Matchless’ trademark light show comes for free, with the logo illuminating when you flick the power switch and the control panel lighting up when the Laurel Canyon is taken out of standby mode. The moody black and gold cosmetics here are extremely classy, but buyers can spec their preferred combination of cabinet covering, faceplate and grille cloth. The circuit may be a departure in some respects, but elsewhere the Laurel Canyon is every inch a Matchless, with stellar point-to-point wiring, a steel chassis, a heavy Baltic birch plywood cabinet and a custom-voiced UK-made Celestion Heritage G12H30. Our review amp comes in compact and extremely sturdy 1×12 combo configuration with an effects loop and onboard footswitchable spring reverb with a two-spring tank and a pair of 12AX7s for drive and recovery. Grand canyon: with its mid control and master volume, this amp is hugely flexible It’s such a departure from that EL84 sound, and it doesn’t sound like Clubman or a Chieftain either, it’s just got its own thing.” I think it’s just because it’s something different. “Right now it’s one of my favourite amps. “It’s kind of a spin-off on what we’re famous for, but it’s got a midrange control instead of it being fixed” I was really going for the whole essence of the Laurel Canyon sound, of players back in the late 60s and 70s who were in that scene. Nails the old Neil Young stuff, Rolling Stones. “I’ve changed quite a bit of the circuit for a specific sound that I was going for, kind of that crash-and-burn ’66 thing. It’s kind of a spin-off on what we’re famous for, but it’s got a midrange control instead of it being fixed. “I’ve done a 20-watt version with two 6V6s, and I just built our first 40-watt with four of them. “It’s our very first 6V6 amp,” Matchless chief operating officer Phil Jamison told Dave Hunter earlier this year. Though the original Matchless models were built around EL84 and E元4 power valves and influenced by classic British designs, the new Laurel Canyon has been inspired by sounds and circuit designs that are much closer to home for the Californian amp company. When Matchless Amplifiers launched in 1989, the company caused a sensation and lit the blue touch paper under the boutique amplifier scene.

Matchless clubman combo