Who else wants to know how to hook up electric guitar to amp?
It’s no secret that learning how to hook up electric guitar to amp can be a bit confusing.
Newbies often wonder if they could damage something if they do it wrong.
Plus, it’s kind of intimidating when you don’t know what all of the different knobs and switches do.
Fortunately, we’ve laid out the easiest way to hook up your electric guitar to an amp.
Check it out!
How to Hook up Electric Guitar to Amp
In order to hook up your electric guitar to an amp, you need 3 things:
- Your electric guitar
- Your Amplifier
- A guitar cable
Once you have gathered all these things, the process is pretty straightforward:
- First, plug your amplifier into the power outlet (or make sure there are batteries in it if it runs on batteries)
- Second, Turn the volume knob on the amp all the way to zero (We’re doing this so that there aren’t any buzzing or loud noises when we turn everything on.)
- Turn the volume knob on your electric guitar to zero
- Plug one end of the guitar cable into the input jack on your amp
- Plug the other end of the guitar cable into the input jack on your electric guitar (Don’t force them! They’re designed to slide in and sit flush. There’ll be a slight ‘click’ and they’re stay connected on their own.)
- Turn on your electric guitar amp
- Turn the gain knob on our amp up until it’s about half of the way to maximum
- Next, raise the volume on your electric guitar amp by turning the volume knob up. Start at 1/3 or 1/2 of the way to maximum.
- Raise the volume on your electric guitar by turning the volume knob on your electric guitar up about half of the way to maximum.
- Play your electric guitar a bit and adjust the volume(s) and gain as necessary to dial in the sound you’re after.
Remember that raising and lowering the gain on your amp will change your sound and volume too.
You’ll want to experiment to find the right mix between the volume level on your amp, the gain level on your amp, and the volume level on your guitar.
FAQ
How do I get a good sound?
Your style of playing will often dictate how you get a good sound.
It’s about finding a balance between the gain setting and the volume of the amp and the volume on your electric guitar.
To start, it’s important to experiment with the basic settings to see how they affect your sound.
Also, getting a good sound can depend on your setup.
If you’re looking for a distorted tone that’s very “fat” and has a lot of low end, you’ll end up really frustrated if you’re using single-coil pickups.
If you’re looking for a very bright, ‘honky tonk’ sound and you’re using humbuckers, you’re gonna end up frustrated.
Getting a good sound is also subjective based on the style of music you’re playing.
A heavily distorted tone might not be a ‘good sound’ to one guitarist while another one finds it to be pleasing to the ear.
It’s really about experimenting and finding what settings work for you.
Please see our post on How to Use Electric Guitar Knobs and our post on How to Change the Sound of Electric Guitar
What cable do I need to connect guitar to amp?
Electric guitars use a basic guitar cable that has 1/4″ connectors on each end.
They vary in length from one foot to 25ft. and longer.
By design, the connectors slide into the input jacks of amplifiers and electric guitars and ‘click’ into place.
You pull them straight out again with a small amount of force to disconnect them.
Since both ends of the cable are identical, it doesn’t matter which end goes into the amp and which goes into the electric guitar.
This Fender guitar cable is a good choice if you’re looking for your first guitar cable.
It features nickel-plated connectors as well as a durable double polyethylene jacket which means it’ll carry your guitar signal cleanly and will last for a long time.
Fender Professional 10 ft Instrument Cable
Is the Process different for each guitar and amp?
Nope, learning how to hook up your electric guitar to an amp is a skill.
Once you’ve mastered it, it’ll be automatic and you’ll be able to connect any electric guitar to any guitar amp.
The process is the same across the board, even when connecting an electric acoustic guitar to an amp.
The important thing to remember is that you can’t really damage anything by doing things the wrong way.
Once you have the process down you’ll wonder why you thought it would ever have been difficult.
Remember that it’s pretty easy once you’ve got it down.
Different people have different ways of connecting their guitar to their amp, so feel free to experiment and find your own style.
The basic process is the same no matter what though, so don’t worry that you’ll do anything the wrong way.
Just remember that this is a simple skill that will serve you for the rest of your guitar-playing life.
Why is it best to turn everything off before you start?
You’ll often get a ‘POP’ sound from your amp when first turning it on.
This is normal, but a good practice to get started is to turn down the volume on your amp and your guitar before you turn them on.
The sound that comes out of your amp will need to be adjusted once you’re all set up and ready to play, but to start off it’s a good idea to save your ears and turn the volume down.
Most often you’ll end up with the volume on the amp set somewhere in the middle depending on your style of playing.
This allows you to lower and raise the volume on your electric guitar to control your sound.
Raising and lowering the volume on your electric guitar is much faster and more convenient than going up to the amp every time you want to change your volume.
Plus, if you’re playing under heavy distortion, getting too close to your amp can cause feedback.
Stylistically, you can also achieve some interesting sounds using the volume knob on your guitar.
What should we set the volume at to begin with?
Your style of playing will often tell you where you need to set the volume when you start off.
When you’re first starting, it’s better to start with the volume set low on your amp and your guitar so you can experience the difference in raising the volume on your amp versus how it sounds when you raise the volume on your guitar.
Once you’ve found where you like the volume set on your amp, you can continue to experiment with adjusting the volume on your guitar.
Often the style of music you’re playing will dictate where you want your volume to start at.
After you have some more experience you’ll probably want to add pedals to your lineup which means you’ll want to adjust where you start putting the volume on your amp at.
JT currently resides in Southern California and has been playing the guitar since he was 13. He enjoys baking French pastries, drinking loose-leaf tea, and running Slackware Linux.
