Best practice amps

Positive Grid publishes 40 W class D into two 4-inch speakers, 33 amp models, 43 effects, Bluetooth audio streaming and USB recording.

The Bluetooth audio is the feature that changes how much you practice. Playing along to a track through the same box you are playing through removes a step, and the amp doubles as a desk speaker.

Two 4-inch drivers is the ceiling on how big this can sound. It is a desk amp and it does not pretend to be a rehearsal amp.

This is the amp that solves the practice-amp problem by not being one. The Power Control is a four-position output-stage control — Standby, 0.5 W, Half and Max — so the amp behaves the same way at bedroom volume as it does at rehearsal, and the 12-inch speaker means it scales up later. A published 0.5 W setting is a far more useful figure than a vague promise of reduced output.

The Stereo Phones jack covers silent practice, and there is a USB-C port to a computer plus a slot for BOSS's Bluetooth adaptor.

The cons: it is 11.6 kg and considerably larger than anything else here, so if it genuinely never leaves a desk that is wasted capability and weight. There is no line or Rec Out on the 50 — phones or USB-C are the only ways off it — and the footswitch, expression pedal and Bluetooth adaptor are all sold separately.

Fender publishes 25 W into an 8-inch speaker with 30 user-editable presets and a color display. The front-panel editing is the practical differentiator — most amps at this price require a computer.

USB audio for recording, headphone out and aux in cover the practice-room requirements.

No effects loop, no Bluetooth. The 8-inch speaker is the honest limitation: the modeling is better than the box it comes out of, which is an argument for using headphones.

Blackstar's ISF control sweeps continuously between an American and a British tone character, which is more useful on a two-voice amp than a conventional mid control would be.

The line out is speaker-emulated, so headphone practice does not sound like a buzzsaw and recording direct is viable.

Two 3-inch speakers is small even in this company. It is a bedroom amp and a very portable one.

We are not picking this one, and it is a perfectly good amp. Fender publishes 20 W into an 8-inch speaker with a voice selector and built-in reverb, delay, chorus, vibratone and tremolo.

The problem is what the same money buys elsewhere. It has no USB recording, no Bluetooth, no editable presets and no speaker-emulated output, all of which are available at or near this price.

If you want the simplest possible amp with no menus at all, that simplicity is a genuine feature and this delivers it. If you want practice tools, everything above does more.