Camo Goodness

Jan

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Aug 6, 2013
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I don't usually post NanythingDs but I am pretty excited about this one so why not :)





Only played it at home for half an hour so far but my first thought was literally like "this sounds like a million bucks". I blind ordered it based on YouTube videos and MAN, this things sounds and almost-more-importantly FEELS great to play! The clean channel really is super clean and beautiful, and the lead channel kinda sounds like a cleaned-up Mesa Rectifier with a bit of Diezel vibe sprinkled-on to me.

Small drawback, it seems to have the noise issue with the loop others have talked about, but I got in touch with PRS Europe and they replied within an hour (kudos!) so I'm sure it'll get taken care of.

Other than that - kittens and unicorns and rainbows! Oh and camo ;-)
 
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Congrats! Yeah, the Archon is an awesome beast.

One thing to keep in mind about the noisy effects loop - some effects are worse than others, due to the compromises that must be made in adjusting the pre-amp signal to "effects-friendly" signal levels and then back again for the main amp circuit. When I use the right effects pedals, I get no appreciable noise. If I use the wrong one (a Boss CE-3, for example) the noise is intolerable.
 
Congrats! Yeah, the Archon is an awesome beast.

One thing to keep in mind about the noisy effects loop - some effects are worse than others, due to the compromises that must be made in adjusting the pre-amp signal to "effects-friendly" signal levels and then back again for the main amp circuit. When I use the right effects pedals, I get no appreciable noise. If I use the wrong one (a Boss CE-3, for example) the noise is intolerable.

Thanks! Yeah, that's true (although the same pedals work flawlessly with my 6505)... however, I tried jumping the loop with just a high quality 1.5m cable and even that increased the noise a lot compared to not "using" the loop at all, so I am guessing it's better to get it modded!

Just out of curiousity; what effects are you finding to work in this loop? Might get a new delay for example to go with it...
 
Thanks! Yeah, that's true (although the same pedals work flawlessly with my 6505)... however, I tried jumping the loop with just a high quality 1.5m cable and even that increased the noise a lot compared to not "using" the loop at all, so I am guessing it's better to get it modded!

Just out of curiousity; what effects are you finding to work in this loop? Might get a new delay for example to go with it...

Ah, well if noisy with just a cable, yeah, something ain't right there.

Here's a pic of what I have used successfully in the loop (most of these were leftovers from my main board):

IMG_4324_1024_zpscjpxhbfr.jpg


There was a Line6 MM4 after that too, in a later incarnation.

As always, YMMV, maybe I just got lucky with the pedal combo...
 
Hey Shinksma, thanks, good to know that these pedals work. And I hope my previous comment didn't come across rude, I appreciate your feedback!
 
Congrats, and welcome to Club Archon! It's such a great sounding amp, isn't it?
 
Thanks guys!!

Yeah, alantig, it sounds really really really good! I am soooo loking forward to my band's next practice let alone gig :rock:
 
OK guys, I wanted to give a little update since I picked up the Archon from the store where they modded the effects loop according to instructions from PRS Europe. Super quick turnaround (1 day) and both the store and PRS were super responsive by email so THANKS if you guys read this.

OK so here's a little review:

I tried the amp at band practice today and am super stoked. It sounds just as awesome as when I tried it at home, just with more chunk :) Works great with my mesa cab.

First I wanna say that the amp doesn't NEED a tube screamer to be tight and fun to play for heavy stuff. Really doesn't. You can however use one and it also sounds awesome. Most amps either sound great WITH tubescreamer (Mesa Recto) or WITHOUT (ENGLs) but this one works "both ways". Love it!

Overall it sounds really heavy but not buzzy or thin on the heavy channel. Very organic! I originally thought it's like a cleaned up Recto with some Diezel vibe, now I kinda think of it like a Recto'd Diezel or something haha. Why? Because of the way it FEELS "under the finger" if that makes any sense. The dryness / tightness while still being chunky enough actually does feel pretty simillar to a Diezel VH4 on channel 3. However, the Archon definitely sounds more "American". Which in my book is pretty much a perfect combination!

The clean channel also is extremely clean and very very nice. Not that I'll ever use it much but that's a different discussion ;-)

The loop now also works well. I still do get a little bit of noise when I use effects (I tried a boss GE-7 and an Ibanez DE-7 together, as well as a Tech 21 Boost DLA) but now it's usable and not an issue when the band is playing. Interestingly the tech who modded it mentioned that it would probably give too much output for pedal-type effects, but now it doesn't really bother me and there's no distortion or anything so it actually sounds good! Also, I tried jumping the loop again with just a high quality cable and now there is no added noise! So it's not the amps fault anymore if there is noise I guess.

Overall really really happy and my band mate also loved it.

Happy camper here - thanks PRS for a great amp and thanks Shawn for being open and honest about the loop issue in that other thread!! Otherwise I would have probably sent the amp back.
 
Awesome, glad you got the loop in working order. For me, I've only had issue with a couple pedals that had modulation chorus type effects in them. My Archons are both old from the original run and I haven't bothered with the loop mod yet. I really only run delay and verb through the loop anyway, which I haven't had an issue with except the T-Rex whirly verb(has chorus). I like the digital camo, your the 1st I've seen who owns one - very cool!
 
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