Sonic Machine Factory (SMF) 15 Watt 112 Combo

Small 15 watt 1-12 combo with reverb & overdrive. All tube with PC board electronics. They dont tell you what the ohms are, but I think its a 8 ohm speaker, vintage 30 celestion. Tunable back cab. and a speaker dampner (speaker phase) switch. It is fairly loud but still needs mic'ing. for the cab & ease of use I will give it a solid 9

I play a Mojave plexi 45, and wanted a smaller all tube EL 84 amp for some time. I played the Bad CAT & the many DR.Z models as well as some very high priced EL 84 boutique models. I played this side by side with a 1-12 Bogner combo with EL 34's, and I liked this amp alot more in terms of tone & feel. The amp really likes to be pushed hard, and it loves pedals & hot pickups. I mic it with the semmheiser square face guitar mic, and it just smokes with the band, and I have a heavy keyboard player. The leads sound alot like Scott Hendersons blues CDs, and the cleans are smokey & lots of feel. I run a Barber direct drive in the front of the amp and it gets some very cool Robben Ford type tones, and all at a very nice volume. This might make me sell my great Mojave 45, and look for a EL84 Mojave amp..

don't know...I will gig alot with this amp going full tilt all the time..I will ahve a Randall backup amp..

Their website is not working, and when I did get on there is no specs on the amp, like what ohmage you can run, or use an ext. cab?..what the switch on the back really does?...I would like a better more involed website..

reviewed lots of gear on this site..all with a fair understanding of great tones..I think it can be a great amp with alittle good mic'ing. The lead tones are some of the best I have heard. In a few words. it just has monster good tone..

2002 SMF 15, bought as the floor model from Elderly Instruments (who are great to buy from, by the way). Channel Switching Class A with Reverb, no frills except for Reverb Tone, which is kind of cool. This takes the Matchless sound to the next level by adding the channel switching, with high gain. No effects loop. External speaker jack, would have been a huge plus. Having bass, mid, and tone for ech channel would have been appreciated as well. Lack of these features rates it a 8.

Using everything from a 56 DeTemple, 69 and 85 Strats with Joe Barden pickups, a Gretsch Streamliner, and a 76 Gibson L5S. They all sound fantastic through this amp. My style is mostly blues/blues rock, some harder core rock. This amp will do it all, except a full clean "Twin Reverb" sound. The slight clean channel break up makes it perfect for Texas blues / blues rock. I use a Snarling Dog Wah-Wah pedal, a Full tone Choral Flange, and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, but I could easily do a gig with just my guitar and a chord. The high gain channel sounds great, and can be dialed in for slight distortion, or a full high gain, balls to the wall sound. The hatchback rear cabinet door provides either a compressed (closed) or more Fendery (open) sound. For what I'm doing, the sound is a 10.

Never had any issues with this amp, and I use it exclusively for all of my gigs, without a back-up. No mics for the smaller gigs, mic'd for the medium to large gigs.

The hatchback port clips were messed up when I got it, chassis screw was broken/stripped, and one of the reverb springs had come off. Elderly ordered the parts right away. I spoke with Rick Hamel directly about some questions I had initially, he was very helpful. Elderly gave me a 90 day warranty on a floor model, which I thought was very good, and the amp warranty through SMF is 1 year.

I've been playing for over 30 years, and I've had just about every amp worth having (Marshalls, Matchless, every vintage Fender, 65 Super, Deluxe, Vibrolux, etc.) I'm now down to two, my SMF 15, and my Bogner Shiva with an extension cab for slightly larger gigs, when I'm doing more classic rock / high gain stuff. The only knock on this amp is that at 62lbs, it's pretty heavy for a 15 watter! I wonder if a smaller, lighter cabinet would diminish the tone at all.

The features have been covered before so I'll just point out what I like about some of them. Channel switching and Reverb: Nice to have. The two main reasons I wanted this amp. The flip back was an added surprise and is very useful to change the overall tone and feel of the amp. Makes this amp more than a "one trick pony."

I decided to use something different than the usual Strat, Les Paul for this category. I chose the Gretsch Silver Falcon. I play a variety of music from Funk & Blues to '50's & '60's classics to classic and modern Country. This amp suits all the styles nicely with just a little tweaking of the controls and changing the position of the flip back panel. The clean channel stays nice and crisp until the "Cruise" volume gets past the 10-11 o'clock position with the guitar wide open. From there the amp develops a very musical, sweet amount of overdrive. It is very reminiscent of my old Matchless SC-30 but a lot less nasally plus it breaks up before the threshold of pain. The 15 Watter is very responsive to the guitars volume control, a volume pedal, or a pedal such as the Radial Engineering Switch Bone. The Clean (aka Cruise) channel is my favorite. The High Gain HI-GEAR channel sounds very similar to an Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer. And that's not a bad thing for Blues or Rock. The voicing is noticeably brighter than the clean channel and really cuts through the mix with the Gretsch. A Les Paul in the neck position yields a really nice Blues lead tone. For me the best sound was with the HI-GEAR around 9 o'clock. The reverb deserves special recognition. This amp that gives the classic Fender Twin reverb a run for it's title as THE combo amp reverb. You can just lose yourself in the reverb and go surfing for days. WOW!

