L
Lewguitar
Guest
Well continuing in the vein of this thread: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=54415
Thank you Gearjoneser for your recomendation! I got the Matchless Chieftan 1 x 12 yesterday and I can see why you kept the Chieftan and sold your SC-30. Both are superb but if I could only have one, I might pick the Chieftan too.
I took both the Matchless SC-30 1 x 12 and the Matchless Chieftan to band rehearsal last night...along with my Tele Deluxe with the Duncan Custom Shop Jerry Donahue lead pickup and Antiquity Surfer Strat neck pickup.
For my style of playing (which is roots, blues, r&b, funk and a little country, folk and bluegrass...basically American roots music) these are the two best amps I've ever owned...no doubt about it. Better than my Marshall 50 watt, Fender Super Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, 59 Bassman, etc.
They don't do the 20 watt squawk and honk of my tweed Deluxes and 51 Super...those amps are pretty special too and I'll be keeping them...but selling everything else.
The Matchless Chieftan is everything Gearjoneser said it would be. It's similar to the SC-30 and to my Marshall 50 watt but differant...it has it's own thing going and it's easy to get both killer Marshall tones and killer Fender tones.
It's deeper, tighter and fuller in the bass than the SC-30. And the highs are glassier than those in the SC-30 but with a very pleasing warm chime...the highs are not the annoyingly glassy crunchy highs that some Marshalls and tweed Bassman have.
The highs are cushioned in fat warm thick bass and midrange that keeps those highs from sounding shrill.
And the Chieftan has reverb that sounds great. :dance:
I do like the half power switch on the SC-30. Since it has four EL-84's, the hald power switch turns two of them off. The Chieftan has two EL-34's and it wouldn't work right to turn one of those off. But the master volume control works beautifully so everything's cool.
The Chieftan is like a British/American voiced hybrid of a 50 watt Marshall and some kind of tweed Bassman/blackface Fender mutant...but it's fuller and warmer and more comfortable to play and listen to than either.
It's a spectacular amp and for clean to semi-clean tones I think I might actually prefer it to the SC-30.
I can strum open chords on my Tele in almost an acoustic style and the Chieftan amp gets an amazingly full, warm and chimey tone that reminds me of the jangley strummy rythym parts on CD's by U2, the Pretenders, Tom Petty, the Byrds, etc.
There's not as much reverb as my blackface Fender have on hand but there's plenty of reverb. Blackface Fenders actually have way more reverb than any normal player will ever need.
Whereas with my Fenders I keep the reverb on 2 or so, with the Chieftan I can turn it up to 5 or even more to get the equivalent amount of reverb. And it's a very pleasing reverb that doesn't just "take over" my tone. It adds anbience but but doesn't get messy.
Between the Chieftan and the SC-30 I feel like I can get pretty much every tone I've ever wanted from an amp and get those tones in stellar fashion, with the possible exception of the natural overdrive I get from my small tweed 50's Deluxes and Super when those 20 watt amps are cranked. They really honk and squawk in a very pleasing way!
I haven't tried either the SC-30 or Chieftan with a Boss DS-1, Duncan Pickup Booster, Fulltone 69 or Ibanez TS-9 or TS-808...that's coming next I guess. Looks like this new gig is going to require me using some pedals. I've got 'em...I just don't really like to use 'em!
Both amps seem to have the same 12" speaker, BTW. Looks like some kind of Celestion G12H30 or Vintage 30...the magnet and overall look is the same look as those two speakers. The speaker is fuller and warmer than either but most closely resembles the tone of my G12H30's.
Lew
Thank you Gearjoneser for your recomendation! I got the Matchless Chieftan 1 x 12 yesterday and I can see why you kept the Chieftan and sold your SC-30. Both are superb but if I could only have one, I might pick the Chieftan too.
I took both the Matchless SC-30 1 x 12 and the Matchless Chieftan to band rehearsal last night...along with my Tele Deluxe with the Duncan Custom Shop Jerry Donahue lead pickup and Antiquity Surfer Strat neck pickup.
For my style of playing (which is roots, blues, r&b, funk and a little country, folk and bluegrass...basically American roots music) these are the two best amps I've ever owned...no doubt about it. Better than my Marshall 50 watt, Fender Super Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, 59 Bassman, etc.
They don't do the 20 watt squawk and honk of my tweed Deluxes and 51 Super...those amps are pretty special too and I'll be keeping them...but selling everything else.
The Matchless Chieftan is everything Gearjoneser said it would be. It's similar to the SC-30 and to my Marshall 50 watt but differant...it has it's own thing going and it's easy to get both killer Marshall tones and killer Fender tones.
It's deeper, tighter and fuller in the bass than the SC-30. And the highs are glassier than those in the SC-30 but with a very pleasing warm chime...the highs are not the annoyingly glassy crunchy highs that some Marshalls and tweed Bassman have.
The highs are cushioned in fat warm thick bass and midrange that keeps those highs from sounding shrill.
And the Chieftan has reverb that sounds great. :dance:
I do like the half power switch on the SC-30. Since it has four EL-84's, the hald power switch turns two of them off. The Chieftan has two EL-34's and it wouldn't work right to turn one of those off. But the master volume control works beautifully so everything's cool.
The Chieftan is like a British/American voiced hybrid of a 50 watt Marshall and some kind of tweed Bassman/blackface Fender mutant...but it's fuller and warmer and more comfortable to play and listen to than either.
It's a spectacular amp and for clean to semi-clean tones I think I might actually prefer it to the SC-30.
I can strum open chords on my Tele in almost an acoustic style and the Chieftan amp gets an amazingly full, warm and chimey tone that reminds me of the jangley strummy rythym parts on CD's by U2, the Pretenders, Tom Petty, the Byrds, etc.
There's not as much reverb as my blackface Fender have on hand but there's plenty of reverb. Blackface Fenders actually have way more reverb than any normal player will ever need.
Whereas with my Fenders I keep the reverb on 2 or so, with the Chieftan I can turn it up to 5 or even more to get the equivalent amount of reverb. And it's a very pleasing reverb that doesn't just "take over" my tone. It adds anbience but but doesn't get messy.
Between the Chieftan and the SC-30 I feel like I can get pretty much every tone I've ever wanted from an amp and get those tones in stellar fashion, with the possible exception of the natural overdrive I get from my small tweed 50's Deluxes and Super when those 20 watt amps are cranked. They really honk and squawk in a very pleasing way!
I haven't tried either the SC-30 or Chieftan with a Boss DS-1, Duncan Pickup Booster, Fulltone 69 or Ibanez TS-9 or TS-808...that's coming next I guess. Looks like this new gig is going to require me using some pedals. I've got 'em...I just don't really like to use 'em!
Both amps seem to have the same 12" speaker, BTW. Looks like some kind of Celestion G12H30 or Vintage 30...the magnet and overall look is the same look as those two speakers. The speaker is fuller and warmer than either but most closely resembles the tone of my G12H30's.
Lew
:beerchug:
