front the visitors of Metaltronix.net
1. I've heard the M-1000 described as a "hot-rodded"
Marshall. How is the M-1000 similar to a Marshall and where does the "hot-rodding"
come in?
Answer:
I guess that term started, because I was first known for taking Marshalls
and modifying them to sound better, Marshall originally copied the Fender
59 Bassman, with the only difference being the output tubes. So the similarities
of the M-1000 to the Marshall is the M-1000 uses the same kind of output stage(El-34/6550's),
but the Preamp section is totally custom and different.
2. What exactly did you do when you "hot-rodded"
Marshall amps?
Answer:
How we were different from other mod's is we would completely rip the guts
out the Marshall chassis and rebuild the amps to however the artist wanted
it.
3. How can I get my hands on schematics for
the M-1000 and/or the GP-1000 preamp?
Answer:
Their was never official schematics made for the M-1000 and the GP-1000, we
went from me designing it on the board to the production line, the M-1000
schematics that are floating around are from one of my European distributors
that drew it himself. Their will be a schematic for the GP-1000 in my new
schematic
book to be out soon.
4. As the owner of four GP-1000's I cannot
help noticing that each one has a slightly different circuit. How many circuits
were there?
Answer:
Their were two designs, the first one was a direct copy of my popular custom
made Deluxe amps which sounded like a modified Fender, the second version
came about because when I sent my salesman out they kept hearing musicians
asking if they were like my modified Marshalls, so at a sales meeting my sales
crew asked my to change them more like the hot-rodded Marshalls, so I don't
the tube DI and used the two extra tube stages for MORE gain.
5. Were there circuit differences based
on whose guitar tone was in mind? Ala George Lynch, Paul Gilbert, Akira Takasaki,
etc?
Answer:
The core of the amps are the same for each player, the only differences was
the extra stuff: Channel switching, tube effects loop, etc...
6. How many Metaltronix M-1000's were produced?
Answer:
It's hard to be exact, we made about 100-150 of the M-1000 heads a month for
6 years. Also my gear was shipped all over the world.
7. How many Metaltronix Blues '59 heads
were produced?
Answer:
We made about 50 heads a month for two years.
8. How many Killer Cabs were produced?
Answer:
We definitely sold more heads than cabinets, I would say around a 1000 all
together.
9. Any intention on resurrecting Metaltronix?
Answer:
Absolutely, I get between 20-30 thousand hits a day on my website www.leejackson.com
from players all over the world and about 500 emails a week, and a good portion
are from players asking me to start another amp company. It costs a truck
load of money to start an amp company so I'm looking for the right investors
right now.
10. Other than the amps you designed, what
is your favorite stock amplifier?
Answer:
Plexi Marshall
11. What are some of your favorite recorded
amp tones?
Answer:
Wow....that's hard their are so many, I like any tone that is real, clear
and defined.
12. What do you think of D.I. Recording?
Answer:
I think it is great for the right situation, Their is nothing like a Miked
tube amp, but I have found mixtures of both on recordings seem to work great.
The guitar emulators seem to be in there own frequency range that make them
stand out in the mix.
13. Looking back on the Metaltronix and Perfect
Connection line, how do you feel they compare to the Crate, Ampeg and Lee Jackson
stuff?
Answer:
Man you have the questions! Well the best way to answer is Life is all about
learning and each amp that I designed I learned...a lot! The Metaltronix stuff
was my first baby, and my first time to own a manufacturing business, so each
step was new. whereas working for Ampeg and Crate which were already established
amp companies, I had to work within there design frame, they did let me throw
away all the parts they were using and spec in my parts, but I had to design
a amp that didn't require soldering at all.
Lee Jackson Amplifiers was the culmination of all my years of designing, I
feel they are the best of all my design ideas in one box, I still have the
same two XLS heads off the production line, I have been playing through them
for 8 years with only changing the tubes.
14. In the eighties the market demanded a
high gain amplifier; what do you feel the market demands today?
Answer:
That's way too hard to define without knowing what market we are talking about.
15. What is the difference between the XLA-1000
series and the XLS-1000 series?
Answer:
The XLA series is designed after the custom amps I built for George Lynch,
Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde.
The XLS series was what I felt to be the next step in amp design, it creates
a wide variety of tones and features.
16. What is the difference between the Metaltronix
M-1000 and the M-1000 Series II amplifier?
Answer:
As I said earlier I was always learning and I found I had to strengthen the
chassis and remote the main circuit board etc..., so the Series II was all
the updates that made the heads more roadable.
17. What exactly did you use to coat the
Metaltronix amplifier chassis? I can't find that stuff anywhere!
Answer:
It's called Powdercoat, It's expensive and takes very special processes to
apply it.
18. I've owned three M-1000's; why do they
sound so different from each other?
Answer:
That's typical of any amp, their are so many parts that make up an amplifier
and each part has a 5 - 10% tolerance, when you add up all the variables the
amps come out sounding different.
19. What do you think about the Metaltronix.net
website?
Answer:
I think Jason has been doing a great job of pulling info from all over and
creating a place for Metaltronix players to find out more about their amps.
20. What are you doing now?
Answer:
Please go to: http://www.leejackson.com/History.htm
to get a more in depth story, but the short of it is I have been doing some
record producing, consulting and recently have been working with this guy
Tom Volpert which has developed a new form of data compression that has IBM,
Intel and Apple excited.
Thanks Lee for taking time to answer! And thanks to all you visitors for the great questions!
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