Official Site of Pritchard Amps

Universatility

The huge selection of great guitar amp tones, acoustic amp tones, violin amp tones, the wonderful harp amp notes, and pedal steel amp tones tell us that Pritchard amps are truly universal instrument amplifiers. How can this be when there are so many amplifiers out there that specialize in a particular instrument or guitar. How can this be when even more amplifiers narrowly specialize in a particular musical style as well? How can this be when so many believe that particular amps are needed for the many situations in a player’s experiences? Why do some players carry the best part of a ton of equipment from session to session? Why do players ask what type of an amp is this? Historically, decades now, amplifiers have been and most still are one-trick ponies optimized for a particular instrument and style.

Pritchard Amps has changed this perception. Pritchard amps have three factors that make them far more universal: (1) the harmonic production, (2) the Voice Knob™, and (3) the Watts Knob™ and Practice Jack™ attenuators. These features combine to make Pritchard amplifiers a great choice for all musicians from the weekend warrior to session players and touring artists.

The musical low-order harmonic production of Pritchard Amps rises gently as the signal segways into and also helps the clipping tones. The segway harmonic behavior provides musicians with that magic region between clean and dirty where picking strength is traded for harmonic expression. The harmonic nature of Pritchard amps is an artistic exaggeration of the vintage character, so prized and sought after by tone connoisseurs everywhere.

The Voice Knob™ has two types of voices, ones inspired by great vintage amplifiers and ones inspired by musicians’ needs:

Voices inspired by great vintage amplifiers
- M – Moderately bright - The famous "ballsy" British tone
- V – Very bright - The famous "chimey" British tone
- F – Famous Flat - The famous American tone
Voices inspired by musicians’ needs
- A – Airy Art – inspired by acoustic guitar tone and quite useful with both electric and electrified acoustic guitars.
- S – Solo – inspired by the need for solo guitars to occupy a greater tonal space.
- L – Liquid Lead – a combination of famous American and British tones – here the synergy of the sum is far greater than the individual parts. It is quite like the modern boutique.
- B – Bass Boost for a mellow character quite useful for jazz standards and pedal steel.
- P – Precision – an impression of the famous bass guitar that also gives standard guitars that Tele touch.
- H – Heavy – a high bass notch with a lot of treble emphasis (Gold Estoc/Sabre).
- H – Heavy – a midrange notch with substantial treble emphasis (Sword and Blood Dagger).
- N – Notch – the deep midrange notch (Gold Estoc).

The Gold Estoc has the greatest range of tones as the main channel is vintage and the second channel is more modern boutique overdrive.

The Watts Knob™ accommodates the lower levels of smaller rooms by scaling the amplifier output power. This unique control lowers the sound level while preserving tone by keeping all of the output stage interrelationships the same. Since the Watts Knob™ control does not completely attenuate the level, the Practice Jack™ provides the lower levels needed for in home practice without disturbing domestic tranquility. It uniquely compensates for hearing loss at lower levels and appropriately loads the amplifier so that it behaves more like it does when driving full loads.

The net result: a simply great amp that comps jazz also rocks; the amp that can twang that Tele thing is also great for harp and fiddle; the amp that can do acoustics or acoustic impressions can also present pedal steel in a warm, thick light. Shifting from a mellow ballad to screaming hard rock is no problem - instantly with a touch upon the channel switch or a little slower by resetting the controls. As Carey Cox, an early Pritchard amp owner, exclaimed, "Every week I seem to stumble on a great, and I mean GREAT tone!"