Mr. Foxen

Someone just posted this to my Facebook wall:

[quote]Matamp are having clearance sale, which include some interesting 2nd hand & new stock. If your interested in any of the following contact Jeff at the factory by telephone:

Matamp stock clearance; new, custom, refurbished and
commission equipment
1. 4 x AC30 customs. 6 or 4 input variants. 2 black, 2 tan. Hand wired customspecced
transformers, traditional diamond pattern tolex. Each loaded with 2
Celestion Alnico Blue drivers. Unbadged, but VOX logo sanctioned and available if
required. £1,500 each.
2. SOLD
3. Matamp 4 x 12 Bass cabinet, late 1990s, pre-owned, Fane loaded bargain £300.
4. Matamp 1 x 8 enclosure. No frills at £35.
5. Harry Joyce 4 x12 Hiwatt style cabinet. Loaded with rare, cast basket Fane
drivers. Stunning tone well worth £1,000.
7. Matamp GT1224 prototype with 5 way footswitch. Switchable 25w to 50w output.
Was £1,700, now £1,000.
12. Marble Amps, boutique, US style 40w, 4 x 10 combo, twin channel finished in
tweed. Was £2,000, now £1,300.
15.[b] Rare Matamp factory collection 400w bass head, aluminium chassis, single
channel, 1 off prototype, loaded with either 8 x KT88 or 8 x 6550s tubes. Was
£2,500, now £1,500. Unique.[/b]
16. 2 Matamp 1 x 12 flat, Bergentino style cabinets, 1 loaded with compression
driver, the other not. Each can handle 400w. Were £350, now £150 each.
19. Matamp Harry Joyce 1 off custom 15w head. Was £995, now £500.
21. Commission sale. Prototype, British built Ashdown 100w head with 4 x 12
cabinet. Pre-owned by ‘Warm’ from Bradford. From £1,800 to £900. No spilt.
22. Matamp refurbished 100w reverb head. Pre-owned by Andy Powell of Wishbone
Ash. From £1,200 to £800 for a bit of history.
24. Matamp Kingstreet mk II 15w/25w switchable head, finished in black and white.
Brand new, last of the line. £799. Was £950.
25. Matamp. Last 20 of the current line of brand new Mini Pro 4W attenuator heads.
Were £409, now £350 each. Get them while you can.
30. Commission sale. Hiwatt Trinity 50w head (early 80s) and front loaded 4 x12
cabinet. No split.£600.
31. Pre-owned Carlsboro TC100 valve head (as used by Bill Nelson) from early 80s.
£200.
32. Roost 120w head (modified Matamp GT120). Refurbished. Was £1,200, now
£550.
33. German boutique. 3 x THC Sunset 40w heads, 2 x 4 x 12 Celestion Century
Vintage cabinets. Call.[/quote]

High nut will bend the lower notes, but also be brutal on the playing, you can get used to it I guess.

Barefaced compact, name covers it.

But 'smaller' kind of needs a thing to be smaller than.

[quote name='Matte_black' timestamp='1378551949' post='2201711']
Woohoo, with my accent they could think that one of the Sopranos called to get money from them LOL
[/quote]

Trying to get money out of a Yorkshireman? Good luck.

[quote name='Matte_black' timestamp='1378548787' post='2201670']
You're right Anyway I must admit that ordering from Matamp doesn't look that easy. I've sent a message thru their Facebook page to find out price, delivery time and options for the GT200...
[/quote]

Phone them.

Matamp had a narrow tall thing, not sure if they still do on the new GT200. Being wide is kind of the better way to make valve amps, space is useful for low noise layout.

You have a specific size in mind as a key factor? Could get a custom made.

VBA is not a very exciting amp in the scheme of things, being big is its only standout quality. Think fairly undersized transformers too, Matamp is going to be a cleaner machine, unless you have it made dirt. Its going from a production line amp to a handmade boutique job.

[quote name='Matte_black' timestamp='1378508303' post='2201410']
Mr. Foxen, thanx for sheding light on the construction methods... Could you rate those amps in terms of reliability and quality?
[/quote]

Not really specific enough. Modern Orange are cheap low bidder devices. Only high end ashdown I've been in was a Matamp type build/design anyway. With Matamp, valve reliability is going to overshadow most other considerations. Lots of build quality examples and such of amps in my blog and facebook page.

[quote name='Matte_black' timestamp='1378506571' post='2201394']
I have no way to find out how the new Ashdown heads are on the inside... of course they're built on PCB or "turrets", like the Orange. While Weber and Matamp should be point-to-point, so more reliable on the long term.
[/quote]

PCB and turret are different things, you can have turrets on a pcb, or an amp built on strips with turrets on. current Orange are plain PCB. Some Ashdowns are on turrets on PCB, most are PCB. Weber aren't point to point and no Matamp are point to point, some Matamp are PCB, some are turret, and standard modern ones are on pcb with turrets. Point to point isn't inherently reliable, pretty much the opposite. Reliability is down to the quality not the construction method. Serviceability is down to construction and design, turret on PCB is probably best for ease of service and reliability.

