My Variac'd & Slaved Plexi

[lll]

So here's my JTM45RI plexi, which I modded to have a Superlead preamp and 6CA7s.

- Badgerplex Trilogy out front.

- Variac'd @ 100v and slaved to my '67 Fender Deluxe.

- No EQing, 2x SM57 mics (one on cap, one on cone).

- Reverb added in DAW

A simple twist of the volume knob goes from clean to mean.
Some cheesy whipped-up blues licks ahead (pardon the rust

LLL - Bleuz Cheez
https://soundcloud.com/lefty-lounge-lizard/lll-bleuz-cheez

 

[lll]

Well shit. I figured there were more peeps out there who either a) slaved and/or b) variac'd, yeah?

Or at least curious about it.

 

[HilltopExplosion]

Yup, I do sometimes, sounds good man! Love blues/rock licks! I usually go BE100 variac'd to 100, speaker out to rockcrusher, rockcrusher to one cab, line out to fx or straight to 6505+ return then another cab. Believe it or not, I went with a 6l6gc in my BE, and it opened a whole new world.

 

[grooveHT]

Tone was ripping man! Good job also showing the variation with the twist of the volume knob, a lot of room in between those extremes.

 

[psychodave]

I'd love to hear it. Your link forces me to join a website... Too bad I just can't click on the link and the clip just plays.

 

[gtrwun]

Sounds great over here! Thanks for posting!

 

[lll]

Thanks all.

The amazing thing about the whole slaving bit (and I'll never get tired of yakking about it) aside from total volume control with zero attenuator mush, is that each amp, separate, would never get that amount of gain on their own.

The variac does its own thing (hard to describe); it kinda adds a "grind" on the clipping.

 

[lll]

Yup, I do sometimes, sounds good man! Love blues/rock licks! I usually go BE100 variac'd to 100, speaker out to rockcrusher, rockcrusher to one cab, line out to fx or straight to 6505+ return then another cab. Believe it or not, I went with a 6l6gc in my BE, and it opened a whole new world.

Cool beans. How would you describe what the variac does to the tone?

 

[HilltopExplosion]

Yup, I do sometimes, sounds good man! Love blues/rock licks! I usually go BE100 variac'd to 100, speaker out to rockcrusher, rockcrusher to one cab, line out to fx or straight to 6505+ return then another cab. Believe it or not, I went with a 6l6gc in my BE, and it opened a whole new world.

Cool beans. How would you describe what the variac does to the tone?

It seemed to make the amp a little looser. The bass is a little stiff normally, which is killer, but not always what I want. when I hit it with more volume, I could turn the gain back and get more power tube saturation, without incus destruction. The in room volume wasn't nowhere near what it would be normally. It just made it sound killer.. I'll PM ya a clip..

 

[311boogieman]

Awesome tone dude as usual

I'd love to hear it. Your link forces me to join a website... Too bad I just can't click on the link and the clip just plays.

I'm not sure if you are kidding or not psychodave It is just Soundcloud. Lots of guys use Soundcloud. It is harmless. I'm surprised it asked you to join though - it should just play. Do it. It's worth it.

 

[psychodave]

Awesome tone dude as usual

I'd love to hear it. Your link forces me to join a website... Too bad I just can't click on the link and the clip just plays.

I'm not sure if you are kidding or not psychodave It is just Soundcloud. Lots of guys use Soundcloud. It is harmless. I'm surprised it asked you to join though - it should just play. Do it. It's worth it.

Was being dead serious. I got the clip to work, but had to click several times. I have the sound cloud app, but it wouldn't open in it, just the web link.

 

[311boogieman]

I don't know anything about the app. I just play clips off the web as normal. If you are not familiar with Soundcloud or use it for other reasons I'd delete that app. It might be causing conflicts.