Matchbox D-30

boyce89976 said:
This^.

LONG time, real HC30 (Matchless Head/Cab) user. Channel 2, master all the way up, preamp gain set between 2 - 3, cut knob off (no cut), bass switch in position 5 (of 6). Takes every drive pedal I've ever thrown at it.

You were. It's a low to mid gain amp, and at its best at the edge of breakup (power section breakup, specifically). If you're looking for "tight high gain" I think you're still looking in the wrong place. An AC30 style amp (AC20 included) just isn't ideal for that. I'd probably look at something in the Marshall, 51XX, Friedman, REVV category for that.

The beauty of the Axe III is that you can have 4 amps in one preset via "channels" in the amp block, so why not use the optimal choice for each gain stage?
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This is true! Now with gapless switching, it's totally feasible. I get in these recording scenarios where I get a tone with the matchless that works for mid gain, but then I want a little more. It's a tough balance without it falling apart, but I feel like getting a "more" tone in the same ballpark doesn't sound the same if switching to another amp, but maybe I haven't experimented enough. That's interesting to me about master all the way up again; I find that you can get leaner tones by turning the master down, but the gain up, but maybe I'm still missing something haha

It's what is the bass switch at the 5 of 6 position? The D-30 model just has a bass knob.

Also, surprisingly, the AC-20 does get pretty modern with a distortion pedal in front; it almost sounds like a marshall. That amp can take a lot. The D-30 is nice for that mid gain tone though, but still trying to figure out how to get the same sound, but more without it falling apart. Any suggestions? Also, how high gain are you getting with it? I'm not looking for Djent or anything haha but good tight hard rock crunch.
 
Thenewexhibit said:
Tell me about it! I just learned the OCD pedals work pretty nice in front of it and so does using a klon before that too. But it only played nice by turning the master volume down, which it seems most people are not doing, which I wonder how they get away with it because it easily turns into bit crusher mode for me without doing that.

Are you using single coils or humbuckers? Which pedals? Which cabs? Are you adjusting the ideal settings or any other deep dive parameters or just using it like the real amp?
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i use all guitars with it, it's my main amp for worship and country, and I prefer it with the master wide open to really get the power amp working. the ley for me is less drive and more level from the drive pedals. I've used a number of different drive blocks with it and they all work well, just have to spend some time finding the sweet spot between drive and level, but it's just like the real amp in that regard. (or any EL84 non mv amp when the power section is cooking)

one day it will truly be glorious when we get the jumped version.
 
Thenewexhibit said:
It's what is the bass switch at the 5 of 6 position? The D-30 model just has a bass knob.
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Are you using the EF86 channel or the 12ax7 channel? They are quite different in how the tone controls works in the real amp - for example, on the EF86 channel there isn’t a tone stack per se but just a (very effective) rotary switch that changes the coupling cap and therefore cuts different amounts of bass, and for higher gain tones you’d likely want to be cutting more bass. Though IIRC the Fractal model doesn’t replicate the tone control and instead just has a continuously variable bass control (it says ‘tone’ in the Tone tab, but when you go to the Ideal tab you can see that it’s just adjusting the bass control). So for higher gain tones you’d likely want the ‘tone’ control set lower.
 
Thenewexhibit said:
You know, I don't know much about this amp in the real world, but I DID just notice that the master volume is on the Tone tab of the amp block. I assumed this defaulted at 10 because that's how the amp responds with the gain knob so I didn't bother to touch it for authenticity. However, I'm noticing that the real amp has a master too, so it makes me wonder, is the default of that being on 10 for the model overkill and potentially causing the collapsed sound because of too much power amp interaction?
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Don't know if this will help or not but the master knob on the real amp is push/pull allowing you to bypass it. I read that channel 1 was modelled with the master volume bypassed which will explain why the master defaults to 10 (like all the non-master volume amps in the unit)
 
I use both the DC30 and DC30 EF86 models in parallel panned wide stereo. That's as close to a jumped DC30 as I can get. I also love! the York Audio Matchless IRs.

I also have a tonex one for a third parallel amp that can either be a SC mini (EF86 with class A single ended EL84 pwr tube) or another DC30 by clicking the footswitch. I have analog pedals and a real BadCat amp in that in3/out3 loop with the toneX.

I mostly use the dc-30 models for everything.
It is the baddest amp in the box for the way I play.

IMG_1897.jpeg
 
Thenewexhibit said:
This is true! Now with gapless switching, it's totally feasible. I get in these recording scenarios where I get a tone with the matchless that works for mid gain, but then I want a little more. It's a tough balance without it falling apart, but I feel like getting a "more" tone in the same ballpark doesn't sound the same if switching to another amp, but maybe I haven't experimented enough. That's interesting to me about master all the way up again; I find that you can get leaner tones by turning the master down, but the gain up, but maybe I'm still missing something haha

It's what is the bass switch at the 5 of 6 position? The D-30 model just has a bass knob.

Also, surprisingly, the AC-20 does get pretty modern with a distortion pedal in front; it almost sounds like a marshall. That amp can take a lot. The D-30 is nice for that mid gain tone though, but still trying to figure out how to get the same sound, but more without it falling apart. Any suggestions? Also, how high gain are you getting with it? I'm not looking for Djent or anything haha but good tight hard rock crunch.
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The real amp has a 6-position tone switch on the EF86 channel. Each click to the left cuts a little bass content.

The 12AX7 channel has a little more headroom and will handle gain better (some say it's more Marshall flavored than AC flavored.

IMO, you should be able to get good clean-ish to crunch sounds, but it has to come from the power section.
 
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