PRS Sonzera

Revision to my previous comments about changing to different preamp and PI tubes: I went back to the stock tubes, it just wasn't sounding right with the swapped tubes!

So I did three things when jamming on it last night and this morning, and overall, I'm feeling a lot better about this amp:

1.) put the stock tubes back in.. probably should have left 'em in there in the first place!
2.) bought a Friedman Dirty Shirley 1x12 open back cabinet (16ohm Celestion G12M-65 Creamback)
3.) ran the Sonzera+Friedman cab through my Fryette Powerstation 2. (PS2)

My impressions now are much improved! The stock tubes are fine. Amp still has a ton of gain, but able to get cranked up nice crunchy, sustaining amp sound just with a bit lower speaker volume. Can even get some tube breakup / crunch with the clean channel if I crank it up a bunch and turn down the PS2. It would sound fine without the PS2 if able to be cranked up enough to hit the right spot. I'm in a pretty small room; so it's much happier attenuated in here a touch. At the jam spot we can open up the volumes considerably louder.

Responsiveness is good, tones are good, for lack of a better word; "feel" it good. Can dig in on notes and not get brittle or harsh. Dynamics good; can turn up or down on guitar and get nice tone shaping.
Dirt channel cleans up very nicely with some roll back; go from very high gain to crunchy bluesy just by working the guitar volume controls.

Dirt channel has ALOT of bass. Don't be afraid to turn it as far down as you need, all the way down is a bit thin, but there is a nice sweet spot depending on overall volume.

Not doing any radical amount of attenuation; and just a touch with the PS shaping controls.
It's been a fun morning! Wife gets home later this afternoon, so I've got a few more hours to play :)

A side note to that; guitar choice also helps.. Played my buddies LP through it last night with and without the PS2, before and after swapping back the tubes.
Sounded much better with stock tubes back in, and then sounded really good with PS2 on.

This morning I pulled out my PRS S2 (semi hollow) and jammed out for a while; liking the pairing of the S2 and the Sonzera; good stuff!

That's all I've got for now; time for breakfast me thinks..

Cheers!

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I've found the exact same to be true of my Custom 50 and previous SE 30 in regards to bass on lead channels (and sometimes clean channel), there's a ton on tap. Really have to adjust by ear more than by eye! My band is doing a song in studio this weekend, did my and our other guitarist's parts on the Custom 50 and the tech was very impressed with the PRS tone. I set up the mics on the amp at about 4" off the grill to avoid unnatural amount of bass, he kind of gave me the "ok, we'll try it..." but the second he sat down at his desk and heard it through the monitors he thought it was dead on, and admitted how surprised he was that it sounded so good. Said he wasn't used to recording such nice gear - cool!
 
Slight update; pleasantly surprised to get a message on Gear Page from Doug Sewell, clarifying which of the four 12ax7 / preamp tubes are which.
In essence, I was changing the wrong tubes! So; do over.. I will swap the correct tube to impact the gain range (V2; not V1) and report back how it does with the 5751 for starters, and maybe try the JJ mid gain 12ax7 too,

Going to leave the PI alone, and just mess with V2 for next round of experiments..

Was really cool to hear from Doug! I'm pretty pysched to hear it with the alternate tube in the right spot..

Cheers!

p.s. - for reference, if anyone else wants to know - the four preamp tubes from left to right (on the 50w head) are:
-V1 (in this photo, the one with the tube cover still on),
-V2,
-reverb,
-PI (far right)

The V1 stock tube is a JJ ECC83s; the other three are Ruby 12AX7-HG

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Was hoping to pick up my Sonzera 20 this wk,end 15th .
just had an Email from my retailer new date 7/7/17.
wow these must really be in demand. Not to worry I'll just hang on or swim the Atlantic :(!!!
 
I’m still hoping for a matching 2x12 cab for the 50 Head...
 
LSchefman said:
I'm very impressed with the tone coming out of those amps, regardless of the money involved; at their price, they're a steal.
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I see what you did there.

