Carr Mercury 1X12" Combo or Matchless' Little Monster 1X12" Combo

[Benoit Trow]

Carr Mercury 1X12" Combo or Matchless' Little Monster 1X12" Combo

I will be traveling w/ the amp throughout South America, Europe, Asia, etc and need something that can be easily transported and/or put inside a big suitcase.

I'll be able to "test drive" the amps in a couple of weeks when I'm home in Chicago. I'll be using a Les Paul w/ Burstbuckers playing everything from country, to rock, to Piedmont blues, to pop from the 30s & 40s - the amp w/ be used live (mic'd if necessary) w/ a small band/combo, rehearsing and quite often alone in small spaces (apartments, hotel rooms, etc.) when I'm practicing alone. I'm looking for a stellar clean channel that can be driven to the point of saturation creating natural and controlled feedback. And, of course, I love good bite from my amp and occasionally go for a more "crunchy" overdrive tone.

[Benoit Trow]

too expensive trow, buy that $250 vox!

[Benoit Trow]

whoa, who the hell do you think you are, my wife?

[Quill]

Hilarious!

If that really is your choice - and you don't have to choose between your marriage and your amp - and it was my choice, too, just based on what I've read and heard in internet clips, I think I'd like the Carr, myself. They seem simpler, more precisely made and I get the impression they'd work with my guitars in a really nice, clean, acoustic sort of way. I don't like amps with a lot of gain on tap, and isn't that kind of the Matchless thing?

And I've never played either one, but since you are either talking to yourself or that really was your significant other, stealing your computer away from you for a minute, maybe there's room for my two bits - such a small two bits, it's really just one bit, or even half a bit. Anyway, good luck, that sounds like a really cool thing you're going to do, I wish I was set up to go do a little suitcase-amp tour like that! Have a ball, man, whatever you choose. Once you get under way, you'll probably have such a great time the specifics of the amp probably won't matter too much.

[Harpozep]

I've got the Carr. Whatchya need to know?
The tone varies a lot. according to the built in attenuator and the three settings on the gain dial.

At 8 watts ( wide open ) it has some headroom and reacts well to your volume knob. The headroom goes away quickly as you dial down the watts. Even at its wide open setting it is a dirtyish amp. That is what I love about it. You will not get black or Silverface clean form the Merc. You will get substantially nice tube moan and groan. It places the tube under stress that makes it ooze sounds that will make you smile.
My favorite setting is gain all up and the attenuator at 1/2 watt. Very nice indeed.