Matamp Custom Chino

My amplifier was built in late 2006. Like most matamps it's 'all valve' (with solid state rectifier) and hand wired.It is a non-master volume amplifier so you have to crank it to get any sort of drive. At maximum volume you'd be lucky to get a Malcom Young style crunch. It features a fairly standard eq section comprising bass, mid, treble, presence. It also has a boost feature which I find completely useless. I was told that it would increase gain but all it does is give a very powerful clean boost. It also has reverb and in my opinion it is the worst I've ever heard. Incredibly noisy and useless beyond 9:00 on the knob.

I mostly use a stock Gibson SG std. With the guitar plugged straight into the amp the tone is best described as dark and clean with a wooly low-end. Even with the treble and presence turned up and the bass set at around 9:00 the low end is unclear. I've had the guitar since '93 and never had that issue with any other amp. I also own an American std. strat which works better with this amplifier. Still, the bass can be mushy when using the neck pick-up. To me, this is not a plug-in and play amplifier. My all original '54 deluxe blows it away. The only reason I've kept this amp is that it can sound good when using pedals. Usually I leave a Barber ltd overdrive on at all times. That way I can tailor the eq to something that works for my style which is fairly clean but driven. - Think AC/DC, SRV, etc.

At the moment, the amp is back at the matamp factory being rebuilt. I was using one night when it suddenly stopped working. Just two years of mostly home and studio use. Granted, I did have the volume up around 2:00 with a THD attenuator but that should'nt cause any decent amp to blow up. I've played my old tweed Deluxe at that level for years and never had a problem. Since it was new there was always static and poppig noises coming from it whether anything was plugged in or not. Of course I contacted them, told them the problem. They tried to blame it on the valves and sent some replacements. I put those in and nothing changed. I'm actually glad it kicked the bucket, really, because it gave me an excuse to go to their factory and let them know what I thought.

At first they seemed pretty helpful. They sent me free replacent valves which was nice of them. The funny thing is that it always seemed to be the same guy answering the phone. I was beginning to wonder if anyone else actually worked there. When I brought the amp to their factory I was told there are only 3(!) full time employees and that it was hard to find good help. No wonder they are so incredibly slow. When I first ordered the amp I was told it would take about 4 weeks. The amp arrived 10(!) weeks later. When I brought the amp in for repair I was told it would take about 3 weeks. It's now going on 2 months and I've heard nothing from them. Thankfully they offered to rebuild the amp as a stock King Street which should sound better if they manage to do it right, that is.

Don't think I'll be buying another Matamp product, unfortunately. I've read alot of glowing reviews but I'm not convinced. No doubt they're capable of building some good products but whether they can do so consistently is another question. If you think about it, most amps are put on the market only after a fair bit of r'n'd but these guys seem happy to custom build something, send it to the customer and let them decide. This may be alright if you live next door to them but can be a major hassle if you don't like the modifications they decide to make to an existing design.