andy474x
Knows the Drill
She's 50 watts, she's paisley, and my wife wasn't very happy to find out about her.
Custom 50 in the house!
Picked her up, or should I say rescued her, used in mint condition from... that place (you know the place). Every once in a while they get a piece of used gear in that's actually worth a hoot. I haven't had a chance to try one yet - in the store, it was hooked up to an Orange 2x12 in the "Platinum Room" (a triangular shaped closet with plexiglass walls that Les could use as subject matter for a thesis on exponential bass reinforcement), and to be honest, sounded awful! But I decided that a noisy sales floor and their glittery gear closet is no place to judge an amp, so I said the heck with it and whipped out the plastic.
So far it compares very favorably to my SE amp. I can feel the DNA lineage in the voicing, and the SE is still a very good amp, but this just has the tonal refinement one would expect from a better piece of gear. Ultra sweet top end, and a velvet overdrive character, this amp is so vocal! I can see why John Mayer and Derek Trucks have gotten into PRS amps. Better tuned bass as well. The clean channel is a very "F" style voicing, with articulation and a tight bottom. Not much gain at all, which was a big change from the rhythm channel of the SE, and I like it. The lead channel has that Santana, oboe like midrange vibe. Also much less gain here, still a lot at max, but useable throughout the range. Set lower, it can mimic a single channel, volume knob riding affair. LOTS more volume than my SE30 too, which surprised me, I expected it to have marginally more but not much. The SE had a sweet spot between 11:00 and 3:00, it had more volume available but the tone started to get bloated. The added presence knob on the Custom helps keep the amp barking when it's roaring.
I don't see why people say this amp is so generic sounding, it's really sweet! I also wanted to try an Archon... I still do, but I think this was the better choice for me right now. I can throw a pedal on the clean channel and get a tight, ripping metal tone if I want to, but if I'd gone the other way, I think a pedal would have a hard time touching the lead channel of this amp.
Even through my SE 2x12, I'm very impressed. Thinking about building a 2x12 vertical with a slant top and putting in the V30's I picked up a while back, to get closer to the PRS spec, along with some nice upward projection for gigs.
Custom 50 in the house!
Picked her up, or should I say rescued her, used in mint condition from... that place (you know the place). Every once in a while they get a piece of used gear in that's actually worth a hoot. I haven't had a chance to try one yet - in the store, it was hooked up to an Orange 2x12 in the "Platinum Room" (a triangular shaped closet with plexiglass walls that Les could use as subject matter for a thesis on exponential bass reinforcement), and to be honest, sounded awful! But I decided that a noisy sales floor and their glittery gear closet is no place to judge an amp, so I said the heck with it and whipped out the plastic.
So far it compares very favorably to my SE amp. I can feel the DNA lineage in the voicing, and the SE is still a very good amp, but this just has the tonal refinement one would expect from a better piece of gear. Ultra sweet top end, and a velvet overdrive character, this amp is so vocal! I can see why John Mayer and Derek Trucks have gotten into PRS amps. Better tuned bass as well. The clean channel is a very "F" style voicing, with articulation and a tight bottom. Not much gain at all, which was a big change from the rhythm channel of the SE, and I like it. The lead channel has that Santana, oboe like midrange vibe. Also much less gain here, still a lot at max, but useable throughout the range. Set lower, it can mimic a single channel, volume knob riding affair. LOTS more volume than my SE30 too, which surprised me, I expected it to have marginally more but not much. The SE had a sweet spot between 11:00 and 3:00, it had more volume available but the tone started to get bloated. The added presence knob on the Custom helps keep the amp barking when it's roaring.
I don't see why people say this amp is so generic sounding, it's really sweet! I also wanted to try an Archon... I still do, but I think this was the better choice for me right now. I can throw a pedal on the clean channel and get a tight, ripping metal tone if I want to, but if I'd gone the other way, I think a pedal would have a hard time touching the lead channel of this amp.
Even through my SE 2x12, I'm very impressed. Thinking about building a 2x12 vertical with a slant top and putting in the V30's I picked up a while back, to get closer to the PRS spec, along with some nice upward projection for gigs.
