NAD (that's New Archon Day!) Yes, finally!

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It's a GREAT voice! And it can be shaped a number of different ways with the controls. But it can be changed with pedals. Such as, even though it has plenty of gain, it is very refined. If you want more raw and aggressive, you can easily get that with an SHO clone, or a Timmy with the treble up, or EP, or even a flat boost. If you want more smooth and less aggressive, that's easy to do without pedals. Turn the presence down, maybe the bright off, treble to taste, and if you want a softer feel with it, hit the half power mode to use a triode power stage. You want open, JCM-ish type tones, turn the master way up, gain way down (like 9:00) presence and treble up to taste, bass down... It can cover an awful lot of ground. I've thrown a pretty wide variety of guitar styles and pickup types at it and it sounds GREAT with everything. I've thrown a few widely varying pedals at it and it handles them like a champ.

It really is a super great amp!

Awesome reply sir! Your enthusiasm is evident as is your ear for tone. Thank you for the tips with changing the tonality of the gain structure. The Archon is indeed the best amp I've ever played. The fact that I find the clean channel to be as good as the dirty channel is what makes the amp a keeper for me. I was shocked to find out PRS was making amps but I'm oh so happy about it now.
 
Awesome reply sir! Your enthusiasm is evident as is your ear for tone. Thank you for the tips with changing the tonality of the gain structure. The Archon is indeed the best amp I've ever played. The fact that I find the clean channel to be as good as the dirty channel is what makes the amp a keeper for me. I was shocked to find out PRS was making amps but I'm oh so happy about it now.

Careful. I'm already pretty full of myself, as Les will tell you! :D

And yes, I love both channels as well. I was just surprised when I got it because I knew the OD channel would be great but the clean channel is great also. I'm telling you, a 3 channel version of this amp, with two identical gain channels that you could just dial differently, would RULE THE WORLD! But for now, I'll make due with it as is and be happy happy!
 
Careful. I'm already pretty full of myself, as Les will tell you! :D

And yes, I love both channels as well. I was just surprised when I got it because I knew the OD channel would be great but the clean channel is great also. I'm telling you, a 3 channel version of this amp, with two identical gain channels that you could just dial differently, would RULE THE WORLD! But for now, I'll make due with it as is and be happy happy!

I would love a 3 channel Archon! Two identical gain channels would be rad, however I would make the first OD channels gain knob range equal half of the second channels gain knob sweep, that way you could cover even more ground!
 
A 3 channel Archon would be more stuff I'd have to buy though. ;)

Honestly though, Elvis was exactly right about this. The Archon works extremely well either way as a 2 channel. Gain set to solo levels and rolled down to 7-8 for rhythm works great and sounds great. Gain set to rhythm level and a solo boost/OD pedal for solos works great and sounds great. So yeah, I know, I really don't "need" 3 channels. It's just that the Archon sounds SOOOOOO good with the gain around 9:00 for punchy rhythms and SOOOOOOOOO good with the gain anywhere from 11;00 to 1:00 for soaring solos. I am constantly (every couple days if not daily) changing the gain from one range to the other. And yes, it would just be nice to have a choice of either from a foot switch. REALLY REALLY NICE! But the foot switch on one of my OD pedals can do the same thing.

I have so many things I want to try with it and haven't... it's funny. When I got the Mark V, ALL I did was twist knobs and play, flip switches and play, twist more knobs and play... with the Archon, I turn it on and play. You don't need to mess with it and if you do, you know exactly what you'll get. Anyway, I want to try this and still haven't gotten around to it. Nice V curve on my MXR 10 band EQ in the loop, with the level pulled down some on the EQ. Dial up a nice fat gainy lead tone, then turn the EQ on for rhythm, off for leads. Shy of a nice TC system in the loop to do effects, EQ, OD and all this is my next big thing to try. Or 4CM with my AmpliFire. :D
 
I know I've posted in this thread before blathering on about how good the Archon is, but I was reminded yesterday afternoon: I re-arranged the music room a bit, and moved a small H&K Tubemeister 5 head into the room - the H&K is intended as a grab-and-go, I just need a small cab to go with it - currently hooked up to a Fender HRDX extension cabinet, which ain't very "small and portable".

Anyway, I played through the H&K to make sure I hooked it up right, on the lead channel with vol and gain dimed - it puts out a good amount of sound for such a small wattage, I would have been happy with that as a teenager or college kid rocking it out in the bedroom. I then switched over to the Archon to verify that was also plugged in properly. I played through the lead channel there too, gain almost dimed, but didn't want to put the master volume past 1 o'clock (almost feared putting any higher!), the darned thing was so nice and loud even at that setting! Man, I love that Archon sound! I just want to djent and wail and hammer away endlessly!
 
