Wishing I got a metro instead

[Reverentshadow]

Hi all first post here, I joined the forum last year some time and was going to buy the metro plexi 50w kit and instead ended up buying the marshall vintage modern 2466 100w, dont get me wrong the vm 2466 is a damn nice sounding amp, it just doesn't have that certain snap and growl I guess is the term im looking for, that the plexi 50w has. I recently took the wife out to a club, and I'll be damn there was a guitar player that had a small box head with a Metroamp logo on it that had the most awsome sound that blew me away. so in the middle of thier set I went and asked the guy whats in that box hehe, and he said it was a metro (obviously) plexi 50w wired to 71 spec and was totally stock with metro trany's etc. and his cabs had scumback m75's in it. Man i gotta say now I wish I woulda got a metro instead, that was pure magic sounding compared to my VM 2466. I am ordering a 50w plexi kit in about a week or two and wanted to know if the kit comes with everything to make it 71 spec? that amp just grabbed me by the balls and I couldnt take my eyes off it when I heard it sing, kinda like when I met my wife lol.

[thousandshirts]

Hi all first post here, I joined the forum last year some time and was going to buy the metro plexi 50w kit and instead ended up buying the marshall vintage modern 2466 100w, dont get me wrong the vm 2466 is a damn nice sounding amp, it just doesn't have that certain snap and growl I guess is the term im looking for, that the plexi 50w has. I recently took the wife out to a club, and I'll be damn there was a guitar player that had a small box head with a Metroamp logo on it that had the most awsome sound that blew me away. so in the middle of thier set I went and asked the guy whats in that box hehe, and he said it was a metro (obviously) plexi 50w wired to 71 spec and was totally stock with metro trany's etc. and his cabs had scumback m75's in it. Man i gotta say now I wish I woulda got a metro instead, that was pure magic sounding compared to my VM 2466. I am ordering a 50w plexi kit in about a week or two and wanted to know if the kit comes with everything to make it 71 spec? that amp just grabbed me by the balls and I couldnt take my eyes off it when I heard it sing, kinda like when I met my wife lol.

Welcome to the forum. A 50W kit with a cab of Scumback M75's is a ticket to some serious bliss.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to save up, or swap or move gear, in order to get your new rig underway.

Hang here for a bit, and do a bit of reading up. Listen to a few clips. There's a lot of info.

Doing a 71 spec is not difficult. Let George or Fido or Aaron or one of the Metro Amp staff (whoever takes your call, be sure to call in) know that you're interested in the 71 spec. To do this, you can pretty much keep the amp the same, but instead of two 50/50uF caps, and one 32/32uF cap, you'll want to go with three 50/50uF caps. That's the main thing.

In the plexi (say, 1968) era, the 32/32uF cap was mounted to the circuit board. But the 1971 50w amps all had an extra hole cut in the chassis, to accommodate the third 50/50uF cap. This 50/50uF cap was not mounted to the preamp board anymore, but instead to the outside of the chassis.

You can get 47uF or 50uF caps to mount to the board inside, but what discerning builders around here do is take their 50w chassis to a shop (or their own workshop), and drill another cap can hole in the top of the chassis.

Here's an example of a forum user who did exactly that. He got the normal Metro chassis, and added a third hole for the chassis mount cap: http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... 42#p232642" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can read up on some of those details there.

Another post I made on some of the differences between the 68 spec (normal kit) and the 71:
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... a&start=40" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I like the extra hole on the chassis. I can switch from dual 50 in the preamp to dual 32 with ease.
In fact, because I'm using just three wires there, I can do it more easily than swapping the cap on the preamp board, because the wires from the dual axial cap on the board have to share turrets with other
components, which makes a longer job for swapping.

I'd suggest using/upgrading to the F&T electrolytics. Also go with the Sozo caps.

Feel free to PM me with questions about your 50. I've spent some time on this and love these amps.

