THE HW Marshall thread. Tweaking it step by step.

[VelvetGeorge]

Nice, let me know how it sounds. I couldn't get any noise here in the shop.


george

[yngwie308]

Well I went to see Rick Norman (Dr. Vintage) this afternoon and I am pleased to report that my Metro-HW performed absolutely flawlessly, the whole problem has been with the crummy AC power at chez yngwie308! The amp sounded killer, quiet as a churchmouse, all Rick said she needed was some playing time, amen to that brother!! The 4X12" in the pics has two Celestion G12-65's in it and they sounded killer, Rick used the Scholtz Power Soak to try it with some attenuation and man the amp is unbelievable, I am so happy that I kept it and will never sell it, I also made the decision to buy the Scumback 65's 75hZ speakers as they ROCK!!
Rick used his 1961 Melody Maker with his Raquel set of PAF's, adjusted in wind for the slab body as opposed to a maple topped burst, say.
I also heard Ricks dog eared P90 through his plywood bodied Orville Junior single cut, unbelievable.
Folks the Raquel set I heard many months ago in Rick's Raquel guitar, so named, he has made a world of improvement and I would say they are the best PAF non-original pickups I have ever heard. The P90 dog ear wind is different than the soap bar version, but all I can say is, in the future I may need to but guitars to use Ricks's pickups in. Seriously I feel these give even Tom Holmes a run for his money.
Personal thanks to George and all at Metro, I feel such a fool for ever blaming the amp, when it was my dodgy electrical system, throughout my house, the whole time.
So it looks like a Monster 3500 Power Conditioner when I can afford it and I can't wait for my Scumback retro-Marshall cab and I will be going with the 65's, I am sold on these, big time!!
Thanks to all, the HW has a happy ending and kudos to the Velvet One for all his hard work and dedication to helping me ..





yngwie308

[yngwie308]

I have heard the Ken Fisher Type II MV on Dr. Vintage's 100 watt head and read the 74 page thread here about it, any thoughts on how it would work with my HW George?
yngwie308

[yngwie308]

Let me bump this thread..my HW SL is freaking killer..seriously, I only heard the other guy play it, when I go over to Rick Norman's house he hogs the guitars, seriously!!
But I heard enough to know that when she finally gets some hours on her..lookout, I knew that the amp was alright, I really did, again the Velvet One is a saint and I can't thank George enough, George has helped more than most will ever now and I will always be eternally grateful to him and Metro.
The JTM 45/100 is the best amp available new today..period
yngwie308

[daneswede]

hAD AN EARLY ONE . PAID THRU THE BUT FOR IT. iT SOUNDED GOOD. tHEY DOID A GOOD JOB. sTOCK TO ME WITH MY TRUSTY 91 sHREDMASTER AND B;LUESBREAKER BY mARSHALL SOUNDED FINE WITH MY 77 b bACK CAB. sTILL i SOLD IT .iT DIDNT HAVE THE SAME IRON.

like evh SAID

its all in the iron!!!
yOU DONT THINK eddie toured without his techs installeing good iron in his pEAVEYS... IF THEY WERE EVEN P[EAVEYS. HOWE MASNY 68 TO 77 nARSHALLS CAN YOU LOW Up!

[aquilarosso]

Would the changes listed in George's parts list work for a 1987?
It's a JCM800 1987 that is stock apart from a 32uF can in the preamp, 7 phillips mustard .022s and a Marstran JMP 50 OT.
It's much better with the new OT which I managed to install myself (first time I've been near an amp with solder). The sustain is thicker, bass is more solid and harmonics pop out better, but I think improvements can still be made because there is still a little bit of that rattiness there. The resistors listed here might help too, but I'm not sure about the lower filtering.

[yngwie308]

Would the changes listed in George's parts list work for a 1987?
It's a JCM800 1987 that is stock apart from a 32uF can in the preamp, 7 phillips mustard .022s and a Marstran JMP 50 OT.
It's much better with the new OT which I managed to install myself (first time I've been near an amp with solder). The sustain is thicker, bass is more solid and harmonics pop out better, but I think improvements can still be made because there is still a little bit of that rattiness there. The resistors listed here might help too, but I'm not sure about the lower filtering.

