Best Lightweight Guitar Amps for Gigging – Move Bulk-free!

Unlike many solid-state combos, the Aviator Cub weighs in at around twenty pounds. It’s no harder to lift than a basic at-home dumbbell.

Most of that weight comes from the sole twelve-inch Eminence speaker, which required no breaking-in period. It just sounded good upon plugging in, with no fresh-speaker stiffness detectable.

The three inputs, with the heavy-handed naming scheme of Tweed, Blonde, and Black, offer very viable simulations of Fender sounds.

Of the three, Tweed was my favorite. It’s the twanging clean sound I always think of when I think of American amplifiers. With the built-in limiter function, I was able to coax some very usable country twang from this amp.

The Blonde tone is very nice, too, with the creamy edge-of-breakup sound perfect for classic rock and blues players. It also sounded great for more modern country tones: I got nice and close to the Luke Combs “When It Rains It Pours” sound during our live set.

The Black tone felt closest to the high-octane driven Stevie Ray tone, which isn’t something I’d use very often. I preferred the sound of the Tweed amp boosted by an overdrive.

In fact, this amp handles pedals extremely well. Guitar players who prefer getting drive and grit in front of the amp will appreciate how well it retains its chiming, clear sound when confronted with overdrive.

The direct line out was a big hit with the sound tech at the gig I brought the Aviator Cub too. I used the amp for stage volume, and let him set the audience’s levels through the PA to his heart’s content.

The built-in reverb is decidedly un-Fender. It’s an impersonal, inoffensive digital reverb. It sounds good, but devotees of drippy Fender spring reverb won’t be satisfied.

I had best results using a Y cable to enjoy the Tweed and Blonde channels simultaneously. Having to choose between inputs, rather than offering a single input and a footswitch to choose between channels, is a blight on this otherwise excellent amplifier.

For its size, and its competitive price, it’s hard to argue against the Quilter Aviator Cub. For me, it’s 90% of the way to sounding like a real Fender amp, at 50% (or less) of the weight.

The main reason for the Katana’s inclusion in this article, however, is its combination of versatility and light weight.

The Katana weighs a little over 25 pounds, so it’s not the lightest amp in this article. However, the Katana is packed with features that remove the necessity to bring any other amps or effects.

Even the most elaborate of shoegaze and doom metal pedalboards can be handled by the built-in effects in the Katana.

Given that most adults can carry 25 pounds in one hand (or, failing that, with two) it’s an easy trade off to carry much less gear to the gig.

The Katana’s variety of tones, as with previous generations, is stellar. There are very convincing tube-like sounds across the board, from soft and clean all the way up to a truly jaw-dropping “Brown Sound” built for 80s metal.

I was most impressed by the “Pushed” amp setting, which sounded just like a Fender amp at the edge of breakup. At this setting, playing harder yielded more grunt and poweramp saturation. Playing softer delivered sweet, gentle clean tones. This is exactly the tone for the legions of John Mayer and Stevie Ray enthusiasts in the modern market.

I will concede that, after a lifetime of playing real tube amps, the Katana still doesn’t respond exactly the way that, say, my Plexi does. There are certain nuances of tube tone that technology has yet to capture, and players accustomed to this particular response will miss them.

However, it’s most of the way there, and both weighs and costs less than a Marshall or Fender stack.

The built-in effects, too, are extremely convincing. This, I figure, is easier for Boss to emulate, given that they’ve effectively packed the Boss pedal arsenal into this amplifier.

I had a lot of fun playing with drive, phaser, and delay effects on the fly, but to really dig into this amp you’d need to plug it into your computer and pre-program effects and amp settings.

Doing so opens up Boss’ Tone Studio app, which is a fairly modest application without too steep of a learning curve. I could easily get lost in here for hours nerding out about minute aspects of guitar tone.

I took the Katana to a covers gig where we were straddling a wide range of genres. There was a useful Katana preset for pretty much every application. I particularly enjoyed the 80s-style chilly chorus and reverb sounds.

The line out includes cab sim to keep your sound tech happy, and with 50 watts of power the Katana is audible with even the most enthusiastic drummer.

Overall, a great amp, and a solid staple for most applications.

The pine cab and solid-state modeling shaved off half the weight of the Deluxe Reverb, without losing much of the elder amp’s distinct character.

The best thing about this amplifier is the loud, clear, clean sound. Upon plugging in I was grinning ear to ear at the sheer volume on tap here without any noticeable distortion.

It’s absolutely perfect for heavy-gigging guitarists who need a reliable set-and-forget clean tone. I took the Tone Master to a country gig, and it delivered clean, classic country twang for all three hours of the show.

Unlike other modeling amps, the Tone Master only really does the clean, classic Fender tone. Players who demand more versatility from an all-in-one package won’t have much joy here.

Where I found it most useful was needing tube-like headroom and warmth without worrying about the fragility of the tubes themselves. It’s true that, when run into saturation, tubes sound best right before they break forever. I didn’t find a way to capture that sound with this amp.

