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i popped into a music store today and was suprised to find a couple of matchless amps in there. Living in Australia these are few and far between.
I wanted to compare the sound of my Ceri@tone spitifre to these amps to hear how authentic my clone sounded.
Well I tried out the clubman (EL34) and a lightning.
Clubman had more solid bottom end but less chime than the lightning.
But I noticed something common with both these amps and the spitfire I built.
Crank the volume to 8-10 (preamp gain) and it gets farty in the bottom end and can't hold chords well. I was surprised to find this in the real matchless amps. Particular when the lightning retails for $4500 AUS and clubman around $5500 AUS. I just don't think it's worth that price for something like that to happen.
I'm not trying to bag matchless, as I love it's clean tones and slight breakup tones, it just can't do medium or high gain very well without the aid of pedals. In fact my spitfire sounded marginally better both clean and dirty since I replaced some of my caps with sozos. less farty and more soldi bottom end when dirty.

daz;

Thanks for the review!

I believe the SS Recto that I use in the Spitfire/18Watt Hybrid Thunderbolt 9 does alot to cure the fartiness at higher Gain settings.

CR ><>

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WoodCross Amps

http://www.geocities.com/woodcrossamps/

When you say medium to high gain, what are some examples of the tones your after...?

I know what you're saying, since my lightning can get a tad flubby if I crank the gain and master......but it really depends how I set the bass and trebble.

But with all due respect, There are plenty of really expensive amps out there that get flubby. Hell, you set a Fender the wrong way, it's flub city. I exhaustively demoed a Mesa Boogie Lonestar before getting into amp building last year. That thing flubbed out when you played it wrong too.

You may be looking for a tone that the lightning can't deliver...your speaker might be the wrong speaker for the amp...or the lightning might not be for you.

From my perspective, you have to be a better player to get the most out of the lightning...since you have to be able to control the amp with your playing style and the sound that you dial in....

But everyone's different. I'm sure someone is going to come in to this thread and say you're nuts and that the lightning isn't flubby at all. Who knows.

Good Luck!

-Frank

Yeah I guess that's true, some marshalls do the same too.
med - high gain - I guess like bad cat hotcat / wildcat stuff.


I just figure if you are going to put out a boutique amp at that price shouldn't all the controls be useful throughout their range?
I say that because my mate www.reynolds-valveart.com.au puts out a two channel amp, one channel fender one marshall, but he fixed those inherent flaws in those amps so all his controls are useful.

Someone may disagree, that's fine but I found the flab characteristics in three different amps - matchless lightning , the clubman and my spitfire clone. The shop owner who had the matchless amps agreed with my comment and thought them as crap and a waste of money!

Anyway got a bad cat two tone pedal to use with my spitfire which has solved my gain issues.

Thats interesting...I dunno, I'm originally influenced by Eddie Van Halen and Neal Schon. I don't play like those guys anymore...but the other day, I tried to dial in some EVH-esque sound and go to town...and the amp was very loose....on the verge of the flubbiness you mention. Some guys can get their lightnings to do that kind of rock....but it doesn't sound right to me. I suspect thats why guys have lightnings *and* 18watts.

Regardless, when I dial back the gain...I get amazing semi-clean and dirty blues tones....The Lightning definitely shines in the mid-gain department. In fact, In that area, I find the amp to be downright chameleon-like. It can get very fendery or voxy or marshally depending on how you set it and play it.

My one gripe about the amp is that I'd love to swing the distortion floor a little higher and make the amp a tad cleaner at full tilt. When my lightning is dimed, it's not as good as when it's at 3/4. I'm thinking a 6v6 conversion might be the ticket...

-Frank

I found that you should never play with the MV dimed or even close. Also remeber that the controls are interactive, cutting some bass off might cut some treble and Vice versa.
It's correct that this is an amp that takes a long time to get used to. You can't walk into a store, sit down and play a Lighting and expect to hit your sweet spot. It will take quite a while. I know lbet is still discovering tones he loves and he's had it for almost a year now. Never heard him call it flabby but I'll ask him.

I have a chart of settings for guitars & pick-ups that might be useful to try out. Anyone interested?? I include it in the amp documentation.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Ah, come on Stephen....where's the fun in that!

Seriously speaking, if I did that all the time, I'd find myself buying a hearing aid really soon!



I concur, the amp's tone control's are awesome. Similar to some of the Z amps, where you can sweep a wide range of tone with very little turning of the knob. Turn the bass, and the treble gets affected as well as the bass. Turn the treble and the bass gets affected as well the treble. You could effectively dial out unwanted high end from the amp...and never touch the treble dial. It's unlike anything I've ever played.

It definitely takes a while to get used to that kind of power and control...I've had my lightning completed for about 2 weeks...and I feel I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg, as far as tonal possibilities. Now if only I can get some more headroom....



Definitely....I for one, would love to see them!

Sent you the docs. Yes, it will take a while to get used to it, but there's a lot o learn because it's not intuitive.

I would also like some more clean headroom. Let's kick off a "Lightning Clean Up" project. What do you think?

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Sounds good to me!!!

I'm guessing that going to 6v6's might clean up just enough to make me happy (since the reports are that the 6v6 version of the ax84 november is a bit cleaner than the el84 version)...but I've zero experience with 6v6's and I don't know if there'd be an adverse change in tone.

B&V, let's move this over to:

viewtopic.php?t=116&highlight=clean

There are already some thoughts there.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Matchless amps (and most booteek amps for that matter) are sitting right on the edge of instability in several regards. That's part of what makes them booteek. They aren't for the masses. Fender Blues Jrs are for the masses (and Boogies and...). Those amps live within a tight set of constraints so buyers won't ever shake their heads in disgust at some settings (and return the amp to the store).

Booteek amps often get out of control when set certain ways. There are places you don't want to go with them, but the places you do want to go are generally far better sounding than run of the mill production amps. This is normal stuff in the booteek world.

You also have to realize that Matchless does not make an amp that even approaches the gain of a Bad Cat. Different animals.

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--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

It's also important to note that the perception of value and price-to-performance ratio can vary greatly from person to person. While boutique amps like Matchless are known for their unique tonal qualities and craftsmanship, they might not always fulfill every player's sonic preferences or justify the high price tag for some.
Bitlife

It's also worth noting that people's perceptions of value and price-to-performance ratios can differ substantially.

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Your modifications with Sozo caps yield better performance in terms of a less farty bottom end and backpack battles improved solidity when dirty is a testament to the potential for modification and fine-tuning in achieving the desired sound.