Monster Factory Amplification

[jackal]

okay, now i can almost bet that no one here has a clue who monster factory is.. they have been my dirty little secret for a while but now i'll let that secret out.. Monster Factory is a very small family owned bussiness that makes top end amps, sort of a Krank style amp... My fav is SWAMP THANG. It's a mean looking crocodile skin Monster.. When you call write company the guy that answers is the owner and the guy that makes the amps.. lol thats how cool is that.. they fully customize there amp, there kind of simple structure like a krank, but have the top end of a marshall and big bottom end of a boogie..

Check it out http://www.monsterfactoryamps.com/

tell me what you think guys

[jackal]

This a a reply i got from Monster Factory on there amps.. enjoy, by the way Hoyt Harness that wrote me is the owner and guy that makes and tests the amps...


Hey JB -

Thanks for the inquiry! It's always cool to hear from the axe-wielders in the trenches.

The Swamp Thang is loaded with Eminence Swamp Thang speakers. You won't believe this, but that was a complete fluke. The amp was already named by the time I started searching for a suitable speaker and I had tentatively planned to use Celestion Vintage 30's. The problem with the V30's was they had a much stronger mid-range spike than I really wanted coming out of the amp. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Celestion fan and always will be, but in the end it's about the right tone for the job. Anyway, those Swamp Thang speakers had the response curve I wanted (very close to the V30 curve) and they had the mid-range smoothness I was after. With twice the power rating of the V30, the fact that Eminence designed them for that heavy American sound, and the irony of the name, it was a perfect match. In short, they rock in this cab and with this head. Period.

Do we ship to Canada? You bet. It's a little more expensive to send something from here to you, as you probably well know, and Canadian Customs can slow things down, but that's not a show stopper for us as long as you're aware of it ahead of time. Send me a zip code and I'll send you a shipping estimate. Be advised - this is a heavy half-stack - and I'm not just talking about the sound of it. The transformers alone are twice the size of any other amp in its class.

I took some time and listened to your music on your MySpace and here's my take on comparing the two amps. First off, tone is subjective and no two people will describe the same sound the same way. Knowing this, I'll try to be as factual as I can without saying, "Dude, my amp crushes the Mesa" or some other such nonsense. Statements like that really mean nothing. Anyway, here goes:

The Rectifier series amps are awesome tone machines for sure. I'm a big Mesa fan myself. Back in the 80's, a Seattle amp tech by the name of Mike Soldano finally broke into the manufacturing market with his flagship, the Super Lead Overdrive 100 (SLO100). The SLO was a high gain hard rock amp that immediately set the metal world on fire. Until that time, Marshall was the undisputed king of heavy rock and their JCM800 ruled. The funny thing is, Marshall didn't actually build a high gain amp until the 90's with the introduction of the JCM900 series and their decision to go this route was inspired by Soldano. Randall Smith of Mesa Engineering fame had been building high gain combos throughout the 70's, which were hotrodded versions of Fender's Blackface circuit. The SLO was an extremely modified version of the Fender Tweed Bassman/Marshall circuit and sounded differently. The amp world took notice and the result was Mesa's Rectifier series, Marshall's SL-X series, and Peavey's 5150 series. Each one of these was inspired and significantly influenced by the sound and design of the SLO100, yet they each have a unique character. The Swamp Thang is a direct descendant of all these amps and represents what I believe to be the best of all of them.

The Dual Rectifier has a heavy bottom end, strong midrange, and subdued highs. The overdrive character is smooth as compared to the more gravelly sound of the JCM800. The Swamp Thang has a heavy bottom and strong midrange, but it has a brighter top end, too. The Swamp Thang has more gain than a Dual Rectifier, but keep in mind that gain doesn't necessarily equal distortion and distortion doesn't necessarily require gain. Speaking of distortion, the Swamp Thang has much more of this on tap than the Mesa does - to the point of being unusable in my mind. Here's what I mean:

