Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: The amazing Phil on October 31, 2005, 10:21:08 AM
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Bad news; I got an expensive 8 hour round train journy up north to Huddersfield coming up.
Goodnews; I'm going to test drive me a Matamp! 8) Oh yes, oh yes indeed, a fricking bonafied Matamp baby. I'm positively $%&#ing stoked, I'll update you when there's stuff to update with, but this is certainly the best medicine for that fiasco with Ashdown.
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Excellent - I'll meet youthere if I can get over...could bring a few BKP loded guitars too.... :wink:
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I'm looking forward to getting enough together to order one as well. I'm hoping it won't be long...
Hoping. :(
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Please see if you can try the 1224 out, and report back! My ride to Matamp would be a bit longer than yours (4,000 miles)!
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This is certainly the best medicine for that fiasco with Ashdown.
You're an unhappy Ashdown customer too? I'm looking to get rid of my Ashdown Peacemaker 60 and replace it with something a little more hom-use friendly. Currently torn between a Matamp or THD Univalve. I'd be interested to hear what you make of the Matamps :)
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Holy Cow!!!!!!!!!!!!
I specifically went out and found an internet cafe to start the exact same topic cos................................
So am I!
:D :D :D
I've just got off the phone to Jeff, I think it was Jeff anyway, and arranged to come up on Saturday. From Brighton :? Can't wait though!
Only problem - whether or not I'll have the balls to tell the guys to speak a little slower! Good job Dave had lots and lots to say on the phone 'cos I only got every other word of it!
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Jeff and the rest of the guys at Matamp will look after you and keep you supplied with tea! The hardest choice for you will be which one, trust me!
Please excuse my taking the oppurtunity to show this off... again! http://community.webshots.com/photo/332830655/483639202kRDRgS
My new King Street head and 2x12 cab. It sounds absoluetly stunning :D
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Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
I'd love to get a Matamp but I can't afford one of the buggers! I'm stuck with an old Marshall and Behringer cab :(
You lucky, lucky shites!
Have fun!
Andy!
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Well I'm speccing mine to keep the cost down - 1x12 combo, no reverb, no effects loop, no rec. out etc, 15 watts, single channel, volume knob, tone or bass and treble knob/s, attenuator, thats it. From soundbytes I prefer the GTO type circuit sound, but he said there's twice as many components in that compared to the C7 (i.e. its a load more expensive I guess) so I'll probably be going with the C7. Stuff always sounds different in real life anyway; I might really love the C7!
Quoted under £600, 'prob more like £500'.
= ebay'd amp, ebay'd spare guitar, ebay'd mountain bike parts.
In theory......sorted! PDT_003
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I'd practice your tea-making skills before the trip to Matamp - Dave & Jeff ain't shy when it comes to telling you get the brews sorted :lol:
:twisted:
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I'd practice your tea-making skills before the trip to Matamp - Dave & Jeff ain't shy when it comes to telling you get the brews sorted :lol:
:twisted:
Just make sure you get a clean cup......and don't ask Jeff where his mug is, you get a stupid joke...every time... :lol:
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OOHHH, im going to Matamp soon too, WOOOO!
I really want a clean head to A/B with my marshall. OR just another 2 channel head, but i dont have that much money. I want a tremolo circuit too, DAMN I WISH I HAVE MORE MONEY!
EBAY Auction: Joe's Kidneys, who wants EM!
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The trip to the Matamp factory was deffinitely worth the time, trainfare, and odd scowls from a young korean lady who decided to sit opposite me then secretly resent me for being there.
The guys at Matamp are bloody ace, I knew they had a good rep, but they really made me feel at home which was awesome of them. Even got me from the station! I ended up playing a C7 in combo form (black and silver) which was a prototype, and it's awesome. It's the most responsive, toneful little box I've played hands down. I can deffinitely see how that thing ended up with a Guitarist Gold award.
Also, (for Twilight Oddysey) while I was there I didn't play one, but Ralph was testing one of the 1224 combos out and it sounded absolutely killer. He's a blinding guitar player too. It was like rock and jazz and slap bass all rolled into one sort of "thing". But the sounds, both dirty and clean were great, but it's something you have to play or at least hear to really understand.
