James... « AC15 with a spin »
Published on 08/12/11 at 15:59I'm a huge fan of Vox style amps. I've probably owned 20 different flavors of the AC15/30 over the years. The Spitfire is basically Matchless' take on the ac15 circuit from what I understand. I have the 1x12 combo and while it usually comes stock with the G12H I have also tried an alnico blue with it. It's a loud little 15 watts with the 2 el84 tubes. There's just 3 controls and that's all you need. The two inputs are nice. I only use the first one. The amp is handwired to the best of my knowledge. Matchless is high quality stuff.
UTILIZATION
This combo is predicated on the less is more philosophy. Basically you adjust the master and volume to taste and then turn the tone knob till it sounds good. Easy enough? No manual required.
SOUNDS
I typically use a pretty big pedal board with mine. But mostly I use a Timmy, a tubescreamer, a rat, and an eventide timefactor. My board is always changing depending what amp and guitars I use it with. Most of the time I use some kind of Gretsch or Gibson.
The spitfire with the G12H sounds a bit like an AC15 except meaner. It has a punchier tone to the lower bass and the highs aren't quite as sparkley. The mids are voiced a bit differently I think. There's more brightness going on. With an alnico blue it gets less punchy and more sparkly. Honestly though neither is better or terribly different from one another. I think I prefer the G12H for most things. I like the warmth is has. I know matchless tweaks them a bit, and to my ears it is warmer than a regular G12H. I don't have to turn down the tone as much with the stock speaker. I will say the clean tone is not quite as magical as a good AC15 but the overdriven tones, pedal or not are really nice. Some AC15's can have issues when you hit them with gain but the Spitfire handles it like a champ.
OVERALL OPINION
This isn't a cheap amp. I play at church so the low volume is a must. I've tried so many 15 watt vox clones I could choke. This is one of my favorites. If you want a half watt DC30, look way. This isn't quite it. It's great if you want the vox thing with a little more edge. Bottom line is if you have the money and you know what you want, this is a great amp.
UTILIZATION
This combo is predicated on the less is more philosophy. Basically you adjust the master and volume to taste and then turn the tone knob till it sounds good. Easy enough? No manual required.
SOUNDS
I typically use a pretty big pedal board with mine. But mostly I use a Timmy, a tubescreamer, a rat, and an eventide timefactor. My board is always changing depending what amp and guitars I use it with. Most of the time I use some kind of Gretsch or Gibson.
The spitfire with the G12H sounds a bit like an AC15 except meaner. It has a punchier tone to the lower bass and the highs aren't quite as sparkley. The mids are voiced a bit differently I think. There's more brightness going on. With an alnico blue it gets less punchy and more sparkly. Honestly though neither is better or terribly different from one another. I think I prefer the G12H for most things. I like the warmth is has. I know matchless tweaks them a bit, and to my ears it is warmer than a regular G12H. I don't have to turn down the tone as much with the stock speaker. I will say the clean tone is not quite as magical as a good AC15 but the overdriven tones, pedal or not are really nice. Some AC15's can have issues when you hit them with gain but the Spitfire handles it like a champ.
OVERALL OPINION
This isn't a cheap amp. I play at church so the low volume is a must. I've tried so many 15 watt vox clones I could choke. This is one of my favorites. If you want a half watt DC30, look way. This isn't quite it. It's great if you want the vox thing with a little more edge. Bottom line is if you have the money and you know what you want, this is a great amp.