At the beginning of the boutique amp boom
in the late 1980s and early ’90s, one of the
biggest names being bandied about was
Matchless. Original designers Rick Perotta,
Chris Perotta, and company co-founder Mark
Sampson were huge Beatles fans, and that
jangly AC30 sound drove them to start analyzing
and repairing vintage Voxes imported
from the UK. Eventually, they took the next
logical step and began building handwired,
roadworthy interpretations of the iconic AC30.
Sampson, Rick Perotta, and John Jorgenson
(who would later go on to gain acclaim for
his work with Will Ray and Jerry Donahue in
the Hellecasters) came up with the company’s
most famous designs—the now-legendary
DC30, Chieftain, and Lightning—which became
staples for artists as diverse as Jimmie
Vaughan, Hank Marvin, Alex Lifeson, and Toad
the Wet Sprocket’s Glen Phillips.
But by 1998, the company had serious
financial troubles and had to close shop.
Amp nuts everywhere lamented Matchless’
demise and the original amps skyrocketed in
value overnight. Just prior to Matchless MK I’s
implosion, they hit on an idea that might have
saved the company, given time. The idea: offer
more affordable amps that incorporate the
same quality components as other Matchless
models, but in a circuit with limited PC-board
construction, channel switching, and footswitchable
reverb.
So, they gave it a whirl. The Superliner series
was supposed to include three models, but
only the 40-watt, EL34-powered Starliner
Reverb 2x12 and the 15-watt, EL84-powered
Skyliner Reverb 2x10 ever got off the
ground—and in extremely limited numbers.
According to Phil Jamison—who became
Matchless’ production manager in 1994 and
helped get the company back on its feet in
2000—fewer than 10 Starliner and Skyliner
amps were produced, and several of them
were returned due to faulty operation.
For more than a decade now, Jamison
and current owner Geoff Emery have kept
Matchless going steady and strong by offering
most of the original amp designs and
coming up with innovative new models for
a wider array of players—including those
with high-gain needs. They also recently
began offering more affordable amps, first
the EL84-powered Avalon 30 and now the
EL34-powered Avalon 35, that incorporate
top-shelf components in a design with partial
PC-board construction. It’s a move many
boutique builders have made since the beginning
of the recession.
Forging Excalibur
Consumer products in general often have
names that convey a gross inflation of their
true worth, and guitar gear is no different.
But sometimes those lofty-sounding names
aren’t far from the mark. Look up “Avalon”
and you’ll discover that, in Arthurian legend,
it was the island where King Arthur’s magical
sword, Excalibur, was forged. I don’t know if
that’s what Matchless was going for, but I like
the possible comparisons the name suggests.
For a lot of players, acquiring the Avalon
35—which retails at $2629 (with reverb, $2599
without)—isn’t going to be as easy as lifting the
amp from an enchanted stone, but compared to
the similarly featured SC-30 combo, it’s a relative
steal. Likewise, despite having a feature set that’s
rather primitive by modern standards, the amp
isn’t without its magic. Inside, the Avalon combines
two EL34s, five 12AX7s (three for the preamp,
two for the reverb), a 5AR4 tube rectifier,
and the same quality components used in other
Matchless amps—including robust transformers—
in a class-A, cathode-biased hybrid circuit
that uses both point-to-point, turret-style construction,
and cost-cutting PC-board elements. The front panel features Hi and Lo instrument
inputs, Standby and On/Off rocker switches,
and six “chicken-head” knobs—Volume, Bass,
Treble, Cut, Master Push/Pull, and Reverb. Like
the front panel, the rear panel is simple and
intuitive. It features jacks for an extension cabinet
and the built-in 30-watt Celestion G12H
speaker, a three-position Impedance selector,
jacks for the series effects loop and optional
reverb footswitch, a fuse receptacle, and a
standard IEC power-cord receptacle.
The amp weighs a hefty 62 lbs. and measures
21 ¼" W x 23 ¼" H x 11 ¼" D. My construction
niggles are very minor. First, though the
Avalon’s dimensions are comparable to the
original SC-30 1x12 combo, the unusual height
may be an awkward schlep for shorter players,
who may have difficulty carrying it straigh-tarmed
without bumping or dragging it on the
ground. Second, though there are labels above
the front-panel controls, they’re hard to read
without squatting. Otherwise, there’s almost
nothing to fault in the Avalon’s construction.
