PRS Guitars have announced a new line of SE-series amplifiers that will be shipping later this year. The new line includes three amps: the PRS SE 20, the PRS SE 30, and the PRS SE 50:
Modeled after the acclaimed PRS SE line of guitars, this new amp line continues the concept of providing affordable musical instruments and equipment without sacrificing tone, usability, or quality. The lineup, scheduled to start shipping in the fall of 2011, includes the PRS SE 20 featuring 6V6 tubes, PRS SE 30 featuring 5881’s, and PRS SE 50 featuring EL34’s– all of which are offered as closed back 1×12 combos or as heads. The clean and lead channel gain stages are driven by 12AX7 preamp tubes. Loop, verb, and phase inverter utilize 12AT7s. These are all tube amps with all pots, jacks, and switches chassis mounted and tube sockets board mounted, offering incredible quality and value. A PRS SE 2×12 cabinet is available as well. All the amps in this family feature two channels with separate EQ, an effects loop, and reverb (all newer features for PRS –introduced on the 2 Channel “H” and “C”). Each amp also boasts custom wound transformers, 0.090 aluminum chassis, high-end “on-on-on” selector switches, only the best NNS tubes, custom-voiced speakers, custom knobs, and more.
I’ve owned several of the Korean-made PRS SE guitars, and they were all very well-made for the price point. I would expect the amps to be of the same quality. Elderly Instruments has some preliminary pricing for the amps on their website, although I don’t know if the final pricing has been determined yet.
Below is a demo video of the PRS SE 20. This video highlights the flexibility of the clean channel. Hopefully, there will be some more demos soon highlighting more features of the amps. For now, check out the demo below:
Dereck Trucks plays through a top-of-the-line PRS amp and gets beautifully sweet tones. Nonetheless, the reviews on the original models are good but not raving. These SE’s models promise a lot of quality for the buck. We can only hope any cost-cutting measures employed to get these within the mid-range price point doesn’t compromise tone or versatility.
I agree, Ed. I’ve been pretty impressed with their SE series guitars, so I hope that continues with the amps.