Wednesday dawns cold and cloudy, almost wintry for this time of spring. I head to the office to do today's test. When I come face to face with the amp, I have to admit its look is no surprise, since I'm familiar with the brand, but I have to say it still impressed me.
It isn't an amp that strays from the brand's look, but its color and finish give an impression of sheer elegance. Matchless is a company with a long track record that has had a lot to say in guitar amplification. It is based in Los Angeles, where a handful of people shape the project.
The company dates back to 1989, when it began developing the DC-30, an amp with a certain resemblance to the VOX AC 30, but with something extra. Since then it has built a fine arsenal of amplifiers, from the C-30, the Clubman, the Cobra, etc., to the subject that brings us together today, the Lightning. I can say that I've tried most of the company's products, and they have never let me down. I've even tried vintage examples of the brand, and I can say they are simply incredible as well. So let's not waste any more time on preliminaries and go through the amp's details one by one.
Technical Introduction
Before getting into the amp, with its pots, tubes, resistors and so on, we need to talk about who this product is for. If you're looking for high gain, that is, mega distortion with thunderous lows, aggressive mids, a sound that can cover you at every moment, or even if your idea is to have several channels with different EQs and volumes, I doubt this amp will meet all your needs. But if you're looking for dreamy cleans along with a creamy crunch that lets you blend perfectly with the rest of a pop/rock/blues/funk/jazz band, and that responds to whatever pedal you put in front of it, then things change.
It's really hard to find an amp that responds as neutrally as this one and doesn't become a bottleneck for the final sound of your pedals. This is a very specific animal, well thought out for very particular circumstances. Let's start analyzing each of the amp's features.
Technical Factors
The unit is a combo with two 12-inch Celestion speakers and a total of 15 W in a single channel. At first glance, we might think we'll come up short, but if we look closely and remember that it's based on a Class A architecture, we quickly conclude that it's powerful enough to handle any situation we find ourselves in, whether a small club or a big stage. It goes without saying that the amp is all-tube (Class A) and ships with EL84 power tubes, hence that more British sound. It naturally has a tube rectifier, which gives the system a robust, clear consistency. If we look at the front of the amp, we can see that it offers only a few knobs, which I personally appreciate, since I don't usually feel like wasting time hunting for sounds among switches, toggles, buttons and so on.
Personally, I like it when I plug my guitar into the amp and it simply sounds incredible, with no need to search and search. In this case, it doesn't even matter how the knobs are set, since every position sounds fantastic. You focus on what you really need, which is playing. It also stands to reason that if you have a lot of knobs and your guitar's signal passes through every one of them, the original signal will gradually be lost and the initial sound degraded. In our case, the number of controls is very small, just five, including the reverb.
That way we make sure the signal stays as intact as possible when it reaches the power stage. The five controls are volume, master volume, bass, treble and, finally, reverb. The most important thing to keep in mind is that each control works sensitively, meaning it has real travel. Every time we move one of the controls, you feel like you're actually controlling that parameter.
There is no mid control. One explanation is that the amp has plenty of mids on its own. On top of that, it uses EL84s, which give us mids to spare.
The bass and treble controls can work like boosters if we push them to the extremes. Then there are the volume and master volume controls. The first is the volume of the preamp feeding the power stage, which makes it an extremely important control: at low volumes we get a completely clean, crystalline sound. If we turn up the volume control, we'll saturate the amp and get a crunch sound (if we set the control around the halfway point). Turn it all the way up and we get a sweet, creamy distortion that blends perfectly. There are also two inputs, Hi and Lo, which, as we know, differ slightly in dB for use with different pickups. At the end there is a three-position On/Standby/Off switch.
Moving on to the rear, we can see several outputs for adding an extra cabinet to open the sound up even more, as well as a footswitch jack to turn the reverb on and off, a line out and a protective fuse.
The speakers are a pair of Celestions built to Matchless specifications. Keep in mind that the amp's cabinet is open-back, so the sound is neither as compressed nor as directional, which helps a little more with the amp's “unforced” concept. The two 12” speakers give us an impedance of 8 ohms, and they handle the 15 W of power perfectly.
The amp looks quite heavy, and it really is. There is only one handle for carrying it. Personally, I think that's one of the few “drawbacks” you'll find when using it.
The cabinet is relatively large and somewhat heavy. Even so, it works perfectly for the typical small-club gig. It will also do for a relatively large concert hall with a mid-size audience, and for a big stage as well. In that last case, if you want to back it up with an extra cabinet, it will be perfect for opening up the sound. One recommendation is to use a closed-back cabinet, since it gives a counterpoint to the open back of the combo itself.
From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the company lets you choose the color of the amp itself. There is a wide range of colors to choose from, so you can personalize your purchase a little. It may seem like a simple cosmetic option, but over time it makes your amp more fun to look at than plain black tolex, which, to my mind, is a bit impersonal.
Sound
So far we've talked about how it's built and what it offers, but now it's time to find out what it sounds like. We can simply say it sounds incredible, so much so that any comparison you make with this amp has to be with another amp of its caliber. Personally, to me it sounds completely British. It reminds me of what a Vox AC-30® can do, but in the saturated and crunch tones I find the Matchless® creamier. And in the cleans it doesn't have the “chimey bells” the Vox can have, so I would dare say it has a slightly more classic-rock feel, though not as much as its stablemate, the Clubman, which is more geared to rock and does have a “more Marshall®” quality.
At the same time, whatever you plug into it will sound just as it is. In other words, it will bring out the guitar you have, with all its pros and cons. For the test I used a Suhr® Classic, a completely Strat® sound. In any case, if you want to put any pedal ahead of this amp, you'll get a whole new range of sounds. The pedal can work freely without the amp being a bottleneck. It's also highly recommended to use it with boosters, overdrive, fuzz and so on, which will give us the second and third channels the amp doesn't have.
We must not forget a very important factor in this type of amp, and that is dynamics. And how does that show? In how, with just our pick, we can go from the cleanest sounds to the most aggressive, driven ones. This, in turn, shapes the way we play. This is the truth of our sound, where we aren't allowed to have a tail of distortion behind us covering up our imperfections. We have to deliver every note, one after another, because there's no hiding behind the mega-distortion that covers everything up.
Conclusion
The Matchless Lightning 212 combo reverb is simply a gem to me. You can plug in and enjoy your guitar. Incredible harmonics, an enviable clean sound, a simply perfect crunch, and a creamy saturated tone that blends perfectly. You can also throw anything you want at it. It will respond, whether it's overdrive, fuzz, flanger, delay, etc. Any guitar you plug in is going to sound great. Where might it have its downsides? Perhaps I find them in the weight, which makes it a bit more complicated to transport. Just to be thorough about the pros and cons.
On the other hand, if your sound is geared more toward Slayer, Sepultura, metal and so on, I don't think this is your amp. If your budget doesn't reach 2.000 euros, it won't be either (you'll have to keep saving). But if your range is blues/rock/jazz/funk, you're a precise player who loves hearing exactly what you play, and of course your bills and payments let you afford it, it's one of the best options I know.