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The Epiphone Valve Jr. and the Fender Champion 600 are secondary amps more for recording and getting one awesome tone (perhaps mod'd by some effects).... but for the most part, I would not gig with them unless I needed a really small quiet electric rig to accompany an acoustic performance (which I have done twice).

It sounds like you need a workhorse amp...and the SCXD might be it (especially if you are looking for a tube amp). Will an acoustic/electric system sound good through one? Probably at low to moderate volumes. In my experience, acoustic guitars sound best projected through a very clean loud system (I have a Bose PS/2 and a pair of Roland AC-60s specifically for producing good "acoustic" tones live)... but with acoustics there is more to it than the amp and guitar system.... you probably want a decent mic pre-amps and some compression... perhaps blending a real mic with a pickup. Under bridge systems plugged right into PA systems sound horrible (they sound horrible in general).

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I thought that'd be the case about the little Fender and Epiphone amps.

So now I just need to find a spare $2-300 to be able to afford the SCXD at the end of the year ... Christmas and my birthday are close together, I might be asking for money this time!

oh, and I finally found my heroes! I've been searching around for a site or shop that sells left handed stuff like pickguards, bridge plates, tuners, just in case I feel the need to change bits. Not much around in Oz, but Guitar Parts Resource has a whole lefty parts section!

I'll be getting one of those sexy looking mint pickguards in a couple of weeks.

Good on ya, mate...

I couldn't imagine being a left handed guitarist in Australia. I was in the San Diego Guitar Center buying my Taylor 210e a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed they had a section of the wall devoted to left handed guitars (I think there was 9 total including in the acoustic rooms....in a store with over 300 guitars on display).... Then I think back to going into the largest stores in Australia (Allain's, and others in City Centre and Leichhardt, etc.) and seeing 50 total.... it must be real slim pickings for left handers. Then there is the Aussie markup. I sold a few "Made in Mexico" Fenders that I didn't need anymore while I was there for easily 25% more than I paid for them back in California. I bought my Champion 600 for what's almost pocket change here in America.....granted I am a gear addict. Some of my mates (in both Australia and America) drink the cost of that amp down in a couple of weekends.

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yeah, I'm spewing that the Champion 600 is twice the US price in Australia ... $200 in the states, right? $419 is the cheapest I've seen here. It's a joke. I remember when the Aussie dollar was something stupid like 52c US, and the price of bass strings (I was a bass player at the time) went up to nearly $100! But then the Aussie dollar got some strength back, and prices stayed the same!

Needless to say, it was one of the final nails in the coffin of my bass playing career. Guitar strings are so much cheaper!

oh, got an email from a guitar parts place here in Aus. They can make me a mint pickguard ... for $100.

Or I could import one from the startes for US$23, plus something like $13 postage.

Yep.... that's the Australia I remember...geographically challenged when it came to good deals on music gear. It's also very strange that you can get an Avalon Pre-Amp or Rode Microphones (great Aussie products, BTW) at B&H Audio in NYC or from an online merchant for less what you can buy them for in Sydney, even though they are made in Australia.

I also never understood the appeal of Maton guitars. We compared my beater Taylor and my buddy's Martin dreadnought to an expensive Maton last time we were in Sydney (I think it was $2500AUD), and the both American guitars had a richness that the over-lacquered Maton lacked. Each of the American made models were less than $750USD back home...mine was closer to $500. Granted the Maton had all this fancy inlay work and was some kind of special edition (perhaps using some native woods?). I've seen Matons at botique stores in LA (the ones that don't carry Taylor or Martin) and they cost the same as a Taylor or Martin.... and yet nobody's heard of them, and it didn't seem like the were selling like hotcakes. If Maton is serious about the US market they had better make guitars that surpass the quality of mass produced Taylors or Martins at a reasonable price (tough given that Taylor and Martin arguably make some of the world's best acoustic guitars)....but none the less with folks like Tommy Emmanuel, John Butler, and Ben Harper using their guitars, you'd think they'd be serious about reaching American consumers.

I'd trade all the access to cheap music gear in the world to be living back in Manly again...

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I think Maton's strength is the aussie music scene. It seems like whenever a really good aussie band pulls out an acoustic guitar, it's a Maton. I don't know if Crowded House ever made much of an impact in the States, but they were Maton players. Slim Dusty played a Maton, as does Tommy Emmanuel, Jack Johnson did for a little while ... regardless to say, they sell very well in Australia and probably survive off that.

So maybe their strength is supporting the Aussie/NZ music scene. I think sound-wise, they do have a distinct acoustic sound which I'm not that into, but it seems like live, they sound awesome. Powderfinger did a show in support of the Breast Cancer Foundation at the Sydney Opera house, and when Bernard Fanning cracked out his Maton for 'I love your way', it sounded SO AMAZINGLY GOOD. So maybe it's some pickup upgrade they offer. I don't know.

check it out, but take into consideration that it is YouTube, so the sound quality doesn't match the DVD: YouTube - Powderfinger - 'Love Your Way'

p.s. the guy playing the archtop es-335 look-a-like is actually playing a really old Maton electric from the 60's!

Ahh, now here's something I can relate to after a childhood of, "this is for your birthday AND for Christmas." I always felt cheated watching my sister at her July birthday party.

12/22 for me, Matty.

2/2 for me, so a little over a month in between. But I still managed to get the stuff I wanted late November/early December!

'tis a blessed thing to be the baby of the family, and seven years behind my sister at that.