls - Bass (Active), Mid (Framus Cobra-like Mid-Cut), Treble (Active), Gain, Punch (Input Gain and EQ) : Less Lows / More Defined Lows / More Body / Mid-Punch - for Solos, Bite (Clipping and Mids / Mid-Cut Profile) : Rect (MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier), B.Red (Bogner Ecstasy Red) / 515 (Peavey 5150), Gain, Volume.

This pedal has been on the board since I first received it in October of last year. It has fast become one of my favourite all-time high gain distortions. It contains 3 voicings onboard - a Dual Rec type, Bogner Ecstasy Red, and of course the Peavey 5150. All voicings are superb - including the core Peavy 5150 one - and where the pedal has some really smart Input Gain + EQ switches which really help to accentuate and enhance those tones. 

Controls - Gain, Volume, Bass, Mids, Treble.

Mikey Demus and Thropy's superb take on Mikey's Signature Orange Rockerverb MKIII 100W Amp. Of course Thorpy has engineered this pedal to have an even wider range the Rockerverb - while it totally nails that core crunchy distortion tone. Another one of my all-time favourite high gain distortion pedals - it's been in high rotation ever since I got it.

Controls - Pre, Gain, Master, Bass, Mids, Treb.

Actually the pedal that I discovered the most recently - and indeed I have one of these on its way to me - which I will review in full when it lands. MESA/Boogie itself used to have a larger 5-Band Throttle EQ along with the Compact 4-knob edition - where I feel the current and smaller pedal really doesn't do the Mark V amp justice. I've suggested to Tim at Bardic devices - that he should re-purpose his 5-Band 2-Stoke Beaver Format as a MESA Mark V. That would be really cool to have a compact pedal with the 5-band EQ that is such a striking feature of that amp. In the meantime - the Hoppla Pedals Tinnitus would seem to be your best choice - it pretty much looks as cool as it sounds. I really like the colour accents on the various knobs - were the Active 3-Band EQ is a soft Gold, The Pre and Master are Green or Silver (depending on batch). and the central Gain knob is Red. These are amongf my favourite styles of milled aluminium knobs - I already have a. few different colour variants of those!

These are of course my my own selections - where I've put some serious time into researching and collating all of these. As always this is just one man's opinion - however well-informed and well-intentioned.

So I would love to hear from you as to how you like my selections - and which if any you would swap out and for what. I'm always interested on the general consensus here, and I concede that it's always possible for me to overlook a certain pedal or amp.

So do throw your own due diligence my way - and by all means explain where you think I went wrong

The consensus so far has been pretty good - and it's interesting that we hear some of the same usual suspects. While very few gainsayers are particularly constructively critical - in offering any reasonable rationale to invalid some of my choices.

As before I've aggregated and collated a huge number of resources and then thrown my own spin on things - so all these selections and recommendations are uniquely mine.

So let's have it - which amps do you think should  feature in the top 16 and why - and what about my pedal selection - do you have any alternative favourites for any of those spots?