What is 68 Plexi so Revered?

[sytharnia1560]

the real question is "WHY are the 68 plexi so revered"

 

[JimmyBlind]

Anyone know how does the Suhr SL68 compare to the 68 plexi?

 

[cardinal]

Anyone know how does the Suhr SL68 compare to the 68 plexi?

The Suhr has the EVH “fat cap” over the V2a cathode cap. That’s a huge capacitor that lets a lot of signal and bass through that stage. Much more than the much smaller bypass cap that stock Marshalls used. The mod showed up in EVH’s amp at some point. It won’t make it sound like a Cameron mod or anything like that, but it should be fatter and gainier than a typical Marshall.

 

[cardinal]

I had a bone stock '72 50w. It was glorious. But I also have a 2016 1987xl and I really think it sounds just as good. I needed the money, got them both for a song, so flipped the '72 because it was worth a lot more. I still love, love, love my 1987xl, and I don't have to worry about dinging it up at band practice and gigs, and can always replace it for pretty reasonable money.

And '72s are so desirable because that was the last year of the hand-wired boards. But the first few months of the 73s were also hand-wired. They sound the same as the 72s. It's just that, with a '72, you know it's hand-wired. With a '73, you need to pull the chassis and check. I will probably grab a '73 one of these days when I find a hand-wired one for the right price.

Yeah, I have an early ‘73 with a turret board. Got it cheap because the transformers were blown and someone had tried some ill-advised circuit tweaks. Classic Tone transformers sound great to me and it was fun to play with the component values when putting it back right. And now I can run it hard without worrying about an original transformer letting go and destroying $1000s in value.

 

[MistaGuitah]

Well dudes all I know is that I've been looking for a holy grail Marshall plexi replica for a long time. Always heard they were unreliable, so started looking for a high-end clone, eventually gravitated towards the 68 clones because there's just something about that sound and it's gainier than 65s & 67s... MIGHT have finally found it as I have a Gladius (or Gladivs) JTM 68 incoming. A few people and one guy I really trust swear by that amp, so I took a chance and bought one. I will let you know next week what I think but no way in hell I'm going to even try posting audio because I've seen what you guys do to even slightly inferior recordings. lol.

Don't know if this is considered a crappy recording or whatever, but if it's moderately representative of what a 68 plexi sounds like then freaking awesome. I like this guy though. He reviews a lot of amps I like.

This is all I can find on the Gladius JTM68.

 

[psychodave]

Are you going to use an attenuator with it or play it balls out like Johan does? Keep in mind his tone also involves driving those speakers hard.

If you’re running it balls out, protect your ears.

 

[cardinal]

Well dudes all I know is that I've been looking for a holy grail Marshall plexi replica for a long time. Always heard they were unreliable, so started looking for a high-end clone, eventually gravitated towards the 68 clones because there's just something about that sound and it's gainier than 65s & 67s... MIGHT have finally found it as I have a Gladius (or Gladivs) JTM 68 incoming. A few people and one guy I really trust swear by that amp, so I took a chance and bought one. I will let you know next week what I think but no way in hell I'm going to even try posting audio because I've seen what you guys do to even slightly inferior recordings. lol.

Don't know if this is considered a crappy recording or whatever, but if it's moderately representative of what a 68 plexi sounds like then freaking awesome. I like this guy though. He reviews a lot of amps I like.

This is all I can find on the Gladius JTM68.

That’s what a Super Lead sounds like. But without attenuation it’s violently loud. I use a Power Station and am happy with it. Without it, you just cannot get it hot enough without ear protection; it’s truly painful being near the cabinet with the thing turned up that loud.

 

[MistaGuitah]

Are you going to use an attenuator with it or play it balls out like Johan does? Keep in mind his tone also involves driving those speakers hard.

If you’re running it balls out, protect your ears.

It has built-in attenuation and I'll be running it with a 1x12 Greenback so I think it should be able to produce some good tones at moderate volume. It can go from 50w down to 1w so we'll see how well it works.

 

[MistaGuitah]

These are the specs:

JTM68 Mk III

The classic 50 W "Plexi".

The JTM 68 MKIII borrows its features from the 50 W Plexi with diode rectification from 1968. It comes with a classic ECC83 preamp.

As is standard on all Gladius amps, there is the unique GLADIVS output power control and it is hand-wired and equipped only with the best components.

