“An exceptional amplifier with modern features and tone that can handle any gig”: Stage Right by Monoprice SB100 Reverb
Don't be fooled by the generic looks: this super-affordable but super-powered new 100-watt tube head from Monoprice's Stage Right guitar amp series is a serious contender
For a 100-watt amplifier head with tube-driven power, the Stage Right by Monoprice SB100 punches above its weight in affordability, feature-rich versatility and crushing tones.
Pros
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Quality components and premium tubes, high‑grade transformers, housed in a rugged, road‑worthy chassis.
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100 watts of power.
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Two-channel clean/drive design with reverb, effects loop.
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Transparent, high headroom cleans.
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Hard and heavy crunch with sustain.
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Huge bang for the buck.
Cons
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Drive channel voicing leans more toward hard rock and '80s metal rather than modern metal chug.
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Footswitch has a slight crossfade hiccup when changing between clean to drive channel.
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Generic looks.
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There have been many overseas brands that have been churning out guitar gear in the last few years that have been astonishingly comparable to many legacy name brands.
From pedals to multi-effects modelers or from amps to electric guitars, the overwhelming influx of gear has been startling, to say the least. The one recurrent question has always been, “Is it good?” I have to admit that it’s not only good; a great deal of it has been great.
Take, for example, the Stage Right by Monoprice 30-watttube amplifier and 1x12 speaker guitar cabinet bundle that I had reviewed a few years ago, which, for less than $600, far exceeded my expectations in sound and construction. Monoprice, the massive online consumer electronics retailer, boasts an enormous pro audio division and musical instruments brand known as Stage Right by Monoprice.
This time around, they offered me the opportunity to check out their fire-breathing SB100 100-Watt All-Tube Two-Channel Guitar Amplifier with Reverb. Once again, I’ll go out on a limb to say the SB100 head is flat-out fantastic for a tube-driven 100-watt head that you can snag for just over $600 and that delivers impressive clean and high-gain tones.
By all appearances, the SB100 looks rather commonplace and very much like an import amplifier head, covered in black tolex with white piping, contrasting white control knobs and pedestrian “SR/Stage Right” plastic faceplate. That’s not necessarily a knock at it; it’s more about stating the obvious, and to be frank, many noteworthy-brand amplifiers are being made overseas anyway.
(Image credit: Monoprice)
But regardless of its generic looks, the SB100’s pro-quality build emerges once you start peeking around back at its output section; it comprises a quartet of premium JJ Electronic 6L6G power tubes, four 12AX7 and one 12AT7 preamp tubes, a pair of high‑grade transformers, and capacitors and resistors to deliver 100 watts of power.
It’s all cleanly presented in a solid-built chassis with tidy connections, a channel/reverb footswitch jack, five impedance-matching speaker outputs and an effects loop.
Also, considering the SB100’s very literal model name, there are no surprises here – it’s exactly a straightforward, no-nonsense two-channel amp design with reverb.
Moreover, it’s loaded with modern features many players require, like independent volume and EQ controls for each channel, master volume, reverb and presence controls, channel select switch, channel/reverb LED indicators, a bright switch on the clean channel, separate gain control on the drive channel and High and Low ¼-inch inputs. An optional two-button footswitch is available to toggle between channels and on/off for reverb.
(Image credit: Monoprice)
I’d like to preface that it wasn’t until my early twenties that I bought my first 100-watt tube amplifier and here, for roughly the same price I paid for a solid-state combo amp when I was a teenager, the SB100 makes me shake my head at how powerfully good it sounds.
If you’re a pedal guy, I’d pick it up just for its incredibly high-headroom clean channel that effectively translates your drive and time-based effects the way they’re meant to be heard. And it’s a loud sparkling clean – where I had the level control nearly maxed out, and chords remained firmly defined without getting flabby.
On the flip side, the effects loop is also wonderfully transparent to run your effects through without any tone-sucking loss. The bright switch is a necessary inclusion for the clean channel; however, for my purposes, I found it to be a little too cuttingly bright.
Moving over to the drive channel, I will say that its voicing will be a matter of preference, but with some basic sculpting using the EQ and Gain controls, you can easily dial in more aggressive or classic tones. Make no mistake, it’s a super crunchy channel with a hi-mid EQ slice that’s meant to appeal to both metal and hard rock players.
It has plenty of bark, reminiscent of ’80s heavy metal and to an extent, hair metal, and it nails that dirty sound with a hair-raising, heavy crunch. I found if I scooped the mids way down – and I mean way down – I was able to achieve the kinda chug many modern players would approve of.
It’s not perfect, but I’ll assume if you add some drive pedals of choice here, you’ll achieve many of the tones you’re looking for. And despite that I may have inadvertently positioned the SB100 as an affordable, entry-level head, by any stretch, it’s still an exceptional amplifier with modern features and tone that can handle any gig.
Paul Riario has been the tech/gear editor and online video presence for Guitar World for over 25 years. Paul is one of the few gear editors who has actually played and owned nearly all the original gear that most guitarists wax poetically about, and has survived this long by knowing every useless musical tidbit of classic rock, new wave, hair metal, grunge, and alternative genres. When Paul is not riding his road bike at any given moment, he remains a working musician, playing in two bands called SuperTrans Am and Radio Nashville.
