Everyone questions their existence, yet we all hold out hope for a sighting of our own. No, I’m not talking about yetis or UFOs. I’m referring to the phenomenon of stumbling across big-name vintage gear being sold at a decent price. For most of us, stories about finding, say, old Fender or Gibson gear at anything other than multiple times its original price is nothing short of urban legend. But I’m here to tell you this stuff does still happen.
My story isn’t about an amazing score of a $200 ’67 Jaguar or anything, but finding a silverface Fender Vibro Champ for significantly less than six or seven bills is still unusual. Unusual enough that I was tempted to dismiss the Craigslist ad with a single blurry photo and an asking price of $400. Was it real? Was it busted? Was it ruined by a stupid mod?
When I showed up to test the little 1x8 combo, Telecaster in hand, the owner led me to his garage and proceeded to relate how he got the amp: A friend had purchased a repossessed cabin still stocked with the previous owners’ contents—including a Fender M-80 combo in pretty bad shape, and a Peavey amp that they’d decided to throw in a bonfire with other junk they determined wasn’t worth a drive to a second-hand store. (I was tempted to ask if alcohol was involved in this careless, dangerous decision, but I bit my tongue.) Neither guy played guitar, but the nice fellow I was dealing with had recognized the Fender brand name, figured he could make a little money, and stopped his buddy from burning the M-80 and Vibro Champ.
The 6V6-powered combo was dusty, scuffed, and pretty dirty, but to my great surprise everything functioned properly when I plugged in, strummed, and twiddled the knobs. Flipping the cab around, I examined the tube chart and serial numbers, quickly cross-referencing online tools to determine that it was built in 1976. As I noodled for a few more minutes to make sure it didn’t fart-out under consistent use or heavy playing, the only thing I couldn’t figure out was why it was so much quieter and less dynamic at full-bore than the silverface VC I’d (stupidly) sold years before. So I took a closer look at the speaker and discovered it was a cheapo replacement that looked like something a budget-strapped teenager might throw into a makeshift extension cab for his car stereo.
I explained to the owner that the horrible speaker wasn’t original, he knocked $50 off the price, and I headed home with the grimy little thing—crossing my fingers that the speaker was the only real issue. Not being remotely qualified to open it up and diagnose its health, I then sent my “new” Vibro Champ off to amp guru Tim Schroeder at Schroeder Amplification in Chicago. A few days later, Tim called to say the amp checked out fine and was all stock—he’d simply cleaned it up a bit, upgraded the power cable, and swapped out a 12AX7. It was now ready for our voyage into the adventures of speaker replacement.
The Methodology
Replacing an 8" speaker isn’t remotely as daunting as looking for a new 12" speaker. The total number of models from all mainstream manufacturers is a tiny fraction of what a single big company offers for full-size amps. Even so, we didn’t have the resources to test every compelling 8" on the market and were forced to narrow it down to six 4-ohm models.
Each speaker was installed in the ’76 Vibro Champ—which features a tube complement of a single 6V6 in the power section, two 12AX7s (one for the preamp, one for the tremolo circuit), and a 5Y3 rectifier—and tested with a Telecaster and a Schecter Ultra III. The Tele is outfitted with vintage-voiced Curtis Novak pickups (a traditional Tele unit in the bridge, and a Jazzmaster neck unit), while the Ultra III has a TV Jones Magna’Tron bridge pickup and Duncan Designed mini humbuckers in the middle and neck positions. I tested each speaker at various settings, but to streamline the sound samples I recorded each speaker at two settings: with volume, treble, and bass all at 5, and then with them all at 10. The samples were captured with a Royer R-121 dead center on the speaker and up close to the grille. For much of the playing, I also used a J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer (with output and treble at noon, and gain at minimum) to push the amp a little. I also used Catalinbread Topanga and MXR reverb pedals, and at times engaged a Jordan Fuzztite.
Jensen P8R
Specs:7-oz. alnico magnet
25 watts
Whole Lotta Knobs
Under the homey wood aesthetics, the Full-Range 8" is a little monster with 200-watts of solid-state power pushing a single 8" Celestion speaker. The mode selector acts as a sort of colored lens to change the amp’s overall character. FullQ is the signature full-frequency Quilter tone, classic dials in a ’60s flavor with a glassy top end, tweed shoots for ’50s Fender flavors, and mini aims for the feel of a lo-fi practice amp. Vol 1 mode is essentially a clean channel that disables the gain parameter that gives the other modes their crunch.