Aluminium chassis with milled aluminium end blocks
Class A/B - 230/120V 40-60Hz
50 Watt, switchable to 1 Watt
GLADIVS output power control without losing tone (Variac).
Preamp: 3 x ECC 83
Poweramp: 2 x EL34
Rectifier: Solid State
Inputs: high treble & normal, each with gain patch for both channels
Controls: Presence, bass, middle, treble, volume, Variac
Speaker impedance: 4, 8 & 16 Ω
Rhythm & Lead circuit with foot switch connector on the back panel
Option: Connector for effect devices on the back panel
Dimensions: WxDxH 53x21x23 cm
Weight: 15 kg

 

[LP Freak]

Are you going to use an attenuator with it or play it balls out like Johan does? Keep in mind his tone also involves driving those speakers hard.

If you’re running it balls out, protect your ears.

It has built-in attenuation and I'll be running it with a 1x12 Greenback so I think it should be able to produce some good tones at moderate volume.

Hmmmm...........

 

[stephen sawall]

68' small box is my favorite sound from the Marshall family. They got brighter and more gain after that.

 

[lll]

Because some of them came out of the factory with a .68uF bypass cap on V2a... most didn't.

And because Ed's was a '68 (which featured the above cap).

And that's where the magic (how did Ed get all that gain from a Plexi?) comes from...

(Ed's eventually had a 330uF in lieu)

 

[Rdodson]

1968 SN12301
Laydown tranny, split cathode.

The '67s are cool, too...but a different spec (10K SNs)

I knew EVH used to play plexis but I thought he used the 100w Superleads, had not idea he made the 68 plexi famous. What about the diode rectifier thing? Was that something introduced with the 68?

Eddie played a 1967 SLP... not a 1968. I own the same make and model year amp.

A 1967 SLP is a "Plexi" in the colloquial sense of the word... 1967 Super Lead Plexi model #1959.

 

[Rdodson]

For me, the cool thing about the 68 (I had SN124XX) was lower negative feedback than the later metal panels, but the better gain, brightness and harmonics than the earlier ones (10XXX). I loved mine...got it and it was so clean and still had the asbestos tube retainers (this was '88). But it got SO loud...and everyone was using the Celestion 75s then and they sounded terrible (to me) with the amp. Using real Greenbacks cut the volume WAY down and sounded better. I kept blowing tubes so I sold it like an idiot. Oh well.

I do think the Metropoulos 12000 is the closest I have ever heard next to the real one.

 

[MistaGuitah]

For me, the cool thing about the 68 (I had SN124XX) was lower negative feedback than the later metal panels, but the better gain, brightness and harmonics than the earlier ones (10XXX). I loved mine...got it and it was so clean and still had the asbestos tube retainers (this was '88). But it got SO loud...and everyone was using the Celestion 75s then and they sounded terrible (to me) with the amp. Using real Greenbacks cut the volume WAY down and sounded better. I kept blowing tubes so I sold it like an idiot. Oh well.

I do think the Metropoulos 12000 is the closest I have ever heard next to the real one.

Yep, I know about the Metropoulos. That's the first 68 replica that I really took no notice of. I've tried a few others but some people I know swear by this Gladius JTM68 so I'm hoping it has the same kind of magic. Can't wait!

 

[Ratou]

Got a bone stock '72 50 watter and it's a proper amp. You can play metal with it without a boost with volume on 5 (volume stops increasing much after 3 on the dial). It is obviously loud but you can get a good amount of gain at reasonable gig/rehearsal volumes without having to use any pedals or an attenuator.

I read on a few occasions that the '72s had more gain for some reason, anyone can confirm and/or knows why? Mine starts to break up past 2-3 on the volume and can do really nice high gain tones.

 

[LP Freak]

Got a bone stock '72 50 watter and it's a proper amp. You can play metal with it without a boost with volume on 5 (volume stops increasing much after 3 on the dial). It is obviously loud but you can get a good amount of gain at reasonable gig/rehearsal volumes without having to use any pedals or an attenuator.

I read on a few occasions that the '72s had more gain for some reason, anyone can confirm and/or knows why? Mine starts to break up past 2-3 on the volume and can do really nice high gain tones.

Ive got a ‘74 and it does the exact same thing. Pretty common for metal panels.

 

[311boogieman]

Define high gain.

 

[skoora]

Sounds good but I think the LP vid is actually the 45 not the 68. The way it sounds cranked with the filtering also sounds older than a 68 as well but not all these amps were the same. Some tight as a drum, some loosey goosey when maxed out, so I could be mistaken. The vid description says 45 as well.

But either way judging from the Strat vid the 68 sounds phenomenal.

 

[BYTOR]

All you need is a Germino Lead 55 like Jacob Deraps uses