Built like a tank and weighs like one too. No surprise.

I was expecting at least an e-mail address on the SMF website but I couldn't find one. I guess they are too busy making amps to deal with pesky questions.

I really like the amp's sound and the styling is very retro cool. The only thing I don't think I'll like down the road are the moving LEDs behind the logo. It's a novelty now but... Much thought and musical consideration has gone into this amp design and it shows. You would really have to try to get a bad sound out of the SMF 15 Watter.

I am just a stay-at-home player--a middle-aged guy with much more in the way of fantasies than technique. I play mostly blue-rock ala Peter Green/Allman Brothers. The amp has plenty of features, with the fairly minor quibble that true channel-switching wold be easier because my tone settlings are very different for overdrive vs. clean. The amp sounds great at moderate, play at home volume-- a major consideration in my case.

I play through a Les Paul with humbuckers. Mostly blues/rock improv. The amp truly sounds great. I'm amazed at how terrific both channels sound. Beautiful, chimey clean sounds and overdrive that easily goes from mild to screaming. Reverb also is conspicuously great. For the overdrive, I need to turn the treble and bright completely off, and the bass all the way up, or the sound becomes far too metallic for my ears. Even with treble and bright off, the overdrive sound is very colorful and fat.

Haven't had it long enough--a month.

15 years, on and off. Mesa-Boogie, Fender, Bedrock. Les Paul, Rickie 330. Definitely would replace, because I know of few if any any true competitors with great clean/overdrive channels without having to crank the volume, EL 84 sound and reverb at a price that is reasonable compared to the competition.

This sucker is very, very heavy (60lbs) and really could use a two carrying strap option. It is not easy for one person to carry with a single strap.

I compared this to most of its competitors in the EL 84 world and bought it because it could deliver great clean and overdrive sounds with a minimum of fuss and without cranking the volume. Plus great reverb. The thing appears to be built like a tank. Anyone who likes the EL 84 sound should check this out. I would not take the time to do this review if I did not think this outfit deserved many more customers.

Class A... 2 channel el34 and 12ax7 amp w/reverb. See SMF website for specs

Great, Great, amp!!! I have owned matchless, tophat, and marshall amps and this amp rules. It is a great combp amp that can do alot. The clean chanel is sparkly clean and I bet you won't find a better reverb on the a small combo. Large cabinet with adjustable back panel. This comes in useful with small or large rooms. I bought this amp for a home companion and have not been disappointed. The distortion/overdrive is amazing and goes from ac/dc to placebo in a quick turn. I did alot of research before i bought this amp and I am still amazed by all the tones... You owe it to yourself to try it out. I bought mine without ever hearing one and I am glad I did. Mark Sampson is a genius. My amp is actually one of the first made. It doesn't have a serial number so I ahve heard from my dealer that it was probably one of the first 5 made.

SO far no problems. Built like a tank and is very heavy. I don't expect any failures from this amp.

You can try a bunch of amps but if you want an amp that is beautiful on the clean end and has the ability to have alot of tones from the overdrive/distortion channel this is the one. It is that great

again, i left out another of this amp's GREAT features. the bloody reverb! tube driven, it has 2 parameters, amount of and tone; it's the tone that is the secret weapon. it rolls off the top end splashiness you get when you either turn it or the amp up. it is, by far, the lushest sounding spring reverb i have ever heard in an amp, to date. it almost sounds like a plate when you roll off the top end. i'll NEVER use a digital reverb again!

i left out one of the most significant features to the 15 watter in my previous review!!! the sonic hatchback! (i think i also missed out on filling the product info above). the hatchback is genius! for both studio & live. it drastically changes the sound of the cab. my pref, for the most part, is closed, but as i'm getting into recording this amp, the ability to open the hatch & stick a 2nd mic behind is ingenious. plus, the ability to "tune" to a club's room is invaluable. well done!!!

bought it in April of this year (2003). a Mark Sampson/Rick Hamel design, it's barking up the AC30/Matchless tree, but so much more versatile. has a clean & high gain channel (w/switching via footpedal), 5 X 12ax7's, 2 X EL84's, & 1 X GZ34 rectifier, i swapped out all the tubes for Mullard NOS valves. OH MI GOD!!! does this amp love those bloody mullard's! it really comes into to focus with the swap. it has no fx loop, & rightly so, as you don't want anything interfering with the fabulous tone. i'm considering having voodooamps.com putting in a d.i. tap at the speaker out, for fx. it's a rather loud bloody amp. & you do need to crank it a bit to get at the tone. and yeah, it is a pcb affair, but they didn't scrimp on the rest of the components, so it easily sounds as good as any point-to-point jobbie i've heard, even if it is a bit pricey. but it's tone is what rates this amp so highly for me, and it's got GOBS of it! but like i said, it really needs the NOS' to bring it's tone into focus. the diff was mind-blowing.