Aside from the bass, mid, treble, and presence controls, the MicroPro 200 also features boost, tremolo, limiter, and reverb effects. Limiter is used to shape the overdrive function and compresses the output as it’s turned clockwise. The tremolo depth is fixed but the effect has a strong presence, and the tremolo knob can be used to control the rate. However, with the reverb function you can change the intensity (rev) and decay (dwell). The path selector applies reverb to channel 1, channels 1 and 2 (post overdrive), or allows you to designate reverb to the pre or post gain stage of channel 2. The boost function has a similarly large range of control, sweeping from 3–15 dB of gain. The associated selector provides four types of boost effects, ranging from a midrange scoop to high-end spike, overall volume increase, or a hot overdrive.
The Full-Range 8" ships with a 2-button footswitch that can be set to change the mode, boost, limiter, tremolo, reverb, or effects loop. A 6-button footswitch is also available to give you more immediate access to all of the effects. The switch plugs into the back of the Quilter using a provided Cat5 cable (the same type used for Ethernet computer connections). Overall, the MP200 seems fairly durable, although the plastic corner brackets seem likely candidates for serious surface wear on the road.
Warm Tones in Solid State
When an amplifier has this many controls, you really need to get a good tone at ground level before adding bells and whistles. That’s not to say that the MP200-8 is complicated, but taking the time to dial in a solid foundational tone pays off big time. A Telecaster on the clean (Vol 1) channel was perfect for toying with the effects. I wanted a touch of reverb to pull in some ’60s garage flavors, but engaging the switch first found me awash in shoegazing digital verb, so I drew back the dwell knob and found the desired blues yelp with rev dialed to 10 o’clock. It’s an effect with a lot of range, and keeping dwell in the lower regions gives you a more conventional ’verb, while pushing it yields a very long and rich echoing tail.
The tremolo is a bit limited, because you can’t adjust the intensity. That being said, it does have a nice-sounding wave that will be useful to players who like their tremolo up front and with a heaping dose of reverb.
Engaging the FullQ voicing opens up a huge dynamic range—from chunky low end that’s surprising for an 8” speaker to a bright top. Classic mode is very similar, although it seems to trim a bit of the bass response and girth. Either mode is a great contender for classic rock, however, and both are especially well suited to gliding, Tele-powered funk riffs of the sort you might hear responding to a sweaty James Brown howl. A humbucker-equipped Les Paul needed a bit more tweaking to get a crisp, articulate tone at lower volume levels. Kicking up the volume helped clear the hurdle, adding genuine sustain and warmth to the tone. The best humbucker tones were brewed well beyond bedroom volumes, though. To keep things on the quieter side and yet still hefty sounding, you’ll probably want to place an overdrive pedal before the Quilter.
Ratings
Pros:
Wide variety of warm, useable tones. Lots of features and control without sacrificing simplicity.
Cons:
Some features are a bit limited. Humbucker tones not as pleasing at low volumes. Somewhat pricey for a solid-state rig.
Tones:
Playability/Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$899
Quilter Labs
quilterlabs.com
I got great use out of the scoop and loud function in the boost department, but the hot setting tended to sound fizzy at higher boost levels. This isn’t such a big problem if you have the Quilter cranked, but at times it seemed to drop the volume a touch, so it’s not exactly perfect for a lead boost.
When I tried the Quilter with the optional 1x12 extension cab, it gave the MP200 a cool mini-stack stature and enabled easier adjustment while standing. It also yielded a little more low end and impressive volume. In fact, with this rig, you could forego monitors in most mid-sized gigging situations—which is pretty impressive for such a diminutive amp setup.
The Verdict
While some of the Quilter MicroPro 200 Full-Range 8" features lack some dynamics (mostly for simplicity’s sake), the MP200 is a really superb-sounding solid-state amp. Patrick Quilter definitely knows how to achieve convincing tube saturation with a solid-state circuit, and folks who are tired of caring for (and lugging around) vintage combos may find a great-sounding, practical, workable solution with the MP200-8. Single-coils have a better plug-and-play adaptability at all volume levels, although humbuckers will certainly be fine with a little tweaking and at stage volumes.
