Matchless Amplifiers - History

History

Matchless Amplifiers, like many other entrepreneurial stories, started out on a kitchen table. That table belonged to Rick Perrotta in 1989. He was the initial force behind Matchless along with Mark Sampson, Steve Goodale, and Chris Perrotta.

During the 1970s & 80's, an undesirable trend had developed throughout the guitar-amplifier industry. It had switched from sonically pleasing vacuum tubes and point-to-point wiring to transistors and circuit boards. While the industry may have found this more profitable, it had drawbacks; poor sound quality and unsatisfied customers. The transistorized amps lacked the warmth, depth and richness as found in the earlier amplifiers. By this time, guitar players were starting to search for better sound... so the hunt was on.

Rick and Mark started working on their first prototype with the understanding that it had to sound substantially better than their predecessors. Realistically, that meant back to tubes, hand-wiring, handcrafted transformers and large carbon-comp resistors. It also had to be built like a tank in order to take the rigors of the road while touring. Mark understood this very well, as he was always repairing road-beaten amps for other artists back then. He didn't want their newly created amp to fall into the same category.

As prototyping neared completion, they came up with a name, Matchless - as that's what they intended their "no-compromise" amplifier to be. Chris refined the light-up logo for it. Along with the amp's stunning tone, this has become a lengendary trademark.

Chris explains, "A lot of work went into those early prototypes. Mark and Rick would work tirelessly perfecting the amp's sound. They'd try different combinations of capacitors, resistors and tubes perfecting the amp's tonal circuits. And as part of that on-going development, they'd let other musicians play through them, soliciting their valuable critique and then incorporate those changes back in. It was important to make significant tonal strides and develop a signature sound. Even the construction had to be second to none, every detail, every solder joint, every bend of wire, even details not seen. It was over-the-top, bullet proof construction, just the way you'd want it if you had built it. But such quality didn't come cheap."

Steve Goodale joined them as a co-founder in 1991, bringing financing and marketing to the company. Goodale insisted that they participate in the 1992 Guitar Player Magazine boutique amplifier shootout and he delivered an early DC-30 from Los Angeles to Cupertino, putting the amplifier in the hands of editor Andy Widders-Ellis. The amplifier won the competition and this event effectively launched the company. Borrowing heavily from designs of early Vox amplifiers (a famous British amplifier company), this first Matchless amplifier model - the acclaimed DC-30 (the name bearing tribute to the legendary Vox model AC30 and also as a designation meaning Dual Combo with two 12" speakers), was the first model that saw regular production. Since its first appearance, the DC-30 has won much praise amongst guitar players and has earned several positive reviews in guitar magazines like Guitar Player and Guitar World.

Mark Sampson went on to design the Clubman 35', followed by the 15 watt series consisting of the Spitfire, Tornado, and Lightning. This series was followed by the Chieftain, Superchief, and Thunderchief. These models were all designed while the company was in the early stages of its development in North Hollywood California. The models created following the C-30 series were an attempt by the company to create a unique distinct entity within the market place. While Mark was the Chief design engineer, Rick Perrotta handled production duties with much overlap in job duties as the company grew.

Due to the need for a Capitol infusion and expansion resources the founders elected to become partners with the U.S. Music Corporation in January 1994. This may be corroborated through Music Trades magazine January 1994 issue. This merger was done to acquire much needed growth and capitol. During the partners tenure at U.S. Music, Mark Sampson became head of Corporate R&D which consisted of Guild guitars, Matchless amplifiers, Randall amplifiers and Vinci strings. Rick Perrotta became the manager of the Anaheim production facility where Matchless, Randall, and Vinci were located. Chris Perrotta would go on to do mechanical engineering, blueprinting, and other fine detail work for all the brands of the corporation. This merger lasted until October 1995 (see Music Trades magazine October 1995) when Mr. Sampson acquired Matchless without the other founding partners. Mr. Sampson stayed on with the company as President and C.E.O. until late 1999.

Matchless is generally thought of as being the company that kick-started the boutique amplifier craze in the early nineteen-nineties, paving the way for other smaller manufacturers like Dr. Z Amplification, Bad Cat and Victoria Amp Company, all specializing in making handmade, high-end tube amplifiers.

The company also manufactured some state of the art tube stompboxes such as the Hotbox (a tube preamplifier), the Hotbox II, the Dirtbox (higher gain version of the Hotbox), the Coolbox (a Booster pedal), the Splitbox (a tube buffered signal splitter), the Mixbox (a tube buffered mixer), and the Vibrobox (a tube tremolo effect), as well an echo/delay pedal, the Echobox, which employed a tape format from an adapted cassette.