1997 Fender Prosonic Combo Seafoam Green Brand New In Box!
Price$2,995
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Listed:10 years ago
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Woodland Hills, CA, United States
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For sale is my 1997 Fender Seafoam Green Lizard Prosonic Combo Amplifier. It was special ordered from Fender and it was to be the backup amp for my Red one, which was and is my go-to amp. It turns out that I never needed it and never had to take it out of the box, and now it is time to let it go. If you could get in a time machine and go back to get one of these new, here is your chance. According to Fender, they only made 500 of these in green lizard, so it is a rare amp even if it were a used one. But it's not! It's brand new. It will come with the owners manual and hang tags just as Fender sent them out. I am including the optional cover. Please look at the pictures and ask questions. As far as the price, figuring in inflation, it is only about $400.00 over the 1997 list price. That $400.00 is for the luxury of buying a kick-ass amp that you will be the first to play out of! Thanks for looking.
The Prosonic introduced several features that had previously been seldom, or never before, seen in Fender amplifiers. Its most unusual feature is the switchable and power amplifier bias scheme, allowing on-the-fly changes of operating mode and output power (as well as subjective tonal differences). This feature, originally found on Randall Smith's amplifiers, allows the Prosonic to achieve a versatility very rarely seen from mass-market instrument manufacturers. The Prosonic's rear-mounted RECTIFIER/BIAS switch lets the user select from the following three options:
1. Solid-state rectification with fixed bias (marked "S.S. AB2"). Listed at 60 watts .
2. Tube rectification with fixed bias (marked "AB2"). Listed at 50 watts R.M.S.
3. Tube rectification with cathode bias (marked "A"). Listed at 30 watts R.M.S.
Unlike many amplifiers marketed as "Class A", the Prosonic truly functions as a in the "A" position. Class A refers to the amount of current flowing through the power tubes with zero audio signal, with Class A meaning maximum current flow even with zero signal. This makes the tubes run hotter, and gives the power section even more gain at the cost of tube life and noise. The Class-A designation for guitar amplifiers is often amisnomer; Few amps outside of the heralded, also with cathode bias, operate in a true Class-A mode [Albeit, it only did so up to 21 watts RMS]. While the Prosonic featured in the Class A mode and fixed bias in the mode, not all class A tube amplifiers are cathode-biased, and not all fixed biased amplifiers are Class AB. Fixed bias amps, however, require lower B+ Voltages to stay within the Plate Dissipation of the power tubes used; Cathode biasing "throws away" this voltage using conventional Higher Voltage power supplies.
A channel-switching amp, the Prosonic offers a clean channel that features a blend of traditional Fender sounds with the influence of amplifiers, frequently attributed to the Class A mode. Many players praise the Prosonic's clean channel as being "softer," and more prone to break-up and musically desirable distortion, than more contemporary Fender designs. Detractors view this trait as an apparent "darkness" in tone, and perceive this lack of the typical Fender "sparkle" as merely an undesirable lack of clean headroom.
The Prosonic also brought levels of gain (distortion) previously unavailable in a Fender amplifier. Taking a major cue from the first generation of Mesa Boogie amplifiers such as the Mark I (itself a modified Fender design), the Prosonic used additional gain stages in the preamp section that cascaded into one another. Although Fender had been designing amps with some facility for built-in distortion/overdrive since at least the late 1960s, never before had they arrived at a sound so readily usable for modern high-gain styles of music, and far removed from what many players consider to be archetypical Fender tones. The Prosonic's factory manual states, "Gain 1 functions as a standard gain stage whereas Gain 2 functions similar to a compressor, adding sustain while reducing 'edge' when the volume is increased. This channel produces great high gain sound at any volume—from bedroom to stadium."
Prosonics were available first from the Fender Custom Shop, and later from Fender Musical Instruments, and for each production run, combo amplifiers featuring dual 10" speakers, and head versions were available. (Zinky did make prototype combo versions with a single 12-inch speaker). The circuitry is identical and offers users the sound similar to a louder Deluxe Reverb. The combo version featured a tube-driven, Accutronics spring reverb unit. The head version omitted the reverb tank.
While the vast majority of Prosonics were shipped with the standard black covering, some of the initial Custom Shop run were finished in red and seafoam green pebbled tolex, called "lizard-skin" by Fender. Approximately 300 were made in red and 500 were made in seafoam green. The look of the amplifier borrows simultaneously from several eras of vintage Fender design: black "chicken-head" pointer knobs (as used on circa 1950s "tweed" amps), and the silver grill cloth, jewel lamp, and black control plate as used during the 'black face' period (mid-1960s). (Both models came with green jewel lamps).
An all-tube design, the Prosonic uses standard tubes in the preamp sections, and one for the reverb send on the combo model. Output tubes are 5881/WGCs. The rectifier tube is a 5AR4 (GZ34). The spring reverb unit in the combo model also uses a tube.
