Considering a PRS Amp- WHICH ONE??

PRSWILL

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I am new to this forum, but a seasoned player with a wide variety of gear. my favorite 2 amps in regular rotation today are : Fender Deluxe ( real one- not a Hot Rod) for clean, bluesy stuff and a Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 36 with 2, 1X12 Vintage 30 cabs for all things rock- I love them both and am wondering if there's a tonal "gap" if you will, that another amp might fill- or maybe this is just "i'm bored from COVID and need some retail therapy". either way, I know very little about PRS amps - we don't have a dealer in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis) that I am aware of that keeps a wide selection of their product so any insights- especially if you have some sound samples would be really, really cool. Thanks!
 
Well, it looks like PRS has discontinued all of their amplifiers except for two cheap Chinese amps and the David Grissom model, so I have no PRS recommendations
 
Welcome Will!

Yeah, the PRS amp line is a little sparse right now, and the COVID-induced increase in demand for gear has hit the used market pretty hard as well. Used to be you could find several crazy good deals on used, USA made PRS amps. Right now they’re fewer in number and going for a lot more, usually.

I wouldn’t buy a Sonzera without trying it. I’ve played one a few times, and just can’t get a good driven sound out of it, but then I hear other guys playing them (especially Strat players) and they sound AMAZING. Not sure if it’s because they’re cranked up or what. The MT15 and Archon - I think you’ll know if it’s your kind of thing or not pretty quickly, and it may be a little much on the gain based on your current amps. The DG30 I’ve not tried, but hear it’s amazing, if you want to spend that much. It’s an amalgam of David Grissom’s favorite things about vintage amps and has a classic Americana kind of vibe to it.

Sweetwater currently has a small stock of new, limited run Sweet 16 heads, which that amp was in normal production about 10 years ago. I got one, it’s cool and may interest you. It’s based on the older version, but updated to reflect some of the more recent things Paul learned about his favorite blackface amps. My experience is, it’s like a blackface Deluxe but has a gain control, and is optimized for dirty tones rather than clean. It can do clean, but shines with crunchy tones, it has lots of gain available, in a vintage voicing. I swapped out the V1 12ax7 for a 12ay7 to significantly cut the amount of gain down, and that’s really a sweet spot. They’ve also dropped the price on those recently, it’s a pretty nice deal on a USA made amp.

If you go used, the HXDA is a righteous recreation of a plexi, or rather two, one that was Duane Allman’s and one that was Hendrix’s, they were very close in spec, the HXDA has switches to toggle between the components that were different between their amps.

There are 2 Channel C and H, and Custom 20/50, the Customs being a tricked out version of the 2 Channel amps, adding presence and depth controls, lead boost, mid voicing options on the lead channel. I have a Custom 50. The clean is in the ballpark of a Super Reverb, the lead channel is its own thing, it has a nice mid push but fatter than a classic Marshall circuit, not fizzy, and if you don’t go crazy with the gain, it allows a lot of character to come through from anything you boost it with. Really cool amp. The C’s and H’s are cool too, but the Customs are a more polished and versatile evolution of the amp.

There are some other very good PRS amps, but I think these are the most common ones.
 
I did a pretty extensive thread on the HX/DA, my favorite PRS amp (maybe favorite, period). It is here, with lots of sound samples:

https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...are-your-hxda-knowledge-with-the-world.44624/

I’d like to try a DG amp, 50 or 30, as well. The HX/DAs are stellar; truly a magnificent design. All the clips I have heard of the DG amps sound wonderful to me. Those are the two I want in the amp arsenal.
 
Well, it looks like PRS has discontinued all of their amplifiers except for two cheap Chinese amps and the David Grissom model, so I have no PRS recommendations
I'd avoid the Sonzera if you're playing humbuckers. I demo'd one recently at my local shop, on the clean channel, I had the bass knob on zero with my McCarty and it sounded dull. The drive channel, it was nothing but raw, buzzy tones on the gain knob. Really disappointed in that amp.
 
Not a fan at this point. I have played them all and owned two.

For ME, Friedman it where its at right now.

With that said, when PRS comes out with a M type amp that is more like a hot rodded JCM 800 I'm there.
 
Ironically, I saw one of those amps from Dave's in the LaCrosse shop on Reverb today. I may take a trip down there.
 
H
Not a fan at this point. I have played them all and owned two.

For ME, Friedman it where its at right now.

With that said, when PRS comes out with a M type amp that is more like a hot rodded JCM 800 I'm there.
Have you played the BE50 Deluxe? That would be my pick of Dave’s amps.
 
Yeah- I have the Axe FX, Eleven Rack, and a very impressive Protools set-up with all of the virtual amps you can shake a stick at. Good old fashion tubes and wires are hard to beat and I play live- and dependability and ease of use are key. I've used the Eleven rack live into the FOH and to our IEM system and that's great- but you are putting ALL of your faith in the front of house sound guy to balance the mix then- and that's been an issue in a couple of clubs, so i've gone back to packing the Hughes and Kettner into shows. Just looking for something new, different and fun.
 
Depends on your budget.

The David Grissom DG-30 is one of the finest amps I've ever owned, including Two-Rocks, Bogners, Mesas, Bad Cats, Roccaforte, and other boutique brands. I've had mine for about 6 years, and wouldn't think of selling it. It's highly unusual for me to keep an amp that long.

The HXDA is my #1 amp of all time. It's wonderful, as RickP says. He knows his stuff, too.
 
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