Matchless Phoenix 35 212 Combo

Its basically a DC30 with a clubman power section (EL34's). 2 channels (sides) each with its own tone sections. The tone selector on the right side is actually really handy. I know alot of people like to twist knobs to perfection but i really enjoy haveing a good number of presets and the cut control really allows you to create any sort of tone you want. Its actually probably one of the most versitile amps out there especially with the two different sides. Its as if you have two great sounding amps in one unit. Great for recording. Also takes pedals really well.

And if looks is a feature, which for me it is, this one is drop dead gorgeous. Its got the brownish gold clothe with the red face plate. Without a doubt the best looking amp i have ever seen. I got more compliments on the way this amp looks in one night than i ever did with the DC30. And hey anything that catches some attention isnt a bad thing.

Absolutely stunning. My last three amps have been a Matchless DC30, a Bad Cat Black cat and now the Phoenix. With the DC30 and the Black Cat I always told myself i would never sell the amps but even with the amazing sounds I could get with them I always felt they were missing something. I plugged into the phoenix and i figured out what I was looking for. The el34's have alot more punch to them. you loose a little bit of chime but this amp makes up for it with the extra tightness and clarity. Its not as loose as your AC30 knock offs which might be your thing, but if your like me the extra punch this amp has is exactly what your looking for.

The other thing that really floored me about this amp was how good humbuckers sound through it. With the DC30 and Black Cat humbuckers sounded good but the amp still favoured your single coils or P90s. Something about the humbuckers would sound harsh. The Phoenix really takes to humbuckers and single coils.

I personally set it for mostly clean and then use pedals to push the amp. But even with pedals you still get that clarity and punch from the amp. It really is a beautiful thing.

I've played Matchless and Bad Cat amps for the last 4 years and never had a problem. Tours, yes. No cases, yes. Problems, no. VEry solidly built and reliable which matters alot to me. Its hard to find a replacement amp when your traveling across the country. One thing to note though on preamp tubes. I have had some go out on me which ended up being because the volume knob for that side was turned up when I wasnt using it. just note that when the volume know is up the preamp tubes are recieving power so if its turned up all the way when your not using it it will go out alot sooner.

One gig I had a problem with my Bad Cat and Bad Cat's phones were down so i called matchless and they answered all of my questions. They werent even frustrated that I called them about a question with their competitors amp. Thats pretty classy service if you ask me.

There aren't many amps that can come close to what the Phoenix offers. Matchless is a great company that makes great products. And with the proven quality of the DC30, the Phoenix is just another great option for a player to look at. If your looking for great tone with the punch of el34's this is the amp for you.

I love the fact this amp doesnt have to many useless complicated things that force you to think instead of playing. I love to get into what Im doing on stage and this is the awnser for me. Keep it simple please. Ive been playing for 20 years and owned Marshalls Boogies and even was suckered into the whole modeling thing. ( Line6 ) I like all players have searched long and hard for the holly grail of tone.... This is my second Matchless. I owned a DC30 which I loved. I traded it on the Phonix only because I find its el34 config seems to have a little more clarity on the second channel and a bit more punch. There is not a sound I cant get from this amp. Seriously!!!!

There is not a sound you cant get from this amp. Except for really thick high gain mud..... Who wants it anyway. Its just a way bad players hide the indisgretions in my opinion. Sorry.

Every time I plug into this thing I fall in Love. Probly one of the best things about this amps sound is when you are on stage if the amps on the floor what you hear is really close to whats going out front. I know with my old boogie Id get a sound I was happy with but when I stood in front of it it would sound completely different. The tone is sort of three dimensional.

Built like a tank. No problems so far.... I have a raod case for mine Highly recomended they are to beutiful to trash...

NA

I would definitly buy another matchless. Everyone Ive played I love. Clubmans, Lightnings I dont think they build a bad amp. You get what you pay for and in this case you do pay for it. A little pricy but I dont care Id pay that much again if it was stolen..

In my opinion, the features of this amp are one of the best parts about it. Personally, I am annoyed by cheap solid-state amps with a million features that you never use because they all sound like crap. This amp does not have that problem. It is the most raw, straight-forward tube amp I have ever played or seen. It has little actual features (reverb or things like that); the Matchless manual that came with it said it was "devoid of bells and whistles" but that is my favorite part about this amp. There are two channels; one for the classic rock sound and the other for a harder more crunchy sound. I play an American Strat and a rickenbacker 360, so I personally prefer the first channel. The only knobs I have to worry about are Vloume, Master Volume, Bass, and Treble. It has 35 Class-A watts and is loud enough for anything. My band plays out often, and this amps watts are perfect for what I need.