However, for most country or pop applications, I can’t see the need for that sound. I had great results running the amp volume about 7 and turning the volume knob on my guitar down to clean it up. Then, when I needed more grit or power, I turned up the guitar knob, and was greeted with the exact slightly-dirty tone I needed for a solo. Awesome.

The power switching is a welcome feature, too. I didn’t end up needing the full 22 watts on offer, as that was much too loud for the small club we played. The 12W setting was enough for us, and at home I loved practicing at lower volumes, even trying out the ultra-low power of 0.2 and 0.3 watts.

There was no need to adjust the amp volume knob from its sweet spot to play at lower volumes: simple power switching was enough. I did have to EQ it a little to accommodate other volumes, but until Fender can change the laws of physics, that’s never going to change.

Most of the weight relief here comes in the lightweight plywood. At 25 pounds, this isn’t the lightest amp on this list, but it’s much easier to carry to and from a gig than a Marshall stack or two-speaker combo.

The 6L6 tubes do a lot of the lifting here. Clean tones have sparkle and spank. A Stratocaster sounds appropriately chiming and clear, while my Les Paul offered a pleasantly throaty, warm clean sound.

The clean tone has plenty of extra headroom, and with a touch of compression and poweramp sag, classic rock and country tones leapt out of the amp with no trouble at all.

The tone isn’t spot-on Fender chime, but it was close enough to get me through a full country gig.

As I expected, the amp takes pedals extremely well, retaining its character and touch sensitivity with modulation and drive effects in the front end of the amplifier.

The built-in distortion, too, offers plenty of punch. I was able to get all the way into 21st-century high-gain tones fairly easily while using my Les Paul. The high-gain tone on offer here really reminded me of the luxurious, saturated distortion of Creed, and I was thrilled to dial in a searing lead tone reminiscent of Justin Hawkins’ Permission to Land-era sound.

The channel-switching footswitch is a welcome inclusion here, and is perfect for songs that demand a shift from clean to driven tone. However, both the drive and clean channels are controlled by the same EQ knobs. At the gig, this presented a minor issue, as the warm, friendly EQ settings for my clean tone became mushy and undefined with drive. I counteracted this by using my graphic EQ pedal.

Yet another excellent tube amplifier from Blackstar, in a very manageable weight class.

In case the black-and-silver color scheme (and the fire engine red of the Boost knob) didn’t make it clear enough, this amp is clearly meant to rock. Its 15 switchable watts of power come with EL84s and 12AX7 tubes, so it’s a distinctively British-voiced amp.

The lower wattage means the Laney achieves tube saturation at enviably low volumes. With my Les Paul, I was able to get into some very nice classic rock tones at bedroom volume.

The 1 watt power switching setting is where the sweet spot was for me. At 1 watt, I easily got into AC/DC power chord territory, and pushing the master volume up to 9 added extra preamp grit. It was enough volume, even on such low power, to keep up with a loud, fun bar band, in a loud, fun bar.

The footswitchable boost setting is useful for solos and higher-powered riffage. It adds a little extra gain in doing so, although the amount of gain on tap here won’t be enough to satisfy modern metalheads raised on chugging palm mutes and incendiary solos.

Fortunately, Laney amps take pedals extremely well, and the Cub is no exception. At home, I simply added a distortion pedal to boost the front-end push of the amp, and was able to achieve a metal-ready amount of gain.

I wouldn’t use this amplifier for a country, blues, or jazz gig, but for the hallowed overdriven sounds of classic hard rock, it’s hard to beat.

It’s hard not to plug into this amp and play crushing, heavy, detuned riffs. The high-gain sounds on offer here are plentiful and useful. Brutal, chugging palm mutes erupt from this amp like Vesuvius. There’s enough natural compression in this amp’s built-in distorted tone to encourage rapidfire legato lead playing.

Where I feel Mesa amps are often underrated, however, is in cleaner, low-gain sounds. That’s where this lower-wattage combo truly excels. Dialling back the gain on the gain channel yielded a creamy 70s hard rock sound that wouldn’t be out of place on an Aerosmith record.

Likewise, the chiming, resonating clean tone here is far from the slightly deadened sound of 2000s radio rock. It’s closer in many ways to the clean sound of a Vox amp than that of a Fender. In saying that, the tones here are very useful for a range of genres, as Mesa’s built-in EQ helps contour the amp’s natural tone.

I was able to coax a wide range of sounds from this amp, from jangling clean arpeggios to crushing distortion.

Despite its diminutive size, standing a little over a foot tall, the Mark V had no issue keeping up with our drummer in the live setting. It was easy to bring to the gig, and sounded awesome throughout.

The sticking point for many players here will be the price. This is a pro-level amp with a price tag to reflect that. It’s also as punishing to poor playing as it is rewarding for good playing. If you’re prone to inconsistent picking attack or failure to mute strings, the Mesa will let you know.

However, advanced players gigging frequently and in need of a lightweight, reliable amp that sounds good at every conceivable level of distortion will find plenty to love in this pint-sized powerhouse.