Matchless Starliner Reverb

Don't know what year it was made. Great basic tone, super responsive gain structure with the turn of the gain knob or mid knob. Has an sound "Image" unlike any mono amp ought to. Using effects at all is useless, as this amp doesn't like anything but a guitar plugged straight in. Tone, sustain and clarity turns to mush with any modulation, compression or distortion device. Plenty of power and volume, sweet reverb. I play most venues and it's plenty of amp for all but outdoor/stadium.

I used primarily ES-335 w/57 Classics and it was a bit tubby, but really shined with stock Tele and Strat. It has clean and quiet operation in all modes. Distortion is molten and buttery all "Class A" I play rock, blues, country, some metal and this is a one trick pony that don't cut it for a variety of styles.

No problems ever.

I have been playing for 31 years and have owned and performed with Ampeg, Peavey, fender, Hiwatt, and others. I currently own 3 Marshall amps including full rack stereo system, and Mesa Blue Angel, Fender Twin reverb w/JBL's I wouldn't buy this model again but have played through several Matchless that sounded great. Once again I need versatility and I don't think any of them are what I would call versatile.
Absolutely hated the fact that none of my effects sounded good through this amp. I bought it for the basic plug in and go great tone, but it's one dimensional performance had me send it down the Ebay road.

This one was made in 2001 from old parts Matchless had. This amp is really versatile. The clean channel can stay clean, or you can dial in some nice overdrive. The drive channel is pure calss A heaven. It comes with a footswitch to change channels and turn on/off the reverb. It has an effects loop. 40 watts of power (not a loud 40). This amp was from a line Matchless had right before they went under. It has a PCB to make it more affordable, but you really can't tell.

This amp sounds identical to a few DC30 I've played. I did get a chance to a/b it against a 95 Chieftain, and it definately did not have the expressive mid-range of the Chieftain. The only thing this amp couldn't cover is metal. I find the amp handles true single coils and P90s better than humbuckers. The clean channel has beautiful top and bottom end, but is a little lacking in the midrange (but that is compared to a Chieftain). The reverb sounds nice on the clean channel, but it gets lost on the drive channel.

Can't say yet. I did notice that until the amp warms up, the lead channel can drop to half volume.

The company hasn't been back in business long enough to know.

I am really loving this amp right now. It has the famous Matchless 3D sound, plus it has footswitching channels! I wish the reverb was better, and I wish it had a mid control on the clean channel.

Everything you really need-two channels with switching, master volumes, highly interactive EQ, single series effects loop, reverb. No 1/2 power mode, but thats what master volumes are for, right? 40 watts, "class A" (probably 90 percent of the class A amps out there are cathode biased, non-negative feedback, class AB amps like this), 2 EL34s, and 5 12AX7s, 5AR4 rectifier.

I like classic rock, maybe a little mild metal, and folky kind of stuff. I play a large number of guitars including McInturff Polaris Pro, PRS, Fender strat and tele, custom Fleischman etc. I've only had the amp one day, but it seems to flatter any guitar I've tried with it. It doesn't have a Fender sparkly clean to it, more of a Vox or Marshall style clean, gradually fading thru bluesy breakup to JCM800 level distortion as you turn up the guitar volume and the preamp volume. It has more spank on the second channel than the Matchless DC30 (imagine a Super Reverb with EL34s). The EQ is incredibly complex for a very simple arrangement. On the first channel, treble takes precedence over bass-as you turn it up, bass level goes down no matter what the bass is set at, mids seem to be independent. It's not really possible to get a scooped mid metal sound, but there's a LOT of range there. Channel two is set up like the first channel on a DC30-bass and treble only with treble taking precedence. There's a wierd thing, too, where you turn the bass fully up, and it shifts to a mid emphasis just for the last 1/8 of it's range. I tried it with the original Sovteks, sounded great, then I put in some NOS Siemens and it really sounds killer. Now to play with preamp tones. There's not really a clean and distorted channel, both are master volume, medium gain channels with very different voices and EQ. You can cover a lot of territory. The reverb is fine, not surf deep but certainly as good as most Fenders or boutique amps. The effects loop is quiet and effective (use effects with a mix control-it's a series loop). I don't know if I'd rate this quite as highly as a DC30, or my favorite 62 Super, but it's darn close and blows away the Clubman 35 I used to have.

Should be dead reliable, matchless built these things like tanks! I'd never gig with an amp that weighs 75 pound, though.

Dead, gone and forgotten. Who's gonna fix this thing out here in the middle of nowhere? I have no idea!

A bit of history-just before they folded, Matchless decided to make amps with a partial PCB called the Superliner series. This is the top of the line model 212 model with reverb (others had lesser speakers or no reverb). Basically the cab, speakers, transformers and so on are the DC30 (modded Celestion speakers) with a simpler front panel and the PCB. They made very few of these before going under (I've seen 2 reviews for the Skyliner 210 version), this is the only word I've gotten of the 40 watt, 212 version, it's not even in the Matchless catalogues. It really isn't like any of the other Matchless amps, but stands on it's own as a very well executed amp. The early amps had tubes individually chosen for them, this obviously saved some money in that department, but it's easy to upgrade them. I really like this amp and think it compares very favorably to any amp I've owned (vintage and modern Marshall, tweed and BF Fender, Matchless, Fuchs, Emory, Holland, Bruno, Blues Pearl, Gibson, Magnatone, Ampeg, vintage Vox etc).