A guitar amp costs from about $70 for a desk-sized practice amp to almost $6,000 for a boutique tube head. On October 31, 2026, Thomann had 399 guitar combos in stock, and half of them cost less than $401. Heads are a different story: the median head costs $1,576, before you buy a cabinet for it.
What decides the price most is not the brand but the type of amp inside the box.
Guitar combo prices by type
| Type | In stock | Median | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid-state | 95 | $155 | Transistor amps, mostly small practice combos |
| Battery-powered | 30 | $247 | Amps for the street, the park and the sofa |
| Modelling | 136 | $289 | Digital amps with many amp sounds and effects |
| Tube | 135 | $1,340 | Valves in the preamp and power amp |
Under $150: practice amps
Under $150 you get a small solid-state amp with one sound, maybe two, and a headphone jack. It is enough to practise at home; it isn't enough to play with a drummer.
Blackstar Debut 10E, $73
Ten watts, a clean and an overdrive channel, and Blackstar's ISF tone control that slides between British and American voicings. #1 of 69 solid-state guitar combos.
The Orange Crush Mini, a 3-watt battery amp, is $63, and the Fender Frontman 10G $83.
$150 to $600: where most players stop
This is the busiest band: 166 combos, most of them modelling or battery amps. For the price of one good tube amp you get dozens of amp sounds, effects, an app and often Bluetooth.
Yamaha THR10II, $368
A desktop modelling amp in a stereo cabinet, built for the living room as much as for practice. #1 of 98 modelling guitar combos.
Boss Katana Mini X, $179
Ten watts through a 5-inch speaker on batteries or mains, with Boss's clean, crunch and Brown sounds and effects built in. #1 of 19 battery operated amplifiers.
The Fender Mustang GTX50 at $502 is the step up if you want 50 watts for a rehearsal room.
$600 to $1,500: the first tube combo
Vox AC15 C1X, $1,217
A 15-watt tube combo with the chime Vox is known for, loud enough for a small stage. #1 of 100 tube guitar combos.
At the same price, Fender's Tone Master Deluxe Reverb at $1,217 copies a tube amp digitally and weighs much less. The Blues Junior, at $922, is the small Fender tube combo many players start with.
Over $1,500: reissues and boutique
Above $1,500 you pay for a name and a history: Fender's 65 Deluxe Reverb at $2,122, the 68 Custom Princeton Reverb at $1,507, and heads from Victory, Bogner and Friedman that go past $5,000.
Heads: add a cabinet
A head is only half an amp. A 1x12 cabinet costs around $450 (median), a 2x12 $736 and a 4x12 $1,172. A $1,000 head is a $1,500 to $2,200 rig before the first cable. The exception is small hybrid heads such as the Orange Micro Dark at $189, which pair with a cheap 1x8 or 1x12.
So how much should you spend?
- Home practice: $70 to $200.
- Practice plus jamming with friends: $300 to $500, a modelling or battery amp.
- Rehearsals and small gigs with a drummer: $600 to $1,300, a 15 to 40-watt tube combo or a digital copy of one.
- Loud stages: a 50 or 100-watt head and a 2x12 or 4x12, from about $1,500 for the pair.
Where the numbers come from. Every electric guitar combo and head Thomann had in stock on October 31, 2026, from its partner feed, which we read every night. Prices are Thomann's US-dollar prices. Types are Thomann's own categories. The rank next to each amp is its live place in our AudioFu Index.
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Denis Kataev runs AudioFu. Every night the site records the prices of more than 38,000 instruments and studio tools at Thomann, and he writes about what those numbers show: what got cheaper, what just arrived, and which discounts are real.
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