Matchless 15 watt

[Jefferson]

Anyone have experience with the Matchless 15 watt lineup (Lightning, Spitfire, or Nighthawk)? I am considering finding myself a gig worthy amp this year and have been impressed both with the build quality and three-dimensional chimey clean tone of these amps. The bigger question is the over driven tone which is apparently quite different between models. Of course I will set about demoing all of them eventually (not many shops around here carry them, but I have been able to find a Lightning). However I was curious if anyone had thoughts, experience, comparisons with these models (or Matchless in general) that they could share.

[Tahitijack]

My guitar coach is a gear guy. The has gone through enough pedals, guitars, accessories and amps to fill a Guitar Center. One thing that stopped that in the amp quest was his purchase of a Matchless Amp. Sorry don't know the model. He did some demo work for them and they gave him a combo amp in trade. He took it back and they rebuilt it to a separate head and cabinet. All I can say is it has amazing tone and can shift from jazz to blues to country, comfortable in all genres. If I had the money I'd take a strong look at Matchless amps. While you are looking you might also consider Bogner. I borrowed a combo to play a gig years ago. The cabinet was a bit different with side mounted speakers. Reverb section was as good a Fender. Good luck with your search.

[moon]

I've been planning to build a few 15W amps and a Matchless Lightning/Spitfire is first on the list (I just need to get my finger out after being laid up over Xmas & New Year with a non-serious illness).

The lightning has more gain than the Spitfire. It's also a little brighter and has treble/bass tone controls which (apparently) are highly interactive. The Spitfire is simpler: just a single "tone" control and one less tube in the preamp. There's something very appealing about simple tube circuits: nothing to get in the way of touch-sensitive response.

I think Greenbacks are a standard speaker in Spit/Lightning combos which might suggest they're naturally quite bright and need toning down a little.

They're both said to be "a very loud 15W". In fact, I think every small tube ever made is "a very loud X watts!" However the output transformer is quite beefy which might give some justification for the claim. It probably also helps with rich, clear tones and dynamics.

Incidentally, they both have an unusual parallel triode circuit at the input stage. If you know your tubes, a single 12AX7 actually has two triodes inside it. Normally these are wired in series to get the most gain but in the Spitfire/Lightning they're in parallel. This is said to subtly increase the richness of the tone.

Matchless also have an unusual power supply circuit with some parallel B+ branches where normally you'd see tubes getting their plate voltage one after another in series. I suspect that helps with clean headroom and dynamics.

I wouldn't know how to choose between the Matchless 15W'ers but whichever one I had, I don't think I'd be unhappy.

[clintj]

I'm yearning to build a Lightning, but for the opposite reason. I love their range of distorted tones, and the interactive tone stack makes for some very interesting possibilities. I think they sound somewhere between a Vox and a Marshall when pushed hard.

[teleamp]

They are so good that you rarely see older used ones for sale, and that is quite a statement..