It's really cool how the factory is set out too, it really is probably the last place making amps like that, seeing it all was really good, and they make a great cup of tea. The bit where they make their cabs is inhabited by a half finished dalek of all things! :lol:
I now need look no further than Huddersfield for all my amplification needs. Incidently, I think the rail companies are comitting robbery. I'll have to check, but I've a suspicion getting a flight from luton to manchester than getting the train straight from there to huddersfield may have been cheaper! I know I could have gone to Dublin, Amsterdam, or Prague twice for what I paid. :lol:
But all in all I had a great time, got a great amp, and everyone at Matamp was really excellent to me.
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Now I really can't wait!
I was born a rubbish tea maker so I'm gonna bring some Guinness instead - they seem like Guinness kind of guys.
Phil did you try the Chino by any chance? From what I've gathered its more a jazz amp, but my guitar's pretty trebly and I've always had a fairly dark sound so I'm thinking it might be the one for me. It's still got to cut through a band though PDT_049
PS did HJM meet you there? Was that old Avatar of his a fitting likeness? Or his latest one? Just weird how in chatroom world you can't help but build a mental picture of everyone in your head, and in mine HJM currently looks like a dog :lol: Don't take that the wrong way!
Have you got anything else I might need to know Phil?
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Just weird how in chatroom world you can't help but build a mental picture of everyone in your head, and in mine HJM currently looks like a dog :lol: Don't take that the wrong way!
Haha - thats so true, i was thinking the other day about who i'm gonna meet at music live. And then i realised i'm not gonna recognise anyone, because they're actually people, and not dogs and guitars etc. I'll have you know that my avatar is an ACTUAL photo of me
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Just weird how in chatroom world you can't help but build a mental picture of everyone in your head, and in mine HJM currently looks like a dog :lol: Don't take that the wrong way!
Haha - thats so true, i was thinking the other day about who i'm gonna meet at music live. And then i realised i'm not gonna recognise anyone, because they're actually people, and not dogs and guitars etc. I'll have you know that my avatar is an ACTUAL photo of me
Funnily enough, im not always going OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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however there is constantly a negative square around my head, constantly and yes my hair is constantly like that, and no i am not donating right now. I know im cool, but please , calm down.
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Now I really can't wait!
I was born a rubbish tea maker so I'm gonna bring some Guinness instead - they seem like Guinness kind of guys.
Phil did you try the Chino by any chance? From what I've gathered its more a jazz amp, but my guitar's pretty trebly and I've always had a fairly dark sound so I'm thinking it might be the one for me. It's still got to cut through a band though PDT_049
PS did HJM meet you there? Was that old Avatar of his a fitting likeness? Or his latest one? Just weird how in chatroom world you can't help but build a mental picture of everyone in your head, and in mine HJM currently looks like a dog :lol: Don't take that the wrong way!
Have you got anything else I might need to know Phil?
I didn't try a Chino out, but I'm sure it's a really cool amp. And I didn't get to meet HJM, I hadn't really checked back here until I got back. As for anything else you need to know... they have a dalek downstairs in the cabinet making room thing place. I shet thee not, an actual fricking dalek. It's not finished yet, but it's cool. Not the sort of thing I'd have expected to find, but it's ace there. If you get a chance to go I think you'd have a blast trying the amps out and talking to the guys, but I'll warn you now you will NOT want to come home empty handed.
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Now I really can't wait!
I was born a rubbish tea maker so I'm gonna bring some Guinness instead - they seem like Guinness kind of guys.
Phil did you try the Chino by any chance? From what I've gathered its more a jazz amp, but my guitar's pretty trebly and I've always had a fairly dark sound so I'm thinking it might be the one for me. It's still got to cut through a band though PDT_049
PS did HJM meet you there? Was that old Avatar of his a fitting likeness? Or his latest one? Just weird how in chatroom world you can't help but build a mental picture of everyone in your head, and in mine HJM currently looks like a dog :lol: Don't take that the wrong way!
