One of my local shops here has a pretty good selection of low wattage tube heads in the shop so spent some time today playing a few. The one head I have been wanting to get my hands on is the PRS MT-15 and one finally arrived at that shop.
They had the Marshall JCM 800, Anniversary, and Origin 20's, Boogie Mark 5 and the Mini Rec, 5150, the PRS MT-15 and the Peavey 6505 all in the same shop.
The litte Marshall's are all 3 killers the JCM 800 was the one I liked the best of the 3 but all 3 are just outstanding little heads. Limited however with all 3 being single channel amps but really good tones.
The boogies are also nice but to me the EL 84's were killers as am EL 84 overloaded with 3 84 amps. Liked the Mk5 in particular but was overly complicated and pricey + already own 2 Boogies so--.
5150 was not my thing can't put my finger on it just some thing about the feel I can't live with. LOVE the big 100 wat 5150 head but there is just something thet doesn't feel right with the little head. Good sounding amp but just not what I was looking for + had no real clean.
The biggest surprise was the MT -15. Cleans are really nice big round and Fender like was not expecting the cleans to be that good. The Red channel was also really nice big round warm and very smooth. Gain was pretty high even at the bottom on the range however the amp was very touch sensitive and cleaned up well even at higher gains with the guitar volume and touch.I was expecting the amp to be louder than what it was from the reviews. It's not lacking in power but is also not as loud and uncontrollable as some of the reviews lead me to believe it would be. Seemed to be spot on what you would need to play small to mid size clubs with enough volume and clean head room to get over a drummer but still not overbearing like a big 100 watt head is when you get it up enough to sound right. Thought the same about all 3 of the little Marshalls also BTW.
The most expressive and biggest sounding of the small amps I played by far were interestingly enough the ones running the big bottle tubes at low grid voltage in the 3 Marshals and the PRS. To my ear there was just a character to those 4 that set them apart for the rest. The Marshall's are straight up stellar rock amps but all 3 are single channel amps so that knocks them out for what I need.
That leaves the PRS which was surprising to say the least. At the price point of $650 thought it was the best bang for the $ by far of all of the amps I tried today. Great cleans big fat round and articulate crunches tones of gain but still articulate and clear with fantastic touch sensitivity really a great little rig. Biggest surprise however was the one I played was dead quiet even at high gain. That is the one thing that had been a fight with my Jet city head that the Over Drive side even at low gain it just is going to be noisy. Seeing that I am running it at Church with a mic on a cab in the back that has been a problem, I have wound up running a Tube Screamer on the clean side most of the time and only using the high gain channel as a lead boost because of this. The PRS MT-15 is the amp i thought the little Jet City JCA 22H head was but just doesn't quite make it.
Now got to come up with a plan on selling a couple things because after today I will at some point own a PRS MT-15!
They had the Marshall JCM 800, Anniversary, and Origin 20's, Boogie Mark 5 and the Mini Rec, 5150, the PRS MT-15 and the Peavey 6505 all in the same shop.
The litte Marshall's are all 3 killers the JCM 800 was the one I liked the best of the 3 but all 3 are just outstanding little heads. Limited however with all 3 being single channel amps but really good tones.
The boogies are also nice but to me the EL 84's were killers as am EL 84 overloaded with 3 84 amps. Liked the Mk5 in particular but was overly complicated and pricey + already own 2 Boogies so--.
5150 was not my thing can't put my finger on it just some thing about the feel I can't live with. LOVE the big 100 wat 5150 head but there is just something thet doesn't feel right with the little head. Good sounding amp but just not what I was looking for + had no real clean.
The biggest surprise was the MT -15. Cleans are really nice big round and Fender like was not expecting the cleans to be that good. The Red channel was also really nice big round warm and very smooth. Gain was pretty high even at the bottom on the range however the amp was very touch sensitive and cleaned up well even at higher gains with the guitar volume and touch.I was expecting the amp to be louder than what it was from the reviews. It's not lacking in power but is also not as loud and uncontrollable as some of the reviews lead me to believe it would be. Seemed to be spot on what you would need to play small to mid size clubs with enough volume and clean head room to get over a drummer but still not overbearing like a big 100 watt head is when you get it up enough to sound right. Thought the same about all 3 of the little Marshalls also BTW.
The most expressive and biggest sounding of the small amps I played by far were interestingly enough the ones running the big bottle tubes at low grid voltage in the 3 Marshals and the PRS. To my ear there was just a character to those 4 that set them apart for the rest. The Marshall's are straight up stellar rock amps but all 3 are single channel amps so that knocks them out for what I need.
That leaves the PRS which was surprising to say the least. At the price point of $650 thought it was the best bang for the $ by far of all of the amps I tried today. Great cleans big fat round and articulate crunches tones of gain but still articulate and clear with fantastic touch sensitivity really a great little rig. Biggest surprise however was the one I played was dead quiet even at high gain. That is the one thing that had been a fight with my Jet city head that the Over Drive side even at low gain it just is going to be noisy. Seeing that I am running it at Church with a mic on a cab in the back that has been a problem, I have wound up running a Tube Screamer on the clean side most of the time and only using the high gain channel as a lead boost because of this. The PRS MT-15 is the amp i thought the little Jet City JCA 22H head was but just doesn't quite make it.
Now got to come up with a plan on selling a couple things because after today I will at some point own a PRS MT-15!
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