Hiwatts-n-Gibsons
Well-known member
I knew they were close, but damn.
lol
Well-known member
Was he the one who also designed the Crate vintage club series? I had the old 50w cream tolex vintage club and that thing kicked all sorts of ass. Cranking the clean channel to 10 was actually quite amazing.
DanTravis62
Moderator
My buddy had one of those and it was crazy good (especially for the price) IMO as well
Definitely an underrated gem - not a metal amp by any means, but sounded fantastic
Crate came out with a bunch of great amps in that era, and it sucks because I think they tanked their reputation so much that it didnt matter HOW good they were
crankyrayhanky
Well-known member
I'm going to get 2 so I can run stereo
lol
Well-known member
I've had a few Peavey classics. Cool amps, but honestly I thought the Vintage club sounded much better imo.
guitarmike
Well-known member
Back in the day he was one of the first to advertise nationally for mod work. I owned 2 Lee modded Marshalls, they both sounded terrible. I bought them 20 years after he modded them, who knows what was done to them after he was done. His Lee Jackson branded amps sounded decent. He had great ideas but the results were hit or miss.
DanTravis62
Moderator
The perfect connection preamp is one of the best sounding rack pres i've ever played
I could not believe the guy who designed that, and the crate stealth, was the same guy who designed the metaltronix
Metlupass2
Well-known member
I just bought 4. 1 to play and 3 to flip.
Dave L
Well-known member
I almost picked up one of those Lee Jackson-branded XLA (?) amps maybe ten-fifteen years ago, the model that supposedly is just like his JCM800 mods. Basically had one sound, but it was pretty OK.
G
GuitarVacation
Active member
Always been interested in these. Should have grabbed one when they were going for cheap used.The perfect connection preamp is one of the best sounding rack pres i've ever played
I could not believe the guy who designed that, and the crate stealth, was the same guy who designed the metaltronix
I think they're old enough to need an owner who can make repairs/replace failing parts, which wouldn't be a bad thing for me to get more experience with.
Amp gurus with more tech knowledge than me chime in, but I got the feeling from hearing Dave Friedman talk briefly about Lee J's mods, that Lee's mod strategies were often different than what you normally see.
Like he would do some filtering strategy really late in the circuit, like at the end of the preamp before the power section. The "frequency shift" knob he employed comes to mind.
I'm sure he did more normal stuff too to increase gain and voice the preamp, but I get the feeling that his more novel mods create a change that folks love or hate.
I'm not that great with schematics, but if something like a "frequency shift" is downstream of a somewhat familiar preamp design, it has a likelihood of being a bit heavy-handed for folks that want their Marshall style preamp to sound and react more normally, just with some extra juice.
The new $9k plus stuff is comical. He's marketing a lot of overbuild and audiophile elements, but I think that's just pricing the amps out of the market. Shame because I'm sure plenty of folks would give his new stuff a try if it was priced even marginally within reason.
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Dave L
Well-known member
If you´re thinking about that six-position mid frequency dial Lee got that from Paul Rivera back in the 70s, it´s pretty handy to find the right nuance for the right guitar but not a drastic thing. But maybe he does more off the wall stuff than that too, I´m not really familiar with his work apart from the extra tube.
Mike Oxhuge
Well-known member
Crate Stealth fucking rips. Stealth, VTM and Jubilee are my favorite 80's designed Marshall style amps.The perfect connection preamp is one of the best sounding rack pres i've ever played
I could not believe the guy who designed that, and the crate stealth, was the same guy who designed the metaltronix
japetus
Well-known member
I didn't stutter, it suckedIt licked ass !!??? That's ghey.
crankyrayhanky
Well-known member
That's being shrewd and financially responsible.
JonPearson1994
Active member
I think it says something that you pretty much never see anyone playing Lee Jackson stuff. I mean, at $10k I suppose it isn't THAT shocking....
SoooRad
Well-known member
The Metaltronix M-1000 I had was an elephant gun. It was made for a different time. Again, not saying they were incredible amps, but it was good. In the age of the quiet stage it would be public enemy #1
JonPearson1994
Active member
That's a good point. A sad point, but so true.
LPMojoGL
Well-known member
Those VC amps sounded pretty good, and could be had for cheap, but half of em I played at GC had some kind of issue.
I remember being excited to see a Metaltronix amp at GC, not sure the model, way back. Plugged in, and it was like Dan said. Thin, trebley bright, like a cheap distortion pedal.
I was confused, because it didn't sound like Zakk at all.
Bossman415
Well-known member
Had a vintage Lee Jackson modded Marshall 1987 '79 JMP w/ the added 12ax7 and push/pull attenuator.
It was a cool amp but needed to be played fairly opened up. The attenuator at lower levels starved it.
Lee was different than Jose in that he inserted the extra gain stage between rather than in front.
The gain can get fuzzy, buzzy and flubby if you dial it up, so moderation is best here. The rotary mid switch is cool too, but suttle.
Can't speak for the other Lee Jackson stuff. His new amp looks refined with a lower noise floor, but missing the roatary mid switch (bummer).
It was a cool amp but needed to be played fairly opened up. The attenuator at lower levels starved it.
Lee was different than Jose in that he inserted the extra gain stage between rather than in front.
The gain can get fuzzy, buzzy and flubby if you dial it up, so moderation is best here. The rotary mid switch is cool too, but suttle.
Can't speak for the other Lee Jackson stuff. His new amp looks refined with a lower noise floor, but missing the roatary mid switch (bummer).
