PRS has rekindled its partnership with Alter Bridge titan Mark Tremonti to produce a new signature guitar amp head, the MT 100.
It’s the second time the Maryland-based brand has tapped Tremonti for his own guitar amp, with the MT 100 following in the footsteps of 2018’s highly regarded MT 15 – which was described at the time by Guitar World’s Chris Gill as “the biggest-sounding lunchbox amp I’ve ever played”.
Now, the two parties have teamed up for an expanded, three-channel offering that Tremonti says has become his “one and only touring amp”.
The MT 100 has been a long time coming. Back in 2020, Tremonti teased the arrival of the amp head, which he said would deliver everything from “brutal high gain” tones to Fender Twin and Dumble sounds in one amp.
Well, it looks as though PRS has made a good effort in delivering that assortment of options with the final MT 100, which features a pristine and chimey Clean channel (think Fender Twin) and a new Overdrive section modeled after “one of Tremonti’s favorite personal amps” (read: Dumble).
Naturally, the MT 100 builds on the successes of the MT 15, and is said to be the result of “years of R&D and road testing”. Here, there are dedicated Clean and Lead channels, which are likened to those found on the amp’s predecessor, as well as that added Overdrive channel for an additional gain structure and “musical midrange response”.
Specifically, that Overdrive channel is modeled after one of Tremonti’s favorite personal amps, which the guitarist recently revealed to Premier Guitar to be a Dumble.
According to the PRS signature artist, these three sections are good enough to stand on their own: “Each channel alone is worth the entire price of this amp,” he said in a statement.
He might have a point, too. Each channel is built from its own unique circuit with dedicated preamp tubes (these are all 12AX7s, eight in total) to promote independence and tonal separation. Further still, the three channels have their own dedicated control layout, comprising three-band EQs, as well as specific Presence, Master and Gain parameters.
All of the above counts for an amp that looks to cover the broad bread-and-butter guitar tones, with each particular section receiving the level of attention they require. In Mark’s own words, the Lead tones are “huge, chunky and aggressive”, while the Clean section offers “the best-sounding clean tones in the high-gain amp world”.
As for the final section, “The Overdrive channel is a very special addition to this amp,” Tremonti reflected. “We obsessed over this channel, using one of my favorite personal amps for the voicing. We wanted the gain structure to fit between the Lead and Clean channels and for it to have a sweet midrange response all its own.”
Other specs include a three-button footswitch for channel selection, an effects loop for pedalboard integration and a quartet of 6L6GC power tubes.
“The MT 100 is at the same time the most complicated yet simple design I have been a part of,” said PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell. “The result is a refined and effective beast of an amp with an intuitive, highly user-friendly layout.”
The MT 100 is available now for $1,849.
Head over to PRS to find out more information.
In other gear-related Tremonti news, the Alter Bridge guitarist recently revealed he was developing his own pedal company – and he is already road-testing prototypes.
