Amp for a PRS SE Custom 24

[Asealpunter]

I just purchased my first PRS guitar and I absolutely love the feel of the guitar, however I have a line 6 Spider IV and the tone is just not what I want. What amps should I look into buying?

 

[bodia]

I just purchased my first PRS guitar and I absolutely love the feel of the guitar, however I have a line 6 Spider IV and the tone is just not what I want. What amps should I look into buying?

Congrats on your first, and welcome to the forum.

Kinda depends on what you're looking to play. What kind of music? Naturally, the PRS MT-15 is a great, great amp, and it's really not that expensive.

 

[Asealpunter]

I have recently started to have a drive to play much more Blues music, but I am a big fan of classic rock and metal. I’m looking for something that can be pretty versatile overall. Sorry if that is not too helpful.

 

[andy474x]

+1 to the MT15 being a great choice, and very affordable. Or, on the other side of the coin, the Sonzera is more oriented to blues and classic rock. The nice thing about any PRS amp is that they’re easy to match overdrive and distortion pedals with.

If you’re not into a tube amp, the Boss Katana amps have gotten a lot positive talk.

 

[Asealpunter]

I definitely want to get a tube amp because I know the tones from them are much better than a solid state. I’m open to just about any tube combo amp I can get my hands on.

 

[László]

I definitely want to get a tube amp because I know the tones from them are much better than a solid state. I’m open to just about any tube combo amp I can get my hands on.

Just take the guitar and go play a bunch. There isn’t such a thing as “best amp for a PRS.” It’s a matter of personal preference. Lots and lots of great amps on the market to satisfy your needs.

I use, and recommend, a couple of the PRS amps, but there are a lot of great amps out there. Seriously, you can’t pick an amp by remote control. You have to experience both the sound and the feel of a good tube amp to “get it”.

I say this because some amps have a very elastic feel, and some amps have a tighter feel, yet they can sound very much alike in a video. There are also amps that can be switched for a more elastic or alternatively, a more tight feel; that was the purpose of Mesa’s Dual Rectifiers, where you could choose solid state rectification (conversion of AC to DC inside the amp), or tube rectification. They often do have different feels, and there’s a little bit of tone difference, too, though it’s often subtle.

When you play an amp, you’ll find stuff that’s closer to the tone you’ve always wanted, and stuff that’s further away from it. Don’t be sold a bill of goods without playing the actual amp. If you’ve got to jump in the car and take a day trip to be able to play a variety of amps, do it. Why blow hundreds or thousands on something that’s a pig in a poke?

Also, do play some high end amps that may or may not be more than you want to spend, just to see how they sound and feel with your guitar. It’s helpful, because it can help you narrow down what you really want.

And when you get to try the amps, use the controls. Find out how they can be set up, what the master volumes (if any) sound like, etc. Use the controls on your guitar to see how rolling down the volume and tone controls work with each amp. Don’t just put the guitar on “10” and leave it there; a good tube amp’s gain can be controlled from the guitar, and lots more tone colors will open up.

Finally, don’t be misled by Wattage! There are some 15-30 Watt amps that are louder than some 100 Watt amps. And some high powered amps have great sounding master volume controls that allow you to dial in exactly the amount of gain you want to play with, and sound great at low volumes as well as high volumes.

There are single channel amps that respond so well to a guitar’s controls that you don’t need a second channel, but there are some 2 or 3 channel amps that are also great with the guitar volumes. And different output tubes often sound different; different tone control stacks sound different; etc., etc., etc.

Play as many amps as you can.