Joined: 17 May 2004 Posts: 9 Location: Berkeley Springs, WV
Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 5:14 pm Post subject: Pritchard Amps
Thanks, the voices were derived two ways, from the tone of vintage amps and from our preceptions of useful tones that are not found or at least or not found generally. They give the amps the ability to work with may different musicians doing many different styles. Sword of Satori, a two channel amp, can be setup for screaming liquid leads on the main channel and mellow jazz standards on the other - if you are interested in such drastic changes.
Well, the amps are not exactly solid state, but rather a solid state implementation of an exaggeration of the vintage character. Let me explain this point. The standard question is transisors versus tubes. Certainly, this has been the way that artistic tones have been readily found. However, this finding masks the circuitry goes with these devices and the circuitry can be wildly different for both. Just as it is possible to make a poor sounding tube amp, it is possible to make a great sounding solid state amp. It has not been done or at least not done well because the true nature of tubes, their circuits, and tonal artistry is not so well understood and because artistic tones are not native to standard solid state implementations. The reason for this goes back to the foundations of engineering, which occured during the height of the Behaviorist philosophy - ignore the subjective and concentrate only upon the objective. This worked great because if allowed engineers to ignore the non-linearity of human hearing and concentrate upon the signal going to the ear or going to the speaker. That variety of audiophile checks his instruments to decide whether a system sounds good. On the other hand musicians, who really pay attention to tone, have a language quite foreign to engineers. But with acedemic approval, the engineers figure that they do not have to learn it. So my amps are solid state, but designed with far different goals than I was taught when I was in school so very many years ago.
About a decade ago, I started working with a musician (Phil Zuckerman) who was similarly determined to find great tone somewhere as he could not find it in any technology. Once I realized that most of my engineering training was not words from upon high, but substantially opinion, then I rebuilt my engineering knowledge from where rigorously provable fact stopped. Phil and I also began to find a common language. As I theorized effects and created circuits to do them, I would exaggerate them so that they would stand out and then cut them back 'till the amp sounded good. This happened again and again 'til there was nothing left - at least according to his ear and my theory. So these amps are not exactly like some particular amp - they are an exaggeration and consequently they are different. _________________ Above & Beyond Tonal Versatility
Soul Candy
www.pritchardamps.com
Just as it is possible to make a poor sounding tube amp, it is possible to make a great sounding solid state amp.
That is very correct. I had couple of tube Marshalls DSL & TSL and they sounded horrible,
I've played VETA by Line-6 and it was great.
So I'm sure with good ear and engineering skills one can achieve great results.
There are great players on this forum and I hope some of them (in US) would love to try couple
of your amps (I'd love to but I'm in UK - maybe you have a dealership here?).
Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 71 Location: northern California
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:09 am Post subject:
I've been looking for an amp for a while that would have great overdrive and clean tones for jazz.
So I went and checked out the Prichard amps. Now I have a question. Since I have always preferred tubes - with your prices as high as many tube amps (and I don't intend to be rude) - what would be the benefit of buying your solid state amp over a tube (if I can get a tube amp for the same price)?
Joined: 17 May 2004 Posts: 9 Location: Berkeley Springs, WV
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:17 pm Post subject:
jazzyblues wrote:
I've been looking for an amp for a while that would have great overdrive and clean tones for jazz.
So I went and checked out the Prichard amps. Now I have a question. Since I have always preferred tubes - with your prices as high as many tube amps (and I don't intend to be rude) - what would be the benefit of buying your solid state amp over a tube (if I can get a tube amp for the same price)?
The underlying assumption in your question is that tubes are decidely superior. Although that has been the case, it is no longer. So just to put the possibility in mind, tubes are only magic because the magic that tubes have are of no interest to the engineering community. In fact, the engineering community shuns that magic - absolutely does not believe in it. Although this has been known for years - particularly since Russell Hamm's paper "Tubes Versus Transistors - Is There An Audible Difference?" - the engineering community has their beliefs and no matter how many counter examples you bring, that is their story and they are sticking to it....
After some years of researching the artistry of tubes and getting nowhere fast, I decided to check my engineering training and experience for logical rigor - the same sort that I learned as a mathematics student. Well, engineering fails the rigor test quite early on. After that it is opinion and approximation. Approximations are like gambling - you got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.
Just to make things even more interesting the basic audio paradigm was created during the period of Behaviorist philosophy, which shunned the subjective and attempted to be "scientifically" objective about everything. This sort of audiophile listens to his gear with scopes, meters, distoriton analyzers, etc. to determine whether it sounded good because hearing is subjective. The net result is that electronics - an amplifier in particular - is supposed to replicate its inputs without any embellishments, i.e. electronics is supposed to be absolutely linear. Yet these same electronics are in a system that is inherently non-linear because human hearing is. Consequently, the reproduction system is only accurate if it is reproduced at the same level as the original performance.