Have you got anything else I might need to know Phil?
My old avatar was Ambrose Fleming - the man who invented the valve, but no-one spotted him - shame! New one's my dog!!
On the Guiness, Jeff doesn't drink, or Dave much either!
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I've been to Matamp!
:D
In the interests of doing a proper job, below is a complete review of what I did yesterday, while at the same time being possibly the longest post this forum has ever supported.
Firstly I've got to say it was an absolute mission to get there. I left Brighton at 7.20 in the morning, stopped off at home near Stamford for an hour, left at 11am, up the A1, up the M1............and into Leeds! :roll:
Eventually found my way through the traffic and over the dales to Matamp at half three, thinking 'shite, I've got an hour and a half before they close'. Not so! When Jeff rolled up and showed me how to get into the fortress that is the large brick mill of Matamp, he casually mentioned he was working till 9pm anyway. And till 9pm on the Sunday as well. 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Now that's commitment.
Jeff (the only person at the factory, plus his wife) went on to explain Life, the Universe and Everything, centering around how stuff works, why he thinks EL84s are the worst valve in the world, why 6V6s have black glass, why THD are doing the world a disservice with their YellowJackets by overlooking the fact that most EL34s run on a fixed 500volts/milliamps/something from one of the transformers yet EL84s are designed to handle a maximum of only 300, and finally, the extent to which he's going to Exterminate Mesa/Boogie at the next Guitar Live with a remote control Dalek.
After he was satisfied that the majority of the above had been sufficiently pummelled into my brain (about an hour later........my watch only said 5 minutes, its obviously faulty), we went upstairs to the Amp Room.
The Amp Room, naturally, contains many amps. Not all of which say Matamp on them :wink: . The expectant hum of a C7 was muted....I plugged in :o
First impressions - the amp is changing speaker cabinets by itself, it's clearly alive, relentlessly evolving itself with every strum....oh, its Jeff doing it. Fair play. Needless to say it sounds good with every speaker - clear and bright up top, but somehow avoiding becoming hard and peaky even when you crank the treble. I've heard sparklier amps, but to me its the mids that really stood out. I'm not normally one for winding up the mids but the C7 loved it, they were thick and rich and, like the treble, it didn't sound like you had the knob dimed - the sound didn't go nasal, it just got fuller and would undoubtably cut through a mix without the tone itself sounding like it had been obviously EQ'd for such a purpose.
Can't really comment on the bass, I think this was about the time I tweaked the volume knob up full and failed miserably to keep cool and collected in front of the best amp I'd ever heard.
There was one other amp I was itching to have a play on. The Chino comes across on the website as being a dark jazzy sounding amp. 'Course I didn't get the hints which strongly suggested (rightly) that its actually based on a Fender sound. Whatever, this is still my amp of choice. The cleans are a real step up from the C7, with a lot more depth, and with the 6-position 'Voice' knob wound fully anti-clockwise to its thickest setting, its equally as rich. It does have more clean headroom than the C7, and cleans up better, the trade off being that it doesn't quite roar (roar its tits off? There's a new one for you Jeff!) like the C7 at full whack.
If the Chino and C7 were Bluesbreaker combos, the Chino would have the volume knob at three quarters and the C7 would be going flat out - if anybody's played one you'll know its the last quarter turn that brings the gain, the mids and the thickness out. Jeff is going to discuss this with Dave (the design engineer, I believe) on Monday and see if he can get me the best of both worlds.
Oh, and I'm planning a Chino with no Voice knob (It'll be permanently wired to give the thickest tone - I coil split my Stormy Monday to make the transition from screaming with the Nailbomb to clean a little easier), no Presence knob (wired to give max presence - I obviously use my vol. pot to clean up, if I didn't have loads of presence I'd have a muddy [comparitively!] clean sound), no effects loop and probably no reverb.
In red with gold piping and corners and a light grey/brownish grill cloth, with standard black control panel and cream chicken head knobs, for no extra charge.
All in all I had a great time, had a great cup of tea, heard some great amps..............and got lost again on the way home!
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You git.
Andy!
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Thanks Andy.