Boutique attitude with a popular price tag says PRS 19-Aug-11
PRS Guitars has officially announced the PRS SE amplifier line. Modeled after the acclaimed PRS SE line of guitars, the company tells us that this new amp line continues the concept of providing affordable musical instruments and equipment without sacrificing tone, usability, or quality.
The lineup, scheduled to start shipping in the fall of 2011, includes the PRS SE 20 featuring 6V6 tubes, PRS SE 30 featuring 5881's, and PRS SE 50 featuring EL34's– all of which are offered as closed back 1x12 combos or as heads. A PRS SE 2x12 cabinet is available as well. All the amps in this family feature two channels with separate EQ, an effects loop, and reverb (all newer features for PRS –introduced on the 2 Channel "H" and "C"). Each amp also boasts custom wound transformers, 0.090 aluminum chassis, high-end "on-on-on" selector switches, only the best NNS tubes, custom-voiced speakers, custom knobs, and more
PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell spearheaded this project from start to finish. Working with the PRS amp team, Doug designed and built a hand-wired prototype with high-end components. This was used as the tonal and functional quality baseline for this project. The team then worked with expert consultants to develop the final family of SE amps. "I cannot effectively describe the sense of teamwork, passion, and hard work associated with this endeavor, but I feel it is very evident in the final product...I personally cannot wait until I can purchase my own, or more realistically, one of each!" said Sewell.
PRS premiered these amps at an invite only event in early August at the Ottobar, a popular music venue in Baltimore, Maryland. With the support of National Bohemian beer (affectionately dubbed "Natty Boh"), local musicians, promoters, press, and club, label, and studio owners were invited to come be the first to check out these amps. Joey Santiago of the Pixies (already an endorser of PRS Mira and Starla guitars) was among the guests. After trying the 30, Joey said, "Great 2 channel amp. The clean channel is nice and clear. The high end is very pleasant. The overdrive channel has a great crunch and punch."
Hey CJ, that part is from a song of mine. Its based around droning the open D chord over octaves in the D Lydian scale with some creative muting here and there. Basically you're just playing F# minor over a D bass if it makes more sense that way. Thanks for your question! If you would like, send me your email address and I will send you a copy of the song so you can hear how it fits in with the rest.
its a good demo and all but i would have really liked to hear some soloing single notes on the bridge and neck pickup it would have really broken the ice for this amp!
Hey folks, I just wanted to let you know there is a new SE20 video up now. I think you will find a variety of much more palatable and complex tones in this new video, and hopefully get a better feel of what the SE20 can do. I hope you like what you hear. If you do, please visit your local PRS dealer and play one (which is really the only way anyone should ever experience an amplifier if they want to formulate an educated opinion on one).
Agreed it don't sound too good, could be the ways it been recorded thou to be fair, when he plays the six string chords, far from it sounding defined as he say it sounds really muddy and messed up, it actually sounds as thou the guitar is out of tune.
The amount of ppl who now make amps in unbelievable, and every time a new line of amps comes out, the same old claims are made, the same BS emperors new clothes crap is trotted out. All I can say is that there must be some profit in making expensive valves amps cuz everyone is at it, it's like boutique effects, some of the cheaper valves amps cost less than a boutique overdrive pedal. If you look on stage, most pro bands still use Marshall, and that's what counts, PRS do make great guitars thou.
I saw Paul do a little demo with Mike Ault and Kirby Kelley in Dallas to show off his new amps and some new pickups two years ago. It is one sweet sounding amp.
This guy is not Paul Smith's son. He was born in a small town a few miles away from Clemson University in South Carolina. He comes from a family of car dealers. I've seen him play, in person, and he's not showing half of what he can do. Wonder why no one has picked this kid up yet? He can play with the best!!! As you can see, I'm a fan!
Many amplifiers that are known to have very high gain, metal tones, are not tight enough on their own. For example, the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier is not tight on it's own, but when you put a Tube Screamer or an OD-808 in front of it, the pedal cuts out some of the low end and boosts the mids and high's, effectively making the amp sound tighter and more "metal ready". Do the same with this amp and you'll be set when it comes to metal.
I like what I'm hearing so far, but it seems weird to demo the gain with everything set to 1 o'clock without then going on to show what it's capable of when you actually do adjust the knobs. The knobs were adjusted for the clean demo and it sounded fantastic, so I think failing to do that for the gain channel was a bit of a missed opportunity. At any rate, I'll be keeping an eye out for further demos.
Actually it sounds kind of like a blender full of gravel. PRS should stick to guitars and leave amp building to Marshall, Engl, Diezel, Krank, and a few others.
I agree with you and retract my previous statement. The pickups my be "hot" but they can sound clean if you want them to. The amp can be tuned the same way, dirty if you want it to be. I will be keeping an eye on these amps.
I don't know that they'll be that much, if you're referring to the price on Elderly's site, I've heard rumors that the price will be much lower when they actually come out. They only have about $100 off list at Elderly so I would guess more like somewhere around $700, which is a pretty competitive price for an amp with those features.
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