Marshall As Platform and Pedals for tonality

[ttosh]

So if one was to run a Stock 1959 SLP at decent volumes with that standard Marshall breakup. And one wanted to use pedals to bring in different levels of gain and tonalities what would be some choices you have experimented with?

Simple Signal path: Guitar --> Tuner --> Wah --> Modulation --> Drive 1 --> Drive 2 --> El Capistain -- > Marshall In

No effects loop all inline and pure Marshall power. Some options for drive boxes I really am digging are as follows. I would love any feedback and input on them being a core part to pushing a amp that is slightly driven only.

Tonefreak Abunai
Tonefreak Severe
Lovepedal Eternity
Rockbox Boiling Point
Xotic XP Pre
Wampler Plex/SuperPlex tortions

Those are some of the ones I have heard in room or in clips that seem to do a very decent job as advertised. Pros/Cons to these? Others you feel outshines the ones listed. I am very interested to hear everyone's input on this.

I have almost come to the decision that instead of a 3-4$ amp based off of a Marshall I need a solid Marshall with good cabinet and the right drives and effects for 1/2 the price of just the boutique amps and move versatility at the end of the day. Too many of my favorite players have done it this way, the mindset is the first thing to get past, phase 1 in motion.

 

[steve_k]

You need something that will add some drive to it, otherwise you won't be able to be in the same room with it. Never played the Wampler, but I hear his pedals are great. One I used to use a a Lovepedal Purple Plexi. It was a perfect match and generated/complimented Plexi tones.

Steve

 

[ttosh]

You need something that will add some drive to it, otherwise you won't be able to be in the same room with it. Never played the Wampler, but I hear his pedals are great. One I used to use a a Lovepedal Purple Plexi. It was a perfect match and generated/complimented Plexi tones.

Steve

That makes sense and the list for the most part seems to be able to handle mid to high gain levels pretty well while letting the amp also shine through. The Marshall is loud stock and depending on the pedal it can be an icepick or a box, looking for the one or 2 that will compliment each other well for my ear. Severe has some nice warm organic type tube tones it i, rich sounding and want to try the Abunai pushing it some to see what that does. Also the Xotic Preamp running at the input would be interesting.

I like the options of going this route and mostly want to hear success stories, horror stories and combinations that did not work for you and why?

 

[steve_k]

There was an interesting post the other day on the Carl Martin Plexitone pedal. See if you can search for it. There was a mod that Vertex was doing to it. A video of the pedal was on the posting as well. Nice Plexi tones there too and some interesting shoes....

That's the extent of my help here with clean Plexi. I gots to have my gain.....


Steve

 

[Hollywood]

No gain.....All pain.....

 

[guitarmike]

For years I ran old NMV 50 watt heads like that. A Jekyll and Hyde pedal for the dirty sounds, chorus, delay, etc. It sounded good and I could play at a reasonable volume but I always felt something was missing.

 

[Hacksaw]

Maybe add a Rat pedal, maybe a MXR distortion.. TS series. Let the fun begin! wampler or the carl martin for low vol would work well.



What is the definition of "decent volume?" Is that jam room or home in the practice place?

 

[skoora]

To really get the fundamental Marshall tone you'll still need the amp at volumes that very well require an attenuator or a Post PI Master mod. I've never heard a plexi sound good with pedals if the amp is on 1 and very clean. It needs to be in at least Malcolm Young territory and let the pedals do the rest. I've really been enjoying my MI Audio Blues Pro into my '69 era Metro. It can be a TS type or fuzz. It keeps bottom end too. Also the Voodoo lab Sparkledrive I have also sounds good. Unfortunately the only way to know for sure is to try a bunch into your specific amp. Some SL's, if it's an older one can be clean on 1 and a flamethrower on 2. If the pedal is one that's meant to be a plexi in a box it may not sound good into an actual plexi. Those are designed to get that sound from a clean amp like a Fender. The MI Audio crunchbox is a good example of that. It actually doesn't sound that good in my experience if you play it into an already driving Marshall, pure overkill.

