FenianEMT
New Member
TL;DR: I'd appreciate any input on my choice between four amps (bold below). I do plan to try them all if possible.
I'm attending PRS Experience for the first time this year, I'm about to get a pretty nice tax refund, and I've been thinking about getting an amp worthy of my guitars for quite a while. This all adds up to me buying a new amp real soon now, and I thought I'd seek some advice from the brilliant forum members here.
So, to start with, my musical interests are fairly broad, but don't extend too deeply into the metal/hard rock realm. I'm not a great player yet, but I'm improving pretty rapidly. Lately I've been working on blues playing, which I enjoy. I don't currently gig, so unless that changes in the future (which isn't out of the question), the amp will be used mostly for practice in my city row house where volume may be somewhat limited in order to not infuriate the neighbors.
I know the general advice is to try everything I can (preferably with my guitars), and buy what makes me most happy. I intend to do that to the extent possible. My hope is to try out any non-PRS amps that make the list before Experience, and then if none of them blow me away to the point that I can't resist buying immediately, try the PRS amps at Experience. My basic criteria are all-tube, foot switchable 2-channel (clean and gain), effects loop, and versatility to cover a wide range of styles. I prefer a combo amp, but would consider a head/cab if there is good reason. I'm hoping to buy something that I'll be keeping and playing through for many years. So here are the amps I'm considering:
Mesa/Boogie Mark Five:35 - For quite a while this was the front runner due to versatility, stellar reviews, and Mesa's reputation. It's fallen out of the lead, though, in large part due to how happy folks here seem to be with the simplicity/ease of use of the modern PRS amps (see below). I do like to tinker/tweak things, which you can obviously do a huge amount of with a Mark amp, but especially given that I'm not exactly a tone expert at this point anyway, that ability might just end up giving me analysis paralysis with an amp.
Mesa/Boogie Recto-Verb 25 - This one seems to get all kinds of rave reviews, and would be a less expensive, more user-friendly Mesa alternative to the Mark Five:35.
PRS Archon - Given how much everybody seems to love this amp, it had to be on the list. I'm a little concerned about versatility given that it's billed as an extremely high-gain amp. On the other hand, it seems like I've seen reports of people using Archons for all sorts of different styles, so maybe my concern there is a bit misplaced?
PRS Two Channel Custom - This is the current front runner. It seems like it might be a little more versatile for my purposes than an Archon, while still having all that PRS awesomeness. My hope is that has all the quality and ease of use that people rave about in the Archon coupled with a bit more versatility for low-medium gain applications.
So those are the ones I'm looking seriously at right now. I haven't played through any of them (except an Archon 50 that I briefly tested out my Vela on before I bought it) or even heard them in person yet, but I figure I can drive out to Frederick (only Mesa dealer in Maryland) one of the next few weekends to try the Mesas, and then hopefully try (and likely buy) PRS amps at Experience. So here are the questions that I'm hoping you all can help me to answer:
Thanks for reading this far! I look forward to the opinions!
I'm attending PRS Experience for the first time this year, I'm about to get a pretty nice tax refund, and I've been thinking about getting an amp worthy of my guitars for quite a while. This all adds up to me buying a new amp real soon now, and I thought I'd seek some advice from the brilliant forum members here.
So, to start with, my musical interests are fairly broad, but don't extend too deeply into the metal/hard rock realm. I'm not a great player yet, but I'm improving pretty rapidly. Lately I've been working on blues playing, which I enjoy. I don't currently gig, so unless that changes in the future (which isn't out of the question), the amp will be used mostly for practice in my city row house where volume may be somewhat limited in order to not infuriate the neighbors.
I know the general advice is to try everything I can (preferably with my guitars), and buy what makes me most happy. I intend to do that to the extent possible. My hope is to try out any non-PRS amps that make the list before Experience, and then if none of them blow me away to the point that I can't resist buying immediately, try the PRS amps at Experience. My basic criteria are all-tube, foot switchable 2-channel (clean and gain), effects loop, and versatility to cover a wide range of styles. I prefer a combo amp, but would consider a head/cab if there is good reason. I'm hoping to buy something that I'll be keeping and playing through for many years. So here are the amps I'm considering:
Mesa/Boogie Mark Five:35 - For quite a while this was the front runner due to versatility, stellar reviews, and Mesa's reputation. It's fallen out of the lead, though, in large part due to how happy folks here seem to be with the simplicity/ease of use of the modern PRS amps (see below). I do like to tinker/tweak things, which you can obviously do a huge amount of with a Mark amp, but especially given that I'm not exactly a tone expert at this point anyway, that ability might just end up giving me analysis paralysis with an amp.
Mesa/Boogie Recto-Verb 25 - This one seems to get all kinds of rave reviews, and would be a less expensive, more user-friendly Mesa alternative to the Mark Five:35.
PRS Archon - Given how much everybody seems to love this amp, it had to be on the list. I'm a little concerned about versatility given that it's billed as an extremely high-gain amp. On the other hand, it seems like I've seen reports of people using Archons for all sorts of different styles, so maybe my concern there is a bit misplaced?
PRS Two Channel Custom - This is the current front runner. It seems like it might be a little more versatile for my purposes than an Archon, while still having all that PRS awesomeness. My hope is that has all the quality and ease of use that people rave about in the Archon coupled with a bit more versatility for low-medium gain applications.
So those are the ones I'm looking seriously at right now. I haven't played through any of them (except an Archon 50 that I briefly tested out my Vela on before I bought it) or even heard them in person yet, but I figure I can drive out to Frederick (only Mesa dealer in Maryland) one of the next few weekends to try the Mesas, and then hopefully try (and likely buy) PRS amps at Experience. So here are the questions that I'm hoping you all can help me to answer:
- Is there anything else that should absolutely be on this list?
- Should I be concerned that PRS Two Channel Customs seem to be pretty thin on the ground right now (Sweetwater doesn't have any, and Reverb doesn't have many that don't seem to have been on a shelf for a while)?
- Should I be considering the 50-watt versions of the PRS amps, or only the 20/25-watt ones? Given my use plans, lower power seems like it makes sense, but Les seems to make some very strong arguments in favor of higher wattage.
- Am I missing any key information or concerns?
- Am I just completely off my rocker with any or all of this?
Thanks for reading this far! I look forward to the opinions!