Plexi Breed – Electric guitar pedal – Plexi 1987, 1959, JTM45 Overdrive, Distortion, Preamp

Plexi Breed is a pedal capable of reproducing the sound of the heads that made rock history: the first Marshalls called “Plexi” due to the control panel built in plexiglass. The sounds of these amps have been widely used for a long time, they have been taken as references by many amp and pedal manufacturers. These heads are currently still in production although the opinions of musicians are conflicting, in fact they claim that the current production has changed and building processes are no longer like those of the past (thanks to the fact that Marshall has expanded its market whith more models during the years), by the way from the 60s to the 80s, these fascinating heads were used by most of our guitar heroes.

2 channels
The first Plexi produced by Marshall, as well as the first amplifier ever produced by this historic company, was an amp based on the circuitry of another Fender amplifier, specifically the “Bassman”. However, it was not a full-fledged copy, Marshall JTM45 circuit was different actually different: choice of tubes, some component values, and the structure of the 2 channels. While the Fender Bassman had two identical channels, the first, called Bright, mounted an extra capacitor on the Volume knob, to obtain a brighter sound only at low volume, Marshall created two different channels (High Treble and Normal) thus obtaining the typical sound spectrum of this series of amplifiers. Many guitarists used to jumper the inputs to take advantage of the sounds of both channels mixed together. Plexi Breed has obviously implemented this function, which is essential to to recreate those magic tones.

3 accurately reproduced Plexi amps.
A toggle switch on the Plexi Breed allows you to select the 3 best known Plexi amps by simply moving this lever.

• JTM recreates the circuitry of the JTM45 evoking, above all, the reaction of the rectifier valve, giving to the guitarist the typical sag attributed to this valve in the power supply circuit;
• 1959, recreates the sound of the 100W Plexi named 1959. A powerful amp with a very high headroom and a very detailed focus;
• 1987, recreates the features of the 1987 50W Plexi, different from the 100W in order to obtain a slightly more pronounced distortion and an even faster attack.

The remaining controls are shared by all 3 modes:

• Normal: sets the gain of the Normal channel, characterized by a strong body response and a unique punch on the low-end frequencies;
• High Treble: sets the gain of the brightest channel focused on the mid-high frequencies;
• Tone: allows a general correction to the overall tone, low values ​​offer a darker sound, high values ​​for a sharper sound;
• Volume: sets the overall volume of the pedal.

Not all the great guitarists of the past used to bridge the two channels, for example Angus and Malcolm Young of AC / DC used to use only the High Treble channel of their Plexi amps; Eric Clapton preferred the Normal channel coupled with a treble booster, and so did others. On the Plexi Breed it is possible to use only one channel by simply taking to the minimum value the control of the channel you don’t want to use.

Plexi Breed can operate at 9V as most pedals on the market do, otherwise it can operate at 18V as well, it configures its bias automatically. Operating at 18V the pedal acquires more headroom giving to the overall sound a less lo-fi footprint. The choise has to be made according to your needs and testes.

A pedal carefully designed to bring to light the timeless Marshall sound.

Note: Power supply (9V or 18V) are not included. Plexi Breed can’t operate with an internal battery.