Matamp vs Electric. someone explain.

[misterstomach]

i kind of sort of know the story, but not really. when i've looked on the internet places where you learn about things like this, you find some history, but mostly people talk about it as though everyone already knows. but i don't really know. i feel like you hear bad things about electric USA, but it's been a while and i don't remember what they are and some people seem to love them. educate me!

[Ancient Astronaught]

From what I understand from reading on the internet (cause the internet is always right!) is that basically back in the day Electric used to be the Matamp importer. After every single Green amp that came in had to be repaired and fixed on arrival Joel found a tech who would do the repairs, but could also build them from the ground up if necessary. He then found out the Matamp patent applied only to the UK so he could directly clone their amps and put his own name on it hence Electric Audio was born. He then cut off the importation and focused on building his own amps, and according to some sources with less then favorable quality control. The only complaints i've seen about electric lately is absolutely ridiculous wait times (a lot of people are at 19-24 months wait right now because the "plate engraver died" and he wanted to find someone who could do the plates EXACTLY like the old guy) and their prices are beyond ridiculously high.

Oh and Nick has said that the way the amps are designed they EAT power tubes, its part of how they get their unique sound is via some crazy bias and power supply. He can explain it better than I.

[Iommic Pope]

Sooooo....if you want a gnarly sounding amp that eats power tubes, has less than amazing reliability and build quality, spend a quarter of the money you would on an Electric and buy a Sovtek?

What were the original issues the Matamps were having in the US that required rectification anyway? I've heard Matamps are dreamy in that department. At least I've never heard a horror story about em down here.

[the_brow]

It wasn't that Matamps were having issues, but they started focusing on lower powered amps which Electric did not like since the demand in the US was for the bigger amps. I've heard the newer Electric Amps and they sound nothing like Matamps in my opinion.

[D.o.S.]

If anyone wants to see a side-by-side difference between the Electrics (allegedly) made by MatampUK and the Electrics (allegedly) made by Class A Electronics...

http://www.planetoftheamps.com/electric ... rison.html
Just ignore the words and look at the pictures.


But. Essentially Joel Wheeler saw Sleep back in the day, post-Green acquisition, and decided to start importing them to the States. That's where the story starts. The idea that Matamp wasn't going to focus on large amplifiers seems suspect to me, since they've always been a custom shop.

The details seem subject to debate, but there was a massive falling out between Matamp UK and Electric, (allegedly) based on shipping time, power issues, order fulfillment, bands blowing up their amps and EA not being able to handle any kind of repairs and sending the blame on to Matamp. Also, there used to be a lot of fun, painful to read things on stonerrock from Joel about the incident... which have been lost to the sands of time.

[humancertainty]

Joel's story was always the small amps nonsense.
That guy sucks and his company sucks. The shit he pulled when Mike Scheidt and I were dealing with him was absolutely absurd.

[Barnhard]

Someone needs to clear this whole Joel think up for me. What's actually up with this dude?

[the_brow]

well a 3 year wait (people claimed to have wiated that long) for an amp is pretty bad. but other than that I don't know anything else about him.

[radish]

Joel definitely has questionable business practices. That being said, I do own an Electric Amp . At one point I took it to a tech and discovered a few wires in the amp were never soldered, they were just bent into place and the power switch was half broken, assumably at installation. This was a bit alarming for a $2,000+ dollar amp and over a year wait. However, I do love the tone of the amp. In hindsight I probably could have ordered a similar amp through someone else at a much cheaper cost and smaller wait time, but I own it now and am sticking with it.

[AxAxSxS]

It's a damn shame. the amps themselves are beautiful and everything I've ever heard makes me think the sound is there.

[Forrrest]

Something I never understood was why he held onto the US matamp website and name. All the bitching about the UK gets tiresome. start your own company and get on with it. The story of a tech/distributor going out on their own is as old as amp companies getting bought out and going under new management. I don't think players care about the politics, they just want good gear - and great gear always attracts a crowd regardless of the drama behind the scenes anyways.


bias your amp too hot so your tubes burn out quickly. it sounds great! might be a habit worth exercising only for recording since it can get expensive.

[moose23]

Was there also a case where Electric were putting KT88 or something into EL34 powered Matamps and claiming they were 200 Watt amps. Think this is where the amps blowing up and Matamp UK being left with the burden when they had no idea this was being done.

[D.o.S.]

Was there also a case where Electric were putting KT88 or something into EL34 powered Matamps and claiming they were 200 Watt amps. Think this is where the amps blowing up and Matamp UK being left with the burden when they had no idea this was being done.

I've heard that alleged, too.

[new05002]

I will explain some time this weekend

[AxAxSxS]

I will explain some time this weekend