andy474x
Knows the Drill
New guitar day, new amp day, what pedal should I get day!
PRS announced their summer amp and pedal promotion just after I bought my DGT15. Right after I bought it.
How dare they leave me out! I won't stand for it!!!
My opportunity for sweet revenge emerged in the form of my local shop having their summer sales event. Guitars on sale, and if you buy one, it unlocks 20% off amps. And, if I buy a PRS amp, I get the PRS pedal promotion that I was deliberately left out of in a cold, calculated act of betrayal. I'll show them!!!
Ok... maybe I'm not actually THAT mad about it. But, I figured I should check out the sale.
I tried a handful of guitars, mostly SE's and S2's, and a nice 2020 core Custom 24-08. The S2's and 24-08 were all as great as I expected, they just didn't give me anything I don't already have. The same with most of the SE's, except for the NF3 with maple fretboard. I've played the rosewood board model previously, and thought it was a really cool and versatile guitar, but it just didn't quite have the character I personally would want out of it. Same with the video demos from PRS, the maple board sounded like it might have something extra going on. It did. That extra little snap of note attack, combined with the feel of the maple board, is fantastic. The feel and build of many of the set neck SE models has diverged more and more from what I appreciated about the WMI era SE's, but I do love the carve and very light satin finish of the maple neck bolt ons of late, and the way they do maple boards is the cherry on top.
Well, you know I had to try guitars through the Sonzera 20. Have y'all tried the new version of this amp??? I never got along with V1 at all, despite many attempts, but every time I've used the V2 floor model at this shop, I really liked it, radical improvement of the voice of the amp. The combination of the NF3 and Sonzera was absolute perfection. And, I had a frivolous, but fun, desire to have the whole "set" of low wattage PRS amps. Man, if this kind of gear was around when I started playing...
Anyways, I'm sure you know how this played out.
The NF3 is a pretty remarkable instrument for an SE - great physical balance, that neck feel, great sustain, and the pickups are really something else. Individually, they have the bell like qualities of a single coil, but with enough midrange to be full sounding. As a set, they really nicely balanced, voiced to be clear in the neck pickup and gutsy, not shrill at the bridge, all without having to adjust the guitar or amp controls, which to me is the most remarkable thing, it really makes the instrument. I wouldn't even consider putting a full size HB in the bridge position, as some might expect to do, it's not necessary. It might just be my top contender for the coveted "do it all" guitar in the SE line. Also, the metallic orange is stunning! My only critique is that there's a very slight sensation of the fret edges on the sides of the fretboard - I wouldn't call them sharp, or sprouted, you can just feel them more so than on core, S2, or older SE's. Not a deal breaker, and the frets are dead on when it comes to buzz free playing, no dead spots, etc.
The Sonzera, wow! My concern of it sounding a little boxy due to the small cabinet went away when I wound the amp up at home, it opens up nicely. Tons of headroom and an American black panel voice on the clean side, and a dirty channel that sounds so much better than amps with comparable cleans - it's a Fender Hot Rod killer, for sure, and the size makes it an excellent grab and go compared to those amps, too. If I had a critique here, it would be simply that the clean channel seems to be tuned for the output of humbucker (and narrowfield) pickups - it's like the low gain input on a vintage Fender amp. True singles are just a hair thin sounding alone, add a few dB of boost out front it's right in the zone.
So, that brings me to, which pedal do I choose from the PRS pedal promo? Got the Horsemeat already, so it's down to the Mary Cries or Wind Through the Trees. Mary Cries would be the obvious choice to use as a boost for single coils into the Sonzera, but that flanger is pretty wild.
PRS announced their summer amp and pedal promotion just after I bought my DGT15. Right after I bought it.
How dare they leave me out! I won't stand for it!!!
My opportunity for sweet revenge emerged in the form of my local shop having their summer sales event. Guitars on sale, and if you buy one, it unlocks 20% off amps. And, if I buy a PRS amp, I get the PRS pedal promotion that I was deliberately left out of in a cold, calculated act of betrayal. I'll show them!!!
Ok... maybe I'm not actually THAT mad about it. But, I figured I should check out the sale.
I tried a handful of guitars, mostly SE's and S2's, and a nice 2020 core Custom 24-08. The S2's and 24-08 were all as great as I expected, they just didn't give me anything I don't already have. The same with most of the SE's, except for the NF3 with maple fretboard. I've played the rosewood board model previously, and thought it was a really cool and versatile guitar, but it just didn't quite have the character I personally would want out of it. Same with the video demos from PRS, the maple board sounded like it might have something extra going on. It did. That extra little snap of note attack, combined with the feel of the maple board, is fantastic. The feel and build of many of the set neck SE models has diverged more and more from what I appreciated about the WMI era SE's, but I do love the carve and very light satin finish of the maple neck bolt ons of late, and the way they do maple boards is the cherry on top.
Well, you know I had to try guitars through the Sonzera 20. Have y'all tried the new version of this amp??? I never got along with V1 at all, despite many attempts, but every time I've used the V2 floor model at this shop, I really liked it, radical improvement of the voice of the amp. The combination of the NF3 and Sonzera was absolute perfection. And, I had a frivolous, but fun, desire to have the whole "set" of low wattage PRS amps. Man, if this kind of gear was around when I started playing...
Anyways, I'm sure you know how this played out.
The NF3 is a pretty remarkable instrument for an SE - great physical balance, that neck feel, great sustain, and the pickups are really something else. Individually, they have the bell like qualities of a single coil, but with enough midrange to be full sounding. As a set, they really nicely balanced, voiced to be clear in the neck pickup and gutsy, not shrill at the bridge, all without having to adjust the guitar or amp controls, which to me is the most remarkable thing, it really makes the instrument. I wouldn't even consider putting a full size HB in the bridge position, as some might expect to do, it's not necessary. It might just be my top contender for the coveted "do it all" guitar in the SE line. Also, the metallic orange is stunning! My only critique is that there's a very slight sensation of the fret edges on the sides of the fretboard - I wouldn't call them sharp, or sprouted, you can just feel them more so than on core, S2, or older SE's. Not a deal breaker, and the frets are dead on when it comes to buzz free playing, no dead spots, etc.
The Sonzera, wow! My concern of it sounding a little boxy due to the small cabinet went away when I wound the amp up at home, it opens up nicely. Tons of headroom and an American black panel voice on the clean side, and a dirty channel that sounds so much better than amps with comparable cleans - it's a Fender Hot Rod killer, for sure, and the size makes it an excellent grab and go compared to those amps, too. If I had a critique here, it would be simply that the clean channel seems to be tuned for the output of humbucker (and narrowfield) pickups - it's like the low gain input on a vintage Fender amp. True singles are just a hair thin sounding alone, add a few dB of boost out front it's right in the zone.
So, that brings me to, which pedal do I choose from the PRS pedal promo? Got the Horsemeat already, so it's down to the Mary Cries or Wind Through the Trees. Mary Cries would be the obvious choice to use as a boost for single coils into the Sonzera, but that flanger is pretty wild.