i'm using a u.s. strat plus with Wagner SR's (set of 3 single coils) and a '61 reissue les paul/sg with a set of Wagner "Fillmore's". the chain at the moment is a digitech xp100, fmr audio "really nice compressor", tech 21 double drive (for boost), a sweetsounds "Mojovibe", ashley sg100 gate, alesis midiverb for chorus & VERY slight delay, to the SMF. i play bluesy, avant-garde, rock, & this IS the amp for it!!! it's fairly quiet for a class a/el84 style amp. it does ac30 clean jangle FOR DAYZ!!! & the gain channel has yet to be excelled by any overdrive pedal i've tried. quite glorious tone! it covers the vintage 60's/70's tones to a tee, & easily can do a modern metal, if you will.

apart from the power tubes giving out, i've had no probs so far. it's still early days.

the power tubes went out 2 weeks after i'd bought the amp, & rick was not only extremely prompt in replying, but got me a replacement set via the post within the week. he really is the spokesperson behind SMF, and is 100% committed to the line. and he's a joy to talk to.

i've been playing since i was 6. and i would replace this amp in a second, if it were stolen! the only other amp i had considered was the Bruno Underground 30, but at over $3000, the SMF was a bargain at under $2000, for a "boutique" class a/vox style amp! and as much as it kills not to be able to use eventide quality fx with the amp at the moment, i've been talking to rick re some options to solve that.

I have never played an all tube amp with a 2 knob reverb system, and this really is a nice feature. Both channels are extremely useable, even though they share EQ. I would rate this higher for features, but at this price, there should be even more. The cabinet is larger than a standard 1x12 combo, perhaps explaining the great bass response.

I didn't want to like this. I was biased because Mark Sampson designed less than 50% of this amp, but the advertising makes it seem like he designed most of it. However, when playing it, who designed what doesn't matter, and an incredibly sweet very touch sensitive tone comes out. It has that open feeling. All of the sound spectrum is there, a very deep bass (more than I expected for 15 watt EL84) and clear clean highs. To me it sounds like a cross between some Matchless and Dr. Z designs. The gain is well structured, and can be thick but not too much or heavily so. I hate to use the cliche, but it is a "modern vintage" sound like many of the boutique EL84 designs. If you think you don't like EL84 amps, this one, (as well as some others of course) will change your mind. I would give this a 10, except that it seems overpriced at $1600-1700. Not that a PCB design is bad, but it ought to be cheaper. As is, it is priced about as high as the all point to point Dr. Z Maz 38, and some other excellent all PTP models. I think this would be a great deal used, as I am guessing the used price will be about $1000. At that price, this amp would be like Reverend's Hellhound and sell like hotcakes, because of the sound/price ratio.

I can't rate this, but I'm sure it will be reliable, but probably not as much as the PTP amps in the same price range.

I talked to Rick Hamel at the Dallas Guitar Show and I imagine he will be very helpful to all customers.

The only thing holding back this amp is price relative to the competition. It doesn't lack anything in terms of great vintage type sounds. I also think the price is being artificially raised by the excessive use of the Mark Sampson name.

A new PCB amp design by Mark Sampson (Matchless/Bad Cat)and Rick Hamel (SIB). Features are: Celestion Vintage 30 speaker (8 ohm), Reverb (not foot switchable), 2 channel (foot switchable), 5 12AX7, 2 EL-84, 5AR4 rectifier tube, 15 watts Class A. Has tuneable back panel. By adjusting both the hinged opening and amp placement within a room, you can tune sonic properties of the amp to taste. Cool if you like to experiment/tune by ear. Could be a new concept in Guitar amplification. Controls are; Channel 1 Vol. Channel 2 Vol. Master Vol. (disengagable), Treble, Mddle, Bass, Bright, Reverb, Reverb tone. Speaker Phase on back panel. Only downfalls in features I found are; No effects loop, no ohm select.

I found this amp to be a touch on the bright side at low volumes; but like most of Mark Sampsons designs, once you get the volume up, it just ripps! This is a fast amp, and very touch responsive. The distortion is more brutal than the Black Cat. Not a metal machine, more like an in your face rock and roll brutal! I was floored. The clean is very articulate and chimmey. Reverb is functional. This is worth looking into! I hope they do more in this line.

Yet to be seen. Amp seems very well built though..

If you like Marks Sampsons EL-84 designs, I think you'll find this amp very interesting! Especially for the money. It produces great Class A tones in a PCB design. This amp kicks ass!