NY/NJ Amp Show: Great Stuff, Not Enough Time

Part 1: Metro, Carol-Ann, Lollar

I went to my first Amp Show on Saturday, the 3rd annual “New York” show, really held about an hour from New York City in Jersey – which was great because getting in and out of NYC is a b**ch!

Show doors opened at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and closed at 6:00 p.m. In case you’re wondering what it was like, it was not a trade show feel where you go in this cavernous warehouse-type place and stop by booths. Instead, each amp (or speaker, pickup, etc.) manufacturer had a room on the first two floors of the hotel where their amps were set up. You get a list of who’s in what room, and go in there and play – your guitar or one that was handy.

You were allowed one guitar per $20 entrance fee. I brought an Epiphone Gold Top with P-90s. Why? Several reasons. It’s the least-expensive guitar I own; it’ll reveal any flaws in an amp; and will also enhance a great-sounding amp. Plus the P-90s are sort of between a Strat-type single coil and regular humbuckers.

In the rooms, sometimes you’re playing really loud because you want to hear what the amp can do. A hundred watts in a hotel room, baby! Ever done that before? Me neither.

This was my experience.
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I had a 4-hour hall pass (4 hours at the show) from the wife, and figured with that I’d be able to check out every builder I wanted – because I had a short list and it was an 8-hour show. But it turned out that my 4 hours wasn’t nearly enough time.

Metropoulos First

When I got there at about 10:30, the show was already fairly crowded. I made a beeline for Metropoulos Amplification (aka Metro) because I’m an avid contributor to the excellent Eddie Van Halen forum over there, and hadn’t heard one of the Metro heads in person yet – but the many clips on there are just incredible.

I wanted to hear the sound I had in my head, that tone, before it got altered by listening to other amps at the show.

But I had to wait. Metro was kind of jammed. Not a line waiting outside, but no available amps either. Or rather, there were, but you didn’t really want to drown out someone else who got there first.

Drool!

I sat through a couple of people jamming VH, then heard a guy who said he was building a Metro kit play his Les Paul through the 10-series ’67-era Marshall head. The channels were jumpered a la Duane Allman with a Y cable, and the head was running through a THD Hot Plate.

Sounded amazing, like you could get just about any classic rock guitar sound out of that head that you wanted.

I finally got to plug into the head I wanted desperately to hear, the 12-series ’68-era Marshallesque head (a la Edward Van Halen) with a “virtual Variac” setting. Only one problem: No attenuator. For me, it was tough to hear what the head could really do because it was loud as hell and the P-90-equipped Epi Les Paul I brought wasn’t really doing that sound justice.

Then I plugged into the ’67-era attenuated head – what Metro calls the 10,000 Series – and it sounded [insert your favorite Woody adjective here]. I really would’ve loved to have tweaked some knobs, but a guy there was a little impatient (he didn’t try to hide it) to run his Strat through the ’66-era head (thanks buddy!).

Couldn’t really blame him and it didn’t matter. I’d gotten confirmation of what I assumed going in: That Metro heads sound friggin’ amazing. Think of the best Marshall you’ve ever heard, and that’s what you get.

I did talk with someone at Metro for a bit about what makes their heads so good, and the answer amounted to George Metropoulos being borderline crazy (in a good way) about specs, parts and, ultimately, tone. That I can believe. Metro’s got wood!

Did I whip off any sweet VH riffs in the Metro room? Unfortunately no. My plan to practice for an hour before I left – and thus have my chops up to semi-respectability – didn’t exactly pan out.

WoodyTone bottom line: Did I buy a Metropoulos head? I would’ve if I could’ve (dang recession) – in a heartbeat – but for now will have to save my pennies toward a head or a kit. Don’t know if I have the time for a kit build (maybe this winter), but $1K and some sweat for the best-sounding Marshall you’ve ever heard sounds pretty good.

Carol-Ann Next

I am gradually being convinced that Joe Bonamassa has a serious pair of WoodyTone-sniffing ears. Because of him, I got turned onto the best stompbox I’ve ever heard (writeup coming soon!). That’s a major reason why I wanted to check out the Carol-Ann amps.

I believe Joe initially liked the Carol-Ann OD2 in 100 watts (can anyone check me on that?), but now has a signature Carol-Ann JB100 with Marshallesque EL-34 tubes. At the Amp Show I played the Carol-Ann OD-2 50-watt version, which apparently has been recently changed from EL-34s to 6L6s.

I’ll try to describe it as best I can. Wonderful tone – clear and expressive even when distorted – and high-volume clarity/definition even at low volume. I think that clarity is helped by the 6L6s, maybe also by the speaker cab which had JBLs, I believe [actually EVs – see reader comment below].

I haven’t played every amp under the sun, but I can say I’ve never played an amp that sounded like that one. It’s definitely one I would have wanted to play through and tweak for a couple of days straight.

On the one hand you should expect that it would sound good with Joe Bonamassa’s endorsement – and a $3,000+ price tag (yowch)! But on the other hand, you can’t really expect what you haven’t heard before. What I heard was super sweet, super nice. I REALLY wanted to hear it at band volume, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

WoodyTone bottom line: I don’t know how to save up for that head, but I want to. Maybe I have to. But for that kind of money, I’d for sure have to play it again for a while to make sure I loved it.

Detour at Lollar

I was at the show to play through amps, so was about to walk by the Lollar Guitars (pickups) room when spotted a guitar with Lollar P-90s in it. Had to try it.

First I watched and listened to a guy – a red-haired dude I think from Boston – play some blues like someone just shot his dog. Great stuff, which left me thinking that I better play something totally different so as not to sound like a dufus in comparison.

So I plugged the Agile Les Paulish guitar with Lollar P-90s into a Fender Deluxe Reverb and hit a few “Won’t Get Fooled Again” chords. Did some noodling, then switched to the Epi. Then did the switch a couple more times.

I noticed two things. One is that the stock Epi pickups sound pretty darn good, which I already knew. The other is that the Lollar P-90s sounded noticeably better. The best way I can describe it is that the Lollar P-90s had more of a full-spectrum tone – sort of “more ambient” or “hi fi” (dynamic?) – while the Epi P-90s had a similar general tone but “narrower.”

I was about to buy a Lollar P-90 bridge pickup when one of the Lollar folks handed me a different Agile Les Paul with Les Paul Deluxe-type mini-humbuckers. He said no one gives those pickups a shot, so I did, and…

…they sounded great (of course). I’m by no means a mini-hum connoisseur, but these things sound somewhere between the airiness of a P-90 and the muscle of a typical PAF full-sized humbucker. Lollar’s info says “brighter and tighter than a full-sized humbucker – sweet played soft, gnarly played hard.” I agree.

They are also drop-in replacements (sold with pickup-mounting rings) for all P-90 guitars. So I had a decision to make, and…I haven’t made one yet.

WoodyTone bottom line: There’s a Lollar in my future. Maybe a Deluxe too….

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OK, this is getting long. Part 2 up soon!

Category: Amp Show, Carol-Ann amps, Joe Bonamassa, Lollar, Metropoulos (Metro) amps