Metropoulos Forum

What other way is there?? Seriously though, I'm Rick and I'm new here so, Hi everybody! I have often wondered what's liable to blow first from playing my JTM 45 full up to get the nice crunchy tones I like. The guy who built the amp for me (from a Mojo Kit, before Metro offered them) swears I'll fry my power tubes and wear out the transformers (Heyboers) from too much blasting. Is he nuts? As soon as I get some new Valve Art KT66s to replace my cold/harsh sounding Groove Tubes KT66HPs and get a real Mullard GZ34 to replace the Weber Copper Cap 5AR4 rectifyer I've been using lately, I fully plan to go back to cranking my JTM 45 Combo amp and may even end up getting a Hot Plate. Can the JTM 45 safely handle much full blast jamming or should I tame it down a tad and add a stompbox for my crunch? Thanks for your advice in advance!

Well, sure your power tubes will wear out faster the harder you use them. That's no excuse not to get the tone you love though, is it?
Personally I like the sound of mine at about 7-8 instead of totally on ten, but I doubt I'm saving my power tubes much pain.

Hi. Sort of off topic, but I've never actually used a stack amp before and was wondering how loud a cranked up JTM45 is. If you were to be playing in your house. Would it be way too loud? Would you need a hotplate or powerbreak or something?

The whole wattage thing is really taken out of context by most people. A 50W amp isnt half as loud as a 100W. Its like a hair quieter at best. A 20W amp isnt way lower then a 100W. Id say a 20W is closer to half the volume of a 100. Just enough to keep up with most drummers. Id say a 45 is a pretty damn loud amp. Its tube rectified and in my experience those amps 'seem' a bit lower. It does take a huge edge of the volume compared to a 100W which is just way too loud for a modern band and will eat up all but the craziest drummers. Id say the volume froma 45 is generally a good bit louder then the stage volume for most modern bands but still manageable. If you have an attenuator you wont need to use more then the first or second attenuation setting. At home, depending on where you live, it will be loud enough that everyone in the house will hear and feel it pretty loudly unless its a very large house. Really even an 18Watt is too loud for me to use in my twin with bitchy neighbors who do hear it pretty clearly. My Champ is too. The difference is I dont have to attenuate as extreme with those amps.

Yeah, my JTM45 on ten is still too loud for what most soundguys would want onstage. My 20-watt homebrew is probably about perfect for stage volume, but still too much for truly "comfortable" home use.
No one in the house will hear the TV over either amp.

Slammintone wrote:What other way is there?? Seriously though, I'm Rick and I'm new here so, Hi everybody! I have often wondered what's liable to blow first from playing my JTM 45 full up to get the nice crunchy tones I like. The guy who built the amp for me (from a Mojo Kit, before Metro offered them) swears I'll fry my power tubes and wear out the transformers (Heyboers) from too much blasting. Is he nuts? As soon as I get some new Valve Art KT66s to replace my cold/harsh sounding Groove Tubes KT66HPs and get a real Mullard GZ34 to replace the Weber Copper Cap 5AR4 rectifyer I've been using lately, I fully plan to go back to cranking my JTM 45 Combo amp and may even end up getting a Hot Plate. Can the JTM 45 safely handle much full blast jamming or should I tame it down a tad and add a stompbox for my crunch? Thanks for your advice in advance!

Tell that guy to continue getting older... gees.

Tell that guy to continue getting older?? What the heck is that supposed to mean? And from now on no old fogeys that can't handle wattages, who also have a bad attitude may reply to my posts!