[Scumback Speakers]

Which one of my clients did you see at the club? Always glad to hear that Metro and Scumback make a great pairing for awesome tone!

[wdelaney72]

Always glad to hear that Metro and Scumback make a great pairing for awesome tone!

SO TRUE!!!!!!!!

[Reverentshadow]

Hi all first post here, I joined the forum last year some time and was going to buy the metro plexi 50w kit and instead ended up buying the marshall vintage modern 2466 100w, dont get me wrong the vm 2466 is a damn nice sounding amp, it just doesn't have that certain snap and growl I guess is the term im looking for, that the plexi 50w has. I recently took the wife out to a club, and I'll be damn there was a guitar player that had a small box head with a Metroamp logo on it that had the most awsome sound that blew me away. so in the middle of thier set I went and asked the guy whats in that box hehe, and he said it was a metro (obviously) plexi 50w wired to 71 spec and was totally stock with metro trany's etc. and his cabs had scumback m75's in it. Man i gotta say now I wish I woulda got a metro instead, that was pure magic sounding compared to my VM 2466. I am ordering a 50w plexi kit in about a week or two and wanted to know if the kit comes with everything to make it 71 spec? that amp just grabbed me by the balls and I couldnt take my eyes off it when I heard it sing, kinda like when I met my wife lol.

Welcome to the forum. A 50W kit with a cab of Scumback M75's is a ticket to some serious bliss.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to save up, or swap or move gear, in order to get your new rig underway.

Hang here for a bit, and do a bit of reading up. Listen to a few clips. There's a lot of info.

Doing a 71 spec is not difficult. Let George or Fido or Aaron or one of the Metro Amp staff (whoever takes your call, be sure to call in) know that you're interested in the 71 spec. To do this, you can pretty much keep the amp the same, but instead of two 50/50uF caps, and one 32/32uF cap, you'll want to go with three 50/50uF caps. That's the main thing.

In the plexi (say, 1968) era, the 32/32uF cap was mounted to the circuit board. But the 1971 50w amps all had an extra hole cut in the chassis, to accommodate the third 50/50uF cap. This 50/50uF cap was not mounted to the preamp board anymore, but instead to the outside of the chassis.

You can get 47uF or 50uF caps to mount to the board inside, but what discerning builders around here do is take their 50w chassis to a shop (or their own workshop), and drill another cap can hole in the top of the chassis.

Here's an example of a forum user who did exactly that. He got the normal Metro chassis, and added a third hole for the chassis mount cap: http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... 42#p232642" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can read up on some of those details there.

Another post I made on some of the differences between the 68 spec (normal kit) and the 71:
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... a&start=40" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I like the extra hole on the chassis. I can switch from dual 50 in the preamp to dual 32 with ease.
In fact, because I'm using just three wires there, I can do it more easily than swapping the cap on the preamp board, because the wires from the dual axial cap on the board have to share turrets with other
components, which makes a longer job for swapping.

I'd suggest using/upgrading to the F&T electrolytics. Also go with the Sozo caps.

Feel free to PM me with questions about your 50. I've spent some time on this and love these amps.

Hey thanks for the welcome and explaining the difference between the 68 and 71 spec cause I would have ordered the 68 kit and been like ok wtf do I do now lol:) I have a greenlee knockout set and a few step bits for the hole that shouldnt be a problem. I never built an amp before but from all the schematics and layouts on the forum here looks pretty easy for me, I been an electrician for 20 years, used to wire up a bunch of those old modicon control cabs severel years ago in the chemical plants, we would twist all the wires together by chuckin em in two cordless drills and use one as a vise and the other to twist em haha. Ill be sure and ask for those F&T electrollytics for sure. I keep hearing those are some of the best, I wasnt sure if those come with the stock kit or not. Nice to see Glen K. is a member here as well, I seen his trainwreck vids on youtube about a year ago awsome guitar player for sure. thousandshirts thank you for all the info and the heads up on the F&T's and sozo caps much appreciated:)

[Reverentshadow]

Which one of my clients did you see at the club? Always glad to hear that Metro and Scumback make a great pairing for awesome tone!

