Something cool in the house today: Demeter TGP-3

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bxlxaxkxe
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I've been trying to remedy that but if Demeter are still open for business they're doing a good job of hiding it. Can't get a response after trying 3 methods of contact. Maybe the idea of building something 240V and shipping across the world frightens them, who knows.
It’s weird. I emailed them before and they responded super fast. I emailed them about my TGP-3 and never got a reply. Really unpredictable
 
My Favorite Demeter Tone is from Doyle from the Misfits. His Tone when i saw him live was awesome.
 
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It’s weird. I emailed them before and they responded super fast. I emailed them about my TGP-3 and never got a reply. Really unpredictable
I went through the same thing for about a year. It's important to keep in mind that it's just James and another guy who does most of the building. From what he told me, his builder is also a government contractor who occasionally has restrictions put in place that prevents him from moonlighting at Demeter. It sucks to be a small business right now (I make custom titanium bikes and my supply chain is fucked) and to be dependent on people with work restrictions, and having formed a JIT supply model that suddenly failed and hasn't corrected.

I had much better luck with the phone, but you still have to be persistent. I was quoted three months, but it took a year...which was OK with me because that was my assumption going into it things being what they are.

FWIW, when James asked me if I wanted the DeLeo voicing, I said "sure" not knowing that that meant. I still don't know how it differs from whatever the other choice is, but I can tell you that if you're using a lot of gain, the bass is going to get flubby on palm mutes. It sounds fantastic with open chords and retains a lot of character...just bad on palm mutes on the lower strings. I was going to tweak some of the coupling/bypass caps but decided to just make a clone that I can mess with and not risk devaluing the original.

Another interesting note is that if it's run through an Intelliverb, it seems to reduce the abundance of bassy farts even if you turn the mix of the effect way down.
 
It sucks to be a small business right now (I make custom titanium bikes and my supply chain is fucked) and to be dependent on people with work restrictions, and having formed a JIT supply model that suddenly failed and hasn't corrected.
You build bikes in PDX? What's your company name ?
 
I had one of the amp heads TG? something like 20 some odd years ago it was ok but I always wondered what one would sound like replacing the toroidal transfomer with a marshall like transformer
 
I had one of the amp heads TG? something like 20 some odd years ago it was ok but I always wondered what one would sound like replacing the toroidal transfomer with a marshall like transformer
I wonder too. The toroidal transformer in those (I have a 90's TGA-3 too) is just for the power supply. Unless the B+ was changed, I have a hard time believing it would alter the tone drastically. Incidentally, the preamp tubes in the TGP are getting a MUCH lower supply voltage than on my TGA. In some cases more than 100V less (like on the V1 plates) but the plate and cathode resistors are identical.
 
I do. It's Vertigo Cycles. Been doing it since 2006 but typically only sell a bike or two locally. Most of them get sent to the east coast or overseas somewhere.
Nice! Checked your stuff, it’s the real deal....I was heavily involved in riding round here for decades up until last year and a series of bad crashes and hand issues forced some time off the bike, it was seriously getting in the way of guitars...I was one of the founders of the North Coast Trail Alliance (guys that are building Klootchie Creek). Jonesing for some trail time but more into how much our band is playing round town these days. Maybe hook up for a ride when things dry out! Meantime you should come check out our band The Radio Riots ?

BTW love the Demeter stuff as well?
 
Nice! Checked your stuff, it’s the real deal....I was heavily involved in riding round here for decades up until last year and a series of bad crashes and hand issues forced some time off the bike, it was seriously getting in the way of guitars...I was one of the founders of the North Coast Trail Alliance (guys that are building Klootchie Creek). Jonesing for some trail time but more into how much our band is playing round town these days. Maybe hook up for a ride when things dry out! Meantime you should come check out our band The Radio Riots ?

BTW love the Demeter stuff as well?
Thanks for your work out at Klootchie! The last time I rode back in October was out there. I don't remember the names of any of the trails, but there were some steeper ones that kept us on our toes because it was so slick. I haven't been on trails that slick since I raced on the east coast in the 90's.

