Metropoulos Forum

I'm going to get one of these for an X-mas present to myself and after I play it stock for a while, I will want to mod it. Where should I start?

What are the basic mods everyone does/first things to try?
I like that big boosted mids 80's sound (Metaltronix), but I like smooth articulate gain, that lets all of the notes come through. I know I will want to do the 5 way mid switch that Lee Jackson did, and get a bit more gain as well. Thinking I will also want a resonance control of some sort.

I also will likely want more GRR and CH from it over the stock 800's that I've played -thats how my ear hears it, maybe its growl (lower mids?) and chug to others, kinda brownish?

What should I research?

I have a couple of modded amps already Laney AOR100 - perfect, and a TSL 100 -great for modern metal. Now I want a project to tweak myself.

Thanks!

There are a lot of directions you can go with this amp, effects loop, increased gain via circuit tweaks like plate resistors and cathode cap/resistors, resonance control as you mentioned, pentode-triode switch on the power tubes, variable negative feedback, etc. Your other amps have the high gain Marshall tones covered, maybe staying closer to a stock 800 would compliment your existing amps best. When I built my Metro JMP 50 watt clone, I had planned on modding it into a higher gain beast, but after playing it, decided to just add a master volume and effects loop, which give me more flexibility and keep the awesome Plexi tone. Like you, I have other Marshall amps, a 1983 50 watt JCM 800 combo and a TSL 100, adding the Plexi gives me all of the great, early rock tones, with the other two amps handling everything else, even though the 800 sounds real close to the Plexi with slight differences. As far as research, the search function here will give you everything you need and then some. Good luck.