The black covering is virtually flawless, the
silver piping is cleanly cut and applied, and the
salt-and-pepper grillcloth looks fantastic. And
let’s not forget the badass rear-lit logo—one of
the most iconic looks in all of ampdom.
The Matchless Avalon 35 features a hybrid circuit with both PC-board-mounted components and point-to-point-wired, chassis-mounted
tube sockets and controls.
Wielding the Blade
I tested the Avalon with a nice variety of guitars,
including a ’60s Strat reissue with Custom Shop
Fat ’50s pickups, a PRS Ted McCarty DC 245
with 57/08 humbuckers, a Schecter Ultra III
with splittable mini-humbuckers, and a Gretsch
G6118T-LTV with TV Jones Classics. With each
axe, the tones were dynamic, detailed, and
varied. The key to the variety is the Master
Push/Pull knob, which enables you to go from
needling AC30 glory to higher-gain, Marshall
plexi-type sounds at less problematic volumes.
For the former, you’ll want Master Push/Pull
disengaged (pushed in) so you can experience
the open, airy feel that comes when you let the
Volume knob control both gain and output. For
rock and hard-rock sounds, turn Master Push/
Pull to a lower setting (so you don’t get blasted
in the face) and crank Volume toward its upper
regions for rich distortion. As with most master-volume
amps, this convenient feature is very
practical, though it slightly darkens the timbres
and decreases some of the to-die-for dynamics.
With Volume and Master Push/Pull nearing their
limits, things can get splatty and fizzy, but the
same can be said of a lot of classic amps.
The Avalon’s EQ is remarkably interactive,
too. As with classic Vox and Matchless
circuits, Cut shaves off high-end frequencies
as you turn it clockwise. When it’s completely
counterclockwise, you get those glassy
sounds made famous by the Who and the Fab
Four. With it maxed, you get a thick, scooped-out
tone that could accommodate jazz cats
or rock guys looking for notched mids. While
jazz cats won’t be the first to gravitate to an
amp like the Avalon—and the same probably
goes for hardcore rockabilly guys—I got fat,
neck-pickup jazz tones and bristling rockabilly
bombast with the Gretsch.
The Treble and Bass knobs work like they do
on other amps, and the latter in particular
has much more impact than many other tube
amps. Dime it, and you get more mids for a
honkier sound—but in a musical, absolutely
usable way. Bring it back a bit, say, to three or
four o’clock, and you get muscular, in-your-face
tones. My playing runs the gamut from
heavy-handed rock/rockabilly riffing and
chording to a lot of hybrid picking, so I eventually
settled on Volume at two or two-thirty,
Master Push/Pull off, Bass at two o’clock,
Treble dimed, Cut off, and Reverb—a three-spring
unit that adds nice dimension but less
depth than I’d hoped—at two o’clock. This
let me get the broadest array of tones, from
all-out brashness and crystalline detail to full,
rounded notes by going from a heavy pick
attack to curling the plectrum under my index
finger and strumming with my thumb. With
the Strat, I got deliciously detailed quackiness
in the in-between positions—perfect for
Southern rock flavors or funky chording like in
Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” With
the Schecter, I got raw, in-your-face indie-rock
sounds using the bridge pickup. The PRS
yielded everything from Zeppelin-esque PAF
sounds to fat neck-pickup tones that would
make SRV proud.
The Final Mojo
Like a lot of aficionados of high-end anything,
guitarists can get pretty hung up on certain
details before they’ve even tried a product.
They might dismiss an amp for even minimal
PC-board construction or because it wasn’t
designed during a certain period of the company’s
history. There’s a kernel of wisdom in
some arguments over such minutia, because
the longer you play, the more you realize your
sound is the sum of all the little things—from
your pick gauge to how hard you fret and
what kind of tubes are in your amp. But we
all know such obsession can be crippling, too.
The trick is to do your homework and find
great equipment, and then focus more on
your playing and your ear than on your gear.
That’s what most of our heroes did (or do).
And that’s why I really dig the new Matchless
Avalon 35. It offers an excellent balance of
flexibility, durability, and quality tone.
Buy if...
you revel in bristling, dynamic EL34 tones and simplified flexibililty.
Skip if...
you want more sophisticated control of surf-able reverb.
Rating...
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Street $2500 - Matchless Amplifiers - matchlessamplifiers.com
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