NGD - PRS MT 15 - with unboxing

[AlexA]

I was craving one of these amps since they were announced at Namm but unfortunatly everytime I checked my online go to stores they were always sold out. Finally I was able to grab one and they sound just great, couldn't believe how loud the amp is until I was able to hear it in person.

I just uploaded an unboxing video to Youtube showcasing the amp and the box contents. There's a quick test on the end with the eq on mid and with a shure sm 57 on axis. I'll probably do a more in depht review style video later. I'll leave the video here in case any of you guys want to watch it.

Cheers,
Alex A.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Nice video Alex. A Mark Tremonti PRS would go really nicely with your new amp!

 

[andy474x]

You’ve got that thing sounding great already! No surprise, it’s a fantastic amp. I got lucky and snagged one (almost by accident) very early on. And it has exceeded my expectations in every way!

Congrats on NAD!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Very nice chops too Alex

 

[AlexA]

You’ve got that thing sounding great already! No surprise, it’s a fantastic amp. I got lucky and snagged one (almost by accident) very early on. And it has exceeded my expectations in every way!

Congrats on NAD!

Thanks dude. The eq was at 12 o'clock just to try the amp and I think it can sound even better if I tweak it a little bit.

Very nice chops too Alex

Thanks dude! I'm actually very rusty because I was 2 years without playing guitar. Time to get my chops up to speed!

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Sounds great. Hope you enjoy it!

I just thought of something while watching your vid. That amp, on top of my Mesa Thiele/EM12 would be the smallest rig ever that was cable of blowing your head off your shoulders.

 

[X-Mann]

Congrats to you & welcome to the club/forum!!!!

Peace! X

 

[bodia]

Sweet! Great amp, for sure! Congrats!

 

[AlexA]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm very hapy with the amp!

 

[Tremontinator]

I was craving one of these amps since they were announced at Namm but unfortunatly everytime I checked my online go to stores they were always sold out. Finally I was able to grab one and they sound just great, couldn't believe how loud the amp is until I was able to hear it in person.

I just uploaded an unboxing video to Youtube showcasing the amp and the box contents. There's a quick test on the end with the eq on mid and with a shure sm 57 on axis. I'll probably do a more in depht review style video later. I'll leave the video here in case any of you guys want to watch it.

Cheers,
Alex A.

Happy NAD!!!

I love mine. I have complaints but, I love it


The boost needs to be global and foot switchable.

The knob layout could be more logical. I don't understand
Presence
Lead volume
Clean settings
Clean volume
Dirty settings

I wish it had a master volume so I could crank the preamp, and get all of that wonderful saturation at bedroom volume.

FX loop needs to be foot switchable.


Build it that way, and I would've happily paid $750.

Take away the LEDs, and I think you can knock $50 off the tag.

Ditch the red vents and depressions on the sides, making it smooth, reduce all the air holes in it and use larger holes, and you'll have a faster and cheaper build. I think this could knock off another $25

Take the current amp minus some cosmetics and LEDs, and it should cost $575. Think about that for a moment.

And the previous improvements (where I said I would pay $750), but ditch the cosmetics, and we're talking $675.

Everybody has been complaining about the feet making it sit funny on top of cabs, and complaining about the Carry handle.


I also don't see the need for the all metal construction. I think the customer could save a few bucks if it retained the metal chassis, and used a plastic bottom and cheap wood cover.

I also think a third channel is worth another $75-$100.


And if I'm nitpicking, the volume and gain knobs are next to useless. CSguitars on YouTube talked at length about this but, basically, he said manufacturers know you can only test amps at a certain volume level so, they make their low setting louder so you'll buy their amp over the competitor's with a more honest volume sweep.

He had the MT15 volume knob set at 1/4 AKA 9:00, and peaked at 101db.


The gain knob seems to go from 0-full instantly, and the sweep seems to only affect sustain and saturation. Maybe headroom. I'd like to be able to dial back the Distortion instead of dialing back guitar volume in order to have it be more dynamic. I tried an OD in front of it at the store, and it just made the final sound noisy. On the clean channel, the OD pedal didn't crunch enough for me.

If you had the ability to roll off the Distortion, you would have the ability to go from clean to crunch on the clean channel, to rhythm and lead on the dirty channel by adding an OD and then a boost pedal.



I'm not complaining. I knew all of this before I bought it. I'm very happy.

I just think there are some items that are inflating the price, and some features could be added for around $100-$200 that would take this amp from amazingly great to superbly killer.