The $899 price tag is a bit steep, given that a couple hundred more bucks could get you a remarkable-sounding small vintage or vintage-reissue amp, albeit with fewer features. Considering how few real limitations the Quilter has—particularly given the quality of tones and light weight—it’s an amp of great practical worth that could improve a lot of gigging guitarists’ lives.
A Spirit From the Sky
 | Download Example 1 Full Gain |
| Download Example 2 Half Max Gain |
| Clips recorded with a 2008 Gibson Les Paul Studio | |
The Spirit’s charming tweed 1x8 cabinet was the inspiration for the amp to begin with. Matamp was able to secure 100 unused 1x8 tweed cabinets from Japan, which were constructed back in the 1980s. The old-school look and texture of the cabinets helped plant a seed in the engineers’ heads for the Spirit’s circuit. This idea became the mixture of the fat, brawling sounds of old tweed combos with Matamp’s unique tonal signature. Since they were only able to acquire 100 cabinets, only 100 Spirits exist.
A Ghost Out of Its Shell
In a world where players now have limitless amplification options that borderline on nearly infinite sounds and features, the Spirit is about as barebones as it can get. The diminutive 1x8 combo utilizes a single-channel, Class A design that recalls the classic era of small tube-powered practice amps from the 1950s. The non-master volume combo has only two controls, one for volume and the other for tone manipulation. Despite being only four watts, the Spirit features a volume attenuator, conveniently located on the underside of the chassis. The circuitry inside the chassis is a marvel to look at, with true point-to-point, hand-wired components, expertly soldered and bent to perfect angles. The entire amplification circuit is powered by a single ECC83 tube in the preamp section and a lone 6V6GT in the output section. All of this feeds a solitary Jensen C8R 8” speaker.
The Spirit features true point-to-point wiring built in Meltham, UK
Spiritus Sony
I can’t really sum up the tone and the feel of the Spirit in any other way than to just say that it is a player’s amp. No, it isn’t loud, and no, it certainly isn’t powerful, but what it does achieve is an incredible, nasally drive tone that is a terrifyingly accurate tribute to some of the best overdriven amp tones of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The little beast is Led Zeppelin I all the way, especially using a 2009 Fender American Telecaster to cop some Page-like, slithering leads. I’ve come across some great vintage examples of small tube amps from the golden era of rock ‘n’ roll, ones with sounds slathered in tonal belligerence and bite. I wish that I had found the Spirit before those experiences, so I had a chance to really hear what those amps must have sounded like when they were young and healthy.
The same things that make the Spirit great are also its downfall: it is not an easy amp to play. It really takes a lot of work between my fingers and attack to get any sort of dynamics out of it. This style of playing isn’t nearly as common nowadays, with modern channel switching designs nearly phasing the art of playing with the guitar’s volume knob out of existence.
Plugging in a 2009 Gibson Les Paul Standard, the Spirit got way too muddy with the guitar’s volume knob maxed. I had to work with the bridge pickup’s volume knob to find the sweet spot. But once found, I could quickly switch between lighter and heavier overdrives by changing up my pick attack, while still keeping definition in the highs and mids. This is essential to getting a great tone out of the Spirit, because the amp is extremely easy push into overdrive. Because of this, the single-coils of Tele are a better fit than the Les Paul’s hot humbuckers.
The Spirit’s built-in attenuator only affects the overall output volume of the amp, and I didn’t find it that useful. Unless you are planning on playing in a crowded apartment building, the attenuator probably won’t be a feature that you use too much. Regardless, it functions quite well, keeping the dynamics intact until the wattage drops below 1/2 watt. At that point, the sound gets very reedy and thin.
The Final Mojo
The Matamp Spirit was a real testament to the strength of classic small amp tone and design. It is built just as well as its higher-powered brethren, has a fantastic overall sound and feel, all while having a look that separates it from pack. While the limited-release nature of the amp is enticing, it shouldn’t only be on collectors’ radars. With the traditional sound comes a need for a traditional playing style, so guitarists who fall in the classic country and rock vein should find something to love in the Spirit. It’s one of those amps that forces you to be a better player, which is something that all of us could use.
Buy if...
you’re after an amp that responds well to old-school playing methods, and has a great bite and vintage response.
Skip if...
you need a louder amp with modern tones.
Rating...
MSRP $850 - Matamp Amplification - matamp.co.uk |