Goodrich Matchbox 6a

Lee Costley · Post by **Lee Costley** » 29 Jun 2004 11:21 am

I recently had the good fortune to win an ebay auction for a Goodrich Matchbox 6a. I searched the internet, but could not find any information about it.....Goodrich, apparently does not have a website.
Could someone tell me what it is & how it is used? Does someone have a manual to photocopy or email?

I am playing a Sho-Bud LDG & Blackface Fender Twin Reverb amplifier with 2 each Jensen P12n alnico speakers.

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 29 Jun 2004 11:39 am

Lee, The "Matchbox 6a" is an impedance matching device, it serves more than anything else as volume and tone control.The 6a has been on the mkt a long time and is mostly replaced by the 7a.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 29 Jun 2004 12:00 pm

Go from your guitar into the Matchbox, then to your foot volume and then into your amp. I have used one for years, wouldn't play without it!
The only difference between the 6A and the 7A is that the 7A has an on and off switch. Be sure and unplug the bottom plug when you aren't using it. It eliminates the drain on the battery. Or do like me, I went to Radio Shack and bought a little toggle switch, installed it, and turned my 6A into a 7A.
Erv

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 29 Jun 2004 12:24 pm

Lee, if you are as electronically impaired as I was until I started reading the Forum, you might not know what impedance matching is about. Because of some impedance mismatch between the pickup and the amp, not all the signal gets through the potentiometer of the volume pedal to the amp, especially at very low volumes, and especially the highs. You may notice that with the volume pedal cut back the sound is more muffled (less highs) than at high volume. If you only play at very low volumes at home, or only at high volumes on gigs, you may not notice a problem. But If you go back and forth between low and high volumes, you will notice that you have to readjust your amp tone settings quite a bit. The matchbox acts as a little battery driven preamp to jack up the pickup signal before the volume pedal and amp. This prevents the loss of the highs, especially at low volumes. The result is that your tone will be more the same at both low and high volumes, and you may notice better highs at all volumes.

You can get the same effect from Peavey dedicated steel guitar amps by using the 3 chord method of connecting your volume pedal to the amp (see your instruction manual). Also, some companies (Hilton and also Goodrich)now make "active" volume pedals that plug in and have a built in preamp that does what the Matchbox does.

Lee Costley · Post by **Lee Costley** » 30 Jun 2004 3:59 am

That is exactly what I needed to know!
Thanks All
Lee