The guitarist went from releasing solo albums on Bandcamp to signing with Matador and assembling a full band for Teens of Denial.
Even in the Internet Age, a lot of musicians still grapple with the problem of getting their music heard. Not so for Will Toledo, a Seattle-based 23-year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist who, until recently, has operated as a one-man band called Car Seat Headrest. Since 2010, Toledo has released a dozen self-produced albums of precious lo-fi pop on Bandcamp that have made him a hero in the indie-rock world. (Toledo gets added hipster cred for his band moniker, which refers to his early penchant for recording vocals into his computer in the backseat of his parentsā car.)
āPeople have said things like, āIāve mastered the internet,ā but itās not like thereās some big secret or mystery to what Iāve been doing,ā Toledo says softly. āItās really not that difficult to put your music out thereāanyone can do it. Bandcamp seemed like the easiest way for me at the time; thatās all there is to it. I was learning how to do things as I went along. It made sense to sort of put stuff out as I was learning.ā
Toledo took a step into the indie-rock big leagues last year when he signed with Matador Records and released Teens of Style, which contained reworkings of older songs and also featured the contributions of bassist Jacob Bloom and drummer Andrew Katz. This year, Toledo has changed things up even more, recording for the first time in a proper studio with a full band (Katz, guitarist/bassist Ethan Ives) and another producer (Steve Fisk) at the helm. The resulting album, Teens of Denial, takes the guitaristās introspective tales of post-teen angst and ennui and splashes them onto a widescreen sonic canvas, heightening the emotional wallop of Toledoās solipsistic lyrical meditations without sacrificing the intimate candor that made his earlier work so appealing.
Toledo is no shredder, but he comes on like a guitar heroāseveral of them, in factāall over Teens of Denial. āFill in the Blankā sounds like Pete Townshend, Kurt Cobain, and Billie Joe Armstrong tumbling down the stairs like three electrified polecats. āVincentā and āConnect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra)ā are fuzzed-out stoner gems (think Fu Manchu duking it out with Sonic Youth), with Toledo reveling in every juicy wave of distortion. And on the epic, 11-minute āThe Ballad of the Costa Concordia,ā a multi-layered mini symphony of acoustic and electric guitars, horns and Pink Floydian vocal harmonies, he throttles his 6-string like Springsteen back when he was on a last-chance power drive.
anyone can do it.ā
Toledo discusses the guitar stars that fueled his musical aspirations, how he tailored his new songs for the full-band treatment, and what heād like to improve about his guitar playing.
Pete Townshend sounds like a definite guitar reference point for you. Who else are we talking about? I grew up listening to older music, and, yeah, most of what I liked was guitar focused. The Beatles, the Who ⦠Pete Townshend was definitely an influence on how I played. I remember hearing āWonāt Get Fooled Againā and thinking, āWow, that sounds so huge.ā Thereās really only five parts on itādrums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and organābut it somehow sounds like a lot more.
I wanted to replicate that kind of sound, but I had no idea how to go about it. I didnāt have a band to work it out with, so I just started recording by myself. I would record part after part and try and make it all as big as possible. I sort of developed this mentality from what I thought other musicians were doing, rather than what they actually were doing.
So Townshend was big. Who else?
Who else was there? Pink Floyd. When I listened to Pink Floyd, I started thinking about getting a StratocasterāI liked David Gilmourās playing a lot. That was sort of the foundation, and then I started listening to the modern punk stuff like Nirvana and Green Day. By the time I was learning to play guitar, when I was 12 or 13, Nirvana was a major influence on me.
Did you take lessons or are you pretty much all self-taught?Ā
I taught myself. I got my first shitty childās acoustic guitar, and my uncle taught me how to play a C chord. I quickly forgot it, but from there I picked up the beginnerās books and started teaching myself. I learned to play by ear or with tab. A lot of it was simply by listening to records and trying to figure out how they made the sounds on the guitar.
After operating solo for six years, Car Seat Headrest is now a band. But is it a ābandā band, with people having a say in decisions? Will they collaborate?
Hmm ⦠This new record is the first one I recorded with a real band, and I think weāre going to continue doing so for a little bit. Right now, the four-person lineup is cool. Creatively, Iām the leader, and pretty much everything that weāve recorded so far has been mine. Maybe in the future it will be more collaborative stuff.
Thereās a beautiful intimacy to your earlier records, kind of in the tradition of a lot of Prince albums and some of the work McCartney did on his own. Do you notice that? As a listener, you really feel like youāre with one guy in a room ⦠or in the back seat of a car.
