back cab that’s not got a lot of bass to it, so
I always keep an eye on the really shrill top
end. I try to taper that off so it’s not making my
ears bleed.
With the Matchless I run into the EF86 channel,
so you’re plugging into the middle of the amp,
on full volume. I disengage the Master (via
the push-pull function on the Master Volume
control), and then I’ll run it at 9 or 10 o’clock
and I do the same thing with the cut. I roll it
all the way off so it’s completely dark, hit a
couple chords and then roll it back up, opening
up the amp until it starts to speak. I try do it
with my ears more than with my eyes. Once
the amp opens up and starts to sound how it’s
supposed to I leave it alone. But once again I
keep the cut really dark, because the Matchless
can be bright too.
[WM] Which speaker do you have in
the Matchless?
what makes sense for the room. It’s got to when I’m standing in front of or above it. I’m
be a little bit lighter. I keep a lot of my gear at tuning my amp based on what the SM57 is
home in an upstairs room, so I am going up and going to be receiving from the amp. I’m always
down stairs and I’ve kind of enjoyed having the tuning for our in-ears, front of house, and for
single speaker. how it’s going to mix in with the house. I’m
self-mixing all the time. If I have two speakers
It almost doesn’t matter what the amps I’m only going to mic one of them, so I may as
sound like when I’m standing in front of them, well have only one speaker. One SM57 goes
because I never play that way anymore. I’m on one of my AC-30 speakers and one SM57
never tuning my amp so that it sounds good goes on the speaker of my SC30. That’s all I
ever need!
[Daniel] It’s the Matchless Celestion, which I
think is original to the amp. I think it’s a G12H,
but it’s the Matchless version. I love that amp so
much, I’ve just become dependent on it. Funny
thing, we were on tour this spring and the
speaker blew out. It was getting really papery-
sounding and the sound guy said, “We’ve
got to do something about this, this sounds
terrible.” One of our techs, thank God, knew
how to work on amps. I had an old AC15 that
was one of my backup amps. It had a Celestion
Alnico Blue and he took that out and put it in
my Matchless and we were good. I think I’ll
eventually get the other speaker repaired since
it’s the original, but I really like the way the
Blue sounds.
[WM] What are your thoughts and preferences
between a 1x12 and 2x12 amp, noting that
you’re using both of them?
[Daniel] I don’t know scientifically what’s
going on, if it really is less output. It’s one less
speaker, so makes sense to me that it would
be a little quieter. Obviously, you’re just going
to turn the amp up until it’s loud enough for
48
AC15 & AC30 Rig at Red Rocks
August 2018
WorshipMusician.com