Purchase Matamp or Orange or ?

[Bassman Sam]

[quote name='the_brow' post='1054625' date='Dec 11 2010, 12:46 AM']Hi everyone, found this forum while doing some Matamp research, thought I would throw in my $0.02

I have a GT200 and i love it. It is fairly clean, especially the preamp. Most of the distortion is going to come from the power section when you turn it up, which is the way I like it. I have never owned the AD200 but I do own a 70's SVT, Mesa 400+ and a Traynor YBA-3, and I have also previously owned a YBA200 and Fender 300 Pro. The SVT is by far the loudest of the bunch, but the Matamp is no slouch. Lots of volume. Someone compared it to the Mesa and I would have to disagree. The Matamp has more subdued highs and more lower midrange grunt. You can quite easily get a Mesa tone out of it, but I find that the Mesa can't really do the Matamp tone.

As far is Matamp's customer service, I have not dealt with them directly but I did deal with the North American distributor. I did have an issue with my GT200 when I first bought it. The amp would run for a few hours and then shut down. I took the amp to my tech and the distributor put him in touch with the Matmp factory. They were very helpful and found that a solder had come loose, probably during shipping, they paid for all the repairs and parts with no hassle at all. The amp runs perfectly now and it sounds great.

Now I am waiting for a custom face plate from Matamp, and I will definetly go back to get either an 8x10, 2 4x10s or a 2x15.

edit: I should mention that I did slightly modify the GT200 preamp. I changed the capacitor values on the depth knob. I found that with the depth knob all the way to the right there was no where near enough bass and I could not think of any situation where I would use that setting. I moved the capacitor form the middle setting to the right and I added a new value in the middle with slightly less bass than the bassiest setting. Also, as with all my amps, I replaced the V1 preamp tube with a 5751 which has a little less gain and smoother overdrive than the ECC83/12AX7.[/quote]

Just what I like, a shy Newbie.

A warm welcome to you.

Edit: That make me look like Gary Glitter

Edited December 11, 2010 by Bassman Sam

[Billy Apple]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1051006' date='Dec 7 2010, 08:41 PM']You know what you have to do then.[/quote]

I've been doing a little more research and found Matamp's main amp builders have parted company (Dave Green and John Tilley). Would you still buy a Matamp, are they still the quality/tone that they were?

[Musicman20]

[quote name='billyapple' post='1056528' date='Dec 12 2010, 08:52 PM']I've been doing a little more research and found Matamp's main amp builders have parted company (Dave Green and John Tilley). Would you still buy a Matamp, are they still the quality/tone that they were?[/quote]

Id say yes and I dont own one. Whatever you get, make sure you can try it out

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='billyapple' post='1056528' date='Dec 12 2010, 08:52 PM']I've been doing a little more research and found Matamp's main amp builders have parted company (Dave Green and John Tilley). Would you still buy a Matamp, are they still the quality/tone that they were?[/quote]

Matamp's main man died in the 80s. The designs are still good.

Dunno about John, but Dave was a designer rather than a builder, sure he got his hands dirty, but he tended toward the drivey guitar stuff, he works for Hayden/Ashdown now, he was behind the dirty amps for the American market stuff that Jeff dissaproved of as Matt Matthias was a clean amps guy who didn't like distortion, it is easy to make a distorting amp, clean is hard. If you look at Tayste's build thread or other internals one, you can see the build quality is top notch, just from the neatness of the wiring. The people there know what they are doing with amps, the only thing that might of left with those guys is a degree of innovation (Dave Green was behind the turret-track thing, where PCB track on the board with turret mount components to combine best of both worlds). The actual construction is down to the skill and care of the assemblers, and if you don't really care about what you are doing, you probably won't be working for Matamp.

If you want a Dave Green designed amp, I have one going, shoot me a PM.

