Jazz and other clean-tone
players now have an answer to the speaker break-up problem.
The new 2-8/1-5 cabinet has no break-up even at full Pritchard
amp power. The cabinet with the Jade Dagger, Sword of Satori,
or Sultry Margaux makes your tone warm, fat, full-bodied, resilient,
alive, and artistic even at high levels.
March
1, 2005
A beautifying step
was added to the cabinet finish. This extra effort makes the
Tolex™ grain stand out in a reflecting light and deepens
the green and black coloring of the Tolex™ at a different
viewing angle. This extra effort by Pritchard Amps adds great
visual dimensionality to all of the Pritchard Amps cabinets.
Febuary
1, 2005
Pritchard Amps Introduces
a new 4-12TB Cabinet option for those looking to go big. Boasting
four 12" custom Eminence speakers and Pritchard Amps' patented
and trademarked Tunnel Back™ technology.
It’s the legendary
4-12 on super steroids. The bashing Bass Thump of the custom
Eminence speakers is down an octave at 55 Hz (Low A) for great
de-tuned or 7-string performance. It has a huge, awesome bottom
and sparkling highs.
29.5 W 29.2 H 12
D, 75 lbs.
Off-the-chart WOW!
Factor!
August
10, 2004
New Demo Clip are
now available! These clips were done with a band to make comparisons
easier. You can now hear Pritchard amps as they might sound
in a live performance.
Pritchard amps have
an intrinsic "sleeper" character. They look diminutive
but sound far bigger than their size. They really project.
July
17, 2004
Recording Pritchard
Amps at Legendary Sun Studios
Tom Johnson’s
invitation to the Legendary Sun Studios proved quite interesting
and fruitful. Tom’s band Tzer (pronounced Teaser) needed
extra amps to record their latest creations. Tom’s recording
rig was his Pritchard 4-10 Sword of Satori equipped with Celestian
G10-50's and a second stock Pritchard 4-10 Sword of Satori fed
from a short delay to give a fuller, surrounding effect.
During the session,
the Sun Studios chief recording engineer, James Lott volunteered,
“Those amps really sound good, fat ass sound, sweet, round
with great tone definition. If not better than any boutique
amp, then at least as good..”
After all the recording
was done (see the artist
demos for Tzer tracks), Tom tried the new Gold Estoc in
a 1-12 closed back cabinet - probably the basic rig for modern
rock. It rocked. Then James Lott, tried the amp - first in rock
voices and then in a variety of other voices. With a look of
amazement, he exclaimed, “damn, Damn! DA-AMN!!”
July 7, 2004
The
Input Gain Control (the IN Knob) is often ignored by players
since it is not used in other amplifiers. However, it does serve
serious players quite well by replacing the tone enhancing process
of cherry-picking input tubes to get one with just the right
gain to match their guitar and their playing to the amplifier
and thereby create a tonal sweet spot.
With
Pritchard amps, you no longer need to take tubes out and put
tubes in to find just the tonal sweet spot, you only need to
adjust the IN Knob. With the Volume turned low and the Watts
Knob turned up to play clean, then play something clean and
as hard as you would want to play clean and then adjust the
IN Knob up until the first stage is on the verge of clipping.
Then picking hard will produce more harmonics than light picking.
The
penalty for setting the IN Knob too high is a dirty clean tone,
i.e. a tone that does not clean up without turning the guitar
down. The penalty for setting the IN Knob is too low is less
audible, just a little less tonal body and a little more noise.
June 6, 2004
Two
Pritchard amps, Gold Estoc and Blood Dagger now have more of
the huge distortion character of the modern “high gain”
amps. This design change was made after an investigation and
analysis of current “high gain” boutique amps that
showed that original the “L” voice was on the right
track, but now quite there yet. Now, the “L” voice
is even more impressive.
The “L”
voice is joined by similar voices “V” and “M”
that have more highs, but the same general character.
Good
News, Good News, and Bad News: The bad news is that the first
demo clips had to be removed because they were not recorded
correctly. The first good news is that the reason why they were
not recorded correctly gives physical credence to the great
sound from Tunnel Back™ cabinets. The second good news
is that the secnd demo clips are now available and are done
with a band to make comparisons more real.
The Tunnel Back™
Cabinets have a bass character that goes beyond what would be
capable in their small size from an open back cabinet. This
great bass character is directly attributable to the patented
Tunnel Back™ cabinet design. The tunnel acts like an acoustic
crossover. Above the cross over frequency the sound comes from
the front and very little comes through the tunnel and out the
rear. Below the cross over frequency the sound comes predominately
from the rear. This nature produces good room characteristics
because at substantial distances the bass back wave easily overpowers
the front wave to provide a great listening experience. This
is quite different from open back operation in which the back
wave almost cancels the front wave and the cabinet response
is somewhat compensated by speaker resonance and that leads
to problems in producing good dirty tones.
The bad news is
that close to the front of the cabinet, the back wave is not
so potent and the front and back waves tend to cancel. Further
bad news is that “microphones don’t lie” can
be given excessive meaning and weight. In fact, only microphones
at a distance pickup distant sound. Close mikes pickup close
sound. The cross over effect of the tunnel on the speaker demands
different microphone placements: Tech
Tips: Miking Tunnel Back™ Cabinets
The good news is
that we now know how to record the Tunnel Back™ cabinets,
but the bad news is that replacement clips are not yet available.
