WANTED: PRS Three-channel Amp

[watelessness]

do any of you guys remember the really old days when PRS only made single-channel amps? i asked PRSh about two-channel amps at a clinic because some guys, like myself, didn't put pedals in front of clean amps. he said he couldnt imagine anyone wanting a two-channel amp. a year later the C came out. i still have mine from that initial run.

i think it would be great to have a three-channel amp, with one pristinely clean channel and two dirty channels. the catch would be that the two dirty channels would have unique voices, one for classic and the other for modern overdrive sounds.

for the record, i own a C, Archon 100, Dallas, HXDA, and MT15. i've previously owned an Original Sewell, H, and Sweet 16.

 

[DISTORT6]

Isn’t that the intention of the MT100?

 

[watelessness]

hmmm. did i miss a memo?

 

[watelessness]

Isn’t that the intention of the MT100?

hmmm. did i miss a memo?

apparently i DID miss the memo. weird. i'd prefer one that was more dallas/c/archon though

 

[andy474x]

Just a bit ago the Brian's Guitars crew posted a photo of their old shop, with an absolute treasure trove of PRS amps... a couple of the single channel modded amps with the dragon graphic, an OG Archon 100, and a two channel of some kind, all with wooden faceplates... I miss all of that.

 

[ViperDoc]

Modern overdrive is accomplished by adding gain stages, so you can modernize your vintage OD tone by putting a pedal in front. Add a channel to taste.

 

[watelessness]

Modern overdrive is accomplished by adding gain stages, so you can modernize your vintage OD tone by putting a pedal in front. Add a channel to taste.

no
pedals.
no no no no no

 

[dkilpatrick]

Yeah I think the MT100 is the closest you can get to that right now in a PRS amp that is currently offered.

 

[ViperDoc]

no
pedals.
no no no no no

I feel you. Most three channel amps bypass one or two preamp stages for channel two, then add them back for channel 3. Adding a pedal in front of the amp is a transposition of V1, essentially whatever is in your pedal. I wonder if you'd like a tube OD from Kingsley, he knows his sh!t. But maybe what you're talking about is a totally re-voiced channel 3 that doesn't build onto channel two. That's a cool idea, but I think most builders don't do that because it's expensive, and most people will find pedals to be adequate.

I wonder how you'd like an ODS 183 clone--the Dumble ODS with EL34s and a hotter OD circuit. Dumble ODs are inserted after two gain stages inside the preamp, so it's not technically a 2-channel amp, even. But the sound of 183 is, IMO, f6cking incredible.

Joe Bonamassa used to run a Dumble preamp out (post OD) into the input of a Fender Super Reverb, thus having two preamps in series. It sounds mega. Check out the video on YT.

Somewhere, there's a 3 channel amp for you. Diezel? Randall?

 

[dmatthews]

no
pedals.
no no no no no

I hear ya. I used to run my H combo and Custom 50 combo with no pedals. As the band grew and more complicated songs came along I went Kemper instead of building a pedal board.
But again... I hear ya loud and clear!

 

[Gtrbldr]

I hear ya. I used to run my H combo and Custom 50 combo with no pedals. As the band grew and more complicated songs came along I went Kemper instead of building a pedal board.
But again... I hear ya loud and clear!

I did the same. And I simply do not like pedals for my main dirt; stacked OD pedals in a clean amp bug me. Simply bcause there is aways some clean headroom left and pedal gain in that headroom make the hairs on the back of my head stand up in a bad way.

However I do sometimes use a virtually no gain, subtle volume bump TS or Klon type OD on gained profiles in my kemper, to kick it a little in the middle nuts, even though I have higher gained profiles of that same amp. Just to achieve some cutting mids and a little more compression and sustain, without adding real gain.