GORDON KENNEDY
Expanding Kennedy’ s Matchless Sound
Gordon Kennedy has built his studio sound around Matchless amplifiers for over three decades, with a 1992 HC-30 head and 2x12 cabinet at the center of nearly everything he’ s recorded. Recently he added a second Matchless from that same year: a 2x12 combo that belonged to the late Nashville session giant Reggie Young. Young’ s widow Jenny held onto it for seven years before letting it go, and the amp still has a brass plate nailed to the cabinet with Reggie’ s name and phone number on it. Kennedy isn’ t touching it.“ The phone number doesn’ t work anymore,” Kennedy says,“ so don’ t try calling him! He’ s not here anymore, but that amp is fantastic.”
More recently he’ s brought Wizard amplifiers into the fold: two MC II heads make up his live rig with Garth Brooks, while the Wizard VC 100-watt increasingly anchors his studio work. And in a chapter that feels entirely fitting for a player who thinks in terms of legacy, Kennedy is also running two amps hand-built by his son Dylan under the name Underdog: the five-watt Pup and the OG, Dylan’ s own take on the tweed Deluxe circuit.
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