1978 MATAMP GT-120 NON-MASTER VOLUME UNIT
made into a GREEN Matamp in 1996 and sold as new
by Jeffrey Lewis in Huddersfield, England.
In February of 1994 I ordered my first GREEN Matamp.
Sent $1450 USD via FEDEX to Jeffrey Lewis.
The amp shipped out in July of 1996.
$1450 USD+Shipping $380+US Customs$101=$1931
NOVEMBER 1996:
NEW TRANSFORMERS: $998
Grand Total : $2929The 1994 GREEN Matamp amp units from Huddersfield England
where made from used parts from the 70's.
ALL of the green units were made from old Matamp & Orange parts
with a new front panel over the top of the enameled metal panel.
In February of 1994 Jeff Lewis stated the amp would
ship out immediately and be to me in March.The amp arrived in August of 1996, thirty months later.
It arrived in an ORANGE Voice of The World box.Just an amp in a box, with no internal padding.
The front panel was cracked and the tubes
had fallen out of the sockets and were broken.Now I had the amp to match my three
GREEN Matamp 4x12 Cabs that were
ordered in 1994 too.
The amp arrived broken from the UK and required about $500 worth of repairs. The UK shop owner, Jeffrey Lewis was a huge hassle to deal with
which slowed down all of the repairs.Dave Cockling in Hudderfield was the person testing the old amps,
then putting a new panel of them. I finally got him on the phone
and explained the problems. He told me to look up info on a GT-120I was able to source an original Matamp GT-120 Schematic
from a tube amp book.
The chassis was old and crusty.
The SLAVE OUT jack was installed and hooked up
here in the USA.
The amp arrived missing the jack.
Just an empty hole in the chassis.
This was made functional here in the USA.
The Amp Sleeve was an old one that had been painted
black inside. The sleeve was covered in Green Vinyde
and instead of the traditional wood slats like the
MATAMP's had originally, rubber feet were used,
which did not work well since the chassis always
had to be removed for repairs.
The feet were also the chassis bolts.
[click above to view large]
As you can see, the inside of the front panel looks like maybe this
amp was used for about 20 years in a club. Glazed with smoke
and heat film, this was a used GT-120 covered in green by
Jeff Lewis and sold for new at a hefty rate.
This amp sounds good for bass and guitar.The band SLEEP had a few of these units made in the
same fashion which caused them tons of grief with
unreliability. They were used for bass by Al Cisneros
and guitar for Matt Pike live and on a few recordings.
The transformers blew in November of 1996.
12 months later the new set arrived from Huddersfield
without the choke as ordered.Mains & Output Transformers $780 US Dollars + $218 shipping
The choke is still orginal as it arrived in 1996.
When you pry the panel back you can see the metal panel
is actually the original style MATAMP Cinemascope
enameled metal front panel.
When we shine the light down between the trefolite GREEN logo
panel and the original metal panel, you can see the top of the
"T" on the MATAMP Cinemascope logo.
MATAMP GT-120
1972-78 era Matamp amps
&
1990's era ORANGE Voice of The World amps
were covered with GREEN Matamp front panels
and loaded into a green vinyde amp sleeve.
1999 GREEN Matamp from the UK.1994 to 1998 this is how the UK built amps
for the USA customers.This created problems for MATAMP USA
MATAMP USA created solutions and for
a brief time from 1999 to 2001 this format of
GREEN Matamp amps were actually made from
100% new parts on this style of chassis.
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