PRS revives its vintage American-flavoured Sonzera 20 1x12 combo amp

PRS
(Image credit: PRS)

PRS's 1x12 combo tube amp the Sonzera 20 is returning to the PRS line after a brief . The Fender-influenced amp aims for 'mid-1960’ American-style tone' and features two independently controllable and footswitchable channels.

The Sonzera was originally launches in 2017 and aims to provide players options with a gain channel that can be used as a boosted clean channel or with heavier distortion. Onboard spring reverb and a built-in effects loop further the versatile platform.

"The 12 to 35-watt classic American reverb amps were very inspirational to me as a beginning amp designer in Texas," says PRS amp designer, Doug Sewell. "I consider the Sonzera amps a homage to those early days, and it was especially satisfying and nostalgic to be a part of their development and production.”

PRS

(Image credit: PRS)

The returning model has also been tweaked.

“I am very happy to re-release the new Sonzera 20 combo with improved construction techniques, refined voicing, and fresh cosmetics," says Sewell. "Their design inspiration draws from the purity and tonal beauty of vintage American reverb amps of the '60s. The two-channel design is currently unique to the PRS lineup in that the Gain channel is simply the Clean channel with additional gain stages and its own tone stack inserted for discreet lead voicing control.”

The Sonzera 20 is priced at $999. Check out our review of the original model. 

More info at PRS Guitars

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.