Playing your electric guitar with your headphones on is perfect if you are living in an apartment if you want to play while traveling to just practice a bit late at night when everyone else is sleeping. You really don’t want to disturb anyone and on the other hand, it shouldn’t stop you from doing the one thing you love the most – playing your electric guitar.

If you are in such a situation, we can say that connecting your headphones to your electric guitar is the best thing you can do to make everyone happy. The following article will guide you through the different ways to play your electric guitar with your headphones on. 

Use a Guitar Amp to Connect Your Headphones

There are great chances that you can connect any type of headphones to your guitar amp. All you have to do is to check whether your guitar amp has a headphone out jack. This jack is often located on the top, or the front panel or at the back. Once you find it, plug your headphones in and you are ready.

Some of the amps you can buy today have a 3.5mm or a 6.3mm output. In that case, if you want to connect headphones to your guitar amp you will need to use an adapter. This adapter is affordable and easily available so think about getting one. 

Connecting your headphones to your guitar amp has its advantages and disadvantages. They are affordable, the setup is simple and straightforward, you can use your rig in silence. The disadvantage of this system is that if your amp doesn’t have a headphone output it won’t work and it is not that good for traveling.

Some amps don’t have a headphone jack, so unless it’s specifically stated that there is a headphone jack, don’t try to connect your headphones. It may cause some serious damage either to your headphones, to the amp, or both. If you are not sure, it is always better to check the user manual and see whether there is a headphone output and where it is located. You know how they say – It’s better to be safe than sorry.

What About Connecting the Electric Guitar to a Smartphone or Tablet? 

Connecting your guitar to your smartphone or similar device is perfect for playing the guitar while traveling or practicing in silence. 

To make it possible you will need an audio interface to connect the guitar to it and then connect to the smartphone or similar device. Once you do that you will be able to connect any headphones.

We highly recommend the iRig HD 2 audio interface because it comes bundled with AmpliTube 4. It is an excellent guitar amp/effects modeling software and you will get a full version which is simply great. This software will let you set up different rigs by combining different amps and effects. In case you are using guitar pedals, you will still be able to use them by connecting them to the iRig. 

The best thing about this way of connecting your headphones to the electric guitar is that you can use it everywhere, all you need to do is to grab your headphones and iRig and pack them with your guitar and you are ready to go. 

Another good thing about this way is that in case you plan to start recording your guitar you can easily do it thanks to the AmpliTube 4 software. By doing this everything you play can be recorded on your smartphone and you have to admit that this is an excellent feature.

Connecting your guitar to your smartphone has its good sides like practicing in silence, the iRigh is pretty affordable, you will be able to record your guitar, you don’t need to have an amp and you can practically do wonders with the AmpliTube software.

We didn’t like that Android users can have some problems with it and if you already have an amp you can’t use it in this combination. 

Do You Have a Multi-Effects Pedal? Use It 

In case you are using a multi-effects unit like a multi-effects pedal, there are high chances that you can already connect your headphones to your electric guitar.

However, you need to check whether it uses a 6.3mm output because in that case, you should get an adapter. This output is often labeled as “headphones” or “line out”.

This method to connect your headphones to the electric guitar has its own advantages. For example, you will be able to connect your computer for recording, you will have a huge range of tones and options available and it’s more portable. On the other hand, it is not that affordable option and you have to be careful because these multi-effect pedals don’t have a headphone output by default. There are many of them without it.

We have mentioned this option because it works best if you already have a multi-effects pedal. To be honest, buying this pedal just to be able to connect your headphones is too much. So if you don’t have a multi-effects pedal then it’s much better to choose one of the other three options described in this article.

A Micro Guitar Amp Is the Most Popular Option

The popularity of compact battery-powered guitar amps is increasing day by day. People who like playing their guitar in silence and who like to do it while traveling find them to be the best option to connect their high-end headphones  to their electric guitar. The thing that makes them so popular is that they are the most portable option. At the same time, they make it possible to connect your headphones in a minute. 

However, if you are also interested in the integrated speaker and not just the headphones, we can recommend getting the VOX AmPlug 2. All you need to do is to plug it directly into your guitar and then your headphones to it. You can expect to get a pretty good guitar amp tone.

Depending on your playing style you can choose different models and one of the most popular ones is the AC-30 model. However, if you are into rock, blues, or something else you can find a model just for that. Finding the right one won’t be difficult.

Just like the other ways to connect your headphones to your electric guitar, this way has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of this way are excellent portability, you don’t have to buy any additional adapters, you can play with or without your headphones.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages like slightly worse sound quality when compared to the other options, and you don’t have full control over the guitar effects and tones.

As you can see there are several very good options to connect your headphones to your electric guitar and play it whenever and wherever you want. By doing that you wouldn’t have to worry whether your music will disturb anyone. All you have to do is to choose one of the options described in this article which suits you best and you are good to go.