NAD Prosonic Head. These amps are sleepers!

[KeepItSimpleTele]

A nicely packaged black Fender Prosonic head arrived today. Tolex is perfect and it still has the original tags on the handle. Original tubes (5881) with no visible wear. Doesn’t seem like it was used by the PO much? It has a #CR (Corona) serial number with a green jewel light.

Been playing through it the last couple hours and it’s just so versatile. The Normal channel is a beauty. The mid control turned down can take that channel into BF territory…noon or a bit above and tweed Bassmans come to mind.

Drive channel has way more gain than I’ll ever use…but I can get a nice crunchy JCM800 type sound with “gain 1”on 4, “gain 2” on 2, and the mids tweaked up a bit to 7.

In general all the tone controls on this amp are pretty sensitive and change things a lot…but that mid control changes the whole character of the amp as one turns it

Playing through a UA Ox load box into a virtual silver alnico 2x12 cab….or in real life through a VBoutique oversized 1x12 cab with an alnico cream.

Having an enjoyable afternoon with this amp

 

[Cali Dude]

Those are great amps. I had one of the combos, and gigged it regularly back in the mid to late 90s. Congrats!

 

[Monoprice99]

Those are great amps. I had one of the combos, and gigged it regularly back in the mid to late 90s. Congrats!

I was going to say, that head looks like a combo conversion ?

 

[KeepItSimpleTele]

I was going to say, that head looks like a combo conversion ?

I think Fender made both combo and heads. The heads didn’t have the reverb effect….and I believe there was a few value changes in the circuit as the Tone Master 4x12 cabs the heads were often paired with had more bass response (size and 12” v30s)

 

[KeepItSimpleTele]

Those are great amps. I had one of the combos, and gigged it regularly back in the mid to late 90s. Congrats!

Looks like a good road amp. Tubes and pots are all chassis mounted and the transformers are HUGE. A lot of iron in this amp. Well built.

 

[Bob Womack]

Wishbone Ash have a scalable backline, capable of everything from small clubs to arenas. The arenas get their full Orange Graphic backline.

(link removed)

But in the clubs, leader Andy Powell uses a pair of Prosonic combos. He's got an extensive pedal board that handles several layers of drive for him.

Bob

 

[Wally]

The Pro Sonic is a great amp, imho. I prefer the combo, but with the right speakers the head is good at what it does. The combo is more versatile.

 

[JDB2]

I used to own Prosonics, both heads and combos, and was pretty steeped in the schematics, relatively speaking for a non-technician. There is very little difference between the circuits other than than that the head lacks reverb. The minor difference that probably accounts for the different (less) bass response from the head is that the coupling cap before the phase inverter is a higher value on the head, setting the high pass filter point higher. I had on my to-do list to change the coupling cap for the same value as on the combo and see if made them sound the same, but didn't get around to it before I sold the amps. Frankly, having a bit more bass response out of the head would have been a worthwhile improvement.

I loved the Prosonics, but ended up falling for lightweight, cool running class D solid state amps (Quilter) and couldn't justify holding onto the Prosonics any longer.

What's amazing (other than the build quality) is the range of clean and overdriven tones the Prosonics will produce despite having such a low count of internal components and tubes. Be adventurous with those dials--the circuit is astonishingly simple for what it can accomplish. The three options for the power section is a key feature. Just be sure your power tubes are up to the task. I had some trouble finding tubes that wouldn't redplate in the cathode-biased mode.

Enjoy the amp - I'm a little envious.

 

[Tubedrt3000]

Congrats, I have the 2-10" combo. I love these amps that people seem to have forgotten over about. Bruce Zinky designed, and pretty flexible. Heavy as hell (at least my combo), but cool. I'm in my early 40's and remember when these were selling new, along with the Tone Master head/cab.

 

[Wally]

Heavy as hell (at least my combo),

54 pounds as pictured. ????

 

[KeepItSimpleTele]

These are Traynor amp sized transformers and weights Well built and road ready

 

[robt57]

54 pounds as pictured. ????

My Tremlord 30 is 54 lb. FWIW

I almost got a 210 PS mid 00s, but wound up with Protone Super amp with the 4 blue-nicos. Sometimes wish I still had that, yada. But no need for it anyway, nor what I got now.

