After three years of development and testing, PRS and David Grissom introduce the DG Custom 30, DG Custom 50 and DG Custom 2×12 cabinet.
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The amps were meant to rival Grissom’s collection of vintage amps, after extensive use on the road, he finally gave his go signal for the amp to go into production.
Building the signature amp was quite a challenge, it has to meet the multiple sonic demands of David’s versatile playing style and satisfy his passion for vintage tube tones. Doug Sewell of PRS Amps collaborated with David to get the amp to match David’s preferences.
Here is what David had to say about the collaboration: “The DG Custom amps are the culmination of a three year collaboration between myself and Doug Sewell. We set out to create two distinct amps – a 30 watt and a 50 watt – that would rival the best of my vintage amps. After extensive designing, redesigning, and repeated comparisons to the amps I have cherry picked over the years, we have come up with two amps that I am blown away with.”
Aside from the use of two JJAX7 Preamp Tubes to get the tone right, the amps and cabinet share a common look, featuring custom aluminum chassis and brushed anodized faceplates. Blonde Vinyl with a Cherry Stained Mahogany Fascia and Un-Tinted Salt and Pepper Grill Cloth add to the overall retro appeal of the new signature amplifiers.
Both amps come with custom Heyboer Power, Output Transformers, and Choke. And they feature tube driven Spring Reverb, with JJ AT7 and JJ 12AX7 tubes for the Reverb Driver and Phase Inverter.
The PRS DG Custom 30 comes with four EL84/7581 power tubes and is designed for the tweaker. It has several controls for sculpting your tone, including reverb, presence control, bright switch, boost/normal gain switch and top cut control. The PRS DG Custom 50 on the other hand is designed to provide a powerful and yet straight ahead performance. It does not have some of the extra tone shaping controls but makes up for it with its articulate, and organic sounding tone. With four EL34 power tubes delivering 50 watts, this amp is described as having a breathy, open tone.
David Grissom commented: “I’ve used them on hundreds of gigs and sessions and found them to be equally well suited to both live situations and studio work. Both amps do their own thing, and are far from knockoffs of any classic designs that boutique makers often strive for. I rarely play a gig when someone doesn’t want to know what amp I’m using and the story behind it. I’m excited and proud that these amps are now in production. I’m hopeful that other players will find them as inspiring and musical as I do.”
David and Doug also designed a matching cabinet for the two amps, called DG 2×12 cabinet. It houses two vintage 30 speakers and a especially designed internal structure to help give these amps a bigger all-around tone. The back panel is dual ported, which keeps the low end and smooth high end of a closed back cabinet while allowing the amp to really fill the room.
Pricing information is not yet available, but you can find out more about the new David Grissom Signature amps and cabinets by visiting PRS Guitars.
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