[quimbymeat]

edit: I should mention that I did slightly modify the GT200 preamp. I changed the capacitor values on the depth knob. I found that with the depth knob all the way to the right there was no where near enough bass and I could not think of any situation where I would use that setting. I moved the capacitor form the middle setting to the right and I added a new value in the middle with slightly less bass than the bassiest setting. Also, as with all my amps, I replaced the V1 preamp tube with a 5751 which has a little less gain and smoother overdrive than the ECC83/12AX7.



Was it Matamp who modded the depth switch as my amp is perfect but the depth is all the way to left because the other settings do not have any bass.

[Finbar]

I seem to be the only person who thinks the deepest depth setting has way too much bass D:

[Basszilla]

I pretty much think that as well Fin - I'm always in the middle of the depth with full drive. Treble at 1 o'clock and bass at 11 o'clock with presence at about 2 o'clock. I play with a plec. What about your settings?

[270degrees]

I hope this doesn't take the thread too off-topic, but The Bass Gallery have a Trace V4 combo in.

[url="http://www.thebassgallery.com/product_details.cfm?ID=1764&type=Bass%20Combination%20Amp"]http://www.thebassgallery.com/product_deta...mbination%20Amp[/url]

I'm not the seller/affiliated, etc, it's just a heads-up.

[slave]

[quote name='Finbar' post='1168271' date='Mar 19 2011, 10:24 PM']I seem to be the only person who thinks the deepest depth setting has way too much bass D:[/quote]


[quote name='Basszilla' post='1168581' date='Mar 20 2011, 02:23 AM']I pretty much think that as well Fin - I'm always in the middle of the depth with full drive. Treble at 1 o'clock and bass at 11 o'clock with presence at about 2 o'clock. I play with a plec. What about your settings?[/quote]

I've read a few things regarding this here on BC;

Does the GAIN have a big effect on the amount of bass in the amp?
Does the presence affect the bass a lot too?
If you were going for a nice clean setting - does the amp still offer too much bass for you guys?

[Basszilla]

AFAIK to my cloth ears the 'drive' knob just ups the preamp drive levels.

Once your drive is set, the 'depth' knob adds a ton of bass and volume as you move it left. Furthest right gives the thinnest sound. As you click through to the left you get extra lows and volume. Furthest to the left produces the loudest and bassiest setting. All of the controls interact, but I tend to stay in the middle and cut a little bass to find the spot i'm happiest at.

The amp has a very 'open' and 'wide' sound IMO. I love it

In all honestly though, I wish I knew exactly what the frequency centres are on the tone controls and where they interact etc. Anyone?

Edited March 20, 2011 by Basszilla

[Finbar]

[quote]I pretty much think that as well Fin - I'm always in the middle of the depth with full drive. Treble at 1 o'clock and bass at 11 o'clock with presence at about 2 o'clock. I play with a plec. What about your settings?[/quote]
Depends on a couple of things really. If I'm using my Schroeder 1212L, I'll have the depth on the middle setting, but with my Matamp 6x10, I'll usually only have it on the rightmost setting, or the middle one if I'm feeling I need a little more. It's a really bassy cab. But yeah, I'll normally have the drive on the 3rd notch, the bass, treble and presence controls about 9 o clock. And the master about 11 o clock (or less if I have to turn down). That's with a pick as well. If I'm playing with my precision, I'll usually try and shove the drive up to full as well though. Just sounds epic.

[quote]Does the GAIN have a big effect on the amount of bass in the amp?
Does the presence affect the bass a lot too?
If you were going for a nice clean setting - does the amp still offer too much bass for you guys?[/quote]
It has an effect, but not a massive effect, and nothing you can't sort out with the amp's EQ and the depth knob.

The presence doesn't really affect the bass that much. It's hard to describe. It kind of changes the 'girth' of the sound rather than the actual bass being stronger. Somebody else can describe it better, and probably actually tell you what it physically does as well!

I don't really go for a nice clean setting so I'm not sure I could really say with any authority, and I wouldn't buy a GT200 if that's what you're looking for. Some massive headroom solid state amp is probably the way to go for that. It does clean up quite nicely if you don't pick as hard though. I don't normally dial too much bass in anyway though - that's not the sound I like in a clean or a dirty tone.