Dec 24, 2003
New
"Gold Estoc"formerly Gold Sabre
The Gold
Estoc is the latest amplifier design from Pritchard Amps.
It is a two-channel switching amplifier and a variant upon
the Sword of Satori. The major differences are in the fundamental
philosophy and the second channel. Until the Gold Estoc, every
channel can be used for both clean or dirty as well as those
wondrous in between tones. The main channel of the Gold Estoc
is now oriented towards vintage clean or vintage distortion,
and with the foot switchable boost capability, both. The Voice
Knob™ of the main channel is more oriented towards the
clean tones although it does have some dirty tones as well.
The new second channel, has been given more gain with treble
emphasis, a new Voice Knob™, a fourth stage, a post
preamp distortion volume control, and a rearrangement of the
boost function. The new Voice Knob™ has a new voice,
N for notch and consequently less severe than the H (Heavy)
voice. The remaining voices are F (Famous Flat), M (Moderately
Bright), V (Very Bright), and L (Liquid Lead). All of these
voices are given more treble emphasis by the fixed treble
emphasis of the preamp. The new, extra fourth stage is a patented
asymmetrical non-linear amplifier that inherently produces
second harmonics and soft clipping. The output of this stage
is trash filtered and drives the additional control, the post
distortion volume control. The boost function on this channel
is post distortion so that the amplifier can produce dirty
rhythm as well as a dirty lead.
The post distortion
volume control has two benefits. Like a master volume control,
you can get distorted tones below clean levels. Second, in
conjunction with the Watts Knob™, you can get distortion
mixing at low volumes.
The Gold Estoc's
bottom line, a versatile amplifier that can rightly
be called "the ultimate guitar amplifier". It can
do everything from warm, full-bodied clean through those wondrous
in between tones, to warm, fat, resilient vintage dirty tones
and then on to the modern thunderous tones too !!!
The reactions
to the Pritchard amplifier lines has prompted some redesign
in the second production run. The redesign put in option switches
to accommodate different playing styles. These switches have
the ability to turn off the noise gate, to select channels
for the reverb, to select output stage distortion characteristics,
plus more to be determined. Although these are not user serviceable,
anyone with an orientation for safety in electronics can readily
make the switch changes.
Practice
Jack™
The Practice Jack™
has been given a new filter that produces more signal and
with some added treble for an even better quiet playing experience.
Oct 14, 2003
New
Head
Pritchard Amps is
now accepting orders for the much asked for head version of
the amps. The head is offered in Sword of Satori, Gold Estoc
and Sultry Margaux versions and is available for Black and Blood
Daggers as well. It measures 18.9"w x12"d x 6"h
and features an output capable of 60Watts RMS @ 4-Ohms and 30Watts
RMS @ 8-Ohms w/special cable.
Patent
Awarded to Eric K. Pritchard
"Speaker Attenuation
for Practicing a musical Instrument no.6,631,195" Patent
has issued as of 10/7/03. Featured in Pritchard Amps' unique
Practice Jack™ which allows the amp to perform at a conversational
volume level without trading off full volume tone. This permits
backstage warm ups and bedroom/apartment playing while giving
you a degree of privacy.
Practice
Jack™
The
patented Practice Jack™ circuitry has been revised to
address requests from musicians. The attenuated output now sounds
and feels even closer to the Gig Jack (full volume output to
speakers) while providing a conversational level of output.
In
keeping with making Pritchard amps useful for every occasion,
we have recently created the H voice for Vintage Metal. This
voice has a high gain treble with really low gain bass for
singing highs and authoritative lows. This voice has created
a new Voice Knob™ that has the following voices as well:
1. H
- Heavy Dirt (New)
2. S - Smooth Solo - The voice is a great clean voice with
some dirty applications.
3. F - Famous Flat - somewhat like a famous American tone
4. M - Moderately bright - a famous British tone
5. V - Very bright - another famous British tone
6. L - Liquid Lead - a combination of famous American and
British tones - creamy like an expensive American tone
This
new switch is now used in the main channel of the Sword of
Satori. This gives Sword 9 different voices. The new switch
is the only Voice Knob™ in a new Dagger variant, “Blood
Dagger”.
Sword
of Satori is now available in a dual voltage version so that
it can be used virtually world wide as it will work on 115
VAC or 230 VAC and 50 or 60 Hertz.
The
headroom problem with the second channel of Sword of Satori
has been found and solved. The solution gives all Pritchard
Amps more gain and a new option to have the clean as loud
as the dirty at lower Watts Knob™ settings.
July
1, 2003
1-12/2-5
TB Cabinet Introduction
Since
Pritchard Amps has only recently started selling amps, the
entire Pritchard Amps concept is quite new. However, the most
recent development is a new cabinet for players who play in
different styles. This speaker configuration is a single 12
with two switchable 5's. The 12" speaker does the general
electric guitar duties by itself. Then by foot switching the
5's on, it can handle the highs needed by some types of clean
playing. The low notes of seven string and baritone guitars
are readily handled by the 12 because the patented Tunnel
Back™ cabinet reduces the 12's resonant frequency to
a B below the guitar's low E.
This
cabinet and a Sword of Satori make a super versatile combination.
