Buying a guitar amp under $300 seems impossible if you want a great sound but the truth is, there are several guitar amps under $300 that sound amazing.

I have been on a kick lately and have bought 6 amps in this year alone. I’m pretty particular when it comes to guitar tone.

All but one of my amps were under $300.

My schedule includes playing in worship band almost every week and also some bigger gigs with my band like I had with Kenny Wayne Shepherd a couple of weeks ago.

All of these amps would work perfectly for all the shows I  have played.

With that said, I think all of these amps are fantastic and putting them in order is a tough job.

My favorite amps are usually the most versatile as well.  I didn’t buy all of my amps new.

Also, I have the “head” version of the Fender Super Champ X2 and Blackstar HT1R. New prices may edge up past $300.

1. Orange Crush 35RT – new $259

The Orange Crush 35RT is an amazing solid state amp. I can plug any of my guitars into this amp and it sounds great. It features 2 channels, reverb, a built-in chromatic tuner, and a buffered effects loop.  It also has a headphone/line output w/ CabSim for silent practicing or recording.

Check current price of Orange Crush 35RT…

2. Fender Super Champ X2 (combo) – new $379/used $275

This has been one of my favorite amps that I have ever bought. It’s a 15 watt tube power amp with two 6v6 tubes and one 12AX7 preamp tube.  This Fender amp features 2 channels. The first channel is the classic Fender Blackface clean tone.  The second channel features 16 amplifier voicings. These can be customized by plugging the amp into your computer via USB and using Fender’s Fuse software (http://fuse.fender.com).

The built in voicings sound amazing and include Tweed Champ, Tweed Deluxe clean, Tweed Deluxe dirty/compressed, Tweed Bassman, 65 Princeton clean, 65 Princeton dirty/compressed, 65 Deluxe, 65 Twin Amp, 60s British clean, 60s British dirty/compressed, 70s British, 80s British, Super-Sonic, 90s Metal, 2000 Metal (My very favorite to add some edge to the classic Strat sound),  and Jazzmaster (flat, solid-state clean).

The Fender Super Champ X2 also comes with built-in effects. You can use one at a time. The effects for the amp include Vibratone, Delay, Reverb, Chorus and Tremolo.

This is an amazing tube amp.

Check lowest prices Fender Super Champ X2 Combo….

3. Blackstar HT1R Combo – new $329/used $225

The Blackstar HT1R is an amazingly loud 1 watt all-tube amp. For one watt it packs a lot of punch. The thing I love about this amp is the tone. You can get really great tone from this amp. Another thing I like is how simple it is. You don’t get many controls – Volume, Gain and ISF Tone Control and an overdrive switch. Like the Orange Crush it has an emulated speaker/headphone output for practicing with headphones or recording direct.  The Blackstar also features a MP3/Line input.

Click here for lowest price Blackstar HT1R Combo…

Concluding Thoughts

You don’t have to spend a fortune on an amp for it to sound good and be versatile.

Use your ears to determine what amp you like best. Forget “tube” vs. “solid-state”.

What sounds best to you? If you like the sound and it inspires you to play well then buy that amp.

What amp would you add to this list? Leave a comment below.