New Amp Day. One of Meltham UK's finest.

SG John

Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
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What do you do when you see the British government fail to keep a Prime Minister for more than a week and the general population having more confidence in the Official Mouser of 10 Downing Street to run the country because the Pound Sterling has fallen to almost par with US play money?

Buy a bucket list amplifier that needs to be custom made for me, of course. I need to strike when the iron is hot, as they say. The exchange rate when I bought this was a no-brainer. That has been one of the things preventing me from owning one. I have wanted a Matamp for years. Ever since playing a couple while visiting Lex Lurid (old ETSG person) in England quite a few years ago, I have loved these. I went with the Series 3000, which is the modern upgrade of the Matamp 2000 and Orange ORST. It was the amp that Peter Green wanted designed, that would sound like "Honey." It was also the amp that Wishbone Ash and many other bands of that era used.

I ordered it in December, and it arrived yesterday. Packaging was awesome. It is beautiful. It is loud. And, it is heavy. 30 watts with two EL34 power tubes, and a 5U4GB rectifier tube. I'm still getting use to it. I have had it cranked through my '71 Hiwatt SE 4122 with Fanes and my '72 Marshall 1982A Lead Bass cab with 55 Hz Green Backs. It sounds a little crisper with the Marshall cab. Have played it loud with both cabs, using my Les Paul and Firebird. So far, it is really responsive. It's been fun just the few hours I messed with it last night.


Double wrapped for added protection.




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I was finally able to plug in tonight after a few days of not being able to play. I must say, this thing sounds great! Enjoying the Flying V plugged into it tonight. I found a spot that breaks up nice with only a guitar and amp. I need to fine tune things. I won't be able to jam for another week or two, so I'm really chomping at the bit to see how this sounds against one of Tom's Acoustic Bass rigs.

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I was finally able to plug in tonight after a few days of not being able to play. I must say, this thing sounds great! Enjoying the Flying V plugged into it tonight. I found a spot that breaks up nice with only a guitar and amp. I need to fine tune things. I won't be able to jam for another week or two, so I'm really chomping at the bit to see how this sounds against one of Tom' Acoustic Bass rigs.

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Congrats on the purchase. Quite a long wait. Thanks for posting. I never even heard of them.
 
Also….hoping for a clue on using it for bass ;) :dood:
Tom keeps pushing me to plug it into my Sunn Model T cabinet, as it's a 4 Ohm 4x12. He thinks it will be good for bass, but I think this particular model is more voiced for guitar. It is a variation of the 2000 or Orange ORST, so it's not like the current GT models which are monsters. Even Lex Lurid said that he wishes that he went for this model instead of the GT models he had.

He's a photo of Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash that I took Thursday night. He's playing an original Orange by Matamp head into two 2x12 Orange cabs. His sound was quite good, to say the least.

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I do really hope that my neighbors are enjoying this amp as much as I am. Tonight, it was the ES-335, and WOW does this sing! The only pedals I was using were the EL Capistan for some delay effects, and the Marshall pre-amp side of my Dry Bell Engine for an occasional boost. I could control the sound and amount of feedback with the guitar's volume and tone knobs quite well. The one thing I was always told about these amps is how well they respond to your fingers and the guitar knobs. I could get some nice note bloom without the Engine pedal, and just the guitar and amp themselves. Still using the Hiwatt cab for now. Maybe tomorrow, I'll try something different.


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@Don O do you like the tone settings I used now? Treble is at 2:00 and bass was around 4:00. The lighting wasn't very good for this photo.


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I do really hope that my neighbors are enjoying this amp as much as I am. Tonight, it was the ES-335, and WOW does this sing! The only pedals I was using were the EL Capistan for some delay effects, and the Marshall pre-amp side of my Dry Bell Engine for an occasional boost. I could control the sound and amount of feedback with the guitar's volume and tone knobs quite well. The one thing I was always told about these amps is how well they respond to your fingers and the guitar knobs. I could get some nice note bloom without the Engine pedal, and just the guitar and amp themselves. Still using the Hiwatt cab for now. Maybe tomorrow, I'll try something different.


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@Don O do you like the tone settings I used now? Treble is at 2:00 and bass was around 4:00. The lighting wasn't very good for this photo.


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Hah, I wasn’t commenting about the treble and bass settings! I was commenting about the treble and bass knob sizes! Seem like they got the short end of the stick compared to the other 4 knobs sizes :rolf:
 
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