Peavey Backstage Review – A Budget Guitar Amp

I know that buying an amplifier for your first electric guitar as a beginner is confusing, I get questions from friends around town that have picked up the guitar like “should I get this *insert premium amp* as a beginner”. No, you shouldn’t splash your hard-earned money to an expensive amplifier for your first one. That’s one of the main reasons why the Peavey Backstage is listed on our best guitar amplifiers guide.

You certainly don’t know if you will like the tones or will it be appropriate for your playing style, or even if you will be playing the guitar after a while. That is why for beginners I recommend budget amplifiers most of them under $100. If I had to choose one of them for everybody, I can comfortably recommend the Peavey Backstage 10W.

This one is a gem really, an amazing budget amplifier that has a solid-state design that emulates an all-tube design, I couldn’t believe my ears when I first heard it play. It is very reliable and for a price of under $100, you most definitely will not find a better amplifier for your electric guitar.

I will start this review by talking about the design and build quality of this budget amp, which is astounding. Sporting a solid black body covered with black plastic that has a leathery look on the sides, top, and bottom. On the front, you will spot the black grille with the Peavey logo and on the top part, the control panel.

Except featuring a beautiful and minimalist design the Peavey Backstage 10W sports a very lightweight body and a small footprint measuring just 11x11x6.75-inches and a weight of just 10-pounds, making it extremely portable to carry around the house, so you can practice at your favorite spot.

The control layout on the Peavey Backstage 10W is really simple as it consists just the essentials, but for a beginner, it is more than enough. It has a very clean and confusion-free layout that I think everybody appreciates. On the far left, you will spot the overdrive knob or the traditional gain knob, the channel select knob, master volume knob, and a two-band EQ knob. Simple, clutter-free, and essential.

The biggest selling point of the Peavey Backstage 10W and the feature that sets it apart from other amplifiers in the budget range is its solid-state nature that can precisely emulate the tones of a tube amplifier. It achieves this thanks to its specially designed circuitry and 10 watts in the power department.

If you are not a hardened and experienced veteran on the guitar business, you really won’t notice that it is not a tube amplifier, delivering extremely natural tones. Furthermore, the single 6-inch custom made speaker just further enhances the all-tube experience that this amp gifts.

Performance-wise the Peavey Backstage 10W delivers big time, it aims way higher than its league.

If I had to guess the price without knowing anything, just by the sound of it I would say at least $250, but Backstage 10W brings it in just under $100. Where was this when I first started playing?

As a starter musician, the Peavey Backstage 10W is your best bet for starting out properly.