Mark Sampson

Mark Sampson, the renowned amplifier designer who co-founded Matchless and was the chief designer at Bad Cat, Sonic Machine Factory, Star, and Sampson Amps died February 27 at his home in Ohio. He was 70 and suffered cardiac arrest. Sampson was born in Mason City, Iowa, and started playing guitar as a kid then spent his teens playing in bands. Like many his age, he was obsessed with the Beatles – and especially their gear. “I remember a very detailed plywood collage I made when I was 12,” he told VG in 1998. “It showed the four of them standing on a stage complete with Rickenbacker guitars and Vox amps.” Sampson’s father was a TV repairman and electronics tinkerer who passed along his knowledge and curiosity on the subject. While electronics held some interest, after high school, Mark studied auto body repair in Cedar Rapids then returned home to open a shop he called Sparky’s. There, he did fabrication, paint jobs, engine rebuilds, and interior work. All the while, he continued to play in a band and serve as its de facto amp/guitar tech. “Equipment breaks down on the road, [and] I was the fix-it guy,” said. “I learned a lot about how things worked.” A deepening appreciation for British-made Vox amps spurred him to search for them in music stores throughout the Midwest. On one trip to Minneapolis, he found a few examples at Knut-Koupeé Music and worked a trade – in exchange for the amps, he painted the bodies on several of the shop’s custom-built guitars. Among its clients was Prince, and Sampson painted two of the “Cloud” guitars built by Dave Rusan and used in the 1984 film Purple Rain. Sampson eventually amassed a collection of Vox amps and reverse-engineered them. He bought original blueprints and schematic diagrams directly from inventor Dick Denny and cultivated relationships with former Vox employees, creating a database of serial numbers, transformer changes, and production dates. On the vintage-guitar circuit, he became the go-to guy on Vox, which put him in contact with guitarist John Jorgenson, who toured with Elton John and other acts using vintage AC30s. “John had a lot of amps that were broken,” Sampson said. “He asked how much I would charge to go to California and repair them. So I started making trips.” The work led to other connections and in February of 1989, Sampson moved his family west. In L.A., he was introduced to Rick Perrotta, who had sold his interest in a recording studio and was looking for a business opportunity in music. He and Sampson decided to create an amp based on the AC30, but sturdier and more reliable. It became the Matchless DC-30 and debuted at the NAMM show in January of 1991. Coinciding, the latest issue of Guitar Player magazine published an amp “shoot-out” feature and chose the DC-30 as a winner. “Within 90 days, we had 65 dealers,” Sampson said in ’98. “Everything turned fast. In fact, it happened too fast. Here we were, coming from the struggle to get money to struggling to fill new orders! We were building them in our houses, one at a time.” Matchless was an industry leader through much of the ’90s before closing in ’99, after which Sampson teamed with Rick Hamel to create Sonic Machine Factory, where he focused on development and design. In January of ’25, Sampson told VG their concept was to fit a market niche between hand-wired and circuit-board amps, but “…it turned out we were [priced] too high for circuit board amps and there was no way we could lower costs far enough to make it work.” In the summer of 2000, he was approached by James Heidrich, asking him to design circuits for Heidrich’s new company, Bad Cat Amplifiers. He remained there until December, 2003, while also building SMF amps. After Bad Cat, Sampson began building Star amplifiers, which he created with Joe Allrich and a third partner who provided financing and managed the business side. When health issues forced the latter to step aside, Sampson and Allrich opted to close the company. Sampson then began working as a consultant and engineer in recording and film studios. In 2016, he helped the Smithsonian organize a Prince display, and in ’22 he was inducted to the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In ’24 he returned to working with Bad Cat, where John Thompson, who bought the company in 2011, suggested a 25th-anniversary signature amp they called the Era 30 (VG “Approved Gear,” April ’25). In January ’25, Sampson returned to the NAMM show, where he reconnected with colleagues and met fans of his work. Sampson is survived by his wife, Carla, along with their five children and their families. – Ward Meeker VG’s 1998 and 2025 interviews with Sampson can be read by searching his name at www.vintageguitar.com. This article originally appeared in VG’s July 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.