andrew Posted August 10, 2008 Share Posted August 10, 2008 A while back, I started a Metropoulos JTM45 build, finished it a few weekends ago, ran into some problems and finally finished trouble shooting on Friday night (I had been working on and off on the weekends) It sounds spectacular. I've been playing it all weekend to get the caps burned it and it sounds better every time I turn it on! Nothing sounds like a non-master volume plexi. As it turns out, it doesn't need to be dimed at all to get a good amount of gain. Actually, I don't really like the sound of the amp on 10. The overdrive gets a little bit out of hand. Mine breaks up at around 2 on the high gain input, and by 4, I'm in perfect Zeppelin territory with the perfect amount of gain, nice bottom end crunch on the low strings, and the leads has that great clean sustain that feels, reacts and cuts like a high gain amp, but without any of the fizz or saturation. And it cleans it up wonderfully. I'm just very excited, so I had to talk about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LednyrdZepnyrd Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 A while back, I started a Metropoulos JTM45 build, finished it a few weekends ago, ran into some problems and finally finished trouble shooting on Friday night (I had been working on and off on the weekends) It sounds spectacular. I've been playing it all weekend to get the caps burned it and it sounds better every time I turn it on! Nothing sounds like a non-master volume plexi. As it turns out, it doesn't need to be dimed at all to get a good amount of gain. Actually, I don't really like the sound of the amp on 10. The overdrive gets a little bit out of hand. Mine breaks up at around 2 on the high gain input, and by 4, I'm in perfect Zeppelin territory with the perfect amount of gain, nice bottom end crunch on the low strings, and the leads has that great clean sustain that feels, reacts and cuts like a high gain amp, but without any of the fizz or saturation. And it cleans it up wonderfully. I'm just very excited, so I had to talk about it Good for you andrew! I have yet to hear mine, cause I had some bad parts or something and George offered to look at it for me. But he has been sick and still hasnt gotten to look at my amp. I actually finished mine over a month ago, but like I said I had troubles. I think its bad tubes or transformers, because George looked at my Wiring and actually commented on how good it looked! Man, I want my amp! Im glad it sounds awesome! I hope I like mine (if I ever get it) What kind of cab/speakers are you running it through? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew Posted August 11, 2008 Author Share Posted August 11, 2008 Good for you andrew! I have yet to hear mine, cause I had some bad parts or something and George offered to look at it for me. But he has been sick and still hasnt gotten to look at my amp. I actually finished mine over a month ago, but like I said I had troubles. I think its bad tubes or transformers, because George looked at my Wiring and actually commented on how good it looked! Man, I want my amp! Im glad it sounds awesome! I hope I like mine (if I ever get it) What kind of cab/speakers are you running it through? This will sound blasphemous but I'm running it through a closed back 1x12 G12T-75. A rank farty and over bassy speaker, the bass is so huge that the bass dial has minimal impact, but the amp still sounds and reacts like a plexi. I'm having a 4x12 with G12h-30s coming to run the amp through though, and am just imagining how good it will sound when I get that. edit: Good luck with the troubleshooting process. I had a few issues with mine as well that took me a few weeks to sort out (I only work on it on weekends). But no one to better fix it than George himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LednyrdZepnyrd Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 This will sound blasphemous but I'm running it through a closed back 1x12 G12T-75. A rank farty and over bassy speaker, the bass is so huge that the bass dial has minimal impact, but the amp still sounds and reacts like a plexi. I'm having a 4x12 with G12h-30s coming to run the amp through though, and am just imagining how good it will sound when I get that. edit: Good luck with the troubleshooting process. I had a few issues with mine as well that took me a few weeks to sort out (I only work on it on weekends). But no one to better fix it than George himself. Sweet, I have a (lonely) 2x12 with g12H 30s just waiting for a mate. I only worked mine on the weekends too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 Sweet, I have a (lonely) 2x12 with g12H 30s just waiting for a mate. I only worked mine on the weekends too. Why not try to break those in a little bit while you're waiting? Did you get the celestion heritage (or pre-rola clone, scumback, weber, etc.) or normal reissues (75 hz)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evster2012 Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Congrats on the rebuild Andrew! And kudos for going with a 30 watter! Get that sweet power tube saturation without a Hot Plate or Power Brake. Realistic power! Enjoy it my friend! I know I would! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 Congrats on the rebuild Andrew! And kudos for going with a 30 watter! Get that sweet power tube saturation without a Hot Plate or Power Brake. Realistic power! Enjoy it my friend! I know I would! Thanks! Yeah, the 30 watts is actually the perfect amount of power. The volume on these things is very funny, you get a pretty noticeable increase from 0-5, then from there on, the amp doesn't really ever get any louder just more saturated. I could get it dime inside the house, although I have a very large room that is soundproofed that I can play it in (the room is the size of a 3 car garage). However, I haven't jumpered the channels yet, so I'm not getting the full volume and gain capabilities. Even though its normally considered a sin not to jumper the channels, I kind of like the bright channel by itself. Thank god I didn't go for a 50 watter, those are noticeably louder. This one may already be too loud for smaller gigs, and could very easily drown out a drummer with efficient speakers. I don't think I'll be playing with it past 5 or 6 though. The amp definitely needs a new cab though to handle the bass, the test cab I'm using right now just muds up the low end like nothing else. Its so overwhelming that I can't even hear a difference between 0-10 on the bass pot, I just tell by the amount of shaking and