I play an American Strat and a Rickenbacker 360 and this amp brings out the best in both of these guitars. The strat's clean tone is magnified so well with this amp and it makes ithe strat sound the best I have ever heard it. Sometimes when I play with my Rickenbacker with a lot of gain, it can be a bit noisy, but I do not have this problem with my strat because of its noiseless pickups. The clean tone on this amp is as good as I have ever heard and the distortion is amazing IF it is the distortion you're looking for. If you are obsessed with Slayer and Metallica then this is not the amp for you. The distortion is very pure, but not metal. With the Ric, I can get the perfect distortion where if you play light it is clean and the harder you hit the strings, the more gain you get. This allows for amazing dynamics and really makes you feel like you are distorting the guitar instead of some cheap pedal doing it for you.

This amp is 100% hand-wired, and although I have only had it for a couple of months, nothing serious at all has happened. The only problem I have had is within the first month I had it, one of the logo light bulbs burned out, which is kind of annoying because the coolest part about the Matchless look is the lit-up logo on the front. This is not a real problem though, because extra bulbs came with the amp, but I feel it is important enough to mention. It has a 6-year warranty on it (6 months for the tubes and speakers) and I have seen no company match that warranty. It has never broken down and I anticipate no problems in the near future.

I've only dealt with the company once through e-mail, and they were very kind and seemed happy to help, but I suppose that it was only through e-mail so I didn't really get a full experience. What little contact I have had with them has been pleasent though.

I have been playing guitar for about 7 years and this is the best piece of equipment I have ever owned. I love almost everything about this amp, the only exception being the weight. It is HEAVY and is sometimes difficult to load and unload by myself. When I went in to buy it I compared it to some Top Hat and Carr amps (which are quite nice might I add) but I just liked the Matchless more. I looked into getting this amp because one of my favorite bands (Saves the Day)used these amps on their newest album (In Reverie) and their tone was everything I wanted mine to be. Although I have not had this for very long, so far I have not been let down.

New 2004 Model.Red and Black with a Black Grill.(All Matchless amps look cool!) Two channels ,each with its own voice and differant level of gain. FX loop for each Channel.Bypassable master volume and high cut that effects boths channels. The main feature of this amp is TONE!!Very usable tone! It is hard to rate an amp like this on features. It has no channel switching, Reverb,or bells and whistles.So ,for it's few but very usable features ,I will still rate it very high!

I Play a 90's model American Fender Tele with Seymour duncan pic-ups.This is my main work guitar guitar because it has the the fender twang for country & double stop chickin pickin and enough balls and bite for most rock , blues & Funk too. I also play a 79 Gibson Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncan Pic-ups. This is my Howling, Screaming hard rockin guitar. I also use the Les paul for all that down tuning modern sounding stuff. I use a VOODOO Lab Ground control and expander switching system for my FX. Signal chain = Guitar- Expander loop switcher- Boss Compressor sustainer-Fulltone Fulldrive II - Mesa V twin Pedal- Radial Hot British Tonebone- Rocktron Intellifex(Still looking for a better Reverb, Chorus, Delay unit)- Matchless Amp. The Phoenix 35 soaks it all up like a sponge and produces nothing but a wonderful sound on all settings and levels. I am a full time musician. I play Rock, POP, Blues,Counrty, Ragae, etc.. I play Very Small low volume lounges to very large high volume night clubs. This amp covers them all. I can go from Buck Owens to Billy Idol, Sultans of Swing to War Pigs all at a consistant volume. And the tones are right on!! This amp loves stomp boxes and any guitar you plug into it keeps its personality. My Tele twangs and Screams, and My Les Paul howls and growls and does that clean warm jazz neck pick-up thang. The Matchless sounds like a cross between a Vox AC30 and a Black Face Fender and the Blues Breakers Marshall. It can imulate all of them and sounds as good or better than all of them.

Been using one Matchless and nothing but for around 7 years. playing several nights a week and still praticing at home.Never had any problems,not even a blown fuse!I have played only five gigs with this new one but,I feel confident that it will serve me just as well as my old one has. Now that I have two of them, it will be less wear and tear on each of them and on me too because I can keep one in the van or Club and the other at home in the rehersal room.My reason for buying this new one is because if anything happened to my old one,or if I had to send it in for repair, I don't think I could stand to play anything else.I would be in such a bad mood till I got my tone back!
I have only scene one Matchless amp that needed repair.I was in Rockin Robins Guitar shop (Houston TX.) a couple of years ago.Went to the back to say hello to Bart(The Store owner) And there it sat, a Sparkled silver Matchless Head with a repair tag on it.It had cooling fans on the side;I looked in the back of it to see four EL34 Power tubes and an inlay "Custom Made For Billy Gibbons" .The repair guy said it just needed a rectifier tube.

