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[gadgetfreak]

Hey all first off I'm new member so Hello good people, I just scored a brand new discontinued Prs Se 30 combo for 450. They cut the price in half at GC because I guess it's no longer in production, not sure on that one. I have many different amps from Fenders and Marshalls to some clone's from Marsh. I think this amp is an amazing amp at regular price with the appointments it has but at half price, damn that's the same price as my mother-n-law's cigarettes a month,lol.

I am tickled pink on my score but I really wanted to ask any other owners of the Se 30 combo what are you feelings after owning it for awhile? I really love the clean channel, I am a blues/rock guy so channel 2 really don't do anything for me but it's all good.

I have been trying to figure out the speaker in this amp as well, bass is a little boomy, have to turn it down more than I'm used to. I don't know if that's the amp or the speaker or both. I was thinking if they made this in China they most definitely probably cheaped out on the speaker, but I could be very wrong.

So any other owners let me know you thoughts on what appears to me a pretty cool, awesomely over-sized real wood cab and amp.
Look forward to hearing from owners. Thanks all

Edit: Btw I have always wanted to buy a Prs amp since I started watching Bob's demo's on youtube from Musicstorelive he get's insane tones and I do understand those are different amps but it's a start.

 

[HANGAR18]

Sounds like a great deal! Congratulations!
What kind of guitar is that semi-hollow? A Heritage H-535 maybe?

 

[andy474x]

Congrats and welcome! I also have an SE 30, head and cab version. They are indeed bassy amps, but I would rather have too much than a thin, raspy sound. Better to have too much and be able to turn it down than not enough! I would suggest first making sure that you go through the full range on your bass knob. Don't be afraid to run the bass really low, it's musical almost all the way down to 0. I generally run the bass on the clean channel around 9:00. Also, try turning the mids up, the amp is a bit woofy in the bass when the mids are scooped. Just like with the bass control, the mids are very useable, I run mine anywhere from 2:00 to almost wide open on the clean channel. With my bass at 9:00 and mids anywhere past 2:00, the bass stays pretty tight, at least in the realm of blues/rock. Switching on the bright switch will tighten things up even further if you want to get some good spanky neck pickup tones. Just play around with your EQ man, it's all there, you just have to look for it. That's one of the nice things about the amp, it's not like some budget amps that have one "sweet spot" where the stars align and it sounds good, you can really move those knobs around and tweak.

On the lead channel, it's a similar story, ride the EQ and don't be afraid to turn the gain down. That channel has TONS of gain, and your EQ will be more responsive if you dial it back a bit. I will admit that if you're gonna run the amp wide open on the master volume, the lead channel will get boomy, so I put an MXR EQ pedal in my effects loop to tame it a little. At lower volumes, the amp EQ should be fine on its own.

In my experience, I would say the SE amps aren't perfect for everyone, but for the right type of player they're awesome, and it sounds like you fall in that niche. I think PRS could've done a little bit of refining on the EQ to make them more enjoyable for a wider range of players, and that might be why they've been discontinued. But when you look at some of the features, they really knock it out of the park in some ways too - fully adjustable EQ per channel, quality stock tubes, instrument level effects loop, oversized cabinets, they did a lot right.

Anyways, I could go on all day, I'm a tone tweaker and have spent a lot of time fine tuning my rig. I'm here if you want to talk tones, until then, happy NAD!!!

 

[gadgetfreak]

The hollow body is a very special guitar man, it's 1977 Greco SA-900 and it's in show room condition except the checking that happens on the yellowed binding that was once white(i love that) and there is some patina on the pup's,bridge,etc... The best guitar I've ever owned hand's down, I actually chose this over a new production Es-335, no BS. The pickups on this guitar are the smoothest creamiest pup's i've ever owned. I have a nice set of 57's on that les paul next to it and the Greco's pup's are just more pleasing. The guitar is 100 stock original and I will hand it down too my son. Thanks for asking, and thanks for the tone tips Andy...I definitely am not afraid to twist dem knobs. Loving the amp so far, I mean even if I found out it wasn't for me where else can you get an amp made out of real wood with all these appoinments for 450, oh and the measly 30 dollars in tax or whatever it was. I got an insane deal and I never heard of the amp, I plugged in and liked the clean, googled it real quick and said I'll take it. There was another guy that was interested in it after I found it literally hiding in the corner next to a 2k walnut cab vox.

So far i can't find anything to complain about except I get a smell once the tubes are warmed up that remind's me of a Vht I once owned and I just hated the smell. I hope it goes away, it smells like a chinese factory I swear, weirdest thing I've ever encountered and very hard to explain. Actually I have a couple vintage acoustics that smell pretty nasty in the soundhole from the 70's and this smell reminds of that old funk. I'll get over it.

