Metropoulos Forum

Finally received the 68K Iskra's and put them in. The amp now has maybe 20-25 hours on it and I think it's burning in quite VH II ish like. I'm loving it. Share your thoughts.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=13007844

The tone is killer!! But the guitar is out of tune.. Lol

It is? I thought I had it but those 3 note chords in the chorus always throw me. The B string has to be pulled sharp with the pointer finger while the D string has to be slightly pushed sharp for these chords to sound right so I may have been listen too closely at those to realize the rest of the stuff was actually off. But I'm still not quite catching it. Is my track flat?

Somethings off intonation or recorded track?

Might be a good time to focus on how to accurately intonate a guitar but I don't know if it is truly possible. Seems every guitar I've ever owned has a little something here or there that sets up slightly different from one to the next. I've had many many many guitars and I don't think one has ever been a perfect instrument as far as tuning goes. They just don't. You set up the intonation, get all the open chords tuned right and the more complex chords higher up are out. You get those right and the open stuff is whack. Guitars are fussy little fu#$%ers.

A good internet bud, Chip Todd , who worked for Peavey for many years and designed the T-60 taught me a slightly different way to intonate at guitar. He explained that simply playing an open note and 12th fret harmonic wasn't enough to calibrate a string at all frequencies, his method was;

Open string -12 fret harmonic,
Third fret, then try to use the same finger pressure and sound the note on the 15th fret, then the
5th fret, then compare the note on the 17th fret using the same finger pressure....and so on.

Once all strings run true, and the notes on each string match an octave using the same string pressure...Its ready to go.
I've had great success that way.

OK. I just put on some new strings and went through it like you said. I think it is better. Will try a re-take and see how it goes. Using .009's this time. Had Hybrid .009's/.010's before.

I think this one is better tuned but the low E has nasty fret buzz. Lighter gauge doesn't pull as much bow in the neck so I have a little buzzing going on. Will fix that next. Also made the track louder.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=13007844

Can't separate the original track from your track, ugh, where are those headphones!

Really? They're pretty much 100% on opposite sides and I have mine louder. My amp's on the right if you're speakers are arranged accordingly.

Regardless of any tuning issues, the amp sounds great.

Thanks Roger. Having good holiday's in CA?

jnew wrote:Thanks Roger. Having good holiday's in CA?

Well shit! I think it's in tune but yeah, I think I have some bogus chords going on. I think Jeremy got me lined out. I'll re-do it again.

But aside from all that, I can't stop playing this amp now. Maybe the Iskra's play a bigger role than I originally thought. I put in some Phillips chicklet .68's yesterday and I think I like them better. More to come.

Ok. Last take on this. Got the right chords. Like Roger said though, this is more about the amp tone than the playing although playing it wrong sure doesn't do any justice.

Editing links above.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=13007844