Thank you, Les, for correct usage of those words! I almost want to sob in happiness!

And yeah, these amps sound like the bee's-knees, at a really affordable price point.

If I wasn't so darned enamored with an HXDA, I might have already snagged one.
 
That demo isn't making me not want a CE either.

Sorry for the double negative immediately following a grammar post!
 
andy474x said:
That demo isn't making me not want a CE either.

Sorry for the double negative immediately following a grammar post!
Click to expand...
Double negatives, despite rumors to the contrary, are a very powerful means for describing a state subtly different from a simple positive.

Anyway, I have several amp models that I have been eyeballing for a while, and the Sonzera is one of them - others are 2 Channel C, Sweet 16, and HXDA. HXDA is my current "if I could grab one at a great price" focus.

I'm not sure the Sonzera offers anything too different from what my Archon can do (and I think my Archon can go a lot heavier/higher gain), whereas I think the HXDA would be a nicely different tonal experience.

But! If a ~20W Sonzera head were to come out at a reasonable price point I would pick one up and use it as a lighter electric gigging rig.
 
shinksma said:
Double negatives, despite rumors to the contrary, are a very powerful means for describing a state subtly different from a simple positive.

Anyway, I have several amp models that I have been eyeballing for a while, and the Sonzera is one of them - others are 2 Channel C, Sweet 16, and HXDA. HXDA is my current "if I could grab one at a great price" focus.

I'm not sure the Sonzera offers anything too different from what my Archon can do (and I think my Archon can go a lot heavier/higher gain), whereas I think the HXDA would be a nicely different tonal experience.

But! If a ~20W Sonzera head were to come out at a reasonable price point I would pick one up and use it as a lighter electric gigging rig.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. That's exactly what the appeal of the Sonzera is for me - great grab and go pedal platform. But I also have the Custom 50, so I don't know how much tonal overlap there would be, but a Sonzera combo would be easier to lug than a head and 2x12 (and I have no problem buying an amp for such reasons). I also want an HXDA someday, while there's no denying its sweet tone, I'm not sure it would be as versatile for pedals.

I need to try an Archon too. Because I need to need.

Gear problems.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
You need to try an Archon. Not because you "need to need," but because you "need one!"
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bodia said:
Amen, bro!
Click to expand...
Indeed! the Archon is more than capable of those awesome high gain tones, but also works ab-so-lutely fantastically at lower gain or clean (with or without pedals).

But we are in the Sonzera thread, so:

I want to try a Sonzera. Maybe if the 20W Combo is available cheap on the used market I'll pick one up eventually.

But a 20W or even 50W Archon combo could be a great, and would weigh about the same. (I will admit that a 42lb or 45lb combo is not as "grab-and-go" as I would like, it would be so nice if they weighed in around 30 lbs, 35 lbs max...)
 
Sorry to hijack. I get carried away about the Archon, and as you know I have little to no forum related social skills. :eek:

I think the clips I've heard of the Sonzera sound great and I will absolutely check one out as soon as I see one in the stores. What I fined appealing about it is it "might" be a more open gain than the Archon. Clips can be deceiving but it might be less compressed and more open, and a less gain. SO it would fall more into that classic rock sweet spot. Honestly, even from clips, hard to resist at it's price point!
 
shinksma said:
Indeed! the Archon is more than capable of those awesome high gain tones, but also works ab-so-lutely fantastically at lower gain or clean (with or without pedals).

But we are in the Sonzera thread, so:

I want to try a Sonzera. Maybe if the 20W Combo is available cheap on the used market I'll pick one up eventually.

But a 20W or even 50W Archon combo could be a great, and would weigh about the same. (I will admit that a 42lb or 45lb combo is not as "grab-and-go" as I would like, it would be so nice if they weighed in around 30 lbs, 35 lbs max...)
Click to expand...
On Sweetwater's page, it says the 25W Archon combo weighs 34 pounds. I expected to see the 20W Sonzera was lighter but it's 42 pounds.
 
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