Never needed to call them except once to tell them how much I liked thier amps.And once again a few weeks ago to inquire about the new Phoenix 35 before I bought it. Ever who I spoke to took time to shoot the bull with me for over ten minutes and gave me a very accurate discription of how it would sound.

I have been playing music full time for over 25 years.If there were a better amp, I would own it. I play many Styles and this amp covers them all.The Matchless does not fart out with Humbuckers like those DR Z and Kendrick amps.I gave up on those channel switching amps several years ago. I have owned Boogies, Bogner XTC, Soldano SLO 100,Egnater IE4 . I accidently discovered Matchless over 7 years ago. My Egnater Blew up and I needed an amp rig fast!! I borrowed a friends Fender Vibro king and Boogie V twin pedal to get through the weekend. That worked ok. Then I barrowed a another friends Matchless SC30. BINGO !!!! I have owned and played nothing but a Matchless SC30 for several years now.This new Pheonix 35 is a slighlty punchier, bigger sounding version of the same. As far as those Hudge venues where you need alot of big volume, a sure SM57 mic cost about $90.00 . I have been playing at moderate stage volumes and micing my amps for 20 years. To me,anything over 60 watts is overkill. Get this!!<< My Egnater was a stereo 90 watts per side rig, My band members never asked me to turn down a little till I played through that One 30 watt Matchless. Quote from My bass Player Mike" Dave, it aint that it's all that loud!! But we can now hear and make out every single note that you are playing,especially the sour ones!" He also threatened to shoot me in the balls with a pellet gun if I didn't keep the Matchless. If sound was vision the Matchless has 20/20 . I would like to mention a word about Distortion and overdrive. Most of the big amp builders have got the overdrive thing down real good, Soldano, Bogner, Boogie and Marshall all make amps that have that big rock over drive sound and they do it very well but, thier clean tones are almost useless.A Matchless with a decent over drive pedal and you can go from Sultans of Swing to War Pigs with ease. My favorite pedals are Fulltone FullDrive II for the SRV , Buddy guy blues; a Radial Tonebone or Boogie V twin for the heavier stuff. I own all three. I also tried a couple of Badcat amps prior to getting this new Matchless. The badcat came close but, sorry, no cigar.Yes, I would be in a panic to replace either of my Matchless amps if they got stolen.

2003 Phoenix 35
2 channels - no channel switching. Channel one is the "standard" Matchless clean-to-overdrive channel with volume, bass & treble. Channel two is much heavier...with volume, tone, cut, and a master volume that you pull out to engage. This effects both channels.
Amp uses EL-34's in the power section with 12AX&s and an EF-86.
Gorgeous crimson red and black tolex with that signature brown irridescent grill cloth...pretty campy!

Feature wise this is all I need for great tone. I play rock & roll & blues, alt-country and this is my favorite amp of all time.

This amp is perfect with either single coils, humbuckers or P-90s. I plug into the lower gain input for hotter humbuckers, otherwise input #1 does the trick. Keep the following in mind: Despite the master volume, this amp must be turned up to at least 8 or 9 o'clock to sound full, and that generates some volume as this is the loudest class-A 35 watts I've heard! So bedroom players will not be happy with this minor inconvenience- a small concession to make and I couldn't be happier. Amazing, three-dimensional cleans, tight bass response and a fantastic natural overdrive with tons of definition. This is Phil Jamison's best effort. It takes pedals extremely well.

Too soon to tell but the build quality is unparalled (...or matchless)!

Not as friendly or helpful as the other "boutique" guys- Steve Carr (Carr), Jeff Krumm (Savage) or the guys at Bogner. Both times I called with questions I did feel like they were being inconvenienced. Also, I ordered a tuki cover from my dealer over a month ago and still haven't received it.

Been playing over 25 years. Guitars are '58 Les Paul Historic Reissue, Les Paul Standard, Fender Strat Custom Shop '60,'62 Strat, '61 Gibson SG Reissue, '61 Gibson SG Les Paul Custom Historic Reissue, PRS Custom 22 soapbar. Signal chain is: Zvex fuzz factory>Teese Wizard Wah>Tu2>Keeley Java Boost>Keeley Compressor>Fulltone FD2>Keeley Boss DS1 Ultra>Klon Centaur>MXR Phase 90>Fulltone SupaTrem>Boss DD-5. I also own a Savage Macht 12 amp for small gigs - also amazing!

I compared this to many, many amps including virtually all of the boutique names. If someone stole this amp they'd develop a hernia from the sheer weight of this combo. Once they fell to the ground in pain I'd drop the amp on the prick's legs a few times for good measure.