BCAT ER30

Watch capture demos of the Bat Car Era 30 by Mark Sampson:

 

CAPTURE DEMO AND PLAYTHROUGH

 

Just recently Bad Cat talked Mark Sampson into doing a new and updated take on the Matchless DC-30 formula with them. This time around Mark could incorporate feedback and experience he has gathered for over 3 decades with designing Matchless, Bad Cat and Star amps and while gathering a lot of experience from other audio equipment repair experiences.

 

There’s over 10 Matchless lineage amps in our collection now, including a super rare Matchless Superchief 120, 2 Bad Cats and a super rare Star Sirus 30 Reverb. Within a few moments it was clear, the Era 30 is by far my favorite of the whole family tree.

 

The Era 30 is one of the most musical and well balanced amps i’ve come across. The EF86 channel is the highlight of the amp. And unlike with practically every other incarnation of an EF86 channel, this one is extremely well balanced and easy to find the sweet spots. This is definitely one of my favorite top 5 amp sounds.

 

The amp has beautiful cleans, the crunch and even drive tones (thanks to adjustable gain, channel volume and master volume controls) are throughout wonderful, but what this amp really does like nothing else out there is edge of breakup tones, particularily on the EF86 channel.

 

Humbuckers or Single Coil guitars will get a juicy, warm, defined yet smooth character with beautiful compression. Especially magical in this range with a Strat on the WRM captures – just give it a go.

 

This is a must-have capture set indeed not just for Matchless fans, but anyone looking for an alternative to the Fender-Marshall world and looking for an exception clan and edge of breakup amp. And i recommend it highly to anyone wondering what the whole EF86 thing hype is all about – this will give you a solid answer.

 

If you haven’t, i urge you to take a listen this interview of Mark that was recorded not too long before his untimely passing. It is a rare treat as he has always been very reluctant to make public appearances, which only contributed to the myth and legend. So grateful that John Thompson somehow pulled this off and got Mark to collaborate and got him in front of camera – what a celebration of one of the biggest amp builder legends around.

 

The set features 36 full captures of the amp through a 2X12 Matchless cab with Celestion G12M and G12H speakers. The mics used were 2x Royer R121, a Beyerdynamic M160 and a Neumann U87. Please refer to the full list of included captures in the product photo section.

• 4x EL84
• 5AR4
• 3x 12AX7
• 1x EF86
• Cathode bias
• Class AB
• 30W output

Refund policy placeholder, please update.