The overdrive channel of the preamp section has the potential to create mind altering distortion, as well as loads of noise. You simply can't get all the grind out of a tube amp without noise. With the gain knob maxed, the noise floor is the highest and using the footswitch to select the clean channel when you're not playing is a must. The amount of distortion at this level is more than any production amp I've heard. Heavy rock is the main style of music I design for, but I feel most comfortable with the gain knob around 12 o'clock on the Swamp Thang. Keep in mind that there are four tube gain stages in the preamp. On top of this, I designed the power amp to act as a fifth gain stage. Amps this big and powerful never allow the player to get into power amp distortion until you're way past the point of being too loud to be usable. Depending on how much drive you have dialed into the front end, you can get a healthy amount of power amp overdrive before you reach ear splitting levels. Maxing everything will put you in the realm of way too much distortion and way too much volume, to the point of being unusable. The reason I did that is so you'd know when you reach the point of getting all there is and there ain't no more, instead of maxing out a knob and wishing there really was more.

Production amp manufacturers like Mesa have to build for the bottom line, which is produce as many amps as the factory can muster, keep as many of them from coming back as possible, and keep the profit margin as wide as possible. I build each Monster amp by hand and by myself. I don't worry about the bottom line and I can afford to spend my personal time helping my customers achieve their own unique tone... which is why I spent so much time on this email.

I hope this helps you a little in your quest for tone. I love tube amps and I'm happy to help you whether you ever buy an amp from me or not. Keep on rockin' in a free world, JB, and be sure and let me know anything else you need. As for clips, I'll be recording and posting some demo vids of some of my amps on youtube soon, including the Swamp Thang. Keep checking back on our website (www.monsterfactoryamps.com) and our MySpace (www.myspace.com/monsterfactoryamps) and we'll make the announcement soon!

Take care!

Hoyt Harness
Monster Factory Amplification
www.monsterfactoryamps.com
www.myspace.com/monsterfactoryamps

[MrSandMan]

You're right, I never heard of Monster Amps, but I really like what they are about. I would love to hear some clips, it does remind me much of Krank. You can tell he is dedicated and insightful... that's a good thing.

I wish they were closer to me, I'd love to go meet him and check out his amps!

[jackal]

Yeah i was amazed because when you right a company you get that stock answer.. Dear Sir thankyou for writing, blah blah... and the never answer your question right, this guy nailed it and went even deeper, all my question was for him is how does his amp sound wise compare to say a boogie sound? and that was his answer, lol. seems like a great guy

[MrSandMan]

Yeah, I get sick of the copy and paste "robot" replies. This guy proves he takes pride in his work.

[Monster]

hmmm i will have to check these out just for the fact name Monster......LOL

[jackal]

yeah monter, lol He acctually makes amps disigned after real monster, so like the Vampyre, Hunchback, Jekyll-n-Hyde, and others. cool idea eh? and each with there own unique sound

[MrSandMan]

Hey I read through his website and his email. I also checked out his Myspace. I was hoping that he could direct us to working bands using his amp. That'd be could if he donated a some amps to a few kick ass bands for myspace and networking exposure.

[jackal]

I acctually wrote him again and asked just that same question.. do any bands use his amps? if so who? if not would he concider endorsing someone for exposure.

[Monster]

hah thats funny cause i also sent him a email asking if any famous bands use this amp..... plus a few other questions.....

[senor_penguin]

wow. teh bt00talz from monsters. too bad they're 2 grand lol

[jackal]

Yeah i want to buy one too, i'm acctually working out a deal, hopefully within the year i my have a custom amp..
# grand in total for a good tube amp i think is about normal... I paid 3200.00 for my mesa stack

[MrSandMan]

I emailed Hoyt and invited him to join us on the boards. :)

[senor_penguin]

^ nice!!! would be a great and knowledgeable member

[jackal]

oh yeah, he would.. you can't tell he knows what he's doing, not only because he makes amps, but just how he speaks about his work, very informative..

You don't get many chances to talk to someone who makes the amps right??

has anyone spoke to jim marshall lately? LOL

[Monster Factory]

Hello all. Cool thread, by the way, and thanks for the invite! It'll take me a while to really check the place out.

Hoyt

[jackal]

Welcome Hoyt, glad you could join us and be a part of helping people get the right information about music equipment..
by the way thanx for all the help and info you gave me about your amps.. very helpfull.

:2thumbups:


JB

[MrSandMan]

Welcome to the boards Hoyt :sweet:

You're amps are sweet looking. Love the green touch. The monster sounds crisp. I can't wait to hear more clips
:2thumbups:

[ww12]

welcome to the site. Awesome amps :2thumbups:

[Monster Factory]

>...thanx for all the help and info you gave me about your amps.. very helpfull.

