50watt Plexi complete-HOLY S&^T!!!!!

[Arclight]

I received my 50watt plexi kit on tuesday late afternoon. It is my second Metro kit,having built a JTM45 last September.

It took 21 hours for complete assembly,testing and biasing. After getting the amp up and running with the supplied JJ tubes,I played it for over an hour with my Les Paul R8 with WCR Fillmore pickups. I am very surprised.

I went into the NOS stash and put in two low base RFT EL34's , a Brimar CV4004 in V1, GE ECC83 in V2 and a GE 12AX7 Blackplate in the PI. WOW-outrageous. absolutely a monster. Not a single issue,SOZO caps and NOS resistors. The JTM45 was a slightly more difficult build-but now theres TWO!!

Kudo's to George and Company for one hell of a product.

[OnTheFritz]

Geo's kit's are killer, second to none.
Like you said, throw in some vintage glass and it's elevated to another level that's old school tone in spades.

[jcs]

I own a 71 Smallbox 50, and i too have a collection of NOS glass,,thankfully these circuits are very sensitive to different 12ax7 and EL34.

I even use GE 6550 from time to time for fun.

I normally run a 12at7 in v3 of my metalface to get a bit closer to plexi response, if needed but it depends on the guitar/pickup combo too.

[Arclight]

Somehow, I feel my gear is complete (total bullshit-we all know how that goes ). My JTM45 has 2 NOS GEC KT66's with a pair of smoked glass backups-also NEW. I have another Brimar 12AX7 in V1, Brimar CV4004 in V2 and a GE Blackplate in the PI, all lit by an NOS Mullard rectifier. With this and my 1987 Build-I have all my favorite tones at my disposal.

I own a Reeves Custom Lead-allegedly a "plexi" sounding circuit with power scaling. Even with xf2's and all NOS glass in the preamp-it just doesn't have the "touch sensitivity" and the ripping gain of the Metro Plexi.I recently sold my Blockhead 1963 Spitfront w/ Radio Spares Iron-another JTM45 clone and that too,with NOS glass doesn't have the mojo the Metro JTM45 has. To be able to compare those amps back to back-it is truly remarkable how well George has NAILED the tone.

Now,I guess I'll have to pop for one of his 4x12 cabs. Thank God I am not "volume limited" : Having run the gauntlet of Boutique amps for the last 20 years-there is something special about kick-ass amps,built with your own hands.

UPDATE: I played the amp for 3 hours or so and changed the RFT's to a pair of NOS Mullard xf2's. The Mullards (biased at 60% matched within 1.6ma) are MUCH fuller sounding and even LOUDER. The RFT's were abit shrill with the middle control above 3-4. With the Mullards I can turn up the middle control. With the channels jumpered-well, I'll be working on annoying the neighbors.....