NAMM 2025: Bad Cat has announced the welcome return of respected amp designer Mark Sampson – best known as the man who founded Matchless and the design brains behind the brand’s early models – heralding his arrival with a new two-channel tube amp, the Era 30.
“Mark Sampson, renowned for his pioneering work in boutique amplifier design, was instrumental in shaping the golden age of hand-wired tube amps,” says Bad Cat.
“His original designs set a benchmark for tone, craftsmanship, and reliability. Now, with the Era 30, Sampson has distilled over 35 years of amplifier design evolution into a product that embodies the best of his creative vision.”
The Era 30 channels Sampson’s early love of British amps into a head featuring two fully independent channels.
The first channel features an EF86 tube in the preamp, which is a higher-gain tube favored in the likes of early Vox builds (think Shadows, not Beatles) and favored for its full frequency response and sensitivity.
The second channel uses a trio of 12AX7 tubes in the preamp stage and there’s a quartet of EL84 power tubes onboard, plus a 5AR4 rectifier tube.
It’s a combination that oozes flexibility and boutique class and there’s a wealth of other smart appointments on the spec, including independent input gain controls, a six-position Depth control, and a fully bypassable buffered effects loop.
Then there are independent channel volumes and a global master volume control – a post phase-inverter circuit that allows you to keep all of that power amp saturation, but wield it at volumes more suited for home and recording applications.
And, in true boutique style, all the of Era 30s are hand-wired in Bad Cat’s facility in Costa Mesa, CA.
Bad Cat was founded in 1999 and Sampson worked with the firm from its pre-launch days, before leaving in 2003, so his return has been some 20 years in the making.
“Having Mark back at Bad Cat feels like a homecoming,” John Thompson, owner/operator of Bad Cat Amps. “His expertise and vision have always set the standard for what a great amplifier should be. The Era 30 is a testament to his legacy and our shared commitment to delivering the ultimate tone experience.”
“I’m not ready to give it up yet,” summarises Sampson, in the clip above. “The best stuff is still coming.”
The Era 30 is available to pre-order now from $3,899 with combo and head formats available, for more information head to Bad Cat.
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