The Infamous Purple Plexi

[glpg80]

The Aspen Pittman purple plexi was a '71 I believe.

I'm pretty sure that Aspen's "The Tube Amp Book" states that it was a '72...I'll have to go dig it out of storage.
George used it for his rhythm tone on ULAK as well, didn't he?

i was pretty sure those were lee jackon modded marshalls with 6550 power tubes. i have an archive of the old setup of lynches site 1 sec and ill go find it

 

[glpg80]

your making me wish i would have bought that para EQ that dave took down

cool reading stuff like this

I love it when Curt sits down by the fire and spins his tails

yeah its amazing to read so much info from the boys of this forum - there have been a few instances where i've caught myself reading the same post more than once because of the cool and priceless info that was involved in them

 

[glpg80]

The Aspen Pittman purple plexi was a '71 I believe.

I'm pretty sure that Aspen's "The Tube Amp Book" states that it was a '72...I'll have to go dig it out of storage.
George used it for his rhythm tone on ULAK as well, didn't he?

i was pretty sure those were lee jackon modded marshalls with 6550 power tubes. i have an archive of the old setup of lynches site 1 sec and ill go find it

figured i would share this info with everyone on the board.

gotta love archiving.

http://web.archive.org/web/200312190410 ... tudio.html

 

[Gainfreak]

Gotcha! With that said, i would have killed to have known about the PQ3 when I was a Kid. i didn't know about that little gem until the mid 90's

That's the thing about the PQ-3 Ralph, and why I used to hide mine. Most people didn't know about them at all or if they did, they didn't know to use it as a preamp to boost the snot out of the input of the amp. Most people just assumed you were using it to EQ the amp. I saw a few guys using them like that and you could tell because their peak lights were never flashing.

In 1984 or early '85 my other guitarist and I saw Rough Cutt on the Rock Palace TV show. Amir's tone on that was just freaking ridiculous. When Rough Cutt came to town, our other guitarists sister was dating a cool older guitarist in a big Chicago local band. He took my other guitarist backstage and Amir took a real liking to my buddy in an older brother sort of way. He showed him his whole rig and how to set it and everything. How to set the PCM-41 for the right chorus etc. We both immediately bought that stuff and our tones were freaking huge. It was hilarious. We were like 16-18 and older guys in bigger bands kept trying to see our gear.

That's when we started hiding our secret. Even though Amir had openly shared it with us, we were too uncool to share it with anyone else. As far as the LA local bands, we saw everyone after we moved here. It was very rare to see a Furman in someones rack. Amir and Chris from Rough Cutt still had them. Stryper had them. Doug Aldrich had one and Icon used the Audio Arts Preamp/Parametric EQ in the exact same way we used the Furmans. Jake had them for a short time (Rough Cutt connection?) and Lynch used them with his Randalls on Tooth and Nail era.

Much later on, it became common knowledge that "everyone" used them in the 80's but that really wasn't the case at the time. Everyone used Lee Jackson mods or ADA refrigerator racks in the mid to late 80's out here and very few guys had cool tones. Just sayin'

I know that we discussed this before but Im still blown away that you got to have access to that information right out of the gate! Back in the mid 90's When I first started getting hooked on the Net, I looked up Michael Sweet from Stryper and I e-mailed him asking him how Stryper got their tone because I could never figure it out. I was surprised that I got an e-mail back from him spilling the beans about the Furman PQ3. The funny thing is that he to told me that had I asked him back in the 80's bothe he and Oz would not have told me and he sayed that it was a closely guarded secret lol. With that said, I could tell that even though Michael told me about the PQ3 it probably wasn't easy for him because he never once mentioned how he hooked it up I literally had to bust my ass figuring out how they used it and after fucking around with the thing literally for weeks and not getting the tone I was sitting at work one day and it dawned on me to try it before the amp. I rushed back from work, hooked it up and it was close but not 100% because I hooked it up using the high input.... I yanked that sucker out and plugged into the low i/p and the rest was history.......Then I had to figure out what freequencies to use and then the real fun began lol
About a year after I figured it out, Oz fox spilled the beans on his wenbsite and went into great detai about that tonel and oddly enough I was pretty much spot on. I just wished that I was told all that upfront but looking back it was worth it because I learned a lot

Then in 2000 I got to Meet Michael face to face and he told my buddy Harry and I about them using EV speakers.