Haha I wish I caught the guys name, band was called Layin Low I think, sounded more like layin it on thick lol. yea he said they were greenback clones but to be honest the greenbacks I had in my avatar cab couldnt hold a candle to your speekers man not even close. To my knowledge I've never heard a scumback speaker till that night up close like that. Im sold and I WILL be getting some as soon as I get my amp squared away and round up some more cash. I still have my avatar 4x12 cab just need to fill it with some SCUMBACKS yea baby:)

[thousandshirts]

Hey thanks for the welcome and explaining the difference between the 68 and 71 spec cause I would have ordered the 68 kit and been like ok wtf do I do now lol:) I have a greenlee knockout set and a few step bits for the hole that shouldnt be a problem. I never built an amp before but from all the schematics and layouts on the forum here looks pretty easy for me, I been an electrician for 20 years, used to wire up a bunch of those old modicon control cabs severel years ago in the chemical plants, we would twist all the wires together by chuckin em in two cordless drills and use one as a vise and the other to twist em haha. Ill be sure and ask for those F&T electrollytics for sure. I keep hearing those are some of the best, I wasnt sure if those come with the stock kit or not. Nice to see Glen K. is a member here as well, I seen his trainwreck vids on youtube about a year ago awsome guitar player for sure. thousandshirts thank you for all the info and the heads up on the F&T's and sozo caps much appreciated:)

Sounds to me like you can tackle an amp no problem. Step bits, greenlee punches, wire twisting -- the amp is practically done. If you have problems, just post pics on the forum if you can, and we can see what's going on, and get it straightened out right quick.

Glen is a hell of a player. He has some great vids he put up of him with a 50w, shot back in the very early 1980s - great stuff.

One thing you might consider is paying the extra $8 to have Metro add the parts for the PPIMV master volume kit to your order, just so you have them around to try at a later date. Not a big deal either way. I don't personally use attenuation or master volumes but many seem to like it. Saves on shipping just to get it all at once.

The F&T electrolytics don't come with the kit AFAIK, but call and see if the guys will do an upgrade swap for the cost of the difference (the F&T are more expensive).

[joshwilson3]

Sozo is supposed to be coming out with some 50/50/500 can caps at some point.

[jcs]

as a 15+ year owner of a 71 marshall smallbox 50 let me say you are on the right track and i wish you luck!

scumbacks are a great choice as well.

you can always play around with tubes (12at7 in v3,big bottle sylvania 6ca7 etc) to get many shades of tone, these are holy grail circuits imo

[amp boy]

Sozo has these, been awhile since i've seen the site.
http://sozoamplification.com/royal67_purchase.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Reverentshadow]

Well it looks like it will be awhile longer till I can afford to buy my 50w kit, its all good i guess I will just keep playing the vintage modern till I can come up with the extra cash. This damn economy sucks right now I had to take a $3 an hour pay cut at my job this week and the cost of living keeps going up and up, but I will get my kit soon, I just have to cut some corners to be able to put some more cash aside for the build. That sucks I was really looking forward to ordering my kit this week. I hope everyone else is doing ok financialy and your all in my prayers and God bless ya all.

[Reverentshadow]

Well I started ordering my kit piece by piece lol, I can never seem to save up enough to just buy the whole kit. I have most of my parts now and just want to say thanks to all at Metroamp its a pleasure to do buisness with you, very fast on pulling the parts and shipping kudos. Special thanks to Thousandshirts and all who helped me here. I will start a build thread in the 50w section soon as I get all my parts in. Also to those that have been learching here wanting to buy a kit or parts from Metro, dont wait any longer just do it man, I'm glad I did, the parts are very high quality and Metro is a class act for sure. Thanks again Metro.