Matchless HC30 transformers?

[alfi27]

Hola amigos,

I've recently found myself outside of the familiar and comfortable modded Marshall camp, as I recently acquired a few hand built amps for a steal. One of them is an AC30 clone, I love the top boost channel but the normal channel is not my cup of tea and I've always heard such great things about Matchless amps. Though I love and respect vintage amps and circuits, I'm a massive fan of improving their shortcomings and taking it further like Matchless indeed did.

Cutting to the chase, the AC30 clone has a full set of Mercury Magnetics PT, OT and choke and I'm wondering if this could be a suitable set of "donor transformers" for a Matchless HC30 build? Or does it require very specific spec'd transformers to sound like it's intended? From what I understand Matchless started out modifying AC30s, so surely it can't be that big of a mismatch? I'll provide more info about the transformers as soon as I have the amp available in front of me. Cheers!

[Turbojunkie]

I'm aware that they did do a fair amount of testing out different companies including Mercury, and ended up going with TDS. As far as all the design specs go, I only know that with their 15w models they ran the OT's at 4k, a lower primary impedance than the usual 6k -8k most amp manufacturers seem to go with....whether or not they used the same ratio and ran the 30w ones at 2k, I don't know.....there are other differences between Vox and Matchless circuits as well of course...I can post my thoughts about the few DC30's I've had the chance to play later if you'd like.
Out of curiosity, what are your likes/dislikes between the AC30 Top Boost and Normal channels? Was the Normal channel EF86 OR 12AX7?

Take Care,
TJ

[alfi27]

I'm aware that they did do a fair amount of testing out different companies including Mercury, and ended up going with TDS. As far as all the design specs go, I only know that with their 15w models they ran the OT's at 4k, a lower primary impedance than the usual 6k -8k most amp manufacturers seem to go with....whether or not they used the same ratio and ran the 30w ones at 2k, I don't know.....there are other differences between Vox and Matchless circuits as well of course...I can post my thoughts about the few DC30's I've had the chance to play later if you'd like.
Out of curiosity, what are your likes/dislikes between the AC30 Top Boost and Normal channels? Was the Normal channel EF86 OR 12AX7?

Take Care,
TJ

Cheers man, would love to hear your thoughts on the DC30! I did a bit more research on it, and apparently Matchless is not necessarily an upgrade as they are quite different. They have their following of course, like all or most boutique amps, and the following seem to be quite a bit more religious and vocal than with Vox.

The normal channel in my amp is not EF86, it's just a single 12AX7 gain stage into the PI. I absolutely love the top boost channel though, it's one of the best sounds I've ever heard for that really open, chimy lower gain grit. In fact I love it so much that I'm a bit unsure if I want to turn it into a Matchless, maybe I can turn it into the channel 1 of the Matchless without too much work just to see if I like it.