Pritchard Amps - A Journey
I am beginning to write this article the same day that
I received my "off the assembly line" Pritchard Sword 4 x 10 amp. I have
been playing a hollow body jazz guitar through it on which I recently dressed
the frets for a client. Using the "A" voice on the clean channel, I bring
down the mids, turn up the bass and treble and turn off the reverb. Sound
is clean, full, woody, bouncy, and I don't want to stop playing. Earlier,
I was playing my Callaham "S" model using the practice jack. A good sound
at such a low volume. No buzzy master volume for me thanks!
I first heard about Eric Pritchard from a mutual friend,
the late great Bud Armel, who's band "The Country Krackers" used to back
up Patsy Cline in Winchester, Va. before she became famous. Bud told me
about some guy who was building these three channel solid state amps up
in West "by God" Virginia. I didn't think much of it at the time as I was
pretty content with my 65' Blackface Super Reverb with Kendrick speakers.
Although my setup was not perfect, I had gotten frustrated with the "tone"
quest of many years.
There appeared an ad in the classified section of Vintage
Guitar Magazine in which Eric was looking for guitarists to try out his
amps. I called to see if he could do a modification on my Super. I took
the 40 minute ride, and a beautiful ride it is, to Eric's house out in
the boonies. I found Eric to be a warm, funny, and brilliant person who
was on a mission. During that visit, I learned of Eric's association with
Paul Reed Smith. I was impressed that he had designed and built much
of the equipment that Paul used to build his guitars in his first factory.
Eric had also designed the Harmonic Generator amp that PRS had on the market
years ago. A couple of the PRS amps still sit in Eric's shop.
I played through some of Eric's amps. The amp 11 had
interchangeable preamps to emulate the sound of different amps. It was
quite fancy. He also had a simple single channel amp which I liked the
best for a clean sound. I was not too crazy about the distortion sounds.
I left a little disappointed, but was happy to check
out something new. Not too long after that, Eric called to see if I would
come up to try some modified amps. I couldn't resist. After several trips,
I realized that Eric was not going to give up.
I was impressed enough that I became part of the team.
How often do you get the opportunity to have an amplifier custom built
to your specs! I had no idea what I was doing. I could play through an
amp and say whether I liked it or not, but trying to put into words what
I was hearing was uncharted territory. It was more involved than simply
"less bass", " more treble", etc. I had to learn the vocabulary of the
engineer. Frequencies, decibels, ripple, and more.
Eric and I became each others teachers. We would get
an amp sounding pretty good, and then Eric would build all new prototypes.
Different names for knobs, different speaker cabinets, different speakers,
different output section, multiple models! With each new batch of proto-types,
it was like starting all over again. After getting the amps sounding good
in the shop, I would use them on a gig and they would not sound as good.
We couldn't figure it out. We finally realized that testing the amps indoors
with standing waves and reflective surfaces was part of the problem. So
out we go into the driveway with the hot sun, bugs, barking dogs, rain,
snow, whatever. We only had my Super Reverb to use as a comparison.
At some gigs, I would have four or five amps plugged
in and would switch from amp to amp during the night to test them and take
notes.
There were many times that I wanted to give up and I
felt like I didn't know what I was doing. On many occasions, we would just
keep trying different things until we found something that worked. Luckily,
our visits were intermittent enough that time would heal my aching head
and I could get back to it again. This went on for about ten years.
Finally, Eric was ready to start selling the amps Jan.
03', but I still was not happy with them. We spent a couple of long days
going over everything, and sorted out the problems I was hearing. Hopefully,
the rest will be history.
My approach with the amps has been
to come up with a good clean sound at a loud volume, and then be able to
switch to the sound of output distortion at a controlled volume. I was
going after a SRV sound. The Pritchard Amp gives me that and more. I
also like not having to mess with tubes and distortion pedals anymore.
When
I have had problems with my Super in the past, it usually was a tube problem.
My opinion is that the Pritchard Amp is designed for
live performance. It is loud enough to cut through the mix and works well
in an outdoor setting. Most amps the same size played outside sound like
toys compared to the Pritchard.
The amps were tested primarily using my Callaham "S"
model guitar with Fralin pickups. If you own a strat, you will like the
amp. Less time was spent using Eric's PRS. We also had an inexpensive
strat that was used.
Much time was spent on the "A" voice.
It is intended to simulate the sound of an amplified acoustic guitar. I
believe it is a more pleasing sound because it does not have the "quack"
of an under the saddle acoustic pickup. You also do not have the feedback
issue at higher volumes.
I had stopped performing in 2001 after 30 some years,
because I did not enjoy it as much as I used to. It is like a part of me
had died, which was pretty depressing. I recently decided to start playing
again, and part of the reason, is that I know I have an amp that will be
fun to play, and will sound good every night. I am also looking forward
to recording a new CD using the Pritchard.
I hope that there will be more products from Eric. We
have discussed many ideas from foot pedals to guitars. I also hope to continue
as a consultant and will definitely continue as a fan and friend
of Eric Pritchard.
Phil at the Phili Guitar Show -
November 03'
8 - 1 - 03'