 

[university81]

i've seen guys get killer results from only pedals into plexi/nmv amps, but they were usually already driving the amp pretty hard as skoora noted

i used to stack OD pedals, into a purely clean amp but always felt there was a bit of something missing, for lead lines it seemed ok, but lacked a certain something for rhythms

i took the hiwatt to my local dealer to try out some distortion boxes, i was particularly interested in higher voltage/headroom pedals for improved dynamics and what not

the ht dual really impressed me and it's been on my board since, i recently had it modded by 'tonehunter' in germany , sounds even more killer

in the last year i've tried a whole host of different amps and i'm yet to find one that has a gain channel that really suits me, always seem to prefer pedals into a clean amp, at least for now, not to mention easier routing for effects/modulation, as it's all at your feet

//

there are so many variables in any case, i think if you set the marshall to a kind of jangly drive , have your clean sound with the guitar volume rolled off, and have an OD/boost pedal push it over the cliff you'll be good, as to which one would suit you best hard to say, each manufacturer pedal has it's own kind of gain sounds

more specifically what kind of tones/feel are you looking for?

 

[IndyWS6]

Radial London Bones as one of the stacked "crunch" pedals?

 

[ttosh]

No gain.....All pain.....

LOL Hollywood that is funny I can see a few images from that quote!

On a serious note a few people in this thread have responded like using pedals into a Marshall is going to be no to low gain. Rik my friend has a 1987 Plexi that we have put the Plextortion and Severe into with a few others. So far both of those pedals bring as much gain as any high gain amp I have played. Also like others have said we have the amp into the jangly if not breaking up mode already which also makes the sound and feel good. However we had it at whisper volumes the other night and it sounded and felt great running the Severe or Plextortion through it.

I wanted to get more examples from people who have already done this as I am not asking if it can be done. I know it can and with as good of results as getting the gain from the amp with more flexibility and not having to spend near as much money. Rik has proven this to me already, which I was not a believer at first!!

So I ask again.... Those who have used pedals through a Plexi to get low/mid/high gain tones what did you find to work well and what were the variables.

Also a few posts asked my musical taste to know what to recommend. Fair question and I should have put that in my initial post. My likes are in 70s rock/hard rock/punk, 80s metal (lynch, malmsteen, aldrich, etc..) some stuff in the 90s that would still be labeled hard rock and music up to today. I also like to mess around with country and pop music but just for fun.

Hope that helps get some more answers flowing through here. Thanks again!!

 

[JTyson]

Before I got my Plexi modded, I had really good luck with an ematmods Brownie pedal. Not hugely overdriven, but just enough to get that thick "violin" tone you've heard through the years with a lot of "string" in the tone. Brownie's are not talked about here much, but they are a viable option to some of the more popular pedals discussed here (a lot of which I have) if you want that particular tone
Its the Eric Johnson lead tone in spades
Note- mine is an old model, the newer ones have more gain but less string in the tone

 

[university81]

No gain.....All pain.....

LOL Hollywood that is funny I can see a few images from that quote!

On a serious note a few people in this thread have responded like using pedals into a Marshall is going to be no to low gain. Rik my friend has a 1987 Plexi that we have put the Plextortion and Severe into with a few others. So far both of those pedals bring as much gain as any high gain amp I have played. Also like others have said we have the amp into the jangly if not breaking up mode already which also makes the sound and feel good. However we had it at whisper volumes the other night and it sounded and felt great running the Severe or Plextortion through it.

I wanted to get more examples from people who have already done this as I am not asking if it can be done. I know it can and with as good of results as getting the gain from the amp with more flexibility and not having to spend near as much money. Rik has proven this to me already, which I was not a believer at first!!

So I ask again.... Those who have used pedals through a Plexi to get low/mid/high gain tones what did you find to work well and what were the variables.

Also a few posts asked my musical taste to know what to recommend. Fair question and I should have put that in my initial post. My likes are in 70s rock/hard rock/punk, 80s metal (lynch, malmsteen, aldrich, etc..) some stuff in the 90s that would still be labeled hard rock and music up to today. I also like to mess around with country and pop music but just for fun.

