Metropoulos Forum

Had a great time hanging with George and the crew HA HA HA got to meet many amp builders and learned a lot about the industry. I took off my "amp repair guy" hat and perused the floors as "guitar show shredddaaaaaaarrrr" to try out many, many amps I didn't get to try in the past. Although it was a very SLOOOW show it worked to my benefit by actually spending some quality face-time with many of the amp builders. There were many impressive amps out there. I'll make my list here of what really blew me away:

1. Metro-Amp Plexi-replicas: The 10,000-Series Super Bass I spent some serious time with at all volumes. It really, really nailed the "Super Bass" tone from the 60s. And I've owned many of them. It sounded fantastic at all volume levels. All the amps George built sounded great. The 45/100 was totally in the ballpark for Hendrix. We plugged in my '63 and '66 Strats and freaking channeled Hendrix to the max with a Fuzz Face and RMC wah HA HA HA I also brought my '65 JTM-45 and did some comparisons with the GPM-45. Tonally they were really close. Mine had NOS glass and the '68 JMP-50 watt tranny, so it was much more aggressive and fat . . . but like I said, the tone-pallet between the two were extremely close.

2. Category-5 Camille: Another impressive amp. 4 x 6L6 Has Blackface Twin and Tweed Twin tones that you can blend together by jumping channels. All mil-spec parts and new production tubes. I would say this could be an ultimate do-it-all blues/rock amp. I was really taken aback by the full-luscious tones here using NEW parts. They got it right. Sounded freaking awesome.

3. 3 Monkeys Orangutan: 4 x 6V6 w/adjustable voicing knob. I used my '63 Strat testing this one. HUGE, full, fat grindy tone and not too crazy volumes. I was actually stunned at the complexity and fullness from such a small amp. I preferred the head/cab (inspired by the Rickenbacker Transonic cabs) to the combo due to the better "fullness" but the combo still sounded great. Got to talk to Ossie about this amp and about my all-white Blockhead cab he built for me a few years ago. Turns out that was the last Blockhead item he built before forming 3-Monkeys. He said he wants it back

4. Fractal Audio Axe-FX: Rack unit totally adjustable and tweakable. All digital. This unit was scarily good. I knew digital would eventually get close to the "original" tube amps tone. And this really, really surprised me at how good it sounded. I'd still like to hear it through a 4 x 12 at gig levels on a stage, but when they dialed up a blackface/TS-808 tone, I really couldn't hear or tell the difference from my original gear at the lower volumes through monitors. Uh-OH The funny thing was, when the designer was tweaking on my tones, he added a "fuzz" tone for me to hear. I said "that sounds like my old Univox Super Fuzz" He said, "I modeled it after an old Univox Super Fuzz". Damn, he got it EXACTLY right. These guys are on to something . . .

I also brought my Marshall Major up on Sunday. It worked OK, but kinda embarrassing because it does have some noise issues which I totally forgot about I don't really use it all that much anymore and it was kind of a last-minute thought. It either has noisy tube issues, leaking DC or maybe a bit of both. Regardless, we freaking DESTROYED that hotel with jumpered channels cranked to 8 and 9 respectively. We ran it through a Category-5 4 x 12 cab loaded with Warehouse 60-watt speakers. We had folks from throughout the show stopping by when that was cranking up wondering WTF was going on.

George was having a blast with it:



Anyway, it was a real good time. I met a lot of industry folks, learned an awful lot of "behind-the-scenes" info which I plan to use when I eventually decide to roll out my amp line. When that will be I have no idea, but it really helped me out to decide what I need to do. I also picked up my Metropolous replica 4 x 12 bottom cab. I have to say they look even better in person!!!!! Thanks George! It will be put to good use soon.

- WOT

Ummmm, yeah. Ross brought not one, no two.....but three vintage Strats over the course of two days!!!! No need to ask why I'm smiling in the pic. Ha ha! '58, '63 and '66, he spoiled us.
Let's also not forget the vintage bass, Major and '65 JTM in original white. He could have had his own room and won best in show.

Ross, like I said at the show, we were long overdue to hang out again. I hope you will make it to LA this fall. If not Nashville in August......hell, NJ is in June....nudge, nudge.
You always have a home wherever the Metro crew are.

Glad you liked the 10,000. That amp got a lot of love at the show. More so than the 12,000 I think. That's a first! It just worked so well with the Heritage H loaded True Replica cab. All the classic tones were in there, save for the EVH stuff.

george

I think some of it is regional. Country, Americana and Blues are huge in So-Tex - and the 10000 with the more mellow yet fat and aggressive tones when pushed kinda "fit" tonally to a lot of the music down here.

