NAD - I bought a Plex

[LucSulla]

Successfully moved some gear on to new owners, and since my Florida Gator are god awful this year, looks like I'm saving some money every month on a live TV subscription. Sweetwater had some demo units available for quite a bit off, so I figured what the hell. You only live once. 

So now I have a Friedman Plex. 

[DaveH]

Tone report when you have time.

[mrjamiam]

4 hours ago, DaveH said:

Tone report when you have time.

And don't forget to describe its acoustic voice!

[LucSulla]

Tone report is:

[LucSulla]

In all seriousness, I haven't gotten to play it a ton, but it's a Plexi. I dialed in a tone I liked in like five seconds, which is why I love single channel, Marshall circuits so much. For me, options are good on paper, but practically, I just want something that is straightforward. 

It's modeled on Dave's 1968 JMP 50 watt, and is supposedly a faithful recreation of the sound of that particular amp. I've never played Dave's JMP for many reasons, not the least of which is not knowing him at all, so I can't say how much they sound the same. For years on Tone Talk, he's said that his is pretty gain happy, and this thing sure is. I tend to believe the hype due to that.

As far as bells and whistles, they are pretty limited and are largely based off what you might find in the 70s rather than the 80s on a modded Marshall. First thing is the bright cap, which a lot of people changed or just snipped all together in old, four-hole Marshalls. This amps gives you the option of three different bright cap settings  FOR EACH VOLUME. This is actually a really neat feature. The amp is internally jumpered, which supposedly preserves more signal than the patch cable method of yore. You just have a high and low input, and if you plug into high, your Volume 1 (lead) and Volume 2 (bass) both work as you would expect on any vintage Marshall (might work the same on the Low input too - haven't tried that). I believe the bright switches for both are the usual for Friedmans with this option: center - no bright cap, left - brighter, right - brightest. The stock Plexi setting would be center on V2 and right on V1, which makes sense. I don't think the V1 options would be all that surprising, though it's cool to be able to pick your poison. However, being able to throw a bright cap into the V2 channel really does way more than I would have guessed. The different settings really give that channel a lot more versatility than your regular old Bass channel, which is pretty neat, particularly when you start blending. 

The amp has a built in variac that knocks the voltage down from whatever your wall gives you to 90 volts. Internally, it adjusts the bias accordingly, so there is none of that necessary. I don't think it has more gain per se, it's just a bit more compressed, giving the impression of more gain. And man, it's nice! Throw a slap back delay and a Phase 90 in there, and the only reason why you don't sound like EVH is because of your playing, not your gear. On the regular, High Voltage mode, it's every other Plexi tone you could imagine. They are all in there, and they aren't hard to find. 

The final added feature is an excellent post-phase master volume. Obviously, it sounds a little different at bedroom volumes - speaker drive is a thing - but it works really well at preserving the sound and gain as you turn down the amp. Other things, like the way bright caps work in the circuit and the way your ear perceives sound, affect that in ways that no Master Volume, no matter how perfect, can get around. But short of the laws of physics and how the human ear functions, I don't think it could be better. 

And that's it. Not really a helluvalot of twiddling and tweaking necessary. The High and Low Voltage settings sound readily different with healthy volume, and the bright switches aren't subtle. Click something, it sounds different, and there is none of this balancing where the mids are with the presences and treble (looking at you, Mesa) to make this or that feature do more or less of whatever. Overall volume matters a bit, but for the most part, it's pretty easy to get familiar with everything and dial something in. 

It doesn't have an effects loop because, according to Dave, there really isn't a way to do one that makes sense on a vintage amp using this circuit. A lot of the distortion comes from overdriving the phase inverter, and so apparently inserting a loop in the usual place screws with preserving the circuit to a vintage spec and doesn't sound all that great. Not a huge issue because it takes pedal well. About the only issue with this is that rolling off the reverb and delay so that it doesn't wash out your lead tone at with the guitar volume full on might leave things a little dry when you roll that volume back to clean things up. I'll probably just set the reverb to sound good when you back off the guitar volume and set my delay to sound good when its at full roar. 

Prices for the Plex and some other similar amps:

Plex - $2800 (I snagged a demo amp for $2500 before tax.)
Marshall 1987x - $1900
Marshall SV20 - $1300
Suhr SL67 - $2949

The only one of those other three I've played is the SV20, and I definitely think the Plex is the better amp of the two. It actually sounds better quieter as well, even with the 5 watt setting on the SV20. I do kinda miss the loop, but I knew what I was getting into there and was willing to lose that in order to have an old school Plexi circuit. The Suhr doesn't have a loop either, so I'm guessing the logic here is more than marketing. I'm sure the Suhr is great, but I've owned a lot of Friedman stuff, so this is the direction I went. The 1987x probably sounds awesome as well, but it doesn't have the same, well-chosen tone shaping options. I'd also never get to use it unless I lugged an attenuator along. 

