Metropoulos Forum

For 80's and 90's metal (Dokken, Judas Priest, Alice in Chains, etc.), please list your three personal best picks for an amp head. (Exclude the Mesa stuff, however.) I'm looking for another amp and want to know what to consider.

Thanks,
Steve

Sorry, that was me.
-Steve

HI Steve,

Dokken - Lynch used an old Metal face for the majority of the Dokken records, on loan from Aspen Pittman that was modded by Tim Caswell at SIR in the late 80's. This amp is reportedly the one that was used by Slash for the Appetite sessions that he loved so much, he made up a story that it got stolen while on the road. Unfortunately, due to a roadie mishap, they found out and took it back.

AIC - Cantrell used a Bogner Fish pre-amp for the early records, along with old Marshall's reportedly. You already have that covered with your Bogner.

Priest - Marshall metalfaces.

IMO, I think you might be really happy with the Metro kit as you can tailor it to the sound that you like (plexi vs. metalface) and throw a TS-9 in front of it for extra gain...or possibly a time machine boost. These will definitely get you the sounds you are looking for. Good luck.

I think the Pittman amp was a purple '72 Super Lead, the Caswell amp was a modded Super Tremolo.
The '69-style plexi kit or any good stock metalface Marshall will be good starting points for you -- but you've already go those covered. AIC sounds may take a little extra gain from a pedal with a Marshall for sure, but you've got the Bogner.
Are you sure you don't already have these sounds taken care of? Maybe you just need an extra stack of each to drill the point home.

Hey Flames, I haven't seen a schem for the metalface. Is there really any diff compared to the '69 plexi?

My vote goes for a Marshall Super Lead, then a Soldano Avenger, ADA MP-1 with a good Tube poweramp. In that order.

NY Chief wrote:Hey Flames, I haven't seen a schem for the metalface. Is there really any diff compared to the '69 plexi?

Not much. 100K feedback resistor off the four ohm tap is about the only change I think. Depends on what schem you're looking at, some show the 100K, some don't but most seem to be from around 1970. I think the '70 schems I've seen show the 5000pF bright cap already.

Necrovore wrote:My vote goes for a Marshall Super Lead, then a Soldano Avenger, ADA MP-1 with a good Tube poweramp. In that order.

Would you pick a Soldano Avenger over a SLO-100?
-Steve

Steve R wrote:

Necrovore wrote:My vote goes for a Marshall Super Lead, then a Soldano Avenger, ADA MP-1 with a good Tube poweramp. In that order.

Would you pick a Soldano Avenger over a SLO-100?
-Steve

Actually Yes I would. There is a shop in Austin that always has one of each as well as other Soldano's in stock. Both are great amps but there is something in the singing mids that the Avenger has that the SLO-100 doesn't. My main musical genre is Black/death metal. I am an odd one out though as I cannot really stand the super saturated buzz shit that most players in this genre use. That Avenger to me has everything that a 2203 has but more in just the areas that you wished were improved on in a 2203. If has gain(preamp distortion) for days but roll them back to about 1:00-2:00 and crank the output that the amp literally sings. I have never heard such a clear articulate voice in a high gain head at loud volumes. The SLO-100 has them as well but to my ears it is not as voiced for rock/metal that the Avenger is.

Yeah Flames, you're right about the Caswell Super-trem. I guess he used the extra trem tube socket to do his gain mod. There's a lot of confusion between the #39 Caswell amp and the Aspen Superlead. I did hear thru the grapevine that Aspen actually sold that amp, along with alot of the other's listed in his book, to Guitar Center to fund his microphone line.

Ugh, what a mistake that was....

Necrovore wrote:

Steve R wrote:

Necrovore wrote:My vote goes for a Marshall Super Lead, then a Soldano Avenger, ADA MP-1 with a good Tube poweramp. In that order.

Would you pick a Soldano Avenger over a SLO-100?
-Steve

Actually Yes I would. There is a shop in Austin that always has one of each as well as other Soldano's in stock. Both are great amps but there is something in the singing mids that the Avenger has that the SLO-100 doesn't. My main musical genre is Black/death metal. I am an odd one out though as I cannot really stand the super saturated buzz shit that most players in this genre use. That Avenger to me has everything that a 2203 has but more in just the areas that you wished were improved on in a 2203. If has gain(preamp distortion) for days but roll them back to about 1:00-2:00 and crank the output that the amp literally sings. I have never heard such a clear articulate voice in a high gain head at loud volumes. The SLO-100 has them as well but to my ears it is not as voiced for rock/metal that the Avenger is.

That thing that makes the Avenger more rock then an SLO is the lack of a buffered loop.

Billy Batz wrote:

Necrovore wrote:

Steve R wrote: Would you pick a Soldano Avenger over a SLO-100?
-Steve

Actually Yes I would. There is a shop in Austin that always has one of each as well as other Soldano's in stock. Both are great amps but there is something in the singing mids that the Avenger has that the SLO-100 doesn't. My main musical genre is Black/death metal. I am an odd one out though as I cannot really stand the super saturated buzz shit that most players in this genre use. That Avenger to me has everything that a 2203 has but more in just the areas that you wished were improved on in a 2203. If has gain(preamp distortion) for days but roll them back to about 1:00-2:00 and crank the output that the amp literally sings. I have never heard such a clear articulate voice in a high gain head at loud volumes. The SLO-100 has them as well but to my ears it is not as voiced for rock/metal that the Avenger is.

That thing that makes the Avenger more rock then an SLO is the lack of a buffered loop.

Is that all? I have yet to see an Avenger with the loop. I know that this is an upgrade when you order one. They are tough nuts amps. I am still wanting to have a look under the hood on one.

Thats spec but I thought I read that in numerous places. I kind of remember reading an interview from Mike a about it.

Marshall JMP-1 preamps are GREAT for the 80s shit. Two preamp tubes in them and they're MIDI controllable. I redrew the schematic for one the other night, and not only is the circuit very simple, it's COMPLETELY moddable. The clean channel is all tube and there's a Fender syle tone stack circuit in there with preset resistor values, the 220pF treble cap, .1uF bass cap and .047uF mid cap. And the mid resistor is 6.8K, just like you'd find in a stock Fender without a mid pot.

The overdrive channel does use clipper diodes, however it gets a GREAT tone from hell!!! Nice and fat with false harmonics galore!

Get one of these and a Marshall EL34 100/100 Dual Monobloc power amp and you're good to go.

Jon

My vote goes to the JMP-1...I've been using them since they were first introduced and still do to this day....I use Marshall 2203 heads as power amps by feeding the output of the JMP-1 into the low gain input and this is pretty much the "secret" to 80's and 90's guitar tones. Bands when live during that time always ran some type of preamp into a marshall head and alot of them used the ADA unit. Rarely ever was it just a Marshall head alone.