Part 3 of our ongoing coverage of the recent PRS Experience 2010 event that took place last weekend at the company’s Stevensville, Maryland headquarters. In addition to the six guitars announced yesterday, PRS also announced two new amps:
- Recording Amp — While your initial impression based on the name might be that this would be a low-power amp with a direct out for connecting to a DAW or console, that’s not where this amp is coming from. Rather, the name describes the amp’s ability to cover myriad different tones, from clean to dirty. Only 25 amps will be made; the basic design is similar to the 25th Anniversary Amp (which Paul Smith describes as a Plexi on steroids), but the Recording Amp adds a ton of tonal and gain shaping control via switches. We heard one demo where it was described as a cross between a Super Reverb and a Dumble — and the tones definitely held up to the description. There are 50-watt and 100-watt versions, heads and combos, in black or paisley, with beautiful coordinated stained curly maple panels and matching cabinets. Gorgeous to look at, and even mmore gorgeous to hear! We heard numerous artists play through this beast, and it sounded great with all of them. We can only hope that a “standard” production model follows soon, 25 units isn’t near enough to meet the demand!
- Channel-switching Amp — This one was so new at the Experience that it didn’t even have an official name! As you might guess, this amp has two channels, each with their own master and EQ; one ranges from clean to crunchy tones, while the other covers higher gain lead tones. Heads and combos will be available, both include an effects loop with send and return level controls. Only 20 of these amps were produced for the Experience, but hopefully a production version will follow soon.
The company also showed new versions of the Sweet 16 and PRS30 amps with beautiful curly maple front panels.
