Plexi Amps

[shogunlegend]

what are plexitone amps and what's the deal with them anyway? i hear plexi thrown around a lot, but have yet to really understand what it is or how it sounds. is this something only from marshall, or just some kind of amp technology? can anyone explain or provide some sound samples of plexi amps (excluding pod xt models please)?

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Plexi Amps

The term "plexi" just refers to the plexi glass panels used on the late 60's Marshall amps. Marshall went to the brushed metal face in 1970.

Original plexis are considered by some to the be "holy grail" of sound, and the current market price of an original is waaaaaay out of the budget for most of us.

Google is you friend on this topic as there is enough about old Marshalls online to keep you busy.

 

[3th3r]

Re: Plexi Amps

Here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://archive.ampage.org/threads/4/gagd/278534/What_is_Plexi_anyways-1.html
http://voodooamps.com/pleximyth.html
http://www.legendarytones.com/marshallshoppers1.html

After reading these, search YouTube to hear countless "Plexi" clips.

 

[mediumpimpin]

Re: Plexi Amps

What do original plexis go for these days? Are they as ridiculous as early Les Pauls?

 

[shogunlegend]

Re: Plexi Amps

thanks, i got the jist of it. i was snooping around for a more eric johnson tone and found out that he uses marshall plexis. i tried playing some of his stuff on a tsl 602 and dsl 401, but didn't have a similar tone. i got much closer with my fender supersonic.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Plexi Amps

thanks, i got the jist of it. i was snooping around for a more eric johnson tone and found out that he uses marshall plexis. i tried playing some of his stuff on a tsl 602 and dsl 401, but didn't have a similar tone. i got much closer with my fender supersonic.

Acyually Eric Johnson uses Plexis and Fender Deluxe Reverbs. He A/B's them and has certain effects setup for each amp. He works as hard with his feet as he does with his hands. See here

http://guitargeek.com/rigview/588/

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: Plexi Amps

Be ready to pay BIG bucks for a Plexi, (20, 50 or 100 watts), if you want a'vintage' type of tone then they are worth it, Metal guys from the '70s-90s did not use Plexis with some exceptions VH, being one, but his was not stock) they used the metal face Marshalls with a pedal/preamp, to push the amp ovr the top.

Actually it was stock.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: Plexi Amps

If you want them to sound as best as they can, they have to be cranked all th eway up, (not 6 or 7, but ALL the way up) from my experience - playing out of a Plexi - they sound BEST when cranked. Some peopel say "hey, mine sounds "awesome" at 5-6," but ask yourself, just who played their Plexis at 5-6, not many!

Actually a lot of guys played them around 5-6 in the 60s and 70s and got a great sound. Not the classic sound you would expect for your money, but still a really good sound. My non-masters and plexi sound fine on 5-6 but yeah, to get that CLASSIC plexi sound you gotta go higher. I disagree that you need to peg them. I think that they actually get muddy that way, but we all have our favorite way to play a plexi or metal face. I usually like mine around 8 1/2. Jump the channels for more sound options as well.

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: Plexi Amps

Really??

I didn't know Marshalls came with a variac

Variacs are not part of the amp.

 

[Majestic]

Re: Plexi Amps

VH, MODIFIED his amp by putting in a variac, thus making his NOT original

He didn't "put in" anything.

The VariAC was just a voltage regulator that sat between the amp and the wall outlet, lowering the voltage available to the amp, so he could crank it to 10 in the club and studio without people's ears bleeding.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Plexi Amps

Does it really matter at this point? None of us have EVH's fingers, so lets move on.

For the record, a VariAC is no more an amp "mod" than a Hot Plate is.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Plexi Amps

I'm a big fan of the plexi tone, but also need more, like a great Fenderish clean and monsterous gain. I found my dream amp in the Bogner Ecstasy, which has the blue channel. On this amp, I can assign either the blue or red channels to plexi mode, which configures their EQ like a Plexi. However, there's more gain on tap, unlike the originals.

One thing about the plexi tone is it sits in the mix perfectly, because it's mids sit in between bass and drums just right. Before, I used a 72 Marshall Superbass and Blues Pearl Fender clones to get my sound, but hated lugging it all around. The Ecstasy will nail all the best plexi tones, even outdoing most plexis I've heard, while also giving me 2 or 3 other useable tones at the flick of a switch. Where most other highgain amps fail is that they don't have excellent midgain tones or plexi type tones. Bogner nailed it.