Although the Prosonic is a channel-switching amp, both channels share the same EQ section. Defying conventional logic, the Prosonic offers independent master volumes for each channel, or rather, on the clean channel, simply one volume control. The drive channel features the aforementioned dual cascading-gain controls, plus an additional master volume.
Two outputs for are provided, (with switchable 4/8/16-ohm operation on the head version). The back panel also provides for a line-level effects loop, aswell as an input for the channel-switching footswitch (the footswitch had a reverb button on combo models as well).
The Prosonic introduced several features that had previously been seldom, or never before, seen in Fender amplifiers. Its most unusual feature is the switchable and power amplifier bias scheme, allowing on-the-fly changes of operating mode and output power (as well as subjective tonal differences). This feature, originally found on Randall Smith's amplifiers, allows the Prosonic to achieve a versatility very rarely seen from mass-market instrument manufacturers. The Prosonic's rear-mounted RECTIFIER/BIAS switch lets the user select from the following three options:
1. Solid-state rectification with fixed bias (marked "S.S. AB2"). Listed at 60 watts .
2. Tube rectification with fixed bias (marked "AB2"). Listed at 50 watts R.M.S.
3. Tube rectification with cathode bias (marked "A"). Listed at 30 watts R.M.S.
Unlike many amplifiers marketed as "Class A", the Prosonic truly functions as a in the "A" position. Class A refers to the amount of current flowing through the power tubes with zero audio signal, with Class A meaning maximum current flow even with zero signal. This makes the tubes run hotter, and gives the power section even more gain at the cost of tube life and noise. The Class-A designation for guitar amplifiers is often amisnomer; Few amps outside of the heralded, also with cathode bias, operate in a true Class-A mode [Albeit, it only did so up to 21 watts RMS]. While the Prosonic featured in the Class A mode and fixed bias in the mode, not all class A tube amplifiers are cathode-biased, and not all fixed biased amplifiers are Class AB. Fixed bias amps, however, require lower B+ Voltages to stay within the Plate Dissipation of the power tubes used; Cathode biasing "throws away" this voltage using conventional Higher Voltage power supplies.
A channel-switching amp, the Prosonic offers a clean channel that features a blend of traditional Fender sounds with the influence of amplifiers, frequently attributed to the Class A mode. Many players praise the Prosonic's clean channel as being "softer," and more prone to break-up and musically desirable distortion, than more contemporary Fender designs. Detractors view this trait as an apparent "darkness" in tone, and perceive this lack of the typical Fender "sparkle" as merely an undesirable lack of clean headroom.
The Prosonic also brought levels of gain (distortion) previously unavailable in a Fender amplifier. Taking a major cue from the first generation of Mesa Boogie amplifiers such as the Mark I (itself a modified Fender design), the Prosonic used additional gain stages in the preamp section that cascaded into one another. Although Fender had been designing amps with some facility for built-in distortion/overdrive since at least the late 1960s, never before had they arrived at a sound so readily usable for modern high-gain styles of music, and far removed from what many players consider to be archetypical Fender tones. The Prosonic's factory manual states, "Gain 1 functions as a standard gain stage whereas Gain 2 functions similar to a compressor, adding sustain while reducing 'edge' when the volume is increased. This channel produces great high gain sound at any volume—from bedroom to stadium."
Prosonics were available first from the Fender Custom Shop, and later from Fender Musical Instruments, and for each production run, combo amplifiers featuring dual 10" speakers, and head versions were available. (Zinky did make prototype combo versions with a single 12-inch speaker). The circuitry is identical and offers users the sound similar to a louder Deluxe Reverb. The combo version featured a tube-driven, Accutronics spring reverb unit. The head version omitted the reverb tank.
While the vast majority of Prosonics were shipped with the standard black covering, some of the initial Custom Shop run were finished in red and seafoam green pebbled tolex, called "lizard-skin" by Fender. Approximately 300 were made in red and 500 were made in seafoam green. The look of the amplifier borrows simultaneously from several eras of vintage Fender design: black "chicken-head" pointer knobs (as used on circa 1950s "tweed" amps), and the silver grill cloth, jewel lamp, and black control plate as used during the 'black face' period (mid-1960s). (Both models came with green jewel lamps).
An all-tube design, the Prosonic uses standard tubes in the preamp sections, and one for the reverb send on the combo model. Output tubes are 5881/WGCs. The rectifier tube is a 5AR4 (GZ34). The spring reverb unit in the combo model also uses a tube.
Although the Prosonic is a channel-switching amp, both channels share the same EQ section. Defying conventional logic, the Prosonic offers independent master volumes for each channel, or rather, on the clean channel, simply one volume control. The drive channel features the aforementioned dual cascading-gain controls, plus an additional master volume.
Two outputs for are provided, (with switchable 4/8/16-ohm operation on the head version). The back panel also provides for a line-level effects loop, aswell as an input for the channel-switching footswitch (the footswitch had a reverb button on combo models as well).
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| Listed | 10 years ago |
|---|---|
| Condition | Mint (Used) Mint items are in essentially new original condition but have been opened or played.Learn more |
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