Excellent review.
I've been interested in the Minimat since it was first produced last year but was a little hesitant in buying one after looking at some of the early reviews on the Matamp forum. Whilst they all liked the Minimat to some extent, a large proportion did not exhibit the 'honeymoon period' we all seem to get when we get new gear. (e.g. big smile when you try your first set of BKP pickups ).
However, the attraction of having a hand built 2watt amp proved too great and I bought a used 6V6 model on ebay about 2 months ago. I've tried it with these BKP equiped guitars:-
Tele (Boss), Strat (Apache), SG (Riff Raff), Les Paul (Crawler), Ibanez EDR470 (Crawler)
With the single coil Tele & Strat it produced a great full chimey sound at mid to higher settings and a reasonable sound at max/boost settings although I found the boost to be a little 'raw/grainy?'.
However, with the 3 humbucker equiped guitars I found the voicing to be a little lacking. I tried several pedals in front of it which improved it. After reading rahnooo's review I think I would have been happier with the EL84 model. I have a Fender Champ 12 (with a 6L6) and it sounds similar in may ways (despite custom mods) in that it likes (not surprisingly) Fender guitars but is not so convincing at higher gain settings with humbuckers. The Cornford Hurricane (two EL84s) I have sounds excellent with both sc and humbuckers.
If you are thinking of getting a Minimat I would suggest:-
1/. - Go to the factory if possible and try both the 6V6 and the EL84 - if you are not happy they can tweek it (within limits) to what you want.
2/. - Realise that the Minimat is not a high gain monster - you will definitely need some good pedals if you're into heavy rock/shredding.
3/. - Try it with different speakers if possible - I think it does not suit my Celestion V30 loaded Cornford cab.
4/. - Realise that guitar tone is a very personal thing - some guitarists might think the humbucker sounds from the Minimat are great and the Fender sounds are cr@p.
