Matamp Roadster

Made in 2000...one of 21 shipped to the US. It's as versatile as I need it to be, but it's pretty simple overall. This one features a pre gain knob which seperates it the most from the GTL also has bass boost, drive, bass, treble, presence, and master knobs. Features a power switch alog with a pre heat switch for when you first start the amp. 1 CHANNEL, but I use it mostly for the Gain and I use an A/B box to switch between this and a VHT cabinet to a Line 6 Vetta and Marshall cab for cleans and effects....So I basically only need the matamp to do one thing....MAKE BIG SOUNDS. And at that it excels. The 120 tube watts may seem a little bit quiet as you must turn this amp up to about 3 o clock to get truly loud, but the difference between this and a Mesa rectifier is this gets louder consistently as you turn up the knob. When you get to about 12 or 1 o clock on a mesa it prety much tops out and gets a little muddy after that. This amp does not.

I use it with a Gibson SG special (with invader PU's)and an SG Voodoo. I use the SG voodoo more because I like it's light weight and it sounds more midrangey which is good for what I like at least....I play mostly doom and hardcore styles with this amp (Sleep, Isis, Meshuggah, Willhaven) and I use GHS zach wylde signature strings (11-70) and I tune to G so I play some pretty low shit and this amp destroys all other I have owned in that class.....It's the most inspirational piece of equipment I've ever owned....I can crank out songs all day when I play this thing. It's not the most brutal distortion ever, but it is incredibly clear sounding, you can easily make out individual notes when playing a chord and that alone make it sound way "heavier" than a rectifier or soldano with more distortion.

I've only had it a few weeks....but it seems pretty solid.
Buy a road case.

I bought this directly from the US importer Joel. I spoke with him on the phone and he was very friendly and almost sounded sad to see this baby go.

I've been playing 6 years and I've owned 2 les pauls, 6 sg's a marshall jcm 900 and jcm 2000 tsl, a mesa triple and dual rec, vht poweramps and preamps, a mesa triaxis, marshall 1960 and 1965 cabs, 2 vht cabs, a mesa cab, and a few others. This is my favorite piece of gear ever.....it seriously writes songs for me. I almost feel like I'm cheating.

This amp was made in late 2000. I play in a hardcore/punk outfit (think Sick Of It All, H2O etc.) so I'm really looking for one sound - loud, tight on palm-muting, high-gain, bottom-end, clarity - and that's not been any easy sound to get. The amp I've been using is (no surprises here) a Mesa Dual Rectifier Solo Head and that does the trick for sure. I got the Matamp to try something different (after all, 6 years ago the Mesa was something different, now you hear them on about 75% of rock recordings).
The front panel : (Input), Pre-Gain, Bass-Boost, (Direct Input), Drive, Bass, Treble, Presence, Master, (Pre-Heat, Power).
The rear panel : 2 speaker outs, impedence selector, voltage selector (this is nice). This one has no slave out, but that's OK, I don't require one.
Amp : 120 watts, 4x Svetlana EL-34's, 3x12AX7's.
Speakers : 2x Red Label Celestion Seventy 80's - new model, equipped to deal with high-gain amps.
There are two inputs and though they are both on the same channel, one bypasses the 1st gain stage, thus sounding cleaner and quieter. Using an a/b box would essentially give you a channel switching amp, but it's still basically a single channel amp.

I play a PRS McCarty Model with EMG's. The Matamp has a sound that is quite suitable for the music I play. The distortion is not half as fuzzed-out as I expected - that's a good thing though! With the pre-gain set full and the drive on 8 I get a sound that can easily compete with my Mesa for a nice high-gain with clarity kind of thing.
Because there's no mid control, you can't scoop out the mids. And that's a good thing! Too many players use this scooped fuzzed-out sound that's great until the rest of the band kicks in the guitar sound disappears into mush. The Matamp is incapable of mush, except when you max both gains and the bass, it sounds kind of 'overloaded' and not nice. Oh well, just don't max both gains. It's got a lot of bottom end, but in a tighter more focussed way. This is the 1st amp with EL34's I ever used and I suspect that they're a large part of that difference. If the Matamp used 6L6's, it would probably put out more of that 'feel it in the room' bass.
I think this amp will be great for recording - it's very very clear and natural sounding. To echo the other Combo review here, these amps have been associated with stoner-rock, but they are capable of much more than that. Like I say, I could definitely use this in place of my Mesa to get the sound I want.
My only gripe : I've never needed to turn any hundred watt amp up past 4 or 5 to be loud enough. This one, when disconnected from it's own cabinet and run thru a GreenMatamp 4x12, has to be on 9 to be loud enough, and it's 120 watts! Strange. Just goes to show that high wattage doesn't always equal high volume.
It's no noisier than any other high gain amp, in fact it's quieter than most.

The cabinet construction is unique, very practical, and from what I can tell, bullet-proof. It's early days to tell whether the amp will have any problems, but the amp is also extremely well constructed and with regular maintainence I doubt they'll be any problems.

I've only dealt direct with the company in the UK. Jeff is a wonderful human being and always communicates very well. Matamp is a company that actually listens to it's customers.

I've been playing 10 years. Stolen/lost = buy it again. Surprised it's not louder, but hey, it's loud enough when you really crank the master so that's fine. I really wish I had it in a head.

Brutal tone but it has it's draw backs.

Clean Good but not enough gain available when the pre-amp is set this way.

Just makes sure the stage is stable. I flashed my tubes when the amp moved oround a bit. Later I found out that on of the screws holding down the transformer came loos which caused a short in the board. Damn shame, and that repair cost about $250.

The guy who imports thease to the U.S. is a chooch. Lucky if you get him on the phone when you will have a problem.

Cool but not loud enough for me. I rather use my Ampeg I paid $60 for.