dkilpatrick
Makes guitar faces
Sure it’s advertised as a high gain amp, but I bet you could wrangle some nice sounds out of it with your pedalboard through the clean channel.
MT 15
- Thread starter RedGuitars
- Start date
alantig
Zombie Four, DFZ
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 14,950
Couple months ago, beerbatteredphish and I tested what became my Silver Sky through the MT-15 they had for PRS day at my local dealer. I thought we played for about 20 minutes - he said it was close to an hour. At most, five-six minutes on the dirty channel. The clean channel was that good.
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
The boys from Andertons managed to “wrangle” some blues tones from it.
Probably so! I’d bet that with the gain dialed way back, some nice medium gain tones could be squeezed out as well.
Might be nice to have a small, light amp to play at friends’ jams.
“When was the last time you jammed with friends, Les?”
“Um...nineteen...uh...”
strat63
The Torture Never Stops
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2012
- Messages
- 778
I would say that the sound with the Strat was far less than inspiring. Of course the Fender blues player is probably not in the target market for this amp.
The other lower gain sounds with the USA Tremonti and the Telecaster sounded good.
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
The boys from Andertons put a $trat through it as well.
Deli6505
Rockin' the D!
That goofy dude from Premier Guitar also did something similar with his MT15.
Joern Venaas
New Member
Ordered 
D
Deleted member 5962
Guest
Would SOMEBODY please get one of these? I need a report from a REAL user, and I need it NOW. Please, get with the program! You guys call yourself “enablers?” Ha, you can’t enable what you don’t have. Someone snap one of these up and get to work enabling!
@Ruxster is our only source who has one, I think? Maybe we’ll be lucky enough Friday for some hands on action.
Ruxster
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2018
- Messages
- 65
Am I really the only one who has one around here? I feel like I need to do a better job of giving you guys some feedback then!
dkilpatrick
Makes guitar faces
The 15 watt rating is probably from the transformers used, realistically 2 6L6 tubes should put out close to 60 watts.
I’m guessing that’s why it’s louder than most “15 watt amps”.
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
It certainly pushed that M 4x12 speaker pretty well on the Andertons video. OK my only point of reference was an iPhone speaker, but as a so called “internet expert”
I fell qualified to say it sounded immense!
D
Deleted member 5962
Guest
Thing is, MT called it a 40 watt amp just a few weeks before it was introduced. MT likes tight, percussive, punchy amps. Putting big power tubes in, but starving the power elsewhere doesn't usually equate to "big, tight and punchy."
Every review I've seen either said it was very loud for 15 watts or many said something like "no way it's 15 watts." Several said it was clearly louder than some 30-40 watters they had. If it's held down by transformers, I don't think the response would be so overwhelmingly in agreement that it was more powerful that 15 watts. Also, it the transformers are holding it down, it will run out of juice and "sag." Think about the things some people love about an old Champ for example. The people who have cranked this up say it just keeps getting louder til it's crazy loud, which again, doesn't sound like a power section that is held back by OT's or small filter caps. It "could" have small trannies and big caps and wouldn't sag as much... but at unless you really plan to make one circuit that you can just change a couple parts on and later release a 50 watt version or whatever, you wonder why they'd go to all the trouble, then starve the thing back to lower wattage.
Until I see inside the thing or read from someone who can analyze a circuit from start to finish, I'm going to guess that PRS is sandbagging on the rating. Just too many comments about how powerful this thing is.
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Ruxster
New Member
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- Mar 5, 2018
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- 65
If I was more confident in my abilities I'd open it up and send you some pictures of the guts of the thing.
All I know is this thing gets way louder than I expected it to.
An AC15 will get freakin’ loud, too. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not really a 15 Watt amp. And it might depend on how it’s measured.
One problem is that there’s no carved-in-stone standard for how amplifier power is measured. Example: at what frequency is the rated power achieved, i.e., at 1 KHz? 10 KHz? 100 Hz? Most amps sweat to produce lower frequencies, so measured power can be more impressive at 1 KHz, for example.
And are we measuring RMS power, IHF power, etc.?
Another variable is rated power at how much distortion? An amp’s power rating at 10% distortion is often substantially different from the amp’s power rating at 1% distortion.
An amp with a brighter midrange will often be perceived as louder because those frequencies are more piercing, and our ears will pick up more piercing midrange sounds than high or low frequency sounds.
A “fast” amp will be perceived as louder than an amp with lots of sag.
Speaker efficiency also matters; what cab and speaker are you playing through?
Back in the 70s, there were folks buying those big Klipsch corner speakers with a horn tweeter. They were very, very efficient speakers. 10 Watts drove them to ear-splitting volume levels, and the amps stayed clean. That doesn’t mean the same 10 Watt amp wouldn’t sound anemic with a pair of inefficient acoustic-suspension bookshelf speakers.
Other things that amps are measured for will affect the perceived and actual volume of the amp.