Hope that helps get some more answers flowing through here. Thanks again!!

i had great results into an old JMP 2204 through the low input,

You can get great results with pedals, as a testament all my main dirt tones are through a BB preamp into a blackstar ht dual pedal, into a super clean hiwatt custom 100,

i think it's because the marshall kinda vibe only really comes out with it pushed, and you'll get a different kind of dynamics as well

from your description i'd say for the 70s and maybe early 80s AOR 1 or 2 OD pedals stacked would sound sick, but for 80s/90s stuff a separate distortion pedal

i've got some friends that have gotten great results with the Nova Drive from TC, might be worth looking at, versatile OD with a Distortion side too, and pretty flexible

the hard part is finding a good pedal that responds well to dynamics/guitar volume, that can clean up

some distortion pedals can't necessarily do that

YMMV just from what i've experienced so far

 

[Rogue]

So I ask again.... Those who have used pedals through a Plexi to get low/mid/high gain tones what did you find to work well and what were the variables.

I had a 1959x. I had a RC Booster to provide a bit of boost and I wished I would have had the EQ Booster I have now to have tried with it. I tried a few different pedals to get a higher gain tone from it. I had a Bad Monkey which did ok. I tried a Jekyll and Hyde I really liked the OD side, not so much the distortion side. My favorite was a Radial Plexitube, although the higher gain channel was too much. However, if running the plexi at super low volumes, it might work.

I never was able to get a strong bottom end from that amp, but I wished I still had it an a couple of those pedals.

 

[bds9487]

So if one was to run a Stock 1959 SLP at decent volumes with that standard Marshall breakup. And one wanted to use pedals to bring in different levels of gain and tonalities what would be some choices you have experimented with?

Simple Signal path: Guitar --> Tuner --> Wah --> Modulation --> Drive 1 --> Drive 2 --> El Capistain -- > Marshall In

No effects loop all inline and pure Marshall power. Some options for drive boxes I really am digging are as follows. I would love any feedback and input on them being a core part to pushing a amp that is slightly driven only.

Tonefreak Abunai
Tonefreak Severe
Lovepedal Eternity
Rockbox Boiling Point
Xotic XP Pre
Wampler Plex/SuperPlex tortions

Those are some of the ones I have heard in room or in clips that seem to do a very decent job as advertised. Pros/Cons to these? Others you feel outshines the ones listed. I am very interested to hear everyone's input on this.

I have almost come to the decision that instead of a 3-4$ amp based off of a Marshall I need a solid Marshall with good cabinet and the right drives and effects for 1/2 the price of just the boutique amps and move versatility at the end of the day. Too many of my favorite players have done it this way, the mindset is the first thing to get past, phase 1 in motion.

I recently started using this same set-up. Marshall 1959, 2 X 12 cabinet and pedals. The only difference is I'm also using a hotplate to get the amp into "crunch" territory. I gotta tell you, I really like this set-up. I'm using a Maxon OD808 for more gain at rhythm volumes and a BB Preamp for solos and a volume boost. Also, I'm using a Boss LS-2 line selector to switch back and forth from the Maxon to the BB with a single press on the pedal. You can cover a lot of ground with just the pedals and your volume knob.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Never liked the xotic RC in front of my JCM800 or plexi clone when i had it working. I found the xotic stuff a little fake' or synthetic if that makes any sense. Xotic pedals have this tone to them, I find they bring out some honk in my tone and i just don't dig it.

I haven't tried Wampler stuff first hand but i did have a crunch box and it didn't work well with my Plexi. I think the rule that you shouldn't use a pedal that emulates an amp with the same amp it emulates is something to consider. A nice Fender or other clean tone plus a "marshall in a box" might work but besides that, be careful. One pedal I have heard with a plexi type amp was the Rocket Pedals Animal. It is a MArshall in a box but it seems to work well with real Marshalls.. maybe give that a whirl...

Other than that, I always liked my gain pushed to about 3 pm or 7.5 on the knob but you need to attenuate. From there, a good ol Bad Monkey (Gary Moore was using one over the past few years, i spotted it in his rig on youtube!) takes you the rest of the way to flavour country.

 

[Greazygeo]

I recently started using this same set-up. Marshall 1959, 2 X 12 cabinet and pedals. The only difference is I'm also using a hotplate to get the amp into "crunch" territory. I gotta tell you, I really like this set-up. I'm using a Maxon OD808 for more gain at rhythm volumes and a BB Preamp for solos and a volume boost. Also, I'm using a Boss LS-2 line selector to switch back and forth from the Maxon to the BB with a single press on the pedal. You can cover a lot of ground with just the pedals and your volume knob.