That Pq3 was the secret weapon I tells ya!! I also know that DeMartini used on on the first Ratt Album

 

[Chubtone]

To me the coolest tone and the most underrated band to ever have that boosting your amp with a Parametric EQ/Preamp thing was Icon. This came out in 1984. This tone was insane for 1984. This became my benchmark tone for a two guitar band wall of metal sound for several years. And tell me Ron Keel, Blackie Lawless and Jeff Martin from Racer X didn't try to sound like this singer.

Obligatory, cheesy 80's video with the most cliche'd tune on the whole record.

 

[Vrad]

Bro we grew up in the 80s, not smoking peace pipes at woodstock watching Jimi.

Scott,
Talk to me again again about the clip you embedded in this thread and the stock or modded status of the amp that inspired this thread. Here we have a killer sounding, stock '71 Marshall Super Lead with the extremely exotic Boss SD-1 (MIJ obviously worth maybe $75) boosting it and we are still talking about it 18 years later. Then somehow we start talking about how this tone is in our own modded amps. It confuses me.

I think there was a lot less "modding" going on with the classic 80's tones than we think. Heck, most of the 70's and early 80's Marshalls came with 6550's in them. We HONESTLY considered it some big deal to get our amps "modded" to el-34's. And I think a lot of guys flat out lied. I mean, I was there, in LA. I remember playing my stock '79 and stock '81 Marshalls boosted by a Furman PQ-3 split into stereo by the huge chorus of a Lexicon PCM-41 and just having so many players FREAK over the tone. I kept my 2 space rack covered and told people my heads were modded. Then I would pop into Lee Jackson's shop and play a Metaltronix modded Marshall or a Metaltronix amp and be like, "are you freaking kidding me?"

I see your point about how a modded amp could sound like Lynch in that clip but wouldn't modding the pre section to be hotter be the same as slamming a stock Superlead? I have an sd-1 and will try this with the fortin while in a plexi type setting and see what I get, I dont have a stock one on hand and that may not be awhile since I just bought a lawn tractor and the wife wants to go to Atlantis next April

The cool thing is that you do NOT have to boost with today's offerings from many of the builders, only time I boost now is when using the yngwie clone due to the low output pups. Plus you know Lynch is stupid loud in that vid and listening through monitors.

The more I listen to you guys I have to agree, there was less internal modding than we think back then.

Sometimes, the mods are nothing more than clipping diodes, or a clean boost (I think my QR is designed like this) integrated into the preamp stage itself. 1/2 a dozen of 1, 6 of another... know what I mean?

 

[JTyson]

love that Rough Cutt "Rock Palace" show! got an old copy of it that i watched just a month ago actually..."Dreamin Again" is such a cool tune Amir's tone is HUGE!!! i remember when i saw Rough Cutt,in 1985,open for Dio at the "Poplar Creek" outdoor amphitheater in Hoffman Estates,Illinois...the next week,i immediately went out & bought their 1st album so i could hear the song "Black Widow"...great times................

That song live was like being hit by a tank. I had not heard of them the first time I saw them, it was that same tour - 85, I was stunned by Amir's tone, and the custom Jacksons he was using. Good memories I had that album the next day

 

[Anonymous]

Minor gain mods or something in front to goose it. What's the difference really unless we are talking about valuable amps from a collector standpoint?

Steve

 

[JTyson]

Thats the cool thing about this Metro-Plexi I just got from Donbarzini, I can send it to Dave for a kitchen sink mod with a clear conscience. It has a dual output tranny for a variac effect, all Sozo caps, F-T filter caps, and sounds like a original (really!!) No PC boards, Already has a master volume mod on the back. I might even get a purple headshell for it This thing has got a set of lungs!!

 

[rupe]

The Aspen Pittman purple plexi was a '71 I believe.