[quote name='Blind Lemon' timestamp='1378483245' post='2201032']
Thanks everyone for there input...( input...see what I did there) There are 3 Impedance options and 4 voltage options. what is meant by supergroup?
[/quote]

Series of amps laney made, pretty much a marshall circuit, but with better transformers. good amps, one of the most desirable old Laneys, because they were used by Black Sabbath.

[quote name='Blind Lemon' timestamp='1377812506' post='2192378']
Some pics as promised. would like to know more about this amp sound reliability etc, any one ever used one or maybe you still are? [attachment=142644:IMAG0237.jpg] [attachment=142645:IMAG0238.jpg] [attachment=142646:IMAG0239.jpg]
[/quote]

Ah, LB will be lead/bass then. Think its the pre supergroup one, but the back panel info is missing, does it have 2 or 3 impedance options, 3 is Supergroup. Reliability is down to being teched and good valves. If it hasn't been sorted, blowing up is pretty imminent. Also they will eat poor modern valves.

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1378393237' post='2199612']
Not a chance.

A CNC router, air filtration and raw materials cannot be used in the average home.

3D printers of the other hand can be used at home.
[/quote]

Wanna throw up an example of a home 3d printer? I've been looking at a bunch of desktop CNC router/engravers for making stuff. Turns out, more economic to just have it done commercially, just like photo printing. Talking about $600 US to get a bass body sized router, actual stuff I have considered. But I can have stuff water jet cut for a fraction of the cost, which is why I can turn out scratchplates, and amp chassis pretty cheap.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1378318103' post='2198597']
Firstly, you can suspend damping material away from the walls of any cab that has a front-to-back brace. There's nothing unusual in that. Secondly, I find it very difficult to believe that a few extra braces will have any affect on the backwave, never mind make a "huge and under-appreciated difference in tone".
[/quote]

Talking in a bare room vs talking in a room with stuff in it tells you how effective disrupting the inside of an enclosure is. See also the knobbly things on the walls of studios etc. get them in some venues too, bit sculptural. Loads of stuff in pubs gives a nice atmosphere not just because of looking at stuff too. Sort of stuff you'd see if you have much to do with music.

[quote name='BassBod' timestamp='1378376100' post='2199252']
a 1x8" : not for a rock'n'roll lifestyle.
[/quote]

Abbreviated for you.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1378376177' post='2199253']
Any width that's a multiple of the controlling DSP clock (might be thinking more in terms of servo amplifiers here), and the filter takes a digital signal (all right, one bit resolution) and generates a true analogue value. Sound like an D to A process to me, if not in the conventional sense.

So is a bit in my PC memory, that can be set to 0 or 1 for any length of time, an analogue device?
According some definitions here the only thing that's digital on my computer is the sound card, because it has A/D and D/A converters.!
[/quote]

All devices are analogue, because digital functions only really happen in theory, as a data process, thus need the conversion step, its numbers not a real thing. Analogue device, digital function. A wind up clock moves a set distance each tick, still analogue, there is no digital data processing, I could rig up a mechanical device with a digital output, in the sense it could have the 88:88 style display, just working of moving parts, it would be analogue, but that time output would be digital to read out, half past four in the afternoon would be 16:30, you see those digits, a digital output, and convert it to half past four, that is the conversion step.

There is no digital signal, so the filter is a filter not a converter. At no point is the signal been rendered into digital data form. DSP is a separate thing.

Had one, rubbish. Came with a nicer strap than that, I still use that. Think I sold to a BCer as a project.

CNC routing already covers what 3d printing can do for basses, the advantages are all cosmetics.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1378332842' post='2198930']
I guess it comes down to whether you call PWM digital because its on/off, or analogue because ?????.
[/quote]

Its analogue because the pulses can be any width. And a filter isn't a digital to analogue converter.

The bit that makes class D not digital is the lack of an analogue to digital conversion step.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1378305137' post='2198390']
Is it not the case that Neo magnets are much more efficient, with a denser magnetic field, resulting in an inherently stronger mid-range presence in some drivers?

(I have no practical experience to back this up - nor am I saying it's a bad thing. I'm just repeating an explanation of the perceived difference that was given to me once...)
[/quote]

Indeed it is not the case. It might work if the magnets weighed the same, but the whole point is there is less of the stronger magnet material, and if stronger magnet gave a midrange presence, which isn't the case either. With neo magnets, you do access a much broader range of adjustable parameters, from the fact the magnet is physically smaller, so you can go nuts on the heatsink and such, but that hasn't got much to do with mids.

Main audible difference in early generation neo bass cabs was a theme of bodging a neo driver into an inappropriate cab designed for a ferrite driver with different parameters.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1378284189' post='2197994']
Do they make valve in ear monitors?
[/quote]

Hearing aids were valve, still use hearing aid power valves in pedals sometimes. Pretty similar concept.

No more sound difference than between two different normal cabs. 'Neo' isn't a sound factor.

Needs more drummer at the wrong gig and playing it in a dress.