[Laughs.] Yeah, I think that makes sense. Things do sound more personal or intimate when you do them by yourself. Itās kind of inescapable. Plus, when you mix on headphones, which I was doing on those earlier records, you kind of make them for people who are going to be listening to them in the same environment. Theyāre on headphones in a solitary space, in their bedrooms, basically. I think the music reflects that.
Do you have any secrets to getting a good guitar sound when recording into a laptop?
I never really recorded mic-and-amp until we were doing this record in the studio; I was always doing it direct input. The best way to go when youāre recording on a laptop is to cut out the middleman and just plug in directly. If you do use an amp, try to go through a preamp setting. You probably wonāt get into trouble that way. For the majority of my recording career, Iāve been recording the guitar as basic as possible to the computer. Iād put the amp effects on afterwards.
When you were in writing mode, did you tweak the songs a little bit knowing that you were going to record with a band?
The songs were different from the start. I wanted more guitar-based stuff, and I wanted the songs to be simpler. I thought that would be easier to record in a studio and much easier to play the songs live. So I changed my writing process for it: I was sitting alone with the guitar a lot more, whereas before I would be working with stuff on the computer. I guess I was doing it more old-school. I spent about a year just doing that until I had the pieces for an album. By the time we went into the studio, I had everything planned out and then weād practice everything as a band. It wasnāt such a difficult process, really.
Letās talk about your guitars. You mainly play a Tele, right?
Yeah, my main guitar is a Telecaster. I think itās Mexican-made; it was a gift. I did buy a guitar recently, a $100 Mini Squier. Iāve been using that for practice. I like the smaller size of it. It makes it kind of fun to play, and it makes me feel big in comparison. Iāve never had much of a taste for big, heavy guitars because they weigh down my neck. The Tele is a lot more solid in that respect, and I do like it for that reason. Practicing with a small guitar is like sitting at a toy piano.
Have you done any mods to the Tele?
No, itās pretty much as it was when I got it, minus a bit of repair work. I tend to keep things pretty simple with my guitars.
Will Toledoās main axe is this early ā90s Telecaster, but he sometimes writes on a Squier Mini Strat for fun because it doesnāt weigh him down as much. Photo by Debi Del Grande
Do you have a main acoustic that you use?
Iāve got a Yamaha steel-string acousticāthe same one Iāve had since 8th grade. Iāve recorded most of my acoustic parts with that guitar. I also have a nylon-string Yamaha. It sounds pretty good. Iāve been practicing my picking style more on that. Iām growing fond of the softer sound.
What about effects?
When we were recording Teens of Denial, I didnāt use too much, other than distortion. We had reverb from the Twin Reverb we were using, so yeah, it was pretty much a Boss Turbo Distortion. That pedal keeps breaking, unfortunately. Iāve been through a lot of distortion pedals in the last year. I wish I had better luck with them. I like the Boss sound, so Iām trying to stick with it, but itās proven difficult.
Do you use Twin Reverbs live?
When we have the ability to leave from Seattle and take all of our gear with us, we take Fender Cyber Twins. Iāve been using a Cyber Twin since I got to Seattle. Itās good; itās basically a computer because it has all these different settings on it. Itās very similar to how I was used to recording, with all the different settings being immediately available to me. Our other guitarist uses a Marshall amp. He likes the darker tone on that.
You get a great, unadulterated guitar sound on āFill in the Blank.ā Itās crunchy and dry, almost British sounding. It kind of reminds me of early ā70s Free.
Free? Iāve never heard of them. Thatās funny, because when I wrote that song, I was thinking of Guided by Voices. That poppy kind of riff is definitely Guided by Voices, but thereās a repeating chord progression in the song that, sound-wise, reminds me of early Green Day. Itās kind of an untouched guitar sound.
How did you get that guitar sound? Whatās going on there?
It was a pretty simple process. It was my Boss Distortion with the Tele guitar. I used a Fender amp, but I canāt remember what it was. So it was one guitar and that amp. It was one of Steve Fiskās ampsāI think he said that Jimmy Page used it in the early days. It blows up a lot without having to turn it up much. We recorded it relatively quietly and just kind of boosted it in the mix.
Was it a Supro?
Yes! Yeah, that was ⦠I think.
You mentioned Pete Townshend before, and to my ears, parts of āVincentā recall his playing on āI Can See for Miles.ā Thereās a lot of reckless attitude and joy at the racket youāre making.
