Mark Sampson, the famend amplifier designer who co-founded Matchless and was the chief designer at Dangerous Cat, Sonic Machine Manufacturing facility, Star, and Sampson Amps died February 27 at his house in Ohio. He was 70 and suffered cardiac arrest.

Sampson was born in Mason Metropolis, Iowa, and began taking part in guitar as a child then spent his teenagers taking part in in bands. Like many his age, he was obsessive about the Beatles – and particularly their gear.

“I bear in mind a really detailed plywood collage I made once I was 12,” he instructed VG in 1998. “It confirmed the 4 of them standing on a stage full with Rickenbacker guitars and Vox amps.”

Sampson’s father was a TV repairman and electronics tinkerer who handed alongside his data and curiosity on the topic. Whereas electronics held some curiosity, after highschool, Mark studied auto physique restore in Cedar Rapids then returned house to open a store he referred to as Sparky’s. There, he did fabrication, paint jobs, engine rebuilds, and inside work. All of the whereas, he continued to play in a band and function its de facto amp/guitar tech.

“Gear breaks down on the highway, [and] I used to be the fix-it man,” stated. “I realized loads about how issues labored.”

A deepening appreciation for British-made Vox amps spurred him to seek for them in music shops all through the Midwest. On one journey to Minneapolis, he discovered a number of examples at Knut-Koupeé Music and labored a commerce – in change for the amps, he painted the our bodies on a number of of the store’s custom-built guitars. Amongst its purchasers was Prince, and Sampson painted two of the “Cloud” guitars constructed by Dave Rusan and used within the 1984 movie Purple Rain.

Sampson finally amassed a group of Vox amps and reverse-engineered them. He purchased unique blueprints and schematic diagrams straight from inventor Dick Denny and cultivated relationships with former Vox staff, making a database of serial numbers, transformer adjustments, and manufacturing dates. On the vintage-guitar circuit, he turned the go-to man on Vox, which put him involved with guitarist John Jorgenson, who toured with Elton John and different acts utilizing classic AC30s.

“John had a variety of amps that had been damaged,” Sampson stated. “He requested how a lot I might cost to go to California and restore them. So I began making journeys.”

The work led to different connections and in February of 1989, Sampson moved his household west. In L.A., he was launched to Rick Perrotta, who had bought his curiosity in a recording studio and was searching for a enterprise alternative in music. He and Sampson determined to create an amp based mostly on the AC30, however sturdier and extra dependable. It turned the Matchless DC-30 and debuted on the NAMM present in January of 1991. Coinciding, the newest problem of Guitar Participant journal revealed an amp “shoot-out” function and selected the DC-30 as a winner.

“Inside 90 days, we had 65 sellers,” Sampson stated in ’98. “All the pieces turned quick. In actual fact, it occurred too quick. Right here we had been, coming from the wrestle to get cash to struggling to fill new orders! We had been constructing them in our homes, separately.”

Matchless was an trade chief by a lot of the ’90s earlier than closing in ’99, after which Sampson teamed with Rick Hamel to create Sonic Machine Manufacturing facility, the place he centered on growth and design. In January of ’25, Sampson instructed VG their idea was to suit a market area of interest between hand-wired and circuit-board amps, however “…it turned out we had been [priced] too excessive for circuit board amps and there was no means we may decrease prices far sufficient to make it work.”

In the summertime of 2000, he was approached by James Heidrich, asking him to design circuits for Heidrich’s new firm, Dangerous Cat Amplifiers. He remained there till December, 2003, whereas additionally constructing SMF amps. After Dangerous Cat, Sampson started constructing Star amplifiers, which he created with Joe Allrich and a 3rd accomplice who supplied financing and managed the enterprise facet. When well being points pressured the latter to step apart, Sampson and Allrich opted to shut the corporate. Sampson then started working as a guide and engineer in recording and movie studios. In 2016, he helped the Smithsonian manage a Prince show, and in ’22 he was inducted to the Iowa Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame.

In ’24 he returned to working with Dangerous Cat, the place John Thompson, who purchased the corporate in 2011, instructed a Twenty fifth-anniversary signature amp they referred to as the Period 30 (VG “Authorized Gear,” April ’25). In January ’25, Sampson returned to the NAMM present, the place he reconnected with colleagues and met followers of his work.

Sampson is survived by his spouse, Carla, together with their 5 kids and their households. – Ward Meeker

VG’s 1998 and 2025 interviews with Sampson will be learn by looking his identify at www.vintageguitar.com.

This text initially appeared in VG’s July 2025 problem. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.