I do the same thing...minus the pedals. Gtr---Amp---Hotplate---cab. With the right plexi you won't really need any pedals. Using the gtr vol it can be clean, crunch and mid gain. A SD-1 or TS and it's metal gain levels. I've never really had luck using pedals into a clean amp.

 

[ttosh]

So if one was to run a Stock 1959 SLP at decent volumes with that standard Marshall breakup. And one wanted to use pedals to bring in different levels of gain and tonalities what would be some choices you have experimented with?

Simple Signal path: Guitar --> Tuner --> Wah --> Modulation --> Drive 1 --> Drive 2 --> El Capistain -- > Marshall In

No effects loop all inline and pure Marshall power. Some options for drive boxes I really am digging are as follows. I would love any feedback and input on them being a core part to pushing a amp that is slightly driven only.

Tonefreak Abunai
Tonefreak Severe
Lovepedal Eternity
Rockbox Boiling Point
Xotic XP Pre
Wampler Plex/SuperPlex tortions

Those are some of the ones I have heard in room or in clips that seem to do a very decent job as advertised. Pros/Cons to these? Others you feel outshines the ones listed. I am very interested to hear everyone's input on this.

I have almost come to the decision that instead of a 3-4$ amp based off of a Marshall I need a solid Marshall with good cabinet and the right drives and effects for 1/2 the price of just the boutique amps and move versatility at the end of the day. Too many of my favorite players have done it this way, the mindset is the first thing to get past, phase 1 in motion.

I recently started using this same set-up. Marshall 1959, 2 X 12 cabinet and pedals. The only difference is I'm also using a hotplate to get the amp into "crunch" territory. I gotta tell you, I really like this set-up. I'm using a Maxon OD808 for more gain at rhythm volumes and a BB Preamp for solos and a volume boost. Also, I'm using a Boss LS-2 line selector to switch back and forth from the Maxon to the BB with a single press on the pedal. You can cover a lot of ground with just the pedals and your volume knob.

Thanks, excellent post and the OD808 was another pedal I thought would be cool to try as well as the BB Preamp pedal. I have used a lot of these pedals into high gain amps so really just for boosting and not taking advantage of the pedal for what it is. The pedals are so good today for what you are doing and we are discussing IMHO.

 

[ttosh]

I recently started using this same set-up. Marshall 1959, 2 X 12 cabinet and pedals. The only difference is I'm also using a hotplate to get the amp into "crunch" territory. I gotta tell you, I really like this set-up. I'm using a Maxon OD808 for more gain at rhythm volumes and a BB Preamp for solos and a volume boost. Also, I'm using a Boss LS-2 line selector to switch back and forth from the Maxon to the BB with a single press on the pedal. You can cover a lot of ground with just the pedals and your volume knob.

I do the same thing...minus the pedals. Gtr---Amp---Hotplate---cab. With the right plexi you won't really need any pedals. Using the gtr vol it can be clean, crunch and mid gain. A SD-1 or TS and it's metal gain levels. I've never really had luck using pedals into a clean amp.

A attenuator is something I will want to check out. I am not thinking pedals into a clean amp, more have the amp loud enough to hit slight or mid breakup and push it with pedals for different flavors. Signal Path would be

GTR - (any modulation) - (overdrives/boosts) - (delay) - AMP. Throwing a hotplate in there would allow me to get that breakup and it be easier on the ears I am guessing. The Plexi I have been playing through has a master volume mod done and the owner has recently unmodified it to be NMV, the master volume made the amp not seem open enough based on his input. So cranking it and getting loud for breakup is a definite, and it is loud with the master volume. I am going out tonight to check it out without.

 

[glip22]

This little pedal is killer. I run it into a Colonial Heritage and it smokes. The Heritage is a killer little sleeper amp built by Paul Cochrane. A Plexi clone with allot of cool options. If you can find one I would grab it. Marshalls are so hit or miss with ghosting. I don't know about the newer ones though. I prefer a clean handwired build.
http://www.bearfootfx.com Dyna Red Distortion Just released a month ago. Normally they are super expensive if you know about BFFE effects. Sounds just like it's the amp.