I too fired up my Archon yesterday for the first time in a month and was all smiles! It's my proverbial "desert island" amp for sure. Just have to hope that there is an AC outlet on the backside of one of those palm trees!!
 
I just spent a whole week playing mine in half power mode. Very nice alternative for smoother warmer tones. Another win!
 
I've spent the last two nights with the Archon going for pure blues tones. Plugged into 2 1x12 Avatar cabs with Emi Private Jack and Governor (So V30/Greenback mix). I used both full and half power modes, but ended on the half. Gain... ha, I had gain anywhere form 8:30 to 10:00. Then P - 9:00, D - 10:00 B -11:00 M - 2:00, T - 9:00 I tried opening the volume up, but it's too loud. Played with it at 3:00 for a minute and it was freakin glorious! Then turned down to noon or so for the rest of the night. Boy though, when that thing was opened up... holy crap! I know we don't hear many classic blues tones with even one V30 involved, but that was some serious blues tone!

Unless you are going for higher gain blues tones, these settings with these speakers are awesome! This makes me even more want to crack this thing open and drop my NOS 5751 in V2 (First gain stages for the gain channel) to lower the gain and increase the usable sweep range of the gain knob. Plus improve the tone. It's a killer old Jan 5751. SRV approved. Tonight I might try this same setup but switch the open back cab with Alnico Red Fang for the Governor cab, so I'll have Greenback and Alnico combo, plus one of them open back. That should KILL!

Also, all of this is dialed for the NF3. I'll flip over soon to some single coils and see how that works with some adjustments.

I'd also like to thank my wife for her patience while I was "testing" these higher volume tones. I need to take this thing to Les' house so I can open it up a bit! ;)
 
I've spent the last two nights with the Archon going for pure blues tones. Plugged into 2 1x12 Avatar cabs with Emi Private Jack and Governor (So V30/Greenback mix). I used both full and half power modes, but ended on the half. Gain... ha, I had gain anywhere form 8:30 to 10:00. Then P - 9:00, D - 10:00 B -11:00 M - 2:00, T - 9:00 I tried opening the volume up, but it's too loud. Played with it at 3:00 for a minute and it was freakin glorious! Then turned down to noon or so for the rest of the night. Boy though, when that thing was opened up... holy crap! I know we don't hear many classic blues tones with even one V30 involved, but that was some serious blues tone!

Unless you are going for higher gain blues tones, these settings with these speakers are awesome! This makes me even more want to crack this thing open and drop my NOS 5751 in V2 (First gain stages for the gain channel) to lower the gain and increase the usable sweep range of the gain knob. Plus improve the tone. It's a killer old Jan 5751. SRV approved. Tonight I might try this same setup but switch the open back cab with Alnico Red Fang for the Governor cab, so I'll have Greenback and Alnico combo, plus one of them open back. That should KILL!

Also, all of this is dialed for the NF3. I'll flip over soon to some single coils and see how that works with some adjustments.

I'd also like to thank my wife for her patience while I was "testing" these higher volume tones. I need to take this thing to Les' house so I can open it up a bit! ;)

How much dust is on the MkV? :D
 
Honest answer. It get's turned on less than once a week now. There is an MDT for sale on Reverb and I might contact the guy and see if he wants to trade that plus cash for the V or that straight up for the V25. Who knows, I might get lucky. And don't get me wrong. I love both of those amps. If I never had gotten an Archon, they'd be the best amps I'd ever owned. But the Archon is SO easy to dial in any way you want it and the longer I have it the more range I find in it. And no matter how you dial it, it sounds fantastic!
 
Honest answer. It get's turned on less than once a week now. There is an MDT for sale on Reverb and I might contact the guy and see if he wants to trade that plus cash for the V or that straight up for the V25. Who knows, I might get lucky. And don't get me wrong. I love both of those amps. If I never had gotten an Archon, they'd be the best amps I'd ever owned. But the Archon is SO easy to dial in any way you want it and the longer I have it the more range I find in it. And no matter how you dial it, it sounds fantastic!

Bingo!
 
Yes. I played the Custom 50 the last two nights and it sounded great. I've been playing the Archon with a GB/V30 ish mix for several weeks now and loving it. Last night I plugged back into the Mesa 2x12 vertical recto cab. If I want more aggressive tones, that is the ticket. Big, bold and aggressive.

This amp is just truly "high end" tone. It's hard to play the other amps with an Archon in the room.
 
I'm gonna have to play one to believe you guys...

I get it. But I dialed on that thing for a year and found many really good and very diverse tones. I turned the Archon ON and in seconds had GREAT tone. And the more I play with it, try other speakers etc. the more great tones I find.
 
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