Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Small Carl Martin Plexitone review.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Small Carl Martin Plexitone review.

    Because there aren't enough.

    This pedal is basically packed of features, yet surprisingly simple, well designed and thought of FOR US GUITARISTS! You just KNOW this has been designed by a player.

    There are 2 gain channels and a clean boost.
    The level control is master for both channels, you may not like that, but more on it later.
    Single tone control for both channels too.
    Gain 1, gain 2, boost.
    Input
    Output
    Included power cable.

    And that is it. Yes it takes one power plug but trust me, that's not even a price to pay for it.

    First things first... Set the tone at halfway, find unity gain, set both gains around 9 oclock and try channel one...


    This is the most harmonically rich pedal I have ever tried. Some pedals need some mods, or to be pushed a little, same with some amp channels, valve or not. But this baby right here... this is the real deal folks. This is GOOD. The gain is pleasant to the ear, the overall tone is also quite bright but not badly so.
    Channel 2 sounds exactly the same, but with a tiny bit more gain.

    I set channel one at 9oclock and 2 at 2 oclock. Channel one is just that little bit less loud, but not badly so. It's not an inconvenient. Less gain and it would start to be though. But you have a clean boost So it's possible to set her up to have 2 very different gain levels.
    The pedal is also very responsive to dynamics and CLEANS UP VERY WELL!! That was the NICE surprise about this. I got a very nice clean tone with the volume lowered on the guitar on channel 1. Quite useful.
    Channel 2 has more than than most people should need as well. I can chug on it, so you can chug on it
    Pinch harmonics are way easier than with any other pedals, especially on the unwound strings.
    The tone control is very well designed. Takes you from bassy and big to bright and cutting, as opposted to bassy and muddy to bright and obnoxious There isn't a bad position.
    Oh... the pedal is very bassy. Not much in the mud or that annoying overwhelming bass, but more in a kind of growl that's very...well you get what I mean.

    Basically no matter how hard you try to be picky, there isn't any real flaws in either channels. Sure you could add level trimpots, individual EQs and whatnot but that's not the point. The point is to have a professional, simple but versatile unit that reacts like an amp, and wow, kudos for that!

    Oh the boost is dangerous, don't step on it

    Hehe joking. But it gets very loud. Now I'm picky about boosts but this one feels perfectly transparent to me. I set the level to 9 oclock for a little level boost.

    I use the pedal as a preamp
    If it's in your pedalboard you can still use it as your main sound through a PA or poweramp or whatever you want.

    To sum up: :naughty:

    PS: Lack of comparison with any other famous pedal, amp or anything is totally voluntary, I can't judge on that. But I CAN say it's a fantastic pedal and fantastic tones.

    Also some people have complained about the switching... I don't really get it. One switch turns it on, one toggles between channels. No central LED = gain one. So you can actually swap gain channels when the pedal is OFF which I find real good and handy.

    Also the input is buffered. There is thankfully no true bypass on there.

  • #2
    Cool review...thanks!

    Comment


    • #3
      I bought one of these pedals today. For a bedroom player like me this is the way to get a cranked Marshall sound at low volumes. This is one of the best gear purchases I've ever made. The quality of the tone blows away every other pedal I've ever bought. It's not a cheap pedal but I'd rather have this than any modeler effect/amp.

      Two channels - normal crunch and hot-rodded crunch. The manual indicates and the sales guy told me this is supposed to sound like a JCM800. I have only tried a real JCM800 once myself briefly so I can't say whether it nails it exactly but my guess is this pedal gets as close as anything else on the market. On the regular crunch channel you can easily get sound that is for all practical purposes as close to AC/DC as you can imagine.

      It also has a solo boost feature (like on modern Mesas) which you can use with or without either of the crunch channels engaged. That is, an excellent transparent clean boost.

      Anyways I don't have any sound clips but this guy's video gives a really good demo of the tone

      Carl Martin Plexitone demo, using a Gibson Les Paul Standard 1972, a Gibson GA9 class A 10W amp from 1957, and the pedal Carl Martin Plexitone. Basically I s...


      p.s. one thing he doesn't demo is the tone control on the pedal. He has it set relatively bright and you can darken it quite a bit for a more mid-rangey growl.
      Last edited by cookiemonster2; 10-13-2007, 11:53 PM.

      Comment

      Working...
      X