PRS Amps?

John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
Sorry for yet another amp opinion thread....

Has anyone actually played one of the PRS SE amp?    I've just seen some going cheap (under 500 for a 50W head) and could be tempted.

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Comments

  • Zodiac51Zodiac51 Frets: 340
    Nice price! 5 years warranty too, think that might be gone soon :)

    Not played one, but the demos I've heard on upube sound excellent, sounds as good as a good thing does when it's having a very good day.

    I guess you have seen this one? 

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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    Thanks - I have seen that clip,  I'm not too sure about his playing but you can really see how enthusiastic he is about them.

    I haven't seen a clip that really sells them to me just yet compared to the evh I was looking at buying but they do look like a lot of amp for the money.
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  • Zodiac51Zodiac51 Frets: 340
    Paul haz tone in them fingurz ;)
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26746
    Never tried one but that sounds flipping glorious. I assume most of the honk is coming from the guitar, rather than amp, but either way..
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11411
    Briefly played through one. Thought it was quite bright sounding. Not really me.  Worth trying before you buy.
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  • They've just "secretly" revamped the entire SE range and dropped the price. I haven't figured out what's changed yet but they seem to sound better already...
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71952
    edited August 2013
    Absolutely horrible - I really detest that sort of nasal honky mud sound. But I think a lot of it is Paul - he clearly loves it, since the guitars tend to sound like that as well, and have been getting more so over time. It's amazing that I like them at all really, although I've never liked the stock pickups on any of them except the ones that came with stock Duncan P90s.

    The demo is very badly recorded though - there's clipping and excessive compression on it which is definitely not the amp, so it's probably quite hard to tell about the tone as well...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • crunchman;17162" said:
    Briefly played through one. Thought it was quite bright sounding. Not really me.  Worth trying before you buy.
    I haven't played through one, but I have seen Simon McBride play through one un-mic'd. He got a massive, fat driven tone, playing a variety of PRS guitars (this was at Tone World's PRS Experience event last year). To my ears, the amp sounded anything other than bright. It was cranked - which might make a difference.
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  • ddloopingddlooping Frets: 325
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  • ddloopingddlooping Frets: 325
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  • dindudedindude Frets: 8534

    They do sound good in the clips and are pretty good value, if I was on the look out for an all-in-oner, these would be on the list.

    They seemed to lose momentum on the first run as they were a). overpriced for a far east built amp and b). I seem to recall the first clip they released was of Paul's son demo'ing one and it was truely dreadful (playing and tone). Strange, as I've seen clips of him since and they are fine.

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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    I think as always I need to try one - I suspect the ones I've seen cheaper are the mk1 version and in the bal of my mind I think I'll wonder if I should have just bit the bullet and bought an evh.
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11411
    Are there differences in tone between the different models (20, 30 , 50)?  They all have different output valves.

    The one I tried would have been the lowest powered and it was a while ago so if there are Mark I and Mark II versions it would have been a Mark I.
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    edited August 2013
    a quick update - I finished work earlier than expected so I took a small detour to check out wildwire music in selby  (awesome little shop with a superb collection of prs guitars and mega helpful owners). 

    I tried the se30 and se50 heads through the prs212 cab with a variety of prs and fender guitars.   We also compared with a 71 twin reverb and a 78 marshall jmp head.

    The amps are very easy to set up and have just the right controls for me with gain, 3xeq and master for each channel.   I found some loevely sounds very quickly but struggled to get the clean sound as sparkly as I like it - I gig a fender twin, without keeping the clean gain very very low or playing with the guitar volume - it started to break up even with a strat at 1/3 gain but did turn into a lovely crunch sound from 1/2+.
    The lead channel had some really nice rock tones very thick sounding and not overly compressed like I expected - single notes sustained beautifully and it definitely could sing with easy sustain. I did struggle to get a high enough gain for rhythm tones - maybe not gain but I wanted something more compressed I think.
    If it had 3 channels I would have bought it there and then but it just needed too much tweaking to get the sounds I wanted and I think the evh is much closer to the amp that will let me get rid of some pedals on stage and have a simpler set of sounds.
    The PRS was very good but the old fender and marshall were more for me - I just need them in one amp....

    Edit: the first video by ddlooping above is a decent representation of the sounds but he must have rolled back the guitar volume to get that clean sound.
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    crunchman said:
    Are there differences in tone between the different models (20, 30 , 50)?  They all have different output valves.

    The one I tried would have been the lowest powered and it was a while ago so if there are Mark I and Mark II versions it would have been a Mark I.
    I tried the 30 and 50 and expected a more obvious difference in sound,  the 50 had a bit more headroom but the basic amp tone didn't differ as much as I expected .
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  • ddloopingddlooping Frets: 325
    Thanks for sharing your impressions, John. :)
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  • I'd love to try one of the more boutique ones and see what tones they can give me. I personally find a lot of the tones he demos a little too overdriven. I'm not sure if that's just the way he's set them up, but I'd like to hear a little more variation in the lower-gain side of things.

    Overall great sounding amps though! And what a price for that sort of tone.
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