Matchless Chieftain 112

Mine is a 95/96 1X12 Chieftain in Crimson Red. As far as versatility goes, it is in fact a single channel, single 12" combo and by design, simple.
That understood, it still gets a killer rating. Amp is used only at home.

This is the fun part:
The amp has a variety of clean tones at lower to moderate volume levels. When you get on it is where it really shines breaking up with a vengence. Currently using it with my NOS '77 Gibson 335 and a Fender MOTO Strat (amoung others.) Very quiet at idle, especially angry tone with humbuckers. Only thing lacking is crunch at very low volumes.
Styles of music??? (I don't like to answer silly questions like this one, music is music and if it's good, it's all good.)

Never had a problem.

N/A

I have been playing for over 30+ years (and still suck.)
However, I have been listining and evaluating both hi-fi and musical instrument circuits for several decades. Here's one thing I will never understand: Why would we pay countless thousands of dollars for collectable instruments and vintage amplifiers and then use crappy tubes? (aka: poop du jour.) The bottom line is this, if you want to actually hear what your vintage instrument CAN sound like (same with vintage amps), pony up some dough and buy NOS or quality used pulls produced before the early 80's. On a final note, one reviewer here claims that we should use (fat bottle aka: fatboy) 6CA7/EL34's at the output stage of the Chieftain....DON'T !!! They double the noise floor and trash the clean tones, better yet, I have found that 12AX7 Amperex Bugle's work best in the pre stage, Telefunkens in the reverb and phase positions with Mullard xf2 EL-34's at the output and a Mullard GZ34 for rectification.
Have fun....

Mine was build in 2001 in the new factory. It is a one channel tube amp. I use mine at home. It has an excellent sound, also at low volumes. Only one channel, but after buying this amp i did not feel the need for more than this one any more

My guitar is an Ibanez SA 160QM. I ordered this amp via internet because I got the possibility to buy it for a very good price. Well, when I got it I pluged in my guitar, turned the amp on and fell in love with it at the first chord. This is nine months ago now and it is always a pleasure to play this amp. The range of the amp is from a nice clean to a rock overdrive. So Santana, Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath kind of sounds only by turning the volume and swithing the pickups. It reacts strongly on everything in front of it - even the picks (not to mention the way You use them ) have a strong influence on the sound.

This amp works together very good with most overdrives I used. My favorite is a hand wired tube overdrive called "roars" which I bought from a guy at ebay/Germany. It sounds as if there would have been added 20% of gain to the amp. Other ones I use occasionally are an Exar turbo Overdrive, Ibanez DS10, and a Fuzz Face Clone (Germanium). With the right overdrive it is possible to drive this amp in nearly all territories. I sometimes even play Metallica on it.

This amp is not noisy at all

This amp looks extremely well build. The wiring and the parts inside look like extreme high quality. But nevertheless I did already have a minor problem with it.

The customer support is excellent. I just had a problem with my amp and just wrote an email and got a very fast, friendly and competend reply. They described me which parts could have caused the mistake and what I can do about it. I don't know any amp-tech in my region, but with their help I was able to fix the problem all by myself.

I am playing guitar for 15 years now. I am still student so the amount of money I can spent for my equipment has some limitations. I saw the amp at an music shop on sale and just ordered without thinking much about it. I think this was one of the best decisions I made. I don't feel any need to play any other amp.

A straight-forward, no frills, Class A amplifier built with the finest componets available. One channel with Volume, Bass, Treble, Mid, Brillance, Master Volume and Reverb. Effects loop is in the back. The amp is rated at 40 watts and is all-tube with EL-34s. This is an amp for those of us who want incredible tone with simplicity. Turn the guitar volume down for clean and up for dirty. The amount of gain is a function of your instrument and the relation between the two volume controls. It has all that you need.

