Suhr PT15 I.R. Amplifier Head

Suhr-Tainly Excellent

Wildwoodians, we are proud to present the Pete Thorn PT15, because it is a truly beautiful machine. It’s one of the most inspiring, versatile tube amps out there, and it comes loaded with Suhr’s revolutionary impulse response and reactive load technologies, which open up a whole new world of tone-shaping options for the stage, studio, and living room. We’ll unlock the secrets of this innovative feature in a moment, but for now let’s dive in and see what makes the PT15 such an inspiring tube amp.

Three Channels. All the Tones.

A big part of the PT15’s magic is its three-channel configuration. Each channel has a lot to offer, and you can use the controls to dial in a wide variety of killer tones with ease and toggle between them on the fly using the included footswitch. You’ll be amazed at all the sounds you can wring out of the five 12ax7 preamp tubes and the two 6v6 power tubes merely by tweaking a few knobs. It’s also quite powerful for a 15-watt amp, so each channel has no shortage of volume.

The first channel has a classic American voicing with tons of clean headroom. You can quite easily dial in a warm, woody, midrange-forward clean sound or get some classic jangle and sparkle out of it, but it’s not just a clean channel. When you crank it up, you can find a sweet spot where the amp is just on the edge of full-on breakup, and if you go past that point, you get glorious beefy vintage crunch. On cleaner settings, it also works marvelously as a pedal platform if you want to get some dirt from your stompboxes.

Channel 2 and 3 are voiced the exact same way so that you can use one as a distorted rhythm tone and one as a distorted lead tone (or have two distorted rhythm tones, or two distorted lead tone--whatever floats your boat!). Both have a British voicing, and you can use them to conjure everything from vintage low- and mid-gain crunch to hard-edged rock to modern high-gain sounds. No matter where you set the gain, the PT15 maintains exceptional articulation and clarity.

Truly, the PT15 is a sonic Swiss Army knife, but you don’t have to spend hours in the lab tweaking things to access its full functionality. The controls for each channel are simple and intuitive, and they make it easy for the player to unlock all sorts of killer sounds.

Now that we know what the PT15 can do purely as an amplifier, let’s go deeper down the rabbit hole and talk about its revolutionary impulse response and reactive load technology.

Follow Your Impulses

Essentially, impulse response is an audiophile-quality form of cabinet simulation, and reactive load technology allows you to run the amp without connecting it to a cab. It is sample-based technology that does a pitch-perfect impersonation of a variety of mic'd up speaker cabinets. The reactive load/I.R part of the amp. comes pre-loaded with sixteen impulse responses that simulate different cabinet, speaker, and microphone configurations. So, you can swap from the sound of a roaring 4x12 cabinet with Celestion Greenbacks mic'd up with an SM57 to the more mannered sound of a 1x12 with a Vintage 30 mic'd up with an SM57 and a Royer 121 by pressing a couple of buttons.

The preloaded impulse responses have all the spectacular sound quality that we've come to expect from Suhr. In fact, they're nearly indistinguishable from actual mic'd up cabinets! Furthermore, the reactive load technology does a superb job of maintaining the feel of playing through a cabinet. You can feel every little detail and nuance of the cabinet without making any noise! Once the signal goes through all of this circuitry, you can send it to a recording interface, mixer, or headphone output.

Toggling between these various impulse response--some of which are proprietary blends made by Pete Thorn himself!--is quite intuitive. All you have to do is work use the “Bank” button to toggle between four groups of four impulse responses, then use the “Cab” button to find your preferred sound.

A Magnificent Recording Tool

There are many situations in which the PT15’s Reactive Load/IR technology will come in handy. First, it's an excellent home recording tool. Recording guitars is never easy. To get a great sound, you have to have a big enough room in a quiet surrounding environment, and you have to avoid angering your neighbors! With the Suhr reactive load/IR, tech, you can crank your PT15 all the way up and capture a thick, rich tone at three in the morning if you want to. It makes recording easier and more practical (and it makes capturing big amp sounds a whole lot easier!)

Practice Makes Perfect

It's also great for silent practice thanks to its headphone output. If you've ever had the itch to play late at night and settled for using a typical headphone amp, you know that they can sound somewhat less than inspiring. Now, you can have the feel and sound of a real tube amp in a room at any time of the day, and you don't have to wake up your significant other, kids, or neighbors! It also has an 1/8" auxiliary input, so you can connect your music-playing device of choice and jam along to your favorite songs or backing tracks.

Become the Sound Guy's Best Friend

The Suhr reactive load/I.R. technology opens up all sorts of exciting possibilities for live use, too. Getting a great live guitar sound can be an absolutely maddening endeavor because there are so many factors that can take your perfectly dialed tone and ruin it. The room might be too boomy, or the sound guy may need you to turn your amp down and render your tone anemic, or the low end from the kick drum may bleed into the mic on your cabinet.

With this magical box, you can render all of those concerns null and void. You can simply hand the sound guy a cable running from the IR jack, tell him to plug it into the mixer, and you're golden. You can use the monitors for stage volume, and rest assured knowing that the tone of your amp will come through cleanly and clearly through the house speakers. The sound guy will thank you for making his life easier, and your band's mix will be better for it. Not to mention, you don’t necessarily need a speaker cab, so loading in and out can be much easier on your back if you use the PT15.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

We are proud to present the Suhr PT15 because it’s a savage beast that can wreak sonic havoc in all sorts of fresh, exciting ways. Even if you never use its revolutionary technology, it’s a versatile amp that allows you to cover vast swathes of sonic territory with its easy, intuitive controls. And, Suhr’s innovative integration of impulse response and reactive load technology opens up a whole new world of vacuum tube-based fun. Whether you’re looking for a killer bedroom amp, a studio stalwart, a live workhorse, or all three, the Suhr PT15 will get the job done with great aplomb. We invite you to take one for a spin and a whole new world of glorious guitar tone.

Channels: 3
Output: 15 watts
Front Panel: Input, Aux Input, Headphone Input, IR Level, (CH1) Bright
Switch, Gain 1, Bass, Treble, Level 1, (CH 2/3): Bright 2/3 Switch, Gain 2,
Gain 3, Bass, Middle, Treble, Level 2, Level 3, Channel Select Switch, I.R.
Bank Select Button, I.R. Cab Select Button, I.R. LEDs, Power & Stand By
switch
Back Panel: H.T. Fuse, Mains Fuse, Mains Input, Reactive Load Parallel
Output, Reactive Load Disconnected Output, Impedance Selector, FX Loop
Send, FX Loop Return, Footswitch (TRS) jack, Balanced/Unbalanced Line
Out, I.R. Filter Bypass Button, USB Jack
Tubes: 2 x 6V6GT (Power Section), 5 x 12AX7
FX Loop: Tube driven, buffered
Mains Fuse: T1.5A/250V (Slo-Blo) - 100/120VAC
T.75A/250V (Slo-Blo) - 230/240VAC
H.T. Fuse: F.5A/250V (Fast-Blo)
I.R. Format:.WAV, Mono, 24bit, 48kHz, 20.5 ms
(I.R.s greater than 20.5 ms will be truncated to 20.5 ms)
I.R. Output Latency: 1.2 milliseconds
Dimensions: 20.5" (W) x 8.25” (D) x 9.25” (H)
Weight: 24.7 lbs.