Heal up! I got thrashed a few years ago too. My shoulder was so borked up that it was six weeks before the doctors saw that my arm was also broken. Took the better part of a year before I could ride again but I started building guitars and amps in my down time since I also couldn't mount the 100lb vertical head of my milling machine (that I need to build bikes)
 
Thanks for your work out at Klootchie! The last time I rode back in October was out there. I don't remember the names of any of the trails, but there were some steeper ones that kept us on our toes because it was so slick. I haven't been on trails that slick since I raced on the east coast in the 90's.

Heal up! I got thrashed a few years ago too. My shoulder was so borked up that it was six weeks before the doctors saw that my arm was also broken. Took the better part of a year before I could ride again but I started building guitars and amps in my down time since I also couldn't mount the 100lb vertical head of my milling machine (that I need to build bikes)
Hahah yeah it gets slick as snot out there and never drys out...flip side is it’s hero dirt all summer when it’s 100 in the valley. I started that NWTA sub chapter with my buddy who lives in Seaside when he got tired of driving here to PDX to ride....Klootchie has been a huge thing for them. I’m still in PDX and backed off from too much involvement after it was up and running. Sandy Ridge is 40 minutes from my driveway and is my regular go to since the days when it was just parking at the main gate. I’m ride heathy now but really my head is back in music and surf full time. I’m getting heckled hard to ride by the crew, we’ll see ?
 
Hahah yeah it gets slick as snot out there and never drys out...flip side is it’s hero dirt all summer when it’s 100 in the valley. I started that NWTA sub chapter with my buddy who lives in Seaside when he got tired of driving here to PDX to ride....Klootchie has been a huge thing for them. I’m still in PDX and backed off from too much involvement after it was up and running. Sandy Ridge is 40 minutes from my driveway and is my regular go to since the days when it was just parking at the main gate. I’m ride heathy now but really my head is back in music and surf full time. I’m getting heckled hard to ride by the crew, we’ll see ?
with apologies to the OP for mucking up the thread...I can't PM yet

I'm in SE PDX. We should ride sometime.
 
Addictive as hell to play. DeLeo spec. Had to cut it short since we have family in town this weekend but damn. ?



Hey Blake getting your thread back on track here :cool:

Cool interview with James Demeter
 
Dude I don't care at all - its all good

Also, finally got an intelliverb. I appreciate you hooking me up on those settings!
Sweet! Glad you found one! That chorus is great. I love #40 which is just a little reverb and also #119 Dark Shadow reverb. there are some good sounds in that unit for sure
 
I've only recently started playing with the stereo part of this preamp and running through stereo FX and learned that there's a massive output imbalance on the FX returns and the FX send is hot AF and will clip all of my effects unless I turn the send knob all the way down. Swapping the tubes for others (they're all the same spec but apparently not matched) sorted out the level matching issue but not before I went down to EuroTubes to buy a couple of ECC81's to try out.

After realizing that putting them in the FX return positions wouldn't solve the high output (duh) I put the ECC81's in the cathode follower positions which is what drives the tone stacks. I like it a lot. It didn't change the FX send output like I had hoped, but it did bring the overall gain down a bit, which IMO, isn't a bad thing since this preamp comes apart when you have the gain cranked. Too much bass. The bottom end is a little clearer now and a little less flubby. It's still far from perfect, but it's got a bigger sound and there's a lot less hiss as well.
 
I tweaked the power supply a little bit by adding some resistors parallel to ones between the filter caps so it wasn't dropping as much voltage. B+ is up to 320V from 234V and it's a lot more touch sensitive now. Before my tweak, the plate on V1B (the second gain stage) only had about 95V on it. Now it's up about 30V and Ch2 plays pretty clean with a soft touch with the guitar at full volume but still cranks when you hit the strings hard. It seems to have made a bigger difference than I was expecting.
 
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