PRODUCT REVIEW
30
PRS
BY GARY GUzMAn
Many guitar manufacturers try their hand at
making amplifiers, to varying degrees of success. Perhaps many believe that since their
guitars are a big hit, they can easily branch
out and manufacture amps that will be just as
successful; some guitar companies do okay,
while others fail miserably. It’s a rare and
difficult task to create guitars and amps of
equally high quality, and then to be able to
maintain those high standards and good reputation. Paul Reed Smith seems to be headed
in that direction. The company known for
making amazing looking and sounding guitars
is quickly gaining a reputation for making
high-quality amps as well.
Paul Reed Smith joined forces with master
amp designer Doug Sewell and collaborated for nearly four years before unveiling
the highly anticipated PRS tube amp line
in early 2009. With a tip of the hat to both
classic American as well as British amps, PRS
produced a line of amps that catered to the
needs of varied playing styles and served
up some distinct and unique tonal possibilities. PRS released the Blue Sierra, the Dallas,
and the Original Sewell tube amps to rave
reviews. Now, Paul Reed Smith is rolling out
a series of lower wattage amps, including the
16-watt Sweet 16 and a new 30-watt cathode
biased amp called the PRS 30.
Described as “an English sound with an
American twist,” the PRS 30 features a quartet of EL84 tubes and a control layout similar
to the PRS Dallas amp. The preamp section
includes two 12AX7 tubes and two 12AT7
tubes. It also features a 3-spring Reverb with
medium decay, and a special Master Volume
that is dialed out of the circuit as the amp
volume reaches the maximum setting. The
amps are handmade in Stevensville, MD, and
are available in head and combo versions.
The front panel of the PRS 30 includes controls for Volume, Reverb, Treble, Middle, Bass
and Master Volume as well as a bright switch,
a power switch and one input jack. The rear
panel stays simple with an impedance selector,
a fuse compartment, and an extension jack
included in parallel with the speaker out jack.
For those guitarists who weren’t crazy about
the paisley look of the original PRS amps, they
will be happy to know that the PRS 30 amps,
along with the Sweet 16 and the accompanying new speaker cabinets, come in the new
PRS tuxedo (black and white) tolex, which
makes for a very classy look.
Plugging In
I received a PRS 30 head for review along
with a 1x12 PRS speaker cabinet. I wasted no
time in setting everything up and plugging
in. I naturally chose a PRS Mira X guitar with
humbucking pickups for the initial test drive.
When some people test-drive a new car, they
immediately want to see how fast the thing
goes. My first instinct was to dial in my favorite distortion setting on a tube amp—Treble
and Middle up half way, Bass and Volume
(gain) cranked, with the Master Volume up a
couple of notches. I quickly discovered that
those general settings don’t really work on this
amp! First of all, with the 1x12 closed-back
PRS speaker cabinet, the bass response was
rumbling and plentiful, so there was no need
to crank the Bass up all the way. The distortion was pretty fuzzy and grungy with those
settings, so I decided to start from scratch
and dial all of the parameters to neutral, 12
o’clock positions. I then got an instant British/
classic rock tone with thick, creamy distortion.
I only had to adjust the Treble to brighten up
the tone slightly, but otherwise it was a ballsy
overdriven tone with plenty of low end.
PREMIER GUITAR FEBRUARY 2010 147
I also plugged in my Slash Les Paul with
Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro-II humbuckers
