My First Matchless! (she's a spicy one)

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

17:08 for the audio demo 🙏

[@seanblythe9109]

Mighty tones for sure

[@jimcastillo8950]

I like when amps are just simple, nothing fancy..... just pure tone........

[@1mihayes]

This thing sounds so good it’s like it has reverb, but with no pedals. Just 🔥🔥🔥

[@stevelark9840]

Amazing job figuring out the coupling caps were leaky rather than just swapping out the bias resistor.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@stevelark9840 thanks!

[@1mihayes]

That thing sounds unbelievable! Wow… seems like such a simple circuit compared to the modern circuit board amps of today!

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Very simple!

[@1mihayes]

@@YeatzeeGuitar The dynamics are amazing!

[@oldasrocks9121]

That lead dress lacing is a military spec thing. Aside: there are a series of old paperback books based on the USN ETP and the post WWii electronics training course, I once had many of them. They were published like texts for a correspondence course, worth hunting down.

[@paulshurmon138]

Thanks for the video.

[@Strumbum01]

Sounds great!

[@thatampguy]

Spicy is right!

[@huddyskiba1]

Cut & Dry. Sounded great! 🍻 TBD 🍻

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

🍻

[@hitchpaprocki2649]

I listen to great Instructional videos like yours. I honestly have to say that it's usually over my head. When you started playing your guitar, I was rewarded. What a swell amp! And yeah, I got a little smarter. Thanks.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@hitchpaprocki2649 thank you for leaving such a nice comment! 🙏

[@lordgraga]

My God that was a pretty clean tone. Never saw a Matchless either or cared much for the brand as I thought it was probably just some corksniffer stuff, but this is wild.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

They make great sounding amps!

[@jerrymckenzie1858]

Every time I hear a Matchless it makes me want to save my pennies.

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Ok, let’s crank it up.

[@_patrikjay_]

Was that originally built for Mitch Malloy... That's awesome if true.. Talented cat

[@matthewf1979]

I go straight to cutting when I see wrapped leads. It’s so anti-repair when people do that. I do remember servicing one now and it was the same thing. I can’t remember the model, but it was a 2xEL84 model without an EF86.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Spitfire maybe!

[@matthewf1979]

@@YeatzeeGuitar I believe you are correct. It was VERY mid forward sounding with a ton of gain.

[@MiezoT]

Sounds great! Would be great to hear/know if the sound changes much if it would be biased a little colder.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

I have tested that before on a fixed bias fender, very little change in the typical range you'd expect to bias those amps at imo. There's a video on the channel about it somewhere. But I do plan to do cathode bias test soon with a secret amp I've got. Stay tuned!

[@bambule5268]

Good sounding amp. Looks like a nightmare to work in. Nice one! So how does it compare to the real thing?

[@TwangThang57]

They are called Matchless because they run so hot you can light a cigarette with them, therefore, no need for a match! 🔥

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Hahaha love it!

[@Doomentor]

The audio demo sounded great! What speaker and cab did you use for the audio demo?

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@Doomentor just the ox box vox 2x12 cab. I'm not a huge fan, it's not very close to my real vintage vox cab but it's good enough for a quick demo

[@MichaelSmith-rn1qw]

Good idea to have vents in the sides of the chassis? May allow for dirt and grime to get in, but then again Fender chassis are pretty well sealed up and they get grimy over the years. Odd that they would use carbon comp resisters on a modern amp. What is that thing with all of the tabs bent over near the output transformer? A plug of some sorts?

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Yeah just a plug for a tube socket not present on this model. Lots of nice CC's used! I wonder if they still do that, not sure. This is an old amp.

[@jjsant3250]

100ohm screen resistors is a design flaw in a pentode EL84 setup.

[@stevendehaan1078]

nice work! never seen inside a matchless myself. Good lord! overbuilt [in a good way] just makes maint a little tricky. EL 84 bias 90% to 110% so 116 like you said is "hot limit" but doable, totally agree. sounds really nice, do you have a treble booster to try with it? curious what it would sound like

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Yeah, it's about on par with vintage vox's in the 14w range per tube. It's hot, but vintage tubes should be fine. Have not!

[@Mitch_321]

Very possible it could have been for Mitch Malloy the hard rock singer.

[@dyamariv3628]

Very cool amp! I'm curious what you find tonally different compared to your Vintage AC30? I mentioned on another comment a while back that I never really bonded with my AC30 Handwired and actually just sold it. This winter I'm going to build a more vintage acurate AC30 circuit and hopefully it's more up my alley..🤞🤞 Also, what your channel email address? I know you've said it on a couple videos but can't find it.

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@dyamariv3628 pretty different. I played both through my original vox 2x12 cab with the silvers side by side, the matchless is pretty dang bright. Too bright for that cab, since it has no cut control I couldn't really tame it with my Tele. Through my alnico cream cab it sounded very good, but still it's a bright amp. To me it sounds classic matchless, very clear and punchy. Great for the stage, you'll be heard no problem. Not a bedroom amp by any means. My ac30 is my grail tone. The vintage ones don't sound like the handwired ones unfortunately. The speakers play a big role too, those original alnicos. Email is the channel name @gmail.com 👍

[@dyamariv3628]

@@YeatzeeGuitar Thanks for that breakdown, interesting! I hope my AC30 build this winter sounds much more like a vintage AC30. Like Lyle says, the HW AC30's aren't even close to the proper vintage specs. I really didn't want to fully upgrade such an expensive amp and hurt the value. Ok, sending you an email

[@jimmello7363]

Is any of the doids burnt they look like one is on the left side? Then again my eyes are going one of the perks of getting old. Great work man I love watching your channel. Hey if you ever want to sell a 64 super reverb let me know

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

Sorry I missed this. No the diodes were fine, the camera can play tricks for sure. Appreciate it!

[@tonya4157]

Forgive me, but my main concern is, how's the Marshall? 😊

[@YeatzeeGuitar]

@@tonya4157 haha still a work in progress in the background. Working on the cab right now, but functionally it works!

[@tonya4157]

​@YeatzeeGuitar Yayyy! Can't wait to see and hear it. Thank you for your understanding. 😀 The Matchless did sound good.

[@jimmello7363]

Nope scratch that I was seeing wrong now that you are at a close up I was totally wrong

[@jutukka]

If the socket of EF86 stands on rubber grommets to tame microphonics, and there is no galvanic connection from metal sleeve of socket to chassis, you need that extra wire to connect the metal sleeve of tube socket to circuit ground on chassis. Whether the screen resistor of EL84 is 100 ohms or 170, does not make much difference. It should be 470 or 1000 ohms to start to have some real effect because even max allowable screen currents are so small that those small resistor values simply don't give any significant protection to tube.