The MetroAmp thread

[Vrad]

the guy who did my mods has nothing to do w/ metro amp, just a tech guy at work who does this for fun

my only point is that you have to embrace some level of nerdiness to get good at this

don't have to be smart, you just have to give up some considerable amount of time and patience

I have no patience for this stuff and do not want to read tech books and understand what a pico ferret is...
likewise the tech guy has no patience when I try to tell him how to memorize a scale shape and explain what the intervals are in that scale

Then its not for you.
I Nerd for a living so it comes easy for me. LOL!

 

[jcj]

That sounds great....especially toward the end

 

[johnnyjellybean]

the guy who did my mods has nothing to do w/ metro amp, just a tech guy at work who does this for fun

my only point is that you have to embrace some level of nerdiness to get good at this

don't have to be smart, you just have to give up some considerable amount of time and patience

I have no patience for this stuff and do not want to read tech books and understand what a pico ferret is...
likewise the tech guy has no patience when I try to tell him how to memorize a scale shape and explain what the intervals are in that scale

I don't have much knowledge of the workings of a tube amp and I did a MetroAmp kit JTM45 kit as my 1st build. It took me exactly 13 hrs build time from start to finish.

 

[Anonymous]

learning curve
ha
more like nerding curve
I spent a few months talking to a guy at work who modded an amp for me and I still have no clue what he was talking about
reducing the pico ferrets via resistors and capacitors to simulate the feedback resistance sag

It's not for everyone... but you certainly don't need an engineering degree from MIT..

Well the build is the easy part, the tweeking is what can get a little challenging.

BINGO! Knowing what, where and how to tweak is the hardest part.

I seem to remember you saying in another thread that it wasn't hard or wasn't rocket science....

It's not rocket science... its not brain surgery... there's no magic to it. Spend a couple weeks or a month tweaking different things and you'll understand how it works. Its all very well documented if you care to do the research.

You know what? Fuck it... it's too hard only a select group of people can do it. The rest of us can't because we're dumb...

I am only using your own words... Also notice the wink I added...
I agree though, it is not the hardest to do, but getting a good sound seems to be hard to a lot of people.
If getting a good sound was easy, everybody would be building and modding amps and the boutique amp builders would never exist
We have not even gotten into discussing how different components sounds... a cap may be the right value, but may sound like crap in the circuit
I find this part to be very challenging.

I also tried to call you Sat night...but I only had your work number....

Here's how I look at it.
If you can't tweak your amp or your rig to make it sound right you got no shot at tweaking your amp's innards.
Also, if you don't know what you're after, how can you know where to begin? Right?

When I say its easy, I'm assuming that:
1) The individual is curious enough about the subject matter to do the research and understand what's going on in there. That doesn't entail an EE degree.
2) The individual has the desire to spend time on this. It's time-consuming and can be frustrating... most things worth doing are time-consuming and at times frustrating. You're a parent, you know what I mean...
3) The individual has a pretty clear understanding of what they want out of the amp. What can and can't be done. What's worth doing and what's a receipe for disaster.

These are kind of 'soft-skills' if we refer to corporate-speak. The 'hard-skills' are actually very easy.

So that's basically where I'm coming from.

If you haven't noticed, tweaking my SL has been so much fun that I'm all giddy about it. LOL!
I'm not trying to become the next boutique builder because I simply don't have the time for that crap. I couldn't imagine dealing with guitar players on a daily basis. Let's face it, we're fucking NUTS!
But being able to understand how this crap works is an invaluable skill and being able to implement it is truly rewarding. It's endless entertainment!

Oh and about component material? Heck, I just had an experience with that myself. Resistors, CC vs CF vs Metal Oxide vs Metal Film. Let's just say the differences are NOT subtle. Same goes for caps!

So is it for everyone? No! But playing guitar isn't for everyone either! LOL!

As soon as you get into complex switching schemes, things get rough if you don't have an electronics background...

Steve

 

[cyndicate]

About to order a kit probably next week, still deciding what to get. How big a difference does the transformer make? Price difference between the Mercury ones vs the Metro ones is about $150, worth upgrading to the MM?

Hmmm.. 50w or 100w plexi ?

 

[Digital Jams]

About to order a kit probably next week, still deciding what to get. How big a difference does the transformer make? Price difference between the Mercury ones vs the Metro ones is about $150, worth upgrading to the MM?

Hmmm.. 50w or 100w plexi ?

Stick with the Metro Heyboer. 100W

Top notch....top NOTCH!!!!!

 

[cyndicate]

About to order a kit probably next week, still deciding what to get. How big a difference does the transformer make? Price difference between the Mercury ones vs the Metro ones is about $150, worth upgrading to the MM?

Hmmm.. 50w or 100w plexi ?

Stick with the Metro Heyboer. 100W

What about caps? Sozo or Mallory?