 

[Lowspeid]

Welcome to the Club. It's where all the cool-kids hang out. I had a Prosonic head and the 4x12 Tonemaster cab back in the mid-2000's. I absolutely LOVED it. I sold it once I had kids, but just a couple months ago bought another head (I prefer the head to the combo). It's form 1996, LO serial number, and almost perfect cosmeticly.

100% agree on how versitile, toneful, and kickass this amp is. The only problem I'm having now is deciding what cab to get for it. I have a Marshall 2061CX 2x12 with G12H30s that sound FANTASTIC, but it's rated at 60 watts. I get a little sketched out when I have the PS on 60 watts and a bit of volume. I'm afraid I'll blow a speaker.

I'd like a V30-loaded 2x12 or 4x12 (I'd LOVE to find another Tonemaster 4x12). I've also played it through a Marshall 1960 with Greenbacks, and those speakers sounded FANTASTIC.

 

[JDB2]

I'd like a V30-loaded 2x12 or 4x12 (I'd LOVE to find another Tonemaster 4x12).

The Vibroking 2x12 extension cab with Vintage 30s is a perfect match for the Prosonic head, if you can find one.

 

[Lowspeid]

The Vibroking 2x12 extension cab with Vintage 30s is a perfect match for the Prosonic head, if you can find one.

I played a Supersonic 60 2x12 at the local GC the other night and it sounded great. I almost bought it, but the sales clerk was being an ******* about the trade items I brought in. I see that there is a used VB 2x12 on GC.com right now for $500. Is that a good price?

Used Fender Gear | Guitar Center

Save money on Used Fender gear at Guitar Center. All pre-owned items are rated and scored. Buy online or at your local store today!

www.guitarcenter.com

 

[JDB2]

I played a Supersonic 60 2x12 at the local GC the other night and it sounded great. I almost bought it, but the sales clerk was being an ******* about the trade items I brought in. I see that there is a used VB 2x12 on GC.com right now for $500. Is that a good price?

Used Fender Gear | Guitar Center

Save money on Used Fender gear at Guitar Center. All pre-owned items are rated and scored. Buy online or at your local store today!

www.guitarcenter.com

That doesn’t look like a Vibro King cabinet to me. It should have a single handle on top and the flat logo. Even if it were a VK $500 seems pretty high to me in that rough shape. No telling if the speakers are original, either. I paid about that much for a mint VK, although that was prior to 2020.

 

[KeepItSimpleTele]

I played a Supersonic 60 2x12 at the local GC the other night and it sounded great. I almost bought it, but the sales clerk was being an ******* about the trade items I brought in. I see that there is a used VB 2x12 on GC.com right now for $500. Is that a good price?

Used Fender Gear | Guitar Center

Save money on Used Fender gear at Guitar Center. All pre-owned items are rated and scored. Buy online or at your local store today!

www.guitarcenter.com

I was looking at Supersonic 60 cabs too. They look and sound great with the Prosonic head. The thing is…they are REALLY pricey new! If you found a used one at a good price…hard to pass up.

I’m enjoying the vBoutique oversized 1x12 with mine. The head has a little over an inch on each side to spare and looks good. I’d like to get a closer matching grill cloth one day…but no big deal. Alnico Cream (found a good deal on a used one years ago) can handle 90 watts and I’m not cranking the amp on solid state mode.

 

[JDB2]

I used an Alnico Cream in a wide 1x12 open back cab with my Prosonic and it sounded really great. Actually similar to the Vibro King 2x12 with V30s but with more detail and sparkle. Here is the 1x12 on the right and VK on the left.

 

[KeepItSimpleTele]

This is just like my rig with an oversized 1x12 with an Alnico Cream.…except your grill cloth matches way better. This speaker sounds great with any amp I’ve tried…clean or dirty.

Having said this, I was tempted to try and find a used VK cab like this as well…

 

[Wally]

The first ProSonic combos…maybe 10 or so….. were built with a single 12”. This was the way Bruce Zinky wanted the combo to be built. For some reason, Fender opted to go with a 2x10 format in the combo.