Not at all - it's just part of it. And I appreciate all the other comments, too. Since you guys don't have any problem speaking your minds, here's something you can help me with if you're interested:

I'm sketching out some scripting for youtube videos that will basically be demos of my amps. If it works out like I think, then I'll use those instead of sound clips/songs on the website. Generally, people don't really trust sound clips and they sure don't trust complete songs. We know that all kinds of tricky things can be done in the studio and the better your sample is, the less people want to trust that it wasn't doctored in some way. You can doctor the audio portion of video clips just as easily, but there's something to be said of seeing things, too, which brings me to the second reason for doing this: I want to be able to give people a visual introduction to these amps while they're hearing them.

All that's well and good, but what I'd really like to know is, what do today's players want to know? If you could tell an amp manufacturer to send you a video of a particular amp, what would you want highlighted? What would you want explained? What would you want to hear - more playing and less talk? I assure you, I will take your suggestions in the highest regard and you'll see that when these videos hit the web. I'll be ready to shoot these within two weeks, so I'll need any comments by then. Just post right here and I'll see them.

Thanks in advance!

Hoyt

[MrSandMan]

Hi Hoyt.

I make video blogs for Gear-Vault.com and it's fun. I simply mic the cab with a SM57 to a small behringer mixer and run it out into the JVC HD MG-555 mic input.

Another thing you could do is video the amp and add a MP3 track over the video. I have not done this, but it is an option.

You can see my youtube videos here: http://youtube.com/user/GearVault
(some videos are my customers playing the gear they purchased from me)

I would suggest making several videos. Video blogs need to be updated just like regular written blogs. I would have some videos with verbal demonstrations and all the other videos of playing.

I'd also suggest breaking the videos up. Like Make a 1 minute video of clean, then make a 1 minute video of crunch, another video of crunch with neck pick up, then heavy distortion video, and etc....

This will be easier for the listening if they are researching a particular tone clip, rather than listening through 8 minutes of playing of random tones. You'll also benefit because you are getting more videos 'out' there.

You might also want to make a video with short demos of 3 settings to sum up the amp for your website. This will be a teaser video to get the listener interested into clicking your youtube account to hear more Monster amp.

That's just my 2 cents. I'm sure other guys here will love to chime in for more insight.

[jackal]

o0o0 and chime i will, :yess:

Ok I'll try to make this short but usefull.. I personally perfer less talk more play.. If you want to explain you amps, then make a video just explaining what they are and what the can do.. then like mr.sandman said make a few more, one clean, distortion, etc.. Everyone now adays seems to know the basics of setting up and amp, so i dont think players need to feel like they have to explain every knob on the amp anymore... we all know what gain does.. speaking of witch, i'm very very much looking forward to this "Over the top" amount of gain your amp includes, make sure to make a video of you amp pushing the limits.. oh and don't use any pedals or fx on the vid's because like you said people are not very trusting. and we all know the effects of a good hidden equilizer..

I know no matter what video you make that amp is going to sound amazingly raunchy :w:

JB

[MrSandMan]

Hoyt,

What brand of tubes come in the Monster amp? Have you tried 12AT7 or 12DW7 in the V2? I love the fact that it has 6L6GCs loaded in it.

I just made videos of the Mark IV tonight. I didn't have the chance to mic it... it's just through the video cam mic, big mistake that was. Ah well, I'm still posting it on youtube.

[Monster]

welcome to the site... Hoyt....... :w:

[Monster Factory]

Great suggestions so far. Keep'em coming.

>What brand of tubes come in the Monster amp?

Each model is dfferent, but I tend to use JJ's more than any other brand. I sometimes use the Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH for phase inverter positions. Sino (Chinese) have some pretty good miniatures and power tubes. Many of the newer tooled Russian tubes have reliable standards as well.