 

[dstroud]

About to order a kit probably next week, still deciding what to get. How big a difference does the transformer make? Price difference between the Mercury ones vs the Metro ones is about $150, worth upgrading to the MM?

Hmmm.. 50w or 100w plexi ?

Stick with the Metro Heyboer. 100W

What about caps? Sozo or Mallory?

I don't have a suggestion, but I'd ask George at Metro his opinion on this also

 

[toxikdeth]

Has anyone bought one of their pre built amps. Theres a huge price difference between them and their kits.

 

[Beyond Black]

About to order a kit probably next week, still deciding what to get. How big a difference does the transformer make? Price difference between the Mercury ones vs the Metro ones is about $150, worth upgrading to the MM?

Hmmm.. 50w or 100w plexi ?

Stick with the Metro Heyboer. 100W

What about caps? Sozo or Mallory?

I'm not that much of a geek to really know the answer to that question. I've had Sozos which sounded fine to me. I remember Dave Friedman saying he doesn't like them and recommends taking them out so if you want to do what Dave likes, then don't use them.

But if you want to know anything about men's leg-wear, donbarzini's you're man!

 

[LP Freak]

There's two different versions. You can buy the Metroamp kit prebuilt or you can buy the Metropoulos amp that is custom built by George. They're different amps.

 

[johnnyjellybean]

About to order a kit probably next week, still deciding what to get. How big a difference does the transformer make? Price difference between the Mercury ones vs the Metro ones is about $150, worth upgrading to the MM?

Hmmm.. 50w or 100w plexi ?

Stick with the Metro Heyboer. 100W

+1

 

[Vrad]

learning curve
ha
more like nerding curve
I spent a few months talking to a guy at work who modded an amp for me and I still have no clue what he was talking about
reducing the pico ferrets via resistors and capacitors to simulate the feedback resistance sag

It's not for everyone... but you certainly don't need an engineering degree from MIT..

Well the build is the easy part, the tweeking is what can get a little challenging.

BINGO! Knowing what, where and how to tweak is the hardest part.

I seem to remember you saying in another thread that it wasn't hard or wasn't rocket science....

It's not rocket science... its not brain surgery... there's no magic to it. Spend a couple weeks or a month tweaking different things and you'll understand how it works. Its all very well documented if you care to do the research.

You know what? Fuck it... it's too hard only a select group of people can do it. The rest of us can't because we're dumb...

I am only using your own words... Also notice the wink I added...
I agree though, it is not the hardest to do, but getting a good sound seems to be hard to a lot of people.
If getting a good sound was easy, everybody would be building and modding amps and the boutique amp builders would never exist
We have not even gotten into discussing how different components sounds... a cap may be the right value, but may sound like crap in the circuit
I find this part to be very challenging.

I also tried to call you Sat night...but I only had your work number....

Here's how I look at it.
If you can't tweak your amp or your rig to make it sound right you got no shot at tweaking your amp's innards.
Also, if you don't know what you're after, how can you know where to begin? Right?

When I say its easy, I'm assuming that:
1) The individual is curious enough about the subject matter to do the research and understand what's going on in there. That doesn't entail an EE degree.
2) The individual has the desire to spend time on this. It's time-consuming and can be frustrating... most things worth doing are time-consuming and at times frustrating. You're a parent, you know what I mean...
3) The individual has a pretty clear understanding of what they want out of the amp. What can and can't be done. What's worth doing and what's a receipe for disaster.

These are kind of 'soft-skills' if we refer to corporate-speak. The 'hard-skills' are actually very easy.

So that's basically where I'm coming from.

If you haven't noticed, tweaking my SL has been so much fun that I'm all giddy about it. LOL!
I'm not trying to become the next boutique builder because I simply don't have the time for that crap. I couldn't imagine dealing with guitar players on a daily basis. Let's face it, we're fucking NUTS!
But being able to understand how this crap works is an invaluable skill and being able to implement it is truly rewarding. It's endless entertainment!

Oh and about component material? Heck, I just had an experience with that myself. Resistors, CC vs CF vs Metal Oxide vs Metal Film. Let's just say the differences are NOT subtle. Same goes for caps!

So is it for everyone? No! But playing guitar isn't for everyone either! LOL!

As soon as you get into complex switching schemes, things get rough if you don't have an electronics background...

Steve

That's when I call my dad who's got a Masters in EE... LOL!

 

[glpg80]

i would stick with the metro iron for a metro-kit. george took really old marshall transformers and spec'ed them out meticulously - he definately recreated a masterpiece of iron and also with his circuit boards as well because i played a metro 50W amplifier that just fucking slayed. did not think 50W amplifiers could ever get that loud or sound that good

i liked it so much, im going to get a metro instead of a frenzel FM800 preamplifier. i was shocked at the awsome 3D'ness it had

i like how the 100W hold together better though. i want a 100W metro marshall pretty bad. they sound phenominal - the best marshall i have heard ever except for a 1974 100W PPIMV that no words could describe