I think there is definitely some overlap and flavor there. Not just in the way he plays, but in the way he arranges songs. Now that I think of it, thereās definitely some inspiration from stuff like āBaba OāRileyā and āWonāt Get Fooled Again.ā I really like the sound that he got out of his guitars, and I know I was trying to get that vibe in my early days of recording. Performance-wise, heās an influence, too. Heās just this great condensed nugget of guitar pop.
Will Toledoās Gear
GuitarsEarly ā90s Fender Telecaster (Mexican-made)
Fender Squier Mini Strat
Yamaha FD02 acoustic (steel-string)
Yamaha acoustic (nylon-string)
Amps
Fender Cyber Twin PR393
Effects
Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion
Red Panda Particle (granular delay)
TC Electronic PolyTune
Strings and Picks
DāAddario EXL110 Regular Light strings (.010ā.046)
Dunlop Medium picks
In a lot of your songs, you seem to favor trebly, droney riffs on the top strings. Do you just play around numerous iterations of a pattern until it feels right?
I do like those kinds of riffs. Definitely. It seems like riffs are good in the higher registerāyou can put cool rhythms underneath them. There does seem to be a limitless array of possibilities to how you can play riffs on the top strings. Whenever I write a riff in a lower register, it tends to be a chord, like the one for āDestroyed by Hippie Powers,ā which is just E on the low string and then an E barre chord that sort of gets pushed sharp a little.
I like the cool noise solo you do in that song. Itās very Neil Young.
Neil Young is an influence, but I wasnāt thinking of him there. āThe Ending of Dramamineā has a very minimal intro, and Neil Young was sort of the guide for that. On āHippie Powers,ā I was actually thinking more about Pavement. Thereās that noisy bridge between the two versesājust lots of distortion, like a cacophonyāand you have a little bit of melody in there. So youāve got Pavement and Neil Young.
Talk to me more about your process for guitar orchestration, particularly on something like āThe Ballad of the Costa Concordia,ā which is an epic blend of acoustic and electric guitars. Youāve got horns on there, too. Itās pretty grand.
I was listening to lots of stuff that was heavily orchestrated. I donāt know that so much of it was really guitar oriented. It was stuff like Brian Wilson, stuff that put me in a mental state, and I was trying to replicate ideas that put me back in that place. Itās sort of an imploring state of mindāthatās the feeling I get from certain artists like Brian Wilson. Interestingly, it seems that thereās a lot less on the Beach Boysā tracks than I originally thought. Iāve gotten better at listening to things and picking them apart.
Are there any areas on the guitar that you would like to improve upon?
Oh, sure. Iām not a great soloist, so Iād like to get better at that. I never really learned the scales, so sometimes Iāll be halfway through a riff, or I'll be improvising, and Iāll have no idea where to go and I'll just peter out pretty pathetically.
Youād like to become a better finisher?
Right. I want to be able to finish musical sentences.
Thatās great! Yeah. I could do that. No problem.
YouTube It
For most live shows, Car Seat Headrest is a four-piece group, with Seth Dalby handling bass duties. For this performance from last April, theyāre a raucous power trio. Be sure to check out āVincentā at 7:17, in which Will Toledo combines transfixing single-string lines and slashing power chords for maximum rock glory.
This legendary vintage rack unit will inspire you to think about effects with a new perspective.
When guitarists think of effects, we usually jump straight to stompboxesātheyāre part of the culture! And besides, footswitches have real benefits when your hands are otherwise occupied. But real-time toggling isnāt always important. In the recording studio, where weāre often crafting sounds for each section of a song individually, thereās little reason to avoid rack gear and its possibilities. Enter the iconic Eventide H3000 (and its massive creative potential).
When it debuted in 1987, the H3000 was marketed as an āintelligent pitch-changerā that could generate stereo harmonies in a user-specified key. This was heady stuff in the ā80s! But while diatonic harmonizing grabbed the headlines, subtler uses of this pitch-shifter cemented its legacy. Patch 231 MICROPITCHSHIFT, for example, is a big reason the H3000 persists in racks everywhere. Itās essentially a pair of very short, single-repeat delays: The left side is pitched slightly up while the right side is pitched slightly down (default is ±9 cents). The resulting tripling/thickening effect has long been a mix-engineer staple for pop vocals, and itās also my first call when I want a stereo chorus for guitar.
