Next PRS amp metal?

[Boogie]

I don't think an amp is necessarily a one trick pony if it has super high gain...a lot of the PRS amp guys are probably on the older side and thus wouldn't want to pay extra coin for an amp that CAN do metal but is something they will never dive into.

Completely agree with your first statement, but I don't see the correlation in the next one. Almost any amp is just a stompbox away from doing convincing metal, but that doesn't have anything to do with age. Though I've never played in a metal band, I gigged a Boogie MkIII - arguably one of the most metal capable amps ever made - in modern and classic rock genres for 23 years. It was capable, but I didn't leverage that character of the amp. Every once in a while I just have to let my inner Petrucci out. :rock: I'd venture to say that much of the PRS player population have muti-genre interests regardless of their age.

...having had amps by many of these manufacturers I have used them in many circumstances for music that would be the antithesis of what they were designed for...

the right cab is really important too....as is speaker selection.

amen, brutha!

... A 5W amp is roughly half as loud as a 50W amp.

Absolutely true, but the perceived volume due to bass response is dramatically different. And the frequency range of the average MOP scooped Boogie, though dramatically less than Roy Clark blasting on a Twin, doesn't sound anywhere as cool with an attenuator and the master at 2. Without the bass performing CPR on your chest, it's just not metal...and that can't be accomplished with a 5W amp. That's strictly my opinion.

 

[Em7]

I have to strongly disagree. Marshall just did it with the JVM 1 watt anniversary amps. I have one. 5 tubes in this little box. There isn't a schematic available and to my knowledge no one has dissected one but this has to be 100% tube overdrive or darn close to it. There is more gain in this thing than a recto or mark....and it can be powered down to .1 watt. It can be played at 2am and won't wake a soul, without losing any character or drive.

The JVM is not a bad sounding amp, but it does not sound like a large Marshall in miniature. A large part of the cranked Marshall sound is the power pentode-based output stage. Pentodes distort differently than triodes, especially small-signal triodes. The complex upper-harmonic bite of a Marshall is due to the use of pentodes in the output stage. That's why a Marshall loaded with 6L6s or 6550s (both of which are beam power tetrodes) does not sound like a Marshall loaded EL34s (true power pentodes).

 

[Chris528]

I'm leaning towards the HT5 Metal unless there's a chance PRS will come out with a low wattage metal amp to go with their \m/ pickups.