One of the classic Wampler Pedals, the Plexi-Drive was born when Brian, early on, really wanted that classic JTM45® Plexi® tone, but didn't have the amp.
They say necessity is the mother of invention, but this time, tone envy played a big part too, because another guitarist in his band at the time had the amp. Thus began one of Brian's focused, intense quests to design a pedal that takes the sound, the feel, the responsiveness of a special amp and replicate that magic, by whatever means necessary, in pedal form.
After a lot of design adjustments and plenty of time spent over the breadboard getting it just right, the Plexi-Drive was born, and to this day it remains one of his personal favorites among the many fantastic pedals he's designed, a constant companion on his own pedal boards.
Combining carefully-honed simplicity of function with enough versatility to make it useful for a range of different guitar and amp setups, the Plexi-Drive has become a favorite of many guitarists. Some use it to give their totally different amp that classic sound; others use it to allow them to use their JTM45® at lower volume levels without sacrificing tone.
How you use it is up to you, but you have in your possession a fine piece of design and workmanship, responsive and powerful, truly a premier "Marshall®-in-a-Box" pedal.
To get the most out of your new pedal, you'll want to become very familiar with the controls. The Plexi-Drive has a straightforward control scheme, and doesn't take a great deal of time to understand, but there are some subtleties to how it works its magic that should be explained. It features a three-knob control layout, the classic Volume, Tone, Gain setup, but to add an extra layer of versatility it also has a Bass Boost toggle switch that can give you more low end when engaged, especially helpful with single-coil pickups and amps that don't bring the thunder on their own.
The Tone knob and the Bass Boost toggle provide a degree of interactivity that goes beyond your average three-knob overdrive, and the pedal uses carefully designed JFET transistor circuitry to give authentic, tube-like response and tone, possible with a 9V pedal. As with all Wampler Pedals products, the Plexi-Drive includes a high-quality true-bypass switch which takes it completely out of the signal path when bypassed. Experiment and enjoy!
Controls:
- Bypass Switch – A true-bypass footswitch ensures solid, mechanical removal of the circuit when it isn't wanted, meaning you don't lose any tone when the pedal is off.
- Volume – This control adjusts the output level of the PlexiDrive. There's plenty of volume on tap, so whether you want to go farther than your input level or just make sure it can do unity volume (the same level of signal going out as you feed it, when active), you're covered. The output volume, Gain and Tone controls all have an impact on the total volume, so you're probably better off waiting to adjust the Volume until you've dialed in the other controls. Re-adjustment might be necessary if you get it to the desired level and still need to tweak the sound. TM TM
- Tone – This is a straightforward but powerful control, familiar to anyone who has ever used an overdrive pedal before but refreshing in that it offers a useful range of sounds, not limited "sweet spots" like many three-knob overdrives. Counterclockwise reduces the high frequencies and emphasizes the lows, while clockwise brings in a great deal of highs. It is strongly interactive with the Bass Boost Toggle, so pay attention to their adjustment!
- Bass Boost Toggle Switch – This switch offers an added level of control over the low frequencies of the pedal by allowing you to kick in a nice low end "thunk!" Great for fattening up single coils, making small cabinets sound big, or getting the most from the higher Tone knob settings, learning the interplay between this switch and the Tone knob is extremely important to getting the most out of your Plexi-Drive!
- Gain – On the one hand, this adjusts the crunch of the pedal (while also raising the volume – remember the interaction there!); on the other hand, it can be used to go for more or less of a Plexi-voiced crunch tone. At higher settings (noon and above), it's definitely got a classic crunch tone that is unmistakable in its inspiration, responsive as can be and perfectly tuned to bring the best tone to your fingertips.
At lower settings, it can morph into a much more generalist overdrive, with the voicing of the pedal still inuencing – but not determining – your overall tone. This makes it what we in the pedal business call a little bit of a "chameleon," capable of working with nearly any piece of gear and adding some extra responsiveness and drive to the sound, with extra tone shaping to boot.
- Advanced tip: owners of British amps will love the ability to get their crunch tone at lower volumes thanks to the pedal's exible voice! It may be a "MIAB," but it will play nicely with any British amp too, without any concerns of overpowering the sound or getting too much emphasis on those special frequencies