rattling it produces. The G12h-30s should tighten up the bass significantly and make it more responsive. But I can't even begin to describe playing lead on this amp, the way it reacts and sounds is just incredible. It just feels so good to play and breaks up so perfectly. LednyrdZepnyrd, you're in for a real treat when you crank yours up for the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evster2012 Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 "Drown out a drummer". I wish. The day I drown out my drummer, he gets new mics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ Slocum Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Congrats!...I see no mention however of load impedence. Seeing as how you built it yourself I'm sure you know how important it is and the ramifications of getting it wrong(too low and your power tubes/output transformer won't like it one bit, too high and your choking your output)...could account for the bass response problems make sure you get it right when you wire up that 4x12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LednyrdZepnyrd Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Why not try to break those in a little bit while you're waiting? Did you get the celestion heritage (or pre-rola clone, scumback, weber, etc.) or normal reissues (75 hz)? The normal ones. What about you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LednyrdZepnyrd Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 Why not try to break those in a little bit while you're waiting? Did you get the celestion heritage (or pre-rola clone, scumback, weber, etc.) or normal reissues (75 hz)? How do I hook up a cd player or stereo to it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 Congrats!...I see no mention however of load impedence. Seeing as how you built it yourself I'm sure you know how important it is and the ramifications of getting it wrong(too low and your power tubes/output transformer won't like it one bit, too high and your choking your output)...could account for the bass response problems make sure you get it right when you wire up that 4x12 The amp has taps for 4, 8, 16 ohms, right now I'm running 4 ohms into a 4 ohm load but will run it at 16 ohms when the new cabinet comes. I've never heard of bad consequences of running it at different impedances, only of matching impedances. But I agree, running the amp at 4 ohms doesn't sound that good and isn't a real popular choice amongst users. Ok, well, I just checked the specs on the cabinet that I wanted, and it turns out that it weighs 100 lbs. I'm just not sure if that is very convenient. I think I may go for an oversized (bluesbreaker style) 2x12 instead, about 40 lbs less, and has better bass response than a normal 2x12. Lednyrd, I think I'm going with the normal G12h-30s too, supposedly the high end can get a little ice picky on those but break in time will fix that. If you have another amplifier you can hook the cabinet up to, you can run a CD player through there and just play it for a few hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LednyrdZepnyrd Posted August 12, 2008 Share Posted August 12, 2008 The amp has taps for 4, 8, 16 ohms, right now I'm running 4 ohms into a 4 ohm load but will run it at 16 ohms when the new cabinet comes. I've never heard of bad consequences of running it at different impedances, only of matching impedances. But I agree, running the amp at 4 ohms doesn't sound that good and isn't a real popular choice amongst users. Ok, well, I just checked the specs on the cabinet that I wanted, and it turns out that it weighs 100 lbs. I'm just not sure if that is very convenient. I think I may go for an oversized (bluesbreaker style) 2x12 instead, about 40 lbs less, and has better bass response than a normal 2x12. Lednyrd, I think I'm going with the normal G12h-30s too, supposedly the high end can get a little ice picky on those but break in time will fix that. If you have another amplifier you can hook the cabinet up to, you can run a CD player through there and just play it for a few hours. I just got em cause they were cheaper! BTW... How loud does it get on 10? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew Posted August 12, 2008 Author Share Posted August 12, 2008 I just got em cause they were cheaper! BTW... How loud does it get on 10? Its loud, but not so ridiculously loud that you can't turn it up in the house. It puts out about 30-35 clean watts and probably puts out about 50 watts dimed. Loud enough to be heard at 90% of gigs, and can be used without an attenuator. Its weird, the first time I turned the amp on and put it at 0.5-1 and it was a pretty significant volume and I thought to myself, "oh god, I'm never going to be able to turn this thing up", because the jump from 0-1 is pretty big. And it was getting louder and louder but after I got used to the volume, I could turn it up to 10 and be fine with it. Playing at that volume for extended amounts of time could damage your hearing though, I know after a 1 hour break in session of running the amp at around 5-6 (imo, thats the perfect gain setting for me, I didn't want to overdo it because the sound becomes hard to clean up using high output pickups), my hearing was a little muffed after sitting up close. The amp I had previously been using was an AVT50. I'd say it was about the same volume on 10 as the AVT50 was on 6 or 7, but again its hard to tell because the volume increase is not particularly linear. BUT.... The way I was running the amp was through a 1x12, so 1) I wasn't pushing as much air as a 2x12 or 4x12, and 2) I was playing with the speaker facing AWAY from me, facing the back of a chair. So that kills some volume right away. I have not mounted the chassis in the head cabinet yet, so I had the tubes hanging out right beside the back of the speaker, and that caused some rattling (one of the reasons I dislike combos) along with the cabinet itself shaking. Once I mount the chassis and place it on top of a 2x12, it should be sturdy and should be shaken by its own output. But yeah, play it in a big room that is pretty close to empty (trust me, the rattling is annoying) because the amp WILL shake the room on 10. But its not a 100 watt plexi (which can put out in excess of 200 watts on 10!) which would literally blow the roof off ones house. Luckily our room is soundproofed (its my parents' home theater room), but you could still hear it from outside the house (but it was through the window). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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