So has anyone actually taken the tube covers off and seen that they were tungsols underneath? I have some nos 12at7's from the 50's still new literally in the old yellow boxes, I wonder if they would even make a difference on this new production amp. The power tubes are some stout looking bottles. I want to know more about the trannies and the guts, why did they discontinue the 30 watter and keep the other two? The bias feature is second to none, that is how the best boutique amps in the world do it, and another that caught my eye. I said if they have a test point and a trim pot right there somebody thought this amp out. What kind of Eminence is in there, anyone know the wattage on it? I bet this amp would sound amazing with a celestion based speaker. I won't do anything until I let it break in first, I've been surprised before from eminence speakers. This amp was the only one the store got beside's two head's they sold and it sat there for 7 months so they put it on clearance. I was ready to walk out with either a drri,dsl40c,or the blackstar ht40 but like I said I did one more walk around and found this. I am in Boston btw, it was at the GC across from Fenway park I found it. I also picked up a keeley compressor(4 knob) and a Carbon Copy, still playing around with them..don't know if they will stay. I never really used pedals but I thought it would be fun to try with the amp.

 

[gadgetfreak]

I've never really owned amps with an effects loop, so I also own a fish-n-chips eq pedal. you think by using that in the loop I can get more control? Would I put it after the carbon copy or before? Thanks for the info

 

[andy474x]

Really, Boston??? I'm in Boston too! Too funny. That's where I got my SE30, small world. I started to wonder when you mentioned that walnut cab vox, but I thought nah, just a coincidence! I actually just put up a post about a week ago about the insane PRS amp deals they have going right now, glad someone is taking advantage of them!

Put the fish n chips in your loop, the EQ probably will work before or after the delay. Headed out to a show right now, but maybe sometime we could get together and jam, do a little tone tweaking on our amps!

 

[László]

Cool amp, and great buy!

And welcome!

 

[gadgetfreak]

Has anyone tried to put in a 5751 tube in V1? I was just curious what a lower gain tube would do for the amp. So far I am blown away by the tone I'm getting but it could be a tad smoother at times. I am totally nit picking but it's a curse with amps and me, can't leave a good thing alone. I haven't actually taken the back off, how many 12ax7's are there and what make are they? Did they use tungsol for those too? I find tungsol tubes to be brighter when they are 12ax7's, I have some other's I might try. From reading the amp description they make it sound like there are more 12at7's than ax7's which is weird to me. Just thinking out loud, if anyone has anything to share, jump in.

 

[andy474x]

Man, this is getting weird. I apologize in advance. I promise, I'm not stalking you.

I tried the 5751. Left it in the first position of the lead channel, just to tame the gain a bit. It doesn't make a huge difference, but it's a step in a good direction. I suspect for you, even do a pair of them on the lead channel, which has two 12ax7's stock, and you could get the gain down even a bit more on that channel. They can smooth out your clean channel too, but I opted to just leave the stock 12ax7 for the extra little bit of gain. You can get them in Boston at Bay State Vintage Guitars, they were the only place near downtown that had them (JJ's).

The stock tubes are 3 12ax7, 3 12at7, and 2 5751's. The preamp for the lead channel are 2 JJ 12ax7's, and the clean channel is one Tungsol 12ax7. The 12at7's are all JJ, for the reverb driver, effects loop, and phase inverter. The 5751's are Tungsol. If you look at the chart in the manual
http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/manuals/PRS_2channel_SE_Amp_Manual.pdf
the top of the diagram is the front of the amp, so looking in the back you'll be seeing the power tubes closest to you. The two 12ax7's on the front right are the lead channel, the one next to them is the clean channel. Now, that is a diagram for the USA 2 channel, so it does differ a little from the diagram from here on out: there is only one 12at7 in the front, furthest to the left, that's the reverb driver tube. Unlike the diagram, there are 2 in the back row, the one on your left is the effects loop, and the one closer to the power tubes is the phase inverter. I suggest trying a few different brands of 12at7 phase inverters as well, they seem to have an effect on the character of the amp.

Not trying to smother you with info man, I swear I'm not a know-it-all, I just have been doing all the same things you are. Tone is a fickle mistress.

 

[gadgetfreak]

No it's all good man I appreciate and welcome the information, I been messing around with amps for a bit so I understand a little. So I'm confused just a tad and maybe it's just a typo on your part, You stated the amp has "The stock tubes are 3 12ax7, 3 12at7, and 2 5751's." I wasn't aware this amp had any 5751's at all, I thought it was just 3 12ax7's and 3 12at7's and the power tubes. Did you mean to say that? What I am also curious about is the reverb being tube driven and coming from a spring reverb tank i would think it would sound more Fendery like that old school reverb sound but it's not at all, i wonder if it's the short tank or something else. I was quite shocked when i dimed the verb and I didn't get that old school California wipeout reverb sound. It's not like it's digital so i am a tad confused there.

