Metropoulos Forum

I have created this forum for those who have questions concerning mods, stories, photos, general questions, schematics, recordings, and of course, questions and info about the #34 mod and its creator; Frank Levi.

I would like to stick to these topic, and not get wrapped up in things like, "what did you use to record that clip?"

Questions concerning the #34 schematic, tubes used, setting, speakers and such should be center of discussion here.

With that said, I'm going to start this forum off with some things that I have regarding the JCM 800 #34 Use Your Illusion amp mod.

Just as soon I can get the site admin to fix this error I keep getting whenever I try to post an attachment...

"Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached."

The one thing I think people overlook the most when trying to nail the tone is the tubes. If you don't have some good high gain preamp tubes you will never get the right gain at the sweet spot on the gain control. The output tubes play a huge factor also. A lot of current production 6550's are lacking tone wise and you know Slash wasn't using any tubes produced after 1991 for his UYI tone. So you need to be looking at what tubes were around back then.

bmwfreq wrote:Just as soon I can get the site admin to fix this error I keep getting whenever I try to post an attachment...

"Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached."

F'n North Koreans...

Seriously...This thread could be interesting...

Korean's...that's funny.

Yeah - it could be interesting if I could post some of the neat stuff I have, but the forum won't let me post anything right now for some reason. Still getting the error message even today...

"Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached."

Hello?! MetroAmp?! Come in, over!!!

In order to post pictures your have to upload them to a site like photobucket and then insert the images link into the post. Metroamp no longer supports direct uploading of images from personal computers or hand held devices. This was done to curb malicious attacks from adware, viruses, etc..

Ok, I'm here and waiting for the #34 "wah effect" breakthrough announcement, the floor is yours...

(assuming that you are going to post it over here....)

are you gonna be covering how slash got his hi gain tones on UYI aswell? i believe it would be very difficult to get those with just that #34 amp.

One big issue is that AFD is 1-3 guitars
UYI is 15 guitars , PAF, Ceramic high output , single coil and p90 pickups.
Strats single coil, wrap tail 54s, travis bean, etc

So its harder to gear up and cover it all.


Does anybody even know like what parts on estranged that are made with vintage P90?
Strats on Yeasterdays?
Travis bean on Bad obsession etc.

Did a quick test to get a 34 type spec that sound like the uyi recording .

I kinda easy , A standard 74 spec super lead with 820r/100n second stage cathode.
Bright channel cascaded into normal channel with 820r/100n .
2n2 coupler and 5n like stock 74 spec
680n/820r like 74 spec.

3-4 gain 1 and 6-10 on gain 2.

This covers all songs.

Talking about Slash's high gain sounds, I'm not trying to guide the topic to tubes, or only make comments about tubes, but with the Beijing Military 6N4's I match the "Don't Damn Me" rhythm tone with my gain set about 4. So I don't believe that Slash needed to use a distortion pedal, or anything else with #34 to get his high gain rhythm tone.

Hey bmwfreq! what are your thougths about the TungSol 6550 current production?

My amp is a Marshall SL-5, the amps tophology is not that far from the JCM 800 84´...actually it has the same preamp with the correct values. To avoid the modification to #34 specs (maybe one day i´ll modify the amp) im using as an "always on" booster a Whiteface Proco Rat tweaked in its high pass/low pass filter for a parked wah wah effect like Slash´s #34 tone. Its almost spot on, even my settings are almost the same as Saul´s (Treble 0 - Mid 3,5 - Bass 8 - Pres 0...Gain is a little diferent, ive got it at 4,5 and volume to taste, most time at 4,3).

The amp has an El34b made by Shuguang tubes, if i push the master volume to 6 or 8 the amps tone become too bassy and ruins the almost identical #34 tone that i got using my unorthodox gear. Im using the onboard Celestion Vintage 30 that came into the SL-5.

If you can, go into incredibly descriptive details (Jump Street 22 dixit lol) about the Tungsol 6550, here in my country that single tube (not even a quad) cost about U$S 80...i know the best way is tryin´ by myself but i would like to hear your opinion. By the way your #34 clip is awesome! GREAT job.

Oh i almost forgot it (sorry for double posting)...from your point of view what are the best preamp tubes to give a Marshall Jcm 800 preamp that UYI flavored tone (i know most #34´s tone comes from the mod itself)? Right now im using two Ruby´s 12ax7 HG+ AC5 at v1 and v2 with Marshall gold labeled rebranded tube which seems to be a TAD 7025/12ax7. The amp is really bright, gainy and toppy. Frank Levi said that Slash used old russian tubes which were bright and cutting (maybe old Teslas not CP JJ). There´s an actual CP tube that sounds close to those ones?

Unique wrote:Talking about Slash's high gain sounds, I'm not trying to guide the topic to tubes, or only make comments about tubes, but with the Beijing Military 6N4's I match the "Don't Damn Me" rhythm tone with my gain set about 4. So I don't believe that Slash needed to use a distortion pedal, or anything else with #34 to get his high gain rhythm tone.

Unique. We need clips.

..

When I get the chance I'll try to record some and post them.