I've used this guitar with a 1962 reissue Strat with Fralin pickups and a 1970 Les Paul Deluxe with mini-humbuckers. The tone is incredible. It is reminiscent of a Vox with a little Marshall thrown in. It does not have the "scooped out" mids of a Fender, but the cleans sounds are complex enough. It sounds best with the volume at 2 to 3 o'clock with the mids pretty high. Adjust everything else to taste. You will not need any pedals unless you're a gainiac. This is the finest amp Ive ever heard. Period.

Just bought this (used) and one of the transformers screws had fallen out when it arrived. That gave me the opportunity to open the chassis to find the lock-washer and nut to put the screw back. What impecable workmanship!

Out of business (kinda')

If you put all the money you've ever spent on amps, pedals, etc. to get great tone, you will have easily paid for one of these. Do what I did; sell everything and get one-NOW!!!

The amp was made in 1996, I picked it up 2 years ago. 2 El 34 40 watt, single channnel, 1 12 in special Celestion Speaker, Class A very Hot cathode biasing, interactive tone controls (bass, mid, treble, presence), reverb, effects loop, and master volume.

I'm currently using the amp with a PRS custom 22, the amp sounds great with humbuckers or single coils. Largest improvement in tone occurred after I contacted Groove Tubes to see what hardness rating they recommended, my amp was eating EL 34 every 6 months with minimal use (2 hours a week). The tech at groove tubes informed that they had contacted Mark Sampson to get a mod to lower the plate voltage, they gave me the paperwork for the Mod. However, the amp tech mentioned that Sampson had relayed to them that the Chieftain was never designed for the skinny bottle EL 34, the amp really sings with the much tougher Fat Boy 6ca7.
I picked up several pairs of these fat boys on e-bay and the difference was phenomenal. I have been using the same set of tubes for over 1 year now and they were used when I put them in the amp. The tone is much more complex with the Fat Boys. The tone is warm, round, and "saturated". I know that some people complain about the "ghost tones" associated with the matchless amp, I find the tone to be "very full". I also traded out the phase invertor and the first stage with some 5751 and the other 12 ax7a's with mullard and telefunken NOS.
The amp has tons of headroom and sounds very deluxe reverbish when left clean. However, as you push the amp into breakup, you get the voxy class A chime. Overall I think that this is a great amp for blues, standard rack and roll, and clean jazz. The amp will not do High Gain metal stuff. I run a Hughes and Kettner Tube Man pedal into the amp and the combination is fantastic. I've tried other overdrive pedals with the amp and it always sounds better with a bit of boost in front on it.

I opened the amp up just to look at it after reading all of the other reviews about their attention to detail. One look inside and you know how why these amps command so much attention. All solder connections are painted, teflon wire, extensive wire wrapping, it just looks like quality.

Not Applicable, they are gone.

I've been playing about 15 years. Every now and then I look at what they are selling these for on e-bay and I start thinking about selling it, then I plug into the amp and immediately change my mind. The amp is a tone monster, I've plugged into amps that sound almost as good, but I've never plugged into one that sounded better. If it were lost or stolen, I would have to get something else, I can not afford them anymore.

I've owned this amp (head) now nearly two years. It's a single input/single channel design. It has the usual array of EQ controls: Bass, Midrange, Treble, and Presence along with one Volume and one Master Volume control. There is an effects loop also which i run a Rocktron Intellifex into. This amp has an effecient effects loop. I play most styles with it, but find it falls short when performing jazz. Other than that, i find it is quite a versitile amp. It is a 40 wt. EL-34 tube design in a class "A" output configuration. It also comes equipped with spring reverb - though it's weakest feature in my opinion.

I use a variety of guitars and thus i get a myriad of tones from this amp. When using my Les Paul, the humbuckers push the front end more creating classic 70's rock guitar tones depending upon the EQ settings. When using my Strat thru it, it behaves more mildly but with a ton of soul! When using P-90 equiped guitars, i find i get the best from this amp all the way around. This amp can do spanky country, cool pop, classic rock, and metal. The clean in this amp is well defined and snappy. The distortion is subtle to rich and lush.