I'm pretty sure that Aspen's "The Tube Amp Book" states that it was a '72...I'll have to go dig it out of storage.
George used it for his rhythm tone on ULAK as well, didn't he?

i was pretty sure those were lee jackon modded marshalls with 6550 power tubes. i have an archive of the old setup of lynches site 1 sec and ill go find it

figured i would share this info with everyone on the board.

gotta love archiving.

http://web.archive.org/web/200312190410 ... tudio.html

Very cool...I don't recall ever hearing that before

 

[Chubtone]

love that Rough Cutt "Rock Palace" show! got an old copy of it that i watched just a month ago actually..."Dreamin Again" is such a cool tune Amir's tone is HUGE!!! i remember when i saw Rough Cutt,in 1985,open for Dio at the "Poplar Creek" outdoor amphitheater in Hoffman Estates,Illinois...the next week,i immediately went out & bought their 1st album so i could hear the song "Black Widow"...great times................

Black Widow was so heavy, wasn't it? And Shortino based on voice alone should have been the most celebrated 80's rock singer ever. He should have been like Duke Fame in REAL LIFE

 

[thiswaythatway]

I had an old tremolo Plexi and with an old Tube Screamer it was great, but i was too damm loud for any stage i was playing on. I tried the soldano hot mod Tried the Marshall powerbrake.. I eventually had a master volume installed and we used one of the tremolo control holes so no drilling was done. Still fought with soundmen.

The thing i like about my Fortin is that it screams at any volume.

 

[goldwing68nv]

To me the coolest tone and the most underrated band to ever have that boosting your amp with a Parametric EQ/Preamp thing was Icon. This came out in 1984. This tone was insane for 1984. This became my benchmark tone for a two guitar band wall of metal sound for several years. And tell me Ron Keel, Blackie Lawless and Jeff Martin from Racer X didn't try to sound like this singer.

Obligatory, cheesy 80's video with the most cliche'd tune on the whole record.

to THIS day i still tell people that the 1984 ICON - ICON album is one of the most killer 80's metal albums to date,yet it's so unbelievably "unknown" as well... crazy! ...bought the record right when it first came out and still got the free "poster" of the band,which came included inside the album sleeve...now if i can just figure out where the hell my "Metal Church" neckbrace is???

 

[OldSkoolNJ]

figured i would share this info with everyone on the board.

gotta love archiving.

http://web.archive.org/web/200312190410 ... tudio.html

Cool link now I know everything I always wondered about with Lynch

 

[glpg80]

yeah that website was his old website before they tore it down.

a couple of guys i hang out with archived it back in the day and now that archive is all that is left of that information

its pretty cool - i've had it for a while but never really thought about it again until i remembered aspen's marshall.

i really wish squarehead would chime in and let me know for sure some more information about it and what happened.

IMHO i would sell everything own to find that chassis - just to have for historical reasons. much more important to me than the tone or a cameron amplifier.

but yeah thanks guys for the info so far. are the rumors about the plexi being owned by someone on the plexipalace true? anyone else heard this?

i dont think ive been to that board in years - anyone regular it enough to post this over there?

 

[loudgtr]

your making me wish i would have bought that para EQ that dave took down

cool reading stuff like this

I love it when Curt sits down by the fire and spins his tails

yeah its amazing to read so much info from the boys of this forum - there have been a few instances where i've caught myself reading the same post more than once because of the cool and priceless info that was involved in them

 

[Marshall Law]

I love Icon, one of my favorite tunes under my gun

 

[Jeff Hilligan]

Oh the stories I now know about tone from the major 80's bands after spending a week with Wagner. But I am sworn to not talk about it! So much is flat out lies!

 

[Marshall Law]

Oh the stories I now know about tone from the major 80's bands after spending a week with Wagner. But I am sworn to not talk about it! So much is flat out lies!

spill the beans, come on, come on.

 

[mentoneman]

Both lynch and Nuno bagged on MW and tried to claim responsibility for their hallmark Porno and ulak tones.

Nuno claimed he recorded the solo to little jack horny on a champ in his bedroom on a casette recorder.
Lynch claimed he plugged his echoplex and fostex 4 track .

I think mw made their rigs sound amazing!