So I had to recreate engineering in a more musical sense by addressing the subjective - by doing something engineering is loathe to do - ask musicians what they think and then try to correlate their answers to circuitry. Then I translated these findings to solid state. Since the artistic sound is not native to solid state, I created special circuits for doing the art. As a consequence, they can be tweaked without a lot of concern for the basic amplifiection demands. Incidentally, it is quite likely that I have more patents in this field than anyone else in the world.
Additionally, the tube superiority assumption maintains that besides everything that tubes do is superior, that they have no faults. This is not completely correct either. I believe that most of what tudes do is superior to standard solid state, but not everything tubes do is desirable..
Further, the engineers do not have ignorance cornered. There is a lot of popular knowledge that is quite false as well.
So the reason for the price is that they perform better, they are more versatile, they weigh less, they have better tone reliability and probably have better functional reliability. However, I am not going to pretend that this is convincing, because I believe that playing an amplifier puts you into the loop where you can best assess the tone and the feel. You can also read the reviews - they are stellar - perhaps they will make it worth a try - see you at a show !! _________________ Above & Beyond Tonal Versatility
Soul Candy
www.pritchardamps.com
Joined: 10 Jul 2004 Posts: 71 Location: northern California
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:33 pm Post subject:
[/quote]So the reason for the price is that they perform better, they are more versatile, they weigh less, they have better tone reliability and probably have better functional reliability. However, I am not going to pretend that this is convincing, because I believe that playing an amplifier puts you into the loop where you can best assess the tone and the feel. You can also read the reviews - they are stellar - perhaps they will make it worth a try - see you at a show !!
Quote:
I hear what you're saying. Despite everything else, it all comes down to tone. And there are the benefits of less weight, and not the added expense of replacing tubes. Like I said, I wasn't in any way trying to be rude.
I know that in the past ALL solid state amps I have tried have sounded poor to my ears. I know nothing about electronics. I only know what my ears like.
My brother-in-law got a Line 6 amp, and it sounded good - at low levels.
When turned up..... well, he sold it.
I was curious about your amps because of your claim they sound as good as, if not superior to, tube amps.
So about the price: in my mind if something is going to cost as much as something it's competing against, it should be as good as, if not better than, the competition.
And you answered that.
As I said, I'm a guitarist looking for an amp. I play jazz/blues/fusion. Although your amps sound interesting, I would need to hear some sound clips first (it would be ideal to play one, but unless you have them in northern CA, it ain't gonna happen any time soon).
Do you think you'll be putting up sound clips of any of your amps in the near future?
thanks -
Joined: 17 May 2004 Posts: 9 Location: Berkeley Springs, WV
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:31 am Post subject:
jazzyblues wrote:
As I said, I'm a guitarist looking for an amp. I play jazz/blues/fusion. Although your amps sound interesting, I would need to hear some sound clips first (it would be ideal to play one, but unless you have them in northern CA, it ain't gonna happen any time soon).
Do you think you'll be putting up sound clips of any of your amps in the near future?
thanks -
We are quite belatedly getting some clips up. The bird of paradise left a substantial deposit on this project and delayed it substantially. But, currently there are two sets. One set is a variety of 24 and 36 bar bits that use different styles, diffrent guitars, different cabinets, and different amps. Unfortunately, they have not been mixed and transformed to MP3 for the web site. I am expecting them soon - they should be in the site update next week or so. The other style of clips is work done by an artist. It will be in the next site update in the next couple of days - providing that the creek does not rise, etc.
The closest amp to you is in LA. My son as one for players to check out. If you are interested email me at eric@pritchardamps.com and I will give you his email address. Unfortunately, he only has one amp a Dagger 1-12 Tunnel Back. We checked the UPS charges for going to LA - $52 approximately each way.
You should have no problem with jazz, blues, and fusion. According to reviews (they are on the website - and the last one will be on the website soon) the B voice works great for the Wes style while the S voice works for later jazz. With a Sword of Satori or Gold Estoc you can set this up on the nominal clean channel. Then go for the blues and fusion on the dirty channel. The real difference between these amps is whether or not you are into a more modern voicing - if not then use Sword of Satori. I do not see any problem.
Also be aware that our return policy is quite liberal - you only loose the shipping costs if you return it - even for no reason at all. You know the drill - as good as new, original or better pakcing - and it must be back in 30 days from original ship date. That will give west coast folks about 2 weeks to gig etc and finalize the buy decision.
Joined: 17 May 2004 Posts: 9 Location: Berkeley Springs, WV
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:29 pm Post subject:
jazzyblues wrote:
Thanks, Eric. I'm in no real hurry, so I'll wait for the clips on your website.
The clips are going to be arriving in stages. We just put up a pair of tunes by Tzer. Hopefully, the main body of clips will be mixed and up loaded in a couple of weeks. After that, I am going to organize a second round of clips. So keep checking www.pritchardamps.com
Have a great day !! _________________ Above & Beyond Tonal Versatility
Soul Candy
www.pritchardamps.com
I'm glad you posted, Eric. I've been wanting to check out your product for a while now. Where in the Los Angeles/Orange County CA area can I find one to test drive? Actually, I'm in Riverside County, but I'll drive an hour for a thrill.
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