Small Amps Great Sound (Part 3)

Hi there.
If you’re planning on having a cab made, could I recommend Matamp? They have a “wall of speakers” so you can try your amp out through loads of different speaker types, and then chose.
And they’re much cheaper than most boutique manufacturers.

Also theres “MaRtamp” (google him), who works for Matamp but also does his own thing.

I went through all this myself in 2007, but I wanted more than one channel – so the amp provided all the gain, not pedals.
Ended up with an Elmwood Modena 60. 2 channels, 2 gains per channel, 60w with a 1/2 power switch, and sounds good at low volume so it does the job at church and in gigs.
Makes a Mesa Single rec sound thin when pushed, does a great AC/DC sound too, and decent clean.
2 volumes for a lead boost.
Unfortunately made in Sweden, so price in Euros, which ain’ t gonna be pretty.

This has been an interesting series of articles and I have learnt a lot from them. I don’t think $325 for just the amp is very cheap, the Fender Champ 600 with its 6 inch speaker is about £150 and it has an external speaker output for a bigger speaker if required. Epiphone produce a 1 x12” cabinet with an Eminence speaker in it for just over £100. None of this will be hand made but I wonder who will be able to hear the difference when it is in use. I have not heard a Blackstar HT-5 Combo but it is an interesting package for around £300, but so is the Fender Super Champ XD at about £260 and it has 16 amp modeling settings; this might be a good choice for someone starting to play electric guitar.

Hi Bill

Yes I have seen these and I’m told they sound amazing. In fact they are exactly the right spec for what a lot of players would really need in a worship band amp. Great tone, light weight, low power, beautifully constructed. But you’re right they are a bit more expensive, in fact in the UK once you ad tax, shipping and import duties you’re almost looking at £1350 UK pounds, which actually is still not astronomical for the quality but probably out of most non semi-pro’s price range.

– I guess what I’m aiming at is if you can do a similar but perhaps simpler thing in but at a production amp price range – say under $500, so that’s the plan…

thanks for all the comments so far. Nice to know people actually read this stuff! i’ll try to respond in the order they were received .
First, Nick, yes i have seen the Matamp cabs. Your right, for a hand made unit they’re pretty reasonably priced although you do have to choose one of their celestion speakers which wasn’t what i was necessarily looking for to partner with the tweed champ head (i’ll post more about this next month). Another similar option i looked at was the Orange PPC 112 which is pretty simliar but made in china for just under half the price.
Also the other factor is weight, Matamp makes them pretty heavy duty and whilst they’ll survive a bomb blast, i’m just tired of lugging around heavy equipment so am looking for something a bit lighter to carry.
In fact i played at a healing service the other day and on the way out i actually twisted my back carrying a couple of cabs to the car! funny huh?!
I am really impressed with the Martamp though. excellent prices for UK hand made amps, another one i’ve just come across in is /www.englishvalveamps.co.uk/ – again all hand made and top quality components, but pretty reasonably priced for the amount of work involved.
Elmwood is a new one on me and i just checked out their site and reviews. Yup, real top quality stuff. They look pretty solid. are they heavy to carry around?

Hi Malcolm

Now this is a great question that a lot of people ponder. Why spend up to a grand (or more) on a boutique amp when something like the Fender champ 600 or the Epiphone Valve junior will do basically the same thing with the same specs for considerably less wedge? For me the old addage of ‘you get what you pay for’ is applicable here but perhaps not the whole story…

Certainly its really worth comparing the sound of something like the the unit I’ve ordered above with an Epi VJ . Now while the Epi is terrific for the money you may well notice a difference in background noise, clean headroom (percieved volume) and overall depth and complexity of tone.

Also if you were to look inside both the boutique amps and the 600/VJ there is a big difference in overall quality of each component, all of which affect the tone and longevity of the product. In fact on the web there is now a thriving cottage industry of people offering mods and upgrades to eliminate the shortfalls in the cheaply made elements of these amps. You can even buy a modded 600, vJ, Harley benton GA5 or Little Giant which is a great value way to a really good sound for little money. So each bit does add up in some small way. Obviously the cost of getting one individual guy to hand solder every component is going to be way more than a mass produced item but I really do believe that a well engineered hand made amp based on a tried and tested circuit that has had years of R&D pays dividends in sound quality and reliability.

So having looked into this for a while $325 for a single guy to do all this is actually pretty good value, especially compared to something of similar quality like a victoria 5112 at $1195. Of course this includes a speaker and cabinet which will add around $310.

But other part of the story is – what are you trying to achieve sound wise? Maybe think of it like buying a car. Now if you just want to get from A to B then a Kia Picanto (cheap runaround) is going to be much better value than an Audi R8 (supercar). They’ll both do 70mph and in traffic the kia will get you to your destination just as quickly as the supercar. However, if you are an ‘enthusiast’ you’ll want to push the limits of the audi to find out what it can do and ultimately the audi will be worth the extra to you if you have the financial means.

Similarly, for many of us as guitarists our overall tone is part of what shapes the way we play. Even if the audience or congregation can’t hear the difference, WE can, which helps to play better and ultimately express our worship to God on our instruments in the best way we know how, which why so many of us enjoy this pursuit so much.

Unfortunately for many guitarists this will embark them on a never ending (and expensive) quest for the ultimate tone (spinal tap moment?) as they develop their playing technique. So for most people whilst the Audi R8 option is never really financially viable, they are always looking for most of the performance at half the price. So even if you can’t get to a good guitar shop to compare sounds, do scan youtube as most amps are demoed there (premierguitar do some great demos) and see what you like.

Here they are
Small amp, great sound – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5