Launched by PRS in 2018, the MT 15 would go on to become a hit with players needing something versatile that could take them from bedrooms to smaller stages. Six years later, after a whole lot of tweaking, Mark Tremonti is unveiling his second signature amp, the MT 100 – a 100-watt behemoth capable of conquering venues of any size.
“I wanted three channels this time, so I could replicate my favorite amps at home,” he says. “The Fender Twin-like clean is one of the things I’m most proud of, because with high-gain amps, that channel is often there as a side note. A lot of metal players won’t care; they just want to play metal. But cleans are important to me.”
The middle channel also required some extra attention to detail; Tremonti says he didn’t just want it to work as a “gained-down version of channel three.” It had to stand on its own two feet and inspire the player to do different things. Having owned six Dumble amps over the years, Tremonti knew exactly how he wanted to dial that second channel in.
“There’s a certain something that happens when you play a Dumble,” he says. “When the pick hits the string, you hear this certain quality that I tried to replicate with this amp. You can turn the gain down, sit on a note and it will bloom – which is a beautiful thing if you’re playing something slow and sweet. It won’t if you’re burning like Malmsteen!”
The latest signature amp is also notable for its old-school sensibilities. You get three independent channels, but don’t expect any USB connectivity, power attenuation or cab sims. Things like that, Tremonti says, can often get in the way.
“When I was growing up, we didn’t need all those functions,” he says. “I’ve seen comments where people were wishing it had a bunch of bells and whistles, but that’s not what this amp is. This is not a Kemper or something you program 10,000 presets into. This is a tube amp. I didn’t want too much because when things go wrong, you don’t know what the hell’s happening. I also wanted to keep the price down.
“I told Paul Reed Smith to keep it around $1,800 because that’s the breaking point between affordable and expensive. You still get three excellent channels that are individually voiced and completely isolated, sharing nothing but the effects loop.”
So what can we expect next from the longstanding PRS devotee?
“I think it would be good to do another line of baritones,” he says. “When we did that in the past, they sold out quickly and people missed out.
“I’m spitballing here, but we’ve also talked about doing a limited run of MT 100s with hand-painted Joe Fenton art. A 50-watt combo could be good. We’ve also talked about doing replicas of my Charcoal Burst with the Dimebag sticker – beaten up so they look like mine. We’re always discussing things.”
