Well I didn't buy an amp. :(
Originally the plan was to try a new amp they had in, which turned out to be a signature model. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say who its for :) Anyway it just wasn't what I was looking for, it sounded nice how the man uses it - with his volume control wound right down (with a Telecaster - he's a British jazz guitarist who actually visited while I was there and totally blew me away.......any guesses? :D ) but when I turned it up even a little it went straight into a very unhappy sounding overdrive.
Unfortunately the Chino I tried before wasn't there - if it had been I probably would have bought it on the spot.
I tried the following amps:
New signature model
GTL
V28
Harry Joyce Custom 100
King Street
Had a very long chat to Dave, during which we both discovered that I was essentially looking for an amp that did exactly the same job as my current Seymour Duncan, but without breaking down! I brought it along to compare with all the above amps, and I have to say in terms of a jazzy clean tone (like that featured on the clip I posted up a while back) the 'Duncan more than held its own with all of them. 8)
When I went over the huge list of noises and foibles my amp had to Dave, and when he heard all of them soon after (it was having a particularly bad day!) to my amazement he reeled off a list of causes for each problem, and said it could all be fixed for the cost of the parts.
Now considering the last time an 'expert' looked at my amp they replaced one 'grumbly' resistor and charged me 80 quid for the privilege, leaving it still popping and banging and stopping and starting, the prospect of having it repaired hopefully for good for 'probably 40 quid' was too good to pass up. On top of the repair Dave's also adding a power conditioner and something else along those lines that could apparently one day stop me getting fried, an R-- something or other.
So basically I'm not getting a Matamp, I'm just having my 'Duncan polished up. The fact that they didn't even try to push me into buying anything, instead helpfully recommending I do something that at the end of the day will save me a load of money and make them very little (not to mention Dave talking about a whole list of other amps, e.g. a 100watt Plexi, that he thought may well meet my needs better than a Matamp) is honesty beyond any I've experienced buying anything ever. *
For this, and the fact that they still make some bl@ody good amps, I can't recommend them highly enough.
*Apart from a certain p/up maker, obviously
** Matamp also make extremely high quality tea. With extra long life milk! Unbelievable