The second-gen H3000S, introduced the following year, cemented the deviceās guitar bona fides. Early-adopter Steve Vai was such a proponent of the first edition that Eventide asked him to contribute 48 signature sounds for the new model (patches 700-747). Still-later revisions like the H3000B and H3000D/SE added even more functionality, but these days itās not too important which model you have. Comprehensive EPROM chips containing every patch from all generations of H3000 (plus the later H3500) are readily available for a modest cost, and are a fairly straightforward install.
In addition to pitch-shifting, there are excellent modulation effects and reverbs (like patch 211 CANYON), plus presets inspired by other classic Eventide boxes, like the patch 513 INSTANT PHASER. A comprehensive accounting of the H3000ās capabilities would be tedious, but suffice to say that even the stock presets get deliciously far afield. There are pitch-shifting reverbs that sound like fever-dream ancestors of Strymonās āshimmerā effect. There are backwards-guitar simulators, multiple extraterrestrial voices, peculiar foreshadows of the EarthQuaker Devices Arpanoid and Rainbow Machine (check out patch 208 BIZARRMONIZER), and even button-triggered Foley effects that require no input signal (including a siren, helicopter, tank, submarine, ocean waves, thunder, and wind). If youāre ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000ās singular knob makes a pretty good substitute. (Spin the big wheel and find out what youāve won!)
āIf youāre ever without your deck of Oblique Strategies cards, the H3000ās singular knob makes a pretty good substitute.ā
But thereās another, more pedestrian reason I tend to reach for the H3000 and its rackmount relatives in the studio: I like to do certain types of processing after the mic. Itās easy to overlook, but guitar speakers are signal processors in their own right. They roll off high and low end, they distort when pushed, and the cabinets in which theyāre mounted introduce resonances. While this type of de facto processing often flatters the guitar itself, it isnāt always advantageous for effects.
Effects loops allow time-based effects to be placed after preamp distortion, but I like to go one further. By miking the amp first and then sending signal to effects in parallel, I can get full bandwidth from the airy reverbs and radical pitched-up effects the H3000 can offerāand I can get it in stereo, printed to its own track, allowing the wet/dry balance to be revisited later, if needed. If a sound needs to be reproduced live, thatās a problem for later. (Something evocative enough can usually be extracted from a pedal-form descendant like the Eventide H90.)
Like most vintage gear, the H3000 has some endearing quirks. Even as it knowingly preserves glitches from earlier Eventide harmonizers (patch 217 DUAL H910s), it betrays its age with a few idiosyncrasies of its own. Extreme pitch-shifting exhibits a lot of aliasing (think: bit-crusher sounds), and the analog Murata filter modules impart a hint of warmth that many plug-in versions donāt quite capture. (They also have a habit of leaking black goo all over the motherboard!) Itās all part of the charm of the unit, beloved by its adherents. (Well, maybe not the leaking goo!)
In 2025, many guitarists wonāt be eager to care for what is essentially an expensive, cranky, decades-old computer. Even the excitement of occasional tantalum capacitor explosions is unlikely to win them over! Fortunately, some great software emulations existāEventideās own plugin even models the behavior of the Murata filters. But hardware offers the full hands-on experience, so next time you spot an old H3000 in a rack somewhereāand youāve got the timeāfire it up, wait for the distinctive āclickā of its relays, spin the knob, and start digging.
The luthierās stash.
There is more to a guitar than just the details.
A guitar is not simply a collection of wood, wire, and metalāit is an act of faith. Faith that a slab of lumber can be coaxed to sing, and that magnets and copper wire can capture something as expansive as human emotion. While itās comforting to think that tone can be calculated like a tax return, the truth is far messier. A guitar is a living argument between its componentsāan uneasy alliance of materials and craftsmanship. When it works, itās glorious.
The Uncooperative Nature of Wood
For me it all starts with the wood. Not just the species, but the piece. Despite what spec sheets and tonewood debates would have you believe, no two boards are the same. One piece of ash might have a bright, airy ring, while another from the same tree might sound like it spent a hard winter in a muddy ditch.
Builders know this, which is why youāll occasionally catch one tapping on a rough blank, head cocked like a bird listening. Theyāre not crazy. Theyāre hunting for a lively, responsive quality that makes the wood feel awake in your hands. But wood is less than half the battle. So many guitarists make the mistake of buying the lumber instead of the luthier.
