Virtual instruments make it much easier to access and test a big variety of guitar amp effects since they cost less and can be set up instantly.
I’ve researched some of the best rated free guitar amp plugins that offer the main features of a basic guitar amp.
Best Free Guitar Amp Simulators
- Guitar Rig 5 Free Edition
- 7170 Lead Guitar Amp
- Amper Mid/High gain guitar amp
- Shattered Glass Audio
- Bass Grinder Free bass amplifier
- Bassprofessor MarkII
- Big Bass Amp
Guitar Rig 5
This is one of the most popular virtual guitar amp plugins on the market.
Of course, the free version of Guitar Rig will not have all the fancy features.
But it is useful for chaining different effects at the same time in one place. Moreover, it has a lot of pre-built presets that are ready to with one click.
If you like this free version, then it would be great to upgrade it to a full version since it has much more to offer.
Guitar Rig 5 Free Version features:
- 3 effects
- 50 designed presets
7170 Lead Guitar Amp
Guitar amp simulator that has a basic effect rack.
7170 Lead Guitar Amp features:
- Drive
- Low, Mid, High Tone adjustment
- Power Amp
- Output Level
Amper Mid/High Gain Guitar Amp
This plugin is different from other regular guitar amps. It has two drive sections. One is controlling pre-gain distortion, another is controlling the main preamp.
Amper Mid/High gain guitar amp features:
- 2 Different drive sections
- Pre-tone shaper
- Designed to keep sound from bad frequencies
Shattered Glass Audio
This amp is a perfect simulation of 1950s American amp.
Built for low CPU usage and high quality effect.
This amp contains the most common models for guitars: control amount of feedback and addition of grid stoppers.
Main Shattered Glass Audio features:
- Ability to select 2x, 4x, 8x oversampling
- Input signal adjustable to +12 dB
- Cabinet simulation that is manageable to turn on/off.
Bass Grinder Free Bass Amplifier
This plugin does not require a lot of tweaking in order to achieve a great sounding guitar.
It is already tuned and designed by professionals to make your work easier.
Bass Grinder features
- Pre-designed presets
- Aggressive low end
- Simple to use
Bassprofessor MarkII
Bassprofessor is a bass guitar enhancer. This free guitar amp simulator can turn your ordinary dry sounding guitar into a powerful fat sound with character.
- Dynamics Processing
- EQ
- Overdrive
Big Bass Amp
This plugin contains a lot of functionality compared to other free guitar amp plugins.
Furthermore, this plugin has “gut” technology, which allows you to edit its primary functionality.
Big Bass Amp features
- By-pass filter for every single knob
- Noise Gate
- Whisper: amp with EQ sections.
- Ability to upload or download presets online with presets manager.
- Cabinet shaper which allows getting the perfect tone
Conclusion
It is not always the case that we need to spend a lot of money on fancy guitar amps. As we see, there are a lot of free options for great guitar amp simulators.
And they have all the basic features for tuning a guitar and finding the perfect sound.
However, it can not be a quality standard for a professional recording studio. But for a home studio for personal projects, it can be a great way to tune a guitar.
Thank you for your reading. Join the conversation by posting a comment.