The Swamp Thang seems to be the amp you guys are most interested in and it has four JJ ECC83's, one Sovtek 12AT7 (effects loop), and the four JJ 6L6GC's you mentioned. Every amp I build is designed for the specific tube type that comes in it. 12AT7, 12AU7, 12DW7, etc., are all different in terms of gain, which affects the tube's transconductance, output voltage, operating point, etc. The ECC83/12AX7 is the highest gain on the market with a factor of 100. Real tubes aren't perfect devices and perform less than that, but you get the idea. This means that a perfect tube in the ideal circuit can make it's output voltage 100 times bigger than it's input voltage, or a 3 volt signal would become a 300 volt signal.

By way of comparison:

12AX7 = Gain Factor: 100
12AT7 = Gain Factor: 60
12AY7 = Gain Factor: 45
12AV7 = Gain Factor: 41
12AU7 = Gain Factor: 19

When you swap tube types in a fixed circuit, the new tube type won't 'perform' optimally. That's not to say, however, that it won't 'sound' exactly like you want. After all, most of the mojo of a tube amp comes from it's imperfections. Everything we like about them is something it does that it shouldn't, so mix n' match til your heart's content.

[jackal]

Do you have any other Monster themes in mind??

Do you have any plans on "Monter-ize"ing Guitars?

[Monster Factory]

>Do you have any other Monster themes in mind??

I sure do and I've hinted at them already, but I can't let the cat (...or rather the MONSTER) too far out of the bag, now can I? I will say this much...

* One of them is a very British version of the Swamp Thang circuit style. It's own beast, for sure, but in that high gain sort of "vein", if you get my drift. The platform will be very coffin-like and I'm having some special hardware made for it.

* Another one will share the American heavy bass/scooped mids sound of the Swamp Thang, but will be almost twice the power. It'll be a full stack, but only as tall as the Swamp Thang. I can't say any more.

* There's another full stack like the previous one, except it's over 7 feet tall and 400 watts. I know, you don't need all that power - which is why the power amp section is modular - connect one section for 200W or both sections for 400W. You can even disconnect and remove both power sections and just use the preamp. Putting it together is sort of like building a 7 foot tall monster - which should give you a clue what it's called.

* I'm also working on a new series which will be all combos from 5 to 60 watts and they'll all share similar tone. If you use a 15W at home and get a 60W for the stage, the settings you use on your effects at home will be the same settings you'll use with the bigger amp on the road - it'll only be louder.

There's more, but I'm keeping a lid on it for now.

Don't forget that you don't have to wait for a new MONSTER to come along. You can order a completely custom amp any time. I'll work with you on the design and circuitry to get where you need to go. Look at the MONSTER-izer section of the website and you'll see the general circuit options I do. Those are really just MONSTER circuits that I put in existing amps - much cheaper for a lot of folks. Any custom amp I build will be based on these circuits. The Boneyard Series amps are limited to those options specified on the website. I've got costs cut down to the absolute minimum on those and there's no room to maneuver outside of the options listed. I'll actually be taking a loss on the 30% discount I'm offering this spring, but I've got to get more amps out there somehow or I'll never break into the mainstream.

>Do you have any plans on "Monter-ize"ing Guitars?

I haven't really considered it, but virtually anything is possible...

[jackal]

AHHHH!! you get me al worked up, lol....your teasing me hehe

I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve... :jumpgrin:

They sound like great amps already

[MrSandMan]

* Another one will share the American heavy bass/scooped mids sound of the Swamp Thang, but will be almost twice the power. It'll be a full stack, but only as tall as the Swamp Thang. I can't say any more.

This here really got my attention. :biggrin:

[jackal]

7 feet tall, I like the sounds of that one.... and i should be able to figure the name out but i draw a blank, lol... it wil come to me
Great ideas hoyt

[Monster]

sound like a something i would wanna buy when its done.... cant wait to find out more or see the final product.....

[jackal]

yeah it sounds mean doesn't it!!

[MrSandMan]

Monster Factory Amps :w:

[Juggernaut]

So are the Boneyard amps just the Weber Kits put together?

[Monster Factory]

Not exactly. They're based on those and use some of his stuff, but they have my 'improvements', which vary from model to model. Most use the same chassis, cabs, and iron, but some have circuit, component, tube, and/or other changes. I'm slowly moving toward completely different circuit boards for all of them, but the outsource pricing is holding things up. I can do straight builds of those for less if someone wanted that or as Ted refers them to me, but that's not my main gig. Whatever buys the do-nuts, though.

[jackal]

BUMP