Pickups: Magnetic Hopes and Dreams
The engine of the guitar, pickups are the part that allegedly defines the electric guitarās voice. Sure, swapping pickups will alter the tonality, to use a color metaphor, but they can only translate whatās already there, and thereās little percentage in trying to wake the dead. Yet, pickups do matter. A PAF-style might offer more harmonic complexity, or an overwound single-coil may bring some extra snarl, but hereās the thing: Two pickups made to the same specs can still sound different. The wire tension, the winding pattern, or even the temperature on the assembly line that day all add tiny variables that the spec sheet doesnāt mention. Donāt even get me started about the unrepeatability of āhand-scatter winding,ā unless youāre a compulsive gambler.
āOne piece of ash might have a bright, airy ring, while another from the same tree might sound like it spent a hard winter in a muddy ditch.ā
Wires, Caps, and Wishful Thinking
Inside the control cavity, the pots and capacitors await, quietly shaping your tone whether you notice them or not. A potentiometer swap can make your volume taper feel like an on/off switch or smooth as an aged Tennessee whiskey. A capacitor change can make or break the tone controlās usefulness. Itās subtle, but noticeable. The kind of detail that sends people down the rabbit hole of swapping $3 capacitors for $50 āvintage-specā caps, just to see if they can āfeelā the mojo of the 1950s.
Hardware: The Unsung Saboteur
Bridges, nuts, tuners, and tailpieces are occasionally credited for their sonic contributions, but theyāre quietly running the show. A steel block reflects and resonates differently than a die-cast zinc or aluminum bridge. Sloppy threads on bridge studs can weigh in, just as plate-style bridges can couple firmly to the body. Tuning machines can influence not just tuning stability, but their weight can alter the way the headstock itself vibrates.
Itās All Connected
Then thereās the neck jointāthe place where sustain goes to die. A tight neck pocket allows the energy to transfer efficiently. A sloppy fit? Some credit it for creating the infamous cluck and twang of Fender guitars, so pick your poison. One of the most important specs is scale length. A longer scale not only creates more string tension, it also requires the frets to be further apart. This changes the feel and the sound. A shorter scale seems to diminish bright overtones, accentuating the lows and mids. Scale length has a definite effect on where the neck joins the body and the position of the bridge, where compromises must be made in a guitarās overall design. There are so many choices, and just as many opportunities to miss the mark. Itās like driving without a map unless youāve been there before.
Alchemy, Not Arithmetic
At the end of the day, a guitarās greatness doesnāt come from its spec sheet. Itās not about the wood species or the coil-wire gauge. Itās about how it all conspires to either soar or sink. Two guitars, built to identical specs, can feel like long-lost soulmates or total strangers. All of these factors are why mix-and-match mods are a long game that can eventually pay off. But thatās the mystery of it. You canāt build magic from a parts list. You canāt buy mojo by the pound. A guitar is more than the sum of its partsāitās a sometimes unpredictable collaboration of materials, choices, and human touch. And sometimes, whether in the hands of an experienced builder or a dedicated tinkerer, it just works.
Two Iconic Titans of Rock & Metal Join Forces for a Canāt-Miss North American Trek
Tickets Available Starting Wednesday, April 16 with Artist Presales
General On Sale Begins Friday, April 18 at 10AM Local on LiveNation.com
This fall, shock rock legend Alice Cooper and heavy metal trailblazers Judas Priest will share the stage for an epic co-headlining tour across North America. Produced by Live Nation, the 22-city run kicks off September 16 at Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, MS, and stops in Toronto, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and more before wrapping October 26 at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX.
Coming off the second leg of their Invincible Shield Tour and the release of their celebrated 19th studio album, Judas Priest remains a dominant force in metal. Meanwhile, Alice Cooper, the godfather of theatrical rock, wraps up his "Too Close For Comfort" tour this summer, promoting his most recent "Road" album, and will have an as-yet-unnamed all-new show for this tour. Corrosion of Conformity will join as support on select dates.
