Metro Amps & The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sc

jctaudiodesigns · Post by **jctaudiodesigns** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:56 am

I am a little surprised that George has not posted this yet, but he is a busy man.

I am one of the instructors at a school for at The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences. A little while ago I built one of George's 50 watt kits and learned a huge amount about how tubes work, I thought it would be a great tool to show students the same. I have been working with George and Fido on this for the last couple of months and now it has happened. Last Wednesday I ordered 8 of George's 50 watt Plexi kits to be assembled by our students. Some of them are already talking about how they want to mod the kits for different year Plexis or to make a JCM 800. I will be posting pictures of the event here.

http://www.cras.org/

MacGaden · Post by **MacGaden** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:29 am

myfoot · Post by **myfoot** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:09 am

That's just awesome!!

NitroLiq · Post by **NitroLiq** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:13 am

That's great news!

cole · Post by **cole** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:45 am

Wow. This is very, very nice to see.

The vintage Marshall circuits are of course of interest to all guitar players of the rock/pop/blues genre. The kits are a great way to share the knowledge and get a hands on approach to learning not only about tubes and how they work, but also about some historical elements as well.

You could also discuss how this circuit (plexi) was originally a design straight from a Fender Bassman and discuss the major circuit similarities and the differences...hence, how the sound of rock was born.

Coincidentally, I was playing through a clean, unmodified '65 blackface Bassman just this past weekend and A/B'ed it against my own George-built Metro '68 spec. Not surprisingly, when cranked it came up with tones very close to the '68 Metro. Not a lot of players would believe that, but the reason for that is simply that these two circuits are almost identical.

We can thank the RCA engineers back in the day for coming up with the original circuit that eventually made its way into our hearts via Leo and Jim, and of course George.

Cole

rich2k4 · Post by **rich2k4** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:23 pm

that would be great to join a class in the chicago area, where i can learn to build amps using kits.

i don't know crap about amp electronics

Guitar Adjuster · Post by **Guitar Adjuster** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:56 pm

[quote="MacGaden"]That

thousandshirts · Post by **thousandshirts** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:05 am

That is freaking cool, man. That is just plain, stone-cold cool.

Post by **VelvetGeorge** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:35 am

Looked at the tracking this AM, the kits are out for delivery today!!!!

Please let us know that they all arrive safely.

george

NY Chief · Post by **NY Chief** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:47 am

Way cool, George!

You may be responsible for the re-birth of tube DIY'ers! The new Heathkit!

jctaudiodesigns · Post by **jctaudiodesigns** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:56 am

Hey all, we have received all the kits, and I have 9 very happy students ready to put them together. We meet last night and they are going to start this week by doing steps 1-5 on their own, but our first official build will be Sunday. I will take pictures and post them. We are going to also record some video and post it on the Conservatory's web site. www.cras.org

jctaudiodesigns · Post by **jctaudiodesigns** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:20 am

Well all went well on day one, but we did not finish. Most of the guys finished soldering all the wire to the board. We are going to do a part 2 next Sunday if all goes well. Here are some picts including a couple of pics of a board that one of the students is modding to become a JCM 800

The only problem we have had so far is that 3 pots were bad.

jctaudiodesigns · Post by **jctaudiodesigns** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:26 am

More picts

myfoot · Post by **myfoot** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:57 am

Nice! I'm looking forward to starting my next build in 6 weeks

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:27 am

It will be interesting to see how alike or different they all sound.