As far as comparing it to the other Friedman's I've owned, I like it far more than the BE-50 Deluxe. I find the basic sound of the amp to be more to my liking, that unruly Marshall thing, and it's easier to dial in. The Small Box is a great amp, so I'm not sure if I'd necessarily have bought this if I still had that. Then again, I probably would have because it is does the Plexi thing better and with more cool tweaks to be had that don't cross over really deep mods, like extra gain stages and so on. The JEL-20 is a great little workhorse though, and I don't mind having them both. The XLR out with cab sim and internal load box for the JEL-20 make it a great bedroom amp if you have a recording setup like I do. However, if it came down to which I liked the best as far as getting that roaring Marshall sound, I prefer the Plex. I didn't really buy this to be a channel switcher, and because of that, I really have no interest in the JEL-50. If I need all of that, the JEL-20 will suffice. If I just want balls out dream Plexi, the Plex is hard to beat. 

One last note, the amp I have that it is most similar to is probably the Splawn Super Sport 22. It's quite a bit different (well, as different as Marshall-based amps get) from the Quickrod, but the higher gain sound on it does remind me a bit of the SS. It's just louder with more thump due to those 27 extra watts. 

[tbonesullivan]

13 hours ago, LucSulla said:

As far as bells and whistles, they are pretty limited and are largely based off what you might find in the 70s rather than the 80s on a modded Marshall. First thing is the bright cap, which a lot of people changed or just snipped all together in old, four-hole Marshalls. This amps gives you the option of three different bright cap settings  FOR EACH VOLUME. This is actually a really neat feature. The amp is internally jumpered, which supposedly preserves more signal than the patch cable method of yore. You just have a high and low input, and if you plug into high, your Volume 1 (lead) and Volume 2 (bass) both work as you would expect on any vintage Marshall (might work the same on the Low input too - haven't tried that). I believe the bright switches for both are the usual for Friedmans with this option: center - no bright cap, left - brighter, right - brightest. The stock Plexi setting would be center on V2 and right on V1, which makes sense. I don't think the V1 options would be all that surprising, though it's cool to be able to pick your poison. However, being able to throw a bright cap into the V2 channel really does way more than I would have guessed. The different settings really give that channel a lot more versatility than your regular old Bass channel, which is pretty neat, particularly when you start blending.

Jason Tong of Headfirst Amplification has said that removing the bright cap from an old Marshall is like "neutering" it. That is the "kerrang" sound, and the bite. So many have been modded to remove that, so I love that this has it, and allows it to be adjusted, so that people can finally realize how if you want that classic lead sound, you need it.

[LucSulla]

1 hour ago, tbonesullivan said:

Jason Tong of Headfirst Amplification has said that removing the bright cap from an old Marshall is like "neutering" it. That is the "kerrang" sound, and the bite. So many have been modded to remove that, so I love that this has it, and allows it to be adjusted, so that people can finally realize how if you want that classic lead sound, you need it.

I feel like I've read before that the louder the amp gets, the more that bright cap rolls out, though I've also heard that is a bit exaggerated in online lore. I'd be willing to bet some of the other frequencies becoming easier to perceive plays into that as well. 

I've never played on a real 50 or 100 watt Plexi, so it's all second hand to me. So far, my current favorite setting is running the lead channel of the Plex on 10 with the less-bright of the two bright options selected and the bass channel at noon with the brightest setting selected. To me, it adds a little more gain to the body while letting me boost the presence to squeeze out more gain. I really need to try in on the GB/Fane combo 4x12 and the other cab with a WHS ET65 (Creamback inspired) and a Lynchback in it. This Bogner 2x12 with V30s sounds huge, but I'm kind of by the amp with those speakers overall. 

[BoogieMKIIA]

Nice amp!

I’ve got the first version PCBA 50W Marshall, non-master volume.  Using a power soak (wish I had a place where not needed), the frequency response of each channel changes as the volume knob goes up. The brightness becomes bearable at higher volumes on the lead channel. On the bass channel, the highs starting coming our after noon and especially from 3 o’clock to max, Duane. I think it is mostly due to output transformer saturation and tube distortion/compression.  Both power and preamp.

Are you using the master volume, have you let it all hang out? The jumper thing is cool, you can flip a switch instead of a jumper cable. It sounds like they did capture the old non-master characteristics.

I personally don’t know what happens with speaker contribution when driven to those levels, lots of options. More modern high power speakers may not change response after the jump after 10 watts. I use to click the attenuator out a few clicks in the basement. It all just sounded better. The 4x12 has two Modern Lead Celestions and two Eminence GB in an X pattern.

[LucSulla]

19 minutes ago, BoogieMKIIA said:

Are you using the master volume, have you let it all hang out? The jumper thing is cool, you can flip a switch instead of a jumper cable. It sounds like they did capture the old non-master characteristics.

 

Yeah, I ran it wide open on 10 for about an hour today (with earphones on - it's frikin loud). I'm actually more a fan of the MV than I think Dave is, based on what he has said about the amp. I don't find it to be a substantial tone suck from around 4, where you can feel the power tubes really wake up, up to ten. However, even at 4, it's loud as hell. It does get a little thin and fizzy the more below 4 you dip, but what amp sounds like a 4x12 at bedroom levels anyway. 

It sounds better quieter than the SV20 does.