I have the Major apart on the bench now. It's proving difficult to find the 200 + 200uF x 500v caps here in the US. It was hard five-years ago when I rebuilt my last Major. Mundorf makes current production caps . . . I know there are some 1990s vintage LCRs around still. I just have to hunt some down. It's really gonna kill me to take an iron to this chassis though.





- WOT

Great stuff Ross. What year is your Marshall Major? There is a lot of interest about these amps obviously on the Ritchie Blackmore forum and your amp appears to be very original!
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Not to go off topic, but the Dawksound forum which I'm sure you have seen, has a lot of conflicting data on Ritchie's Majors.
Isn't the Metropolous JTM 45/100 an awesome amp and you also loved the 10000 series Super Bass, my '67 JTM Black Flag Super Bass was an awesome amp as well.
The Fractal is impressive I have heard over and over, so you seemed to be impressed as well!
Wish I had been there, as a slow show can give you more time to talk and play!!
yngwie308

The Major is a '71 Model 1967 Lead. Basically 100% Stock. It had a Unicord Warranty repair in' 73 (screen resistor) and the power switch has been changed out (I did that). Actually, having the power switch being bad saved this amp. It had a shorted output tube, and since no power got to the amp, nothing else got taken out. Came out of a pawn shop about five-years ago. Anyway, I got the noise issues sorted. Bad preamp tubes and bad grounding on the tone pot side mimicking DC leakage. DUH that's what I get for not using it. I think it was stored in a garage or something to get that type of oxidation on the pots and mounting nuts. I'm going to put her back together and roll with it for now. BUT, those bias-supply caps are time-bombs. I really want to use this for bass on a regular basis. If that happens then the electrolytics will have to GO. Added an NOS 5814 for the PI and my last NOS 12AX7s/7025s in the pre slots. I finally cleaned up the box a bit more as well. So she's good to go for now.



I've spoken to Dawk on the phone for hours regarding Majors. Haven't been to the Blackmore boards yet. The show being slow was a blessing. I really got to try my old guitars through a variety of amps. My '63 keeps proving to me that it still is one of the best guitars I have ever owned.

- WOT

The Major was excellent. That made me want to find time to fix up my plexi Major project. It need a lot of work, maybe a PT.

I wanted to add a few show wrap up things too:

Ross rocks!

Austin is beautiful and I could definitely live there.

All of the vendors were very cool, as usual.

The lower attendance really did give us a chance to hang more, spend more time with people checking out amps, try different amp/cab combinations etc. Many people said they enjoyed not feeling rushed at all. Very cool.

The Axe FX sounded great! There, I said it.

ASW speakers are ridiculous good.

My Wizard buddies were a riot, as usual. And thanks for the Cuban!

Poor Dave was sick most of the weekend. He felt terrible and went straight to the hospital when we landed back in Detroit.

Ossie and Greg from 3 Monkeys rule! I geeked out with Ossie over Marshall stuff. He loved the metal handles.

So much more......I'll post back as I think of stuff.

george

My Wizard buddies were a riot, as usual. And thanks for the Cuban!

Oh yeah, great guitar stories!!!!!

- WOT

Sounded like a great show.
I am not surprised that you liked the Axe-Fx Ultra George, it really is a great product, well developed and the inventor continues to offer free software upgrades to owners and it really does nail many classic tube/speaker tones, hmmmm reminds me of another guy who approaches his business this way !
That the 10000 Super Bass ruled is no surprise and I wish I had heard Ross' vintage Strats with the JTM 45/100, it really does nail the Jimi tones and with a Fuzz face and Teese wah no less, tone nirvana.
Great stuff, glad you love your Metro cab Ross, I see them in my future, it is a superlative product in every way.
My 1965 Strat was my favorite of all time and I got it in 1968 when she was only three years old, it was the transition logo guitar and though I couldn't play that well then (I'm slightly better now...just ), but with my 10000 Marshall, the 1982A 30H '68 cab and my 1960B 25 watt M loaded tall S&P cab with metal handles, wish I had pictures of that stack to show. It had the larger white logo as well, it may have been one of the last tall cabs ever made I think!
I have never seen another like it since..
If your '63 is half as good as my '65, it is a beast..
yngwie308

Oh yeah the '63 is rippin'! I had a refin-ed '65 years ago as well. Good guitar in it's own right but nothing like this '63.

Still need to get some speakers for the Metro cab . . . focusing on other stuff right now . . . time is coming soon to "populate" the cab HA HA HA HA

- WOT