Metropoulos Factory Visit

[DetroitBlues]

I was offered a chance yesterday to visit Metropoulos Amplification yesterday.  The purpose was to replace the cabinet of the Metroplex with the correct orientation.  Original cabinet was an early prototype and it was built upside down.

I was able to meet George yesterday and most of his staff.  Very nice people and all guitar players!

In a way it reminded me of how Heritage used to be.  Odd collections of machinery; some in use and some covered in dust.    They not only hand wire the amps, they also build their own cabinets from void-free birch plywood (9 layers deep), custom tolex, all of which is done with such pride that every detail is taken in account.  In the room where the cabinets were made, there was lots of saw dust and some things covered in tarps and cobwebs.  Reminded so much of the factory floor of Heritage years and years ago.

There were old vintage Marshall Amps and cabinets everywhere.  Plus many other vintage amps, I think I even saw a tweed Bassman. In every corner it seemed to be vintage and new speakers, guitars, and guitar cases everywhere for testing out this amps.   Most of which were rather old and probably valuable.  The guitars reminded me of the prototype rack that contained everything Heritage worked on including the ghost builds. 

i didn’t take any photos of the manufacturing areas out of respect to the company, but I did get a few photos of their demo room after asking permission.

This alone was worth the price of admission…

Check out this vintage Marshall amps and cabinets

Edited January 17 by DetroitBlues

[pressure]

Fun tour, I have great respect for Metropoulos amps.That reminds me of Jim Ws front room. Ha.

[bolero]

Lol, too funny pressure 😅

DB that's supercool!

Thanks for the pics. Very impressive & looks like a fun place to explore.

I see they're setup to compare the EVH stripped cab approach to regular, too

[Dick Seacup]

They're near Flint somewhere, yeah? Sounds like pretty awesome customer service. I get a kick out of 'factory tours' at small businesses like that (and old Heritage). At one of the PSPs, Jim W/Alicia took me (and I think bolero) along to a powder coating company. I still have the baseball hat the guy gave me. We also hit the Bigsby 'factory' (more of a garage, really). Maybe I should swing by Metropolous and check it out (not an owner; just appreciate folks that are still actually making things). 

[Heritage1970]

Very cool to read stories like this about great, hands on companies that really care about their products and those that use them. Hopefully they can maintain things how they currently are. Definitely makes me think though: is it possible for a company to expand and grow and still keep that "down to Earth-Mom & Pop" vibe? History leads me to say no. It's understandable that businesses want to grow and expand. That's the whole point right? I've seen numerous companies in this exact position through the years that claim they'll maintain that down home feel, but once you start getting bigger and bigger and bigger, it just seems like it's impossible to do. More employees come in, more offices, bigger facilities, etc, etc, and that all just eventually seems to squash out the "people next door to you doing business" vibe. Sad but almost unavoidable I guess....

[tbonesullivan]

23 hours ago, Heritage1970 said:

Very cool to read stories like this about great, hands on companies that really care about their products and those that use them. Hopefully they can maintain things how they currently are. Definitely makes me think though: is it possible for a company to expand and grow and still keep that "down to Earth-Mom & Pop" vibe? History leads me to say no. It's understandable that businesses want to grow and expand. That's the whole point right? I've seen numerous companies in this exact position through the years that claim they'll maintain that down home feel, but once you start getting bigger and bigger and bigger, it just seems like it's impossible to do. More employees come in, more offices, bigger facilities, etc, etc, and that all just eventually seems to squash out the "people next door to you doing business" vibe. Sad but almost unavoidable I guess....

There are some companies that have chosen to stay they size they are. The growth model is not for everyone, and also comes with a ton of risks. One of those IS the loss of that feel and work ethic. Look at Soldano amplifiers: they never really grew huge, and then joined up with Boutique Amp Distribution after they had to close the factory.

[Heritage1970]

3 hours ago, tbonesullivan said:

There are some companies that have chosen to stay they size they are. The growth model is not for everyone, and also comes with a ton of risks. One of those IS the loss of that feel and work ethic. Look at Soldano amplifiers: they never really grew huge, and then joined up with Boutique Amp Distribution after they had to close the factory.

That's always great to see. Rare. But definitely great and makes me want to get behind them 110%.

[tbonesullivan]

On 1/17/2025 at 10:15 AM, DetroitBlues said:

I was offered a chance yesterday to visit Metropoulos Amplification yesterday.  The purpose was to replace the cabinet of the Metroplex with the correct orientation.  Original cabinet was an early prototype and it was built upside down.

I was able to meet George yesterday and most of his staff.  Very nice people and all guitar players!

Just noticed this part. Curious, how was it "upside down"? Was the rare panel attached incorrectly? Or was the vent on the bottom?

[TalismanRich]

I wondered the same thing.   It looked normal to me.

[DetroitBlues]

On 1/19/2025 at 2:10 PM, tbonesullivan said:

There are some companies that have chosen to stay they size they are. The growth model is not for everyone, and also comes with a ton of risks. One of those IS the loss of that feel and work ethic. Look at Soldano amplifiers: they never really grew huge, and then joined up with Boutique Amp Distribution after they had to close the factory.

Handle was on the bottom and feet on the top.  It was a simple mistake because it was assumed the controls were on the top edge, not the bottom.

[bolero]

Probably the dumbass cabinet builder

[DetroitBlues]

On 1/20/2025 at 11:49 PM, bolero said:

Probably the dumbass cabinet builder

[bolero]

🤣

I bet it is exceptionally well made though!

"Well made amps for well hung guitar players"

[Genericmusic]

 

[Steiner]

Blues, You made it!  I love that place.  I’ve been there a few times.  I agree with your analogy of the OG Heritage.  They are dedicated to delivering the vintage sound and feel akin to the old guard in Kalamazoo.  A small shop with some 8 people cranking out their designs.  I think they just got to 4 or 5 amps per week.  Everybody comes across as happy at their tasks and very proud of their accomplishments-they should be.

Soldano sold to BAD.  I used to visit them every so often in Ballard, WA.  On my last trip Mike talked about selling the brand and retiring.  The end of DeYoung transformers was the last straw.  IIRC, there were 5 or 6 employees. They purchased their bare cabs and wrapped them in-house.  It always amazed me that so few people could make such a big wave in music.

BAD now owns Soldano, Friedman, Egnater and Bogner pedals; probably a few others too.  They redesigned the Soldano SLO and GTO pedal but haven’t released any earth shattering devices.

For the time, I’m sticking with Metropoulos.  With only 4 models released since Covid, he’s captured the sound of the JTM 45, JTM 45-100, 1959 SuperPlex and a now extinct ditty George created with Alice in Chains’ guitarist+vocalist William DuVall that wraps the 45/45-100/SuperPlex into 1 head called the DVL-1.  Each model captures the sound in my head and constitutes 95% of play time since we were all ordered to stay home; no problem 😊 

We’re lucky to have awesome amps and guitars being produced so close to home!