For me, it's right there in the ballpark for what I want. Just needs a few tweaks to take it over the tippy top

 

[Deleted member 5962]

So basically, you want a Sonzera.

Just kidding, but you basically just redesigned the whole amp. The gain comes on very fast on the Archon as well, but as I and others have verified, there IS JCM800 type crunch in there, you just have to turn the gain WAY down. I’m talking 7:30 - 8:00. The volume sweep however, is one of the best ever. At one point, I thought that my Mark V was louder in 45 watt mode than my 50 watt Archon was. But one day when the wife was gone, I turned the V up more and more and after half way, it wasn’t getting any louder. Meanwhile, the Archon at half was LOUD, but not nearly as loud. But it just got louder and louder as you turned it up. EVEN between 4:00 and 5:00 (full volume) there was an increase.

The other thing is, it’s easy to say “well then change the volume pot value/sweep on the MT15 to be like that... and yeah, it seems a lot complain about it coming on really fast in the volume. But the more gain amp has, the more careful you have to be with the volume pot value to meet the range of gains available. Still, seems they could probably redo that and improve the amp.

As to some of your other points... well, even a cheap would case is way more than a metal one. That has been discussed for years on multiple amps. And, I don’t understand your list of controls. The MT15 has the following...
Gain channel - Gain, master, treble, middle and bass.
Clean channel - Bass, Middle, Treble and volume.
Presence is global.

You say you wish it had master so you can crank the preamp at low volumes... the gain channel does have a master! I’m not sure what’s missing here. Maybe the master volume comes on too fast, but it is there. And again, if you dial it carefully, you should be able to get any amount of gain you want at low volume.

 

[Tremontinator]

So basically, you want a Sonzera.

Just kidding, but you basically just redesigned the whole amp. The gain comes on very fast on the Archon as well, but as I and others have verified, there IS JCM800 type crunch in there, you just have to turn the gain WAY down. I’m talking 7:30 - 8:00. The volume sweep however, is one of the best ever. At one point, I thought that my Mark V was louder in 45 watt mode than my 50 watt Archon was. But one day when the wife was gone, I turned the V up more and more and after half way, it wasn’t getting any louder. Meanwhile, the Archon at half was LOUD, but not nearly as loud. But it just got louder and louder as you turned it up. EVEN between 4:00 and 5:00 (full volume) there was an increase.

The other thing is, it’s easy to say “well then change the volume pot value/sweep on the MT15 to be like that... and yeah, it seems a lot complain about it coming on really fast in the volume. But the more gain amp has, the more careful you have to be with the volume pot value to meet the range of gains available. Still, seems they could probably redo that and improve the amp.

As to some of your other points... well, even a cheap would case is way more than a metal one. That has been discussed for years on multiple amps. And, I don’t understand your list of controls. The MT15 has the following...
Gain channel - Gain, master, treble, middle and bass.
Clean channel - Bass, Middle, Treble and volume.
Presence is global.

You say you wish it had master so you can crank the preamp at low volumes... the gain channel does have a master! I’m not sure what’s missing here. Maybe the master volume comes on too fast, but it is there. And again, if you dial it carefully, you should be able to get any amount of gain you want at low volume.

Bro, pick an amp and let's discuss it's finer points. Doth thee even owneth an MT15?

Channel volume and master volume aren't mutually exclusive.

And I was saying the knob layout is out of order.

R-L
Presence, lead volume, clean EQ settings, clean volume, dirty EQ, gain

Wouldn't it make sense to put the feckin lead volume with the other feckin lead settings? Capische?

You brought up a point that I forgot: Presence is global. You can set the presence knob perfectly for the clean channel OR perfectly for the dirty channel. If each channel had independent presence controls, you wouldn't have to compromise.

For example, mine is too high for the clean channel, and not high enough for the dirty channel.

Turn the gain WAY down. On a 2 channel amp. Are you insane

It needs a third channel, voiced identically but with less gain.

[I would love to see an ultra low gain knob added to the clean channel in order to put some hair on it.]

Your whole schpeil about volume proved my point. Not sure if that was intentional.

I stand corrected on the case of the amp housing case.


Again, a master volume would be a third, global volume knob which would control both channels. If you crank the channel volume but, leave the master low, you're driving and saturating the preamp tubes while keeping overall volume low.

Hence the term "master volume"


And here's the video explaining volume knobs: