My 50W Build! (with pics) - COMPLETE!!!

Get support and show off your MetroAmp 50 Watt kit builds.

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straycat
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Post by straycat » Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:16 pm

How do you like the PPIMV in this amp? How does it sound at lower levels?

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toner
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Post by toner » Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:54 pm

Awesome job!!! Thanks for sharing your build.

Enjoy! :D

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mwm523
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Post by mwm523 » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:05 am

straycat wrote:How do you like the PPIMV in this amp? How does it sound at lower levels?
Well... My first impression of the PPIMV in this amp at lower volumes is that it is........fizzy.

It works great for bringing the volume down a bit, not much of an effect on the tone. But at bedroom volume the PPIMV in my JTM 45 seems more usable than this one.

I have to play around with it some more, maybe try some different tubes in the PI to see if it makes a difference.
-Mike

myfoot

Post by myfoot » Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:22 am

Sweet! Thanks for your progress report! I'm looking forward to starting. Actually got to step 5 last night just to get a jump on the coming weekend :P

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neikeel
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Post by neikeel » Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:33 am

thousandshirts wrote:Nice. Looks very similar to the instruction manual!

Will
Exactly what I thought! Really nice work.

Regarding the bright cap. I have actually increased the bright cap on my Metro 50 from 500pF to a 1500pF :roll: . Maybe because I jump inputs and use Ch2 to beef up the low end. Stock cap on these would be 5,000pF but that makes your volume knob more like an on/off switch. The PPIMV I am running at about 3/4 of max through a pair of G12H 55s in a Mojo Bluesbreaker cab and find 4-5 on Vol 1, 3 on Vol2 gives adequate volume and headroom which goes quite high gain when hit with a Tubescreamer.

Maybe I need the big bright cap to make up for my self inflicted high end hearing loss :oops:
Neil

thousandshirts
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Post by thousandshirts » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:09 am

Thanks for sharing, MWM! Your amplifier looks great. This 50w kit is really getting the second degree. It's like a Japanese Baseball player in MLB; every time he sneezes, 50 cameras send it back to Japan VIA satellite uplink. The only things not covered by George's fantastic manual and your photos is room service and bathroom breaks! Cheers!

Will

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rockstah
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Post by rockstah » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:19 am

well done Mike! what are you building next? :wink:

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mwm523
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Post by mwm523 » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:43 am

rockstah wrote:well done Mike! what are you building next? :wink:
LOL! :lol:

I'm thinking something small like a 5F1 Tweed Champ may be next on my list....... Maybe after the Holidays.

I also have to finish refurb'ing my old Fender Twin at some point. It's a '72 Silverface that I refurbed the cabinet and "Blackfaced" the circuit and cosmetics. It has JBL D120F's in it that need to go out to Weber to be reconed. I already recapped and retubed it, but it still has some minor issues I need to track down.
-Mike

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rockstah
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Post by rockstah » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:36 pm

mwm523 wrote:
rockstah wrote:well done Mike! what are you building next? :wink:
LOL! :lol:

I'm thinking something small like a 5F1 Tweed Champ may be next on my list....... Maybe after the Holidays.

I also have to finish refurb'ing my old Fender Twin at some point. It's a '72 Silverface that I refurbed the cabinet and "Blackfaced" the circuit and cosmetics. It has JBL D120F's in it that need to go out to Weber to be reconed. I already recapped and retubed it, but it still has some minor issues I need to track down.
first amp i built was a 5f1. ;)

NitroLiq
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Post by NitroLiq » Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:09 pm

Nothing wrong with that...great first amp...IIRC, it's what Clapton played through on Layla.

J.DavisNJ
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Post by J.DavisNJ » Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:29 am

Looks great!

How about some clips?

-Joe

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Post by shakti » Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:28 am

Very nice!

As soon as I have the cash I'm buying a kit.

I am woondering if all the cabs have very rounded corners for the cutout like that? My JTM45 does, but I was hoping they'd be a little more square, which looks much more correct to me. Look at the cabs on the Germino site, those have much more square corners for the cutouts. Just a little question...

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mwm523
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Post by mwm523 » Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:35 pm

J.DavisNJ wrote:Looks great!

How about some clips?

-Joe
I'll be doing some clips soon... Just ordered a Toneport UX2 so I can record a speaker cabinet with an SM57 into the PC. Should be here in a few days.

Shakti, not sure about the cabinets, but my JTM 45 cab looks like that too. It's the same smallbox head cab, and I think they are made by Mojo.
-Mike

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mwm523
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Post by mwm523 » Fri Nov 23, 2007 10:57 pm

mwm523 wrote:
straycat wrote:How do you like the PPIMV in this amp? How does it sound at lower levels?
Well... My first impression of the PPIMV in this amp at lower volumes is that it is........fizzy.

It works great for bringing the volume down a bit, not much of an effect on the tone. But at bedroom volume the PPIMV in my JTM 45 seems more usable than this one.

I have to play around with it some more, maybe try some different tubes in the PI to see if it makes a difference.
Update on the PPIMV... The more I play the amp, the less fizzy it is with the PPIMV down to bedroom volume. It's really smoothing out nicely now. My guess is that the Sozos are breaking in, and the fizz I was hearing at low volume was because they were brand new. I've got about 8 hours in them now.
-Mike

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mwm523
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Post by mwm523 » Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:09 pm

Oh and I changed the bright cap from 250pf to 100pf and I like it much better.
-Mike

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