As i mentioned , i've had this amp two years about now and with no problems whatsoever. It is constructed like a tank and weighs in like one as well! Meticulous is the wiring in this amp - all point to point with high grade components throughout. The transformers in these amps are top notch. It has a solid steel chassis and the cabinet is beefy - built to last!

I can't say anything about customer support thus far - i haven't needed them. This amp just keeps going and going and going - so far anyway.

I've been playing 25 plus years and i have had my share of gear including amps. I don't think i could do without this amp and i would certainly seek another one if i lost this one somehow. It is the richest tone i have ever heard both clean and distorted from a guitar amp period. It reacts better to front end devices such as distortion pedals and the like. This amp comes as a combo or as a head. I prefer the latter because you can easily match it to the cabinet and speaker configuration of your choice thus increasing your tonal possibilities. Some players see this amp as a one trick pony - i disagree. You do need to spend time with it and learn it's EQ's sensitivities. Also, the tube manufacture is a major factor. Mine came equipped with Sovtek EL-34's. I replaced them recently with the new Tesla E34L's(duet) and what a surprise! These tubes work really well for this amp. I also use a Marshall 2x12 cab with the back off and 25 wt. greenbacks in it. Simply, masterful is this combination for me. All in all, this is one great amp destined to be one of the all time greats. It lacks when doing jazz, but excells everywhere else stylisticly. A good thing to do to this amp is to replace the two 12ax7's in the preamp section and also in the phase inverter section. It tames the amp down giving it more headroom overall and greater versitility. This is an old tube amp trick and works just fine in this amp. As it is from the factory, it is setup as a cruncher mondo distortion machine. Amazing what chilling out the preamp section does for it - as this would for any amp. For what it's worth, i use this amp in conjuction with a Fender Super Reverb running both in tandem or switching between them. It's a great setup and covers all bases for me. I would encourage anyone to acquire a Matchless Chieftain and to chill out the preamp section in it. If you like well defined tone with lots of edge and snap to it, then this is the amp man. A Vox AC-30 is the inspiration of the Matchless line of amps. The Cheiftain goes one better in my opinion by retaining all that wonderful Voxxy zip and zing along with it's classic distortion but now done with more control and width in overall tone! This amp simply has a "soul". When you've felt it, you won't want it to leave you.

El34 Driven Class A Single Channel Amp. Bought the 1x12 model. Effects loop, built in reverb, master volume. I doubt I'll need the effects loop since the only effect I usually use is reverb anyway, but it's always a nice thing to have. I'm only giving it a 9 because I'd like to see a master volume bypass mode available, like on the DC-30 model.

It's a fantastic sounding amp. Super big and glassy, very 3D and professional. Reminds me of the tone on the Stones' "Exile On Main Street" album. I think they were using Ampeg V2s at the time. Very clean, but if you hit your strings harder, it brings out a lovely overdriven sound. As it's equipped with a master volume, you can bring this amp into a more distorted mode, but I think it's meant to be more of a sonic coloring rather than all out fuzz. This amp isn't for a metal or grunge maniac. HUGE bass response, unbelievable response for a 1x12 configuration. The amp also sounds better with single coils or low output humbuckers. My '52 RI Tele sounds big and ballsy, plus it gets a low end you never hear with a bridge Tele pickup.

Matchless is supposed to be tops in reliability, but as a Class A amp they can run hot and you're not supposed to leave the thing idling for long periods.

I've called them several times for help to replace the power tubes (I put in Svetlana Gold Tops, sweet and lovely) and they were extremely helpful and nice. They are good people there.

I adore this amp, but one day I'd like to buy a Vox AC30 or a Matchless Lightning down the line for some more tones. The only thing this amp needs is a good overdrive pedal. I'll try the Fulltone Fulldrive II and see how things go.