One problem is that there’s no carved-in-stone standard for how amplifier power is measured. Example: at what frequency is the rated power achieved, i.e., at 1 KHz? 10 KHz? 100 Hz? Most amps sweat to produce lower frequencies, so measured power can be more impressive at 1 KHz, for example.
And are we measuring RMS power, IHF power, etc.?
Another variable is rated power at how much distortion? An amp’s power rating at 10% distortion is often substantially different from the amp’s power rating at 1% distortion.
An amp with a brighter midrange will often be perceived as louder because those frequencies are more piercing, and our ears will pick up more piercing midrange sounds than high or low frequency sounds.
A “fast” amp will be perceived as louder than an amp with lots of sag.
Speaker efficiency also matters; what cab and speaker are you playing through?
Back in the 70s, there were folks buying those big Klipsch corner speakers with a horn tweeter. They were very, very efficient speakers. 10 Watts drove them to ear-splitting volume levels, and the amps stayed clean. That doesn’t mean the same 10 Watt amp wouldn’t sound anemic with a pair of inefficient acoustic-suspension bookshelf speakers.
Other things that amps are measured for will affect the perceived and actual volume of the amp.
D
Deleted member 5962
Guest
ALL true. Even the “subjective” stuff you said, I agree with. So this is what makes the MT15 all the more impressive.
Here’s an example of how all this plays out in the real (amp) world. People have for years raved about how loud Dr. Z amps are for their rated wattage. These amps mostly have small power tubes. Lots of EL84s. But people rave about how loud they are for 18 watts or 36 watts or whatever they’re rated at. Same with Vox amps. My AC30 will blow your ear drums.
Science DOES matter though. Push the mids forward, your amps sounds louder. (I prove this EVERY time I re-EQ the Archon from “Scooped” to “ flatter” because I immediately have to turn it down). So an amp with big bottom end will run out of steam way before an amp with a flat bottom end... and one with rolled off bottom can get crazy loud with a power stage rated to put out “moderate” wattage. If you understand how power amps work, it takes many times more power to put out lower frequencies than even low mids, which explains all the above. Roll off the bottom end and hook up two highly efficient speakers, and a 30 watt AC30 can blow you out of the room, while a 50 watt amp may not be as loud. But try to play something that needs big punchy bottom on that AC30 and it won’t do it.
I read something years ago in an amp building forum that said VOX EQ curve was like an upward slanted line, Fenders (Blackface) was a smiley curve, and Marshall was the inverted smiley curve. Most Dr. Z amps are EQ’d similar to Vox so they have little bass, but again everyone raves about how they “cut in a band.” Yeah, all mids and highs DOES cut. Those chugging power chord amps that have punch and bottom and flap your pants, dont “seem” as loud as the amps with mostly mids and highs. Which can easily get loud with much less power than the amp that has big punchy bottom.
Rambling, so I’ll stop now. But all this is relative to the MT15 which people say has tons of punch and bottom end and volume... none of which go with small tranny, small power supply cap amps.
Here’s an example of how all this plays out in the real (amp) world. People have for years raved about how loud Dr. Z amps are for their rated wattage. These amps mostly have small power tubes. Lots of EL84s. But people rave about how loud they are for 18 watts or 36 watts or whatever they’re rated at. Same with Vox amps. My AC30 will blow your ear drums.
Science DOES matter though. Push the mids forward, your amps sounds louder. (I prove this EVERY time I re-EQ the Archon from “Scooped” to “ flatter” because I immediately have to turn it down). So an amp with big bottom end will run out of steam way before an amp with a flat bottom end... and one with rolled off bottom can get crazy loud with a power stage rated to put out “moderate” wattage. If you understand how power amps work, it takes many times more power to put out lower frequencies than even low mids, which explains all the above. Roll off the bottom end and hook up two highly efficient speakers, and a 30 watt AC30 can blow you out of the room, while a 50 watt amp may not be as loud. But try to play something that needs big punchy bottom on that AC30 and it won’t do it.
I read something years ago in an amp building forum that said VOX EQ curve was like an upward slanted line, Fenders (Blackface) was a smiley curve, and Marshall was the inverted smiley curve. Most Dr. Z amps are EQ’d similar to Vox so they have little bass, but again everyone raves about how they “cut in a band.” Yeah, all mids and highs DOES cut. Those chugging power chord amps that have punch and bottom and flap your pants, dont “seem” as loud as the amps with mostly mids and highs. Which can easily get loud with much less power than the amp that has big punchy bottom.
Rambling, so I’ll stop now. But all this is relative to the MT15 which people say has tons of punch and bottom end and volume... none of which go with small tranny, small power supply cap amps.
andy474x
Knows the Drill
All I wanna hear about this weekend is the MT100!!!!!!!!
Probably too soon, but I can dream, right?
Probably too soon, but I can dream, right?
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
You might not be able to hear afterwards!
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