Anyone played both the H and the C amps?

[CatStrangler]

would be great to hear some thoughts on these!

 

[Hopeful Sinner]

What kind of sound are you looking for. From what I understand both are somewhat similar amps but the difference in output transformer makes a pretty big impact on what you get from each.

I have an "H" and I love it. Very nice, sparkly cleans and a modern-ish high gain channel. It covers a lot of bases.

The "C" I played had a nice round clean tone and a more "M" type of gain sound. Both are excellent amps but for my style I wanted the option to push into modern gain and be able to dial back into a more hard rock sound as well...

 

[CatStrangler]

Thanks, From the videos I have seen on you tube, I like the clean channel on the "C", and the lead channel on the "H". I am looking at a deal I've been offered on an "H". I'm going to try to find some locally to try.

 

[Jet Whitey]

Thanks, From the videos I have seen on you tube, I like the clean channel on the "C", and the lead channel on the "H". I am looking at a deal I've been offered on an "H". I'm going to try to find some locally to try.

I've owned both and can't say a bad thing about either one. The "C" was a tad more Vintage "M" sounding and had more sag than the "H". The cleans on the "C" were really good and sparkled. The broke up well at higher volumes and responded about as good as you're going to get from an EL-34 based amp to pick attack.

The "H" was a BIG surprize as I'm not usually a big fan of 6L6 amps. The Cleans were everything the "C" had and IMHO more "3D" and responded better to the reverb. The clean channel on the "H" really made it a 3 channel amp. I found myself running it with enough gain to make it a rhythm channel when not soloing and riding the volume knob on my guitars to clean it up. It really has a lot of headroom and likes to have the power amp section pushed. The lead channel was really what floored me about the "H". It's amazinglly tweakable. You can go from vintage "M" to modern "B's" with the gain knob and the tone stack.

I sent my 20th Anniv. Shiva packing once I talked with Doug and had him install a adjustable solo boost on the "H". That little mod IMHO buried the Shiva as far as live use. I agree you should find a dealer and put both thru their paces. Like I said both are great amps, but everyone has different tastes. Enjoy!!!!

 

[cmcgrath72]

I actually owned both for a bit. I ended up getting rid of both Don't get me wrong, they were both great amps with a lot of character. And the clean channel was truly amazing. But in the end for the style of music I play they didn't work for me. I probably would have kept the H head if I had the room in my apt. But in the end I found both amps did not have enough gain for what I do and they had a bit too much treble all around. I hear you can send the amps in to the PRS CAD center for any modifications you want. It's something I would have done with the H head. A notch more gain and a notch more bass in the treble and miss. Not sure how much they charge though.
Right now I'm using a Marshall JVM 50w. Also, I just played a Peavey 6505 with a custom 24 with 5909's and it sounded amazing. Matched very well with the PRS. clean channel is so

 

[cmcgrath72]

man that typo corrector! I meant a bit more bass in the treble and the mids.

 

[andy474x]

Strangely, I really like the sound of the "C" clean channel more than the "H". Normally I'm a 6L6/Fender guy all the way when it comes to clean sounds, but there's just something about the C that has a lot of character to my ear, that I've not heard in other amps. But that's just what I've heard, I've not tried one in person.