Check out this link
http://www.americanmusic.com/gtr_bogner/ecstacyhalfstack.html

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: Plexi Amps

Oh c'mon:banghead:
"He didn't put it in??"
Then how on earth did it get there? It didn't come with one , did it??
So if it didn't come with one originally and "someone" installed it, that would make NOT stock, right??

ANd yes, I know very well what it is, I've been reading about for 20 years.

Stop talking about stuff you don't know anything about. If you knew half of what you think you know, you would know that its an external device you plug the amp into that sits between the amps power cord and the wall. Its not "installed" into anything.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Plexi Amps

In case anyone is looking for such a VariAC...

http://www.cathedralstone.net/Pages/TenmaVariac.htm

 

[Fender_Punk]

Re: Plexi Amps

Acyually Eric Johnson uses Plexis and Fender Deluxe Reverbs. He A/B's them and has certain effects setup for each amp. He works as hard with his feet as he does with his hands. See here

http://guitargeek.com/rigview/588/

I's hate to be his sound guy!

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Plexi Amps

Oh yeah, it not installed?
Tell me where I can buy a variac that "plugs" into an amp.

Can you do this, YES OR NO?!

If you don't think altering the AC flow changes tone on an amp, then you ought to go back to drawing those pretty little houses (w/ smoke coming out of the chimney) and let musicians carry on this discussion.

Actually, to my knowledge TheArchitect is right.
He didn't plug it in, he just plugged the cable into the Variac and the Variac into the wall.
If he has modified anything inside the amp it wasn't that...

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Plexi Amps

Oh yeah, it not installed?
Tell me where I can buy a variac that "plugs" into an amp.

Can you do this, YES OR NO?!

 

[Stratovarious]

Re: Plexi Amps

Oh yeah, it not installed?
Tell me where I can buy a variac that "plugs" into an amp.

Can you do this, YES OR NO?!

If you don't think altering the AC flow changes tone on an amp, then you ought to go back to drawing those pretty little houses (w/ smoke coming out of the chimney) and let musicians carry on this discussion.

Are you Retarded, YES OR NO?

 

[Majestic]

Re: Plexi Amps

"He didn't put it in??"
Then how on earth did it get there? It didn't come with one , did it??
So if it didn't come with one originally and "someone" installed it, that would make NOT stock, right??

For our purposes in guitar-related discussions, power attenuation, or cranking the volume, is a MUST with Plexis. You either use an attenuator, or crank it naturally. Either way, the volume knob is way up there, if not dimed.

This is in NO WAY different from how almost every popular recording artist I'm aware of uses their Plexis. I suppose somewhere there's someone who plays it with the volume on 3, but I'm not aware of them.

Eddie's was a giant friggin' attenuator that sits outside the amp.

Now, if you want to argue that not all attenuators sound the same, or that using a VariAC rolls-off more high end than a Weber Mass, or Hot Plate, or Power Brake, or miking the cabinet in an Isolation Cab, etc., then we'd understand your point.

But that's not what you're trying to say. You're trying to say Eddie's amp wasn't stock.

What's funny is that a few threads up, in the Line 6 Bogner thread, there's an interview with Bogner, where he says he looked inside Eddie's amp, but it was just "spec" (i.e. stock).

I don't know what else to say. This has been old news since that article in 1995, when his amp was shipped to Denmark or wherever to be repaired.

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: Plexi Amps

Oh yeah, it not installed?
Tell me where I can buy a variac that "plugs" into an amp.

Can you do this, YES OR NO?!

If you don't think altering the AC flow changes tone on an amp, then you ought to go back to drawing those pretty little houses (w/ smoke coming out of the chimney) and let musicians carry on this discussion.

WTF are you babbling about? You were talking about modifying the amp with a variac. You don't make a single change to any circuit or component in the amp to use a variac numb nuts. Of course modification of the AC level effects the sound but that doesn't have jack to do with whether or not the amp was modified.

An for the record, a variac doesn't plug into an amp. If you could actually comprehend written words you would know I never said anything of the sort. You even quoted me saying just the opposite dumbass. The amp plugs into the variac, the variac is plugged into the wall socket.

Are you about done making yourself look foolish?