Sounds great, Marstran transformers are awesome and Brian Wallace is a great guy.
I'm sure your amp sounds tons better.
Great job
Dave

[aquilarosso]

I just read through the whole thread trying to find a step by step summary of what was changed in this amp, but can't find one. I may be able to work it out from the parts list, but maybe not and I'd hate to miss something. If somebody could help me out with this, that would be great.
Any suggests for adding to what has already been done to this amp would be good too.

[yngwie308]

George simply substituted better quality components and fitted his superb Dagnall clone output transformer and tidied up the 'handwired' wiring, plus fitment of higher quality valves to almost 180 degree shift the tonal quality of this amp.
When they first came out absolutely no pro players were using this head or even mentioning it.
Personally I cannot re-live the whole experience, let's just summarize that George made just a few small changes and made this amp what it should have been out of the box.
Here is my album of my amp post George's work, the Sozo's were when the vintage spec ones weren't available yet.
http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/ ... %201959HW/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here is the 'stock' amp:
http://www.marshallamps.com/product.asp ... Type=SEEIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
EJ has a HW now, as does Gary Moore for several years now, I hear that their future may be limited.
Believe me if I had known of Metro prior to my buying my HW stack sight unseen, I would have had a Metro by now, but hope to still have one in the future, my faves being the '67 JTM 10000 series and the flagship JTM 45/100.
I do love this amp now that I discovered that I needed a Monster Power Conditioner for use in my residence!!
yngwie308

[aquilarosso]

Thanks,
I thought he had actually changed some values, I think he did lower the filtering though.
I have all the stuff on the parts list coming (a week and a half late, damn NZ post couriers), so I'll just swap the components out and then look at the tweaks Rockstar did lately on that JCM800 1987 like mine, because that thing sound pretty damn good too.
I hired my amp to a touring US band called Converge lately, but they had to find another 50watter because mine was too loud. Maybe time to look at a switchable MV on push-pull pot in place of the DI output.
About six months ago I started seeing all these tweaked plexis from various place on youtube and wondered how they made them sound so good and found my way here. I am still learning the basics atm, amp tweaking 101.

[yngwie308]

Gary Moore is using two Handwired 1959HW heads on his Summer Rock Tour and has never sounded more awesome, see the Artists thread on GM!!
yngwie308

[yngwie308]

Recently I received back my Marshall Lead 15 Mini Stack, I had given it to my brothers son when he was 12 he wanted to play electric guitar, but he then changed to skateboarding so my old Mini Stack which I had bought back in the early nineties, came back home.
Recently I was speaking with Dave (Wooly Mammoth) about how much of a Marshall purist I am, believing that real Marshall's stopped being produced around 1974, he asked me how about this then??
I can say though that I have a Marshall stack again..



http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/ ... 5%20stack/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The great thing is that the Lead 15 being solid state, isn't subject to the gremlins of my AC power at my dwelling.
yngwie308

[yngwie308]

If anyone wants to hear un-attenuated HW Marshall's I started a thread over on LPF about Gary's 2010 rock tour with some great clips, tones and playing, and no tons of gain, just great Les Paul into Marshall tones:
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showt ... p?t=168213" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yngwie308

[yngwie308]

I had heard recently that the 1959HW amps have been discontinued..is this true??
yngwie308

[chrisom]

One of the other threads here mentioned they were discontinued due to thin profit margins compared to the additional labor costs associated with the hand-wired process. So yours should soar in value, and the rest of us get to use the resources available here to cut the costs by doing our own labor. I have about $1350 in parts for my build, but it's all top-notch components, many NOS capacitors from online sources. In the long run, the Metro & Metropoulos amps (and yours) are the only way to fly unless you wish to re-build an old original.

I had to laugh when I saw your test guitar pics. That's exactly what I'm playing- A Melody Maker (reissue in black) routed for a pair of PAF humbuckers (mine are SD '59's). LOVE that FAT Gibson '59-style neck on that guitar. Plays and sounds like it should...