Dear Sixties;
The most important aspect of the Plexi sound for you will be the speaker selection! Get this: put an Eminence in a Plexi stack and it’ll sound more Fendery. Put a Celestion in a Fender and it’ll sound more Marshally. I built a cabinet for my second