Best Free Guitar Amp Simulators

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.

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.

Best Free Guitar Amp Simulators – TOP 7 – With Download Links