Tickets will be available starting Wednesday, April 16 at 10AM local time with Artist Presales. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, April 18 at 10AM local time at LiveNation.comTOUR DATES:
Tue Sep 16 ā Biloxi, MS ā Mississippi Coast Coliseum
Thu Sep 18 ā Alpharetta, GA ā Ameris Bank Amphitheatre*
Sat Sep 20 ā Charlotte, NC ā PNC Music Pavilion
Sun Sep 21 ā Franklin, TN ā FirstBank Amphitheater
Wed Sep 24 ā Virginia Beach, VA ā Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
Fri Sep 26 ā Holmdel, NJ ā PNC Bank Arts Center
Sat Sep 27 ā Saratoga Springs, NY ā Broadview Stage at SPAC
Mon Sep 29 ā Toronto, ON ā Budweiser Stage
Wed Oct 01 ā Burgettstown, PA ā The Pavilion at Star Lake
Thu Oct 02 ā Clarkston, MI ā Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sat Oct 04 ā Cincinnati, OH ā Riverbend Music Center
Sun Oct 05 ā Tinley Park, IL ā Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Fri Oct 10 ā Colorado Springs, CO ā Broadmoor World Arena
Sun Oct 12 ā Salt Lake City, UT ā Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Tue Oct 14 ā Mountain View, CA ā Shoreline Amphitheatre
Wed Oct 15 ā Wheatland, CA ā Toyota Amphitheatre
Sat Oct 18 ā Chula Vista, CA ā North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sun Oct 19 ā Los Angeles, CA ā Kia Forum
Wed Oct 22 ā Phoenix, AZ ā Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
Thu Oct 23 ā Albuquerque, NM ā Isleta Amphitheater
Sat Oct 25 ā Austin, TX ā Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Sun Oct 26 ā Houston, TX ā The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
*Without support from Corrosion of Conformity
MT 15 and Archon 50 Classic amplifiers offer fresh tones in release alongside a doubled-in-size Archon cabinet
PRS Guitars today released the updated MT 15 and the new Archon Classic amplifiers, along with a larger Archon speaker cabinet. The 15-watt, two-channel Mark Tremonti signature amp MT 15 now features a lead channel overdrive control. An addition to the Archon series, not a replacement, the 50-watt Classic offers a fresh voice by producing retro rock āclassicā tones reminiscent of sound permeating the radio four and five decades ago. Now twice the size of the first Archon cabinet, the Archon 4x12 boasts four Celestion V-Type speakers.
MT 15 Amplifier Head
Balancing aggression and articulation, this 15-watt amp supplies both heavy rhythms and clear lead tones. The MT 15 revision builds off the design of the MT 100, bringing the voice of the 100ās overdrive channel into its smaller-format sibling. Updating the model, the lead channel also features a push/pull overdrive control that removes two gain stages to produce vintage, crunchier āmid gainā tones. The clean channel still features a push/pull boost control that adds a touch of overdrive crunch. A half-power switch takes the MT to 7 watts.
āSeven years ago, we released my signature MT 15 amplifier, a compact powerhouse that quickly became a go-to for players seeking both pristine cleans and crushing high-gain tones. In 2023, we took things even further with the MT 100, delivering a full-scale amplifier that carried my signature sound to the next level. That inspired us to find a way to fit the 100's third channel into the 15's lunchbox size,ā said Mark Tremonti.
āToday, Iām beyond excited to introduce the next evolution of the MT15, now featuring a push/pull overdrive control on the Lead channel and a half-power switch, giving players even more tonal flexibility to shape their sound with a compact amp. Canāt wait for you all to plug in and experience it!ā
Archon Classic Amplifier Head
With a refined gain structure from the original Archon, the Archon Classicās lead channel offers a wider range of tones colored with gain, especially in the midrange. The clean channel goes from pristine all the way to the edge of breakup. This additional Archon version was developed to be a go-to tool for playing classic rock or pushing the envelope into modern territory. The Archon Classic still features the originalās bright switch, presence and depth controls. PRS continues to stock the Archon in retailers worldwide.
āThe Archon Classic is not a re-issue of the original Archon, but a newly voiced circuit with the lead channel excelling in '70s and '80s rock tones and a hotter clean channel able to go into breakup. This is the answer for those wanting an Archon with a hotrod vintage lead channel gain structure without changing preamp tube types, and a juiced- up clean channel without having to use a boost pedal, all wrapped up in a retro-inspired cabinet design,ā said PRS Amp Designer Doug Sewell.
Archon 4x12 Cabinet
As in the Archon 1x12 and 2x12, the mega-sized PRS Archon 4x12 speaker cabinet features Celestion V-Type speakers and a closed-back design, delivering power, punch, and tight low end. Also like its smaller brethren, the 4x12 is wrapped in durable black vinyl and adorned with a British-style black knitted-weave grill cloth. The Archon 4x12 is only the second four-speaker cabinet in the PRS lineup, next to the HDRX 4x12.
PRS Guitars continues its schedule of launching new products each month in 2025. Stay tuned to see new gear and 40 th Anniversary limited-edition guitars throughout the year. For all of the latest news, click www.prsguitars.com/40 and follow @prsguitars on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, X, and YouTube.