Matchless Lightning Clone Project

Hammond 16x8x2 steel chassis, Matchless NOS transformers from West Labs, sockets and pots from Angela Instruments. I cut the square holes for the transformenrs with a Dremel wheel. Royal pain.

Expertly wired by Tom Seward who does great work. He turned my Pro Junior into a single channel 18 Watt Marshall too. Power supply, heater wiring. Turns out there's an extra 22k dropping resistor and filter node on the schematic. Pete Cage found it (www.audiocage.com) on his fancy oscilloscope doowhacky.

Preamp section. We attempted to follow the Matchless layout, with some inspiration from Hiwatt.

Finished amplifier. Note Weber Copper Cap recifier. We did not plan to have the grey transformers match the powdercoated chassis, just lucky.

Faceplate. Plexiglass, painted in reverse on back with white marker, then sprayed black.
Looks OK if you're 2 feet away.

Cabinet with Weber Ceramic Blue Pups. I have since gone to a single 12" baffle with a Weber alnico Blue Dog with a boost magnet - very nice speaker and fits the voice of the amp better than the 2x10's.Finger jointed pine. Needs some covering yet.

Almost done - Cab covered in Black tolex expertly by Crusty Cabs. The red pleather is from Joanne fabrics. Now all I need is a red three-piece Cowboy suit and hat with matching white piping on the lapels. Woo hoo.

And how does it sound? Like a Vox AC15 on steroids. The interactive tone controls - the treble and bass effect each other - allows you to dial in a very precise tone - I like to set them both at about 4 to get a rich chocolate cardboard sound.