Matchless Hot Box

The Matchless Hot Box is a 'classic' tube overdrive preamp pedal that I've used with an electric guitar. It's definitely meant to be used with electric guitar, but like all pedals it can be used with any instrument that has proper connections for it, which in this case would be 1/4". It has two 12AX7 tubes in it for the preamp. This is an analog pedal that isn't rack mountable in any way.

UTILIZATION

The make up of the Matchless Hot Box is really simple to understand. The pedal has two channels - a clean and an overdrive one. The clean channel has only a volume knob, while the overdrive channel has parameters for gain, bass, treble, and output level. You don't need to know much to work the Hot Box, but knowledge of other overdrive pedals will certainly be helpful. A manual isn't something that will be necessary with this pedal.

SOUND QUALITY

The tone of the Matchless Hot Box is truly awesome. It's one of the fullest sounding preamp/overdrive pedals that I've heard, and after having used a ton of overdrive pedals, I think that this is really saying something. It isn't just your typical overdrive pedal as it's really it's own preamplifier between the two different clean and overdrive channels. The Hot Box will undoubtedly sound good no matter what type of guitar and amplifier that you're using with it, but I've tried it with a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Vibro King amplifier.

OVERALL OPINION

If you know anything about Matchless, you know that they do not compromise on sound quality. While they aren't known for making pedals, the Hot Box is really a great sounding pedal in it's own right. Matchless is primarily known for the top tier amplifier that they make, but it makes sense that a preamplifier/overdrive pedal would sound awesome from them as I'm sure that it is a similar make up to what they have in many of their amplifier. If you're looking for a top notch preamplifier and overdrive pedal, the Matchless Hot Box is just about as good as you'll find one.