I haven't taken the back off yet because I am just enjoying the amp as is but when I do I'm sure I will see what it has for pre amp tubes. Those are good tubes that PRS chose, most companies put cheap sovteks in the pre-amp.

The biggest question i am still looking for a legit answer is can these 5881's be swapped for 6l6's? They say they have overwound transformers and their is a bias adjust right on the back, but I wouldn't dare do it without knowing concrete if you can. I have some old 6l6's I would love to try that cost a fortune but I got a whole tube caddy from a customer of mine and they were in there, new in the box. I scored a bunch of different tubes with that score, he was a retired old school tv guy that ran an electronics shop on the cape and he gave me an old Ratheon tube caddy filled with all sorts of good tubes, I have scoffed up all the cherries for my amps and there are still a bunch of tubes in there I have no clue or use for, they are for tv's I presume. I should put em on ebay, i see them sell all day long. they are true nos in the original boxes but I don't have a tester so I wouldn't be able to charge the same i would guess.

Sorry off track, but yeah if anyone knows if 6l6's can be used let us know. I have been running my new Carbon Copy in the loop and it gives a nice big airy sound to the amp, I have it set so low but it's enough to where if I turn it off the amp sound's a little duller, idk it's hard to describe, cool pedal though. The keeley compressor I bought as well sound's awesome through the amp but again new to pedals I'm still trying to figure out some settings. I like how it kind of acts like a boost if set correctly.

Edit: I figured out that you meant to say 5881's instead of 5751's, i do that all the time. If you don't know there are some tubes online that are amazing 12at7's that are fairly cheap for true nos, they are on ebay and are called Jan Phillip 12at7's. I used them in my deluxe reverb and they were night and day from the stock at7's. Just a thought, I have some here that I will try so I will let you know if there is a big difference before you go spending money you don't need too.

 

[thieves&foxes]

I have the same amp, the SE 30 combo, it is bassy, but I have managed to tweak awesome tones out of it. The clean channel is a beaut, the lead channel can be fun but it takes time to find the tones.

 

[andy474x]

!!! I apologize, I meant to say the amp has 5881's, referring to the power tubes!!!

See, told you I don't know it all!

6l6's can be used, I checked with PRS customer service, bias at 30mv using the bias points on the back of the amp, if you have a multimeter. Could be a cool sound!

Did you have any luck trying the EQ in your loop? Let me know how those NOS 12at7's work!

 

[gadgetfreak]

Cool on the 6l6's,really cool. I like the tone of the 5881's don't get me wrong but having an external bias point is awesome so I am going to take advantage of using it. God knows I've taken a hundred chassis's out to bias and it's a p.i.t.a, they did it right on this amp.

No I haven't put the eq in the loop yet because I found a tone that I've been working with and have just been having fun with it. I will let you know how it works out. I will definitely let you know on the tubes as well.

What I am thinking is based on how they tweaked this amp for tone, especially the lead channel I think a Celestion creamback speaker will sound amazing in this amp, or a scumback speaker. When they are trying to do a boutiquey amp on a budget they got to cut corner's somewhere, and usually the speaker is one they cut. I will absolutely let it break in and hope I'm wrong but I am thinking there is lot's of potential here. Just the over-sized cab made of real wood with corner protectors is awesome and makes a huge difference in tone.

 

[gadgetfreak]

I just checked my bias and it was right at 36mV, they recommend 35. I thought I was at 53 so I turned it down and it sounded like **** so I went back and looked and sure enough I had meter on wrong setting, user error. Always double check your work before making changes, I could of easily went the wrong way and fried my tubes but I've done this before. I am used to using a bias probe because my other amps don't have this nice bias feature so my meter was set on mA's. Rookie mistake but it was wild to hear how sterile the amp sounded when I turned the bias way down by mistake, it was awful. Now I got the nice thick tone going again, nice feature on this amp

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Congrats!

 

[gadgetfreak]

house to myself today so I cranked the amp up with the suggested settings on the top of amp, man this thing is a beast. I swear they tweaked these amp's to be cranked. That's why they show the suggested settings with the volumes damn near dimed. I know most tube amp's thrive from power tube saturation but these amp's particularly really shine when all the way up. The amp lost any fizzyness from lead channel and the clean channel was just awesome, pristine to rock/blues grit. I don't get too open my amp up that much at home but man from this point forward when I do get a chance I'm going right for number 12. I used a G&L legacy today and controlled things with my volume control, man what a feeling. I want the 20 watt version as well. I got to have the 6v6's too, and I'm trying like hell to have one of the rep's at the store find me one for cheap like I got this one. Totally worth asking price though and I will tell friends in a second to do there homework and see what's really up in this price range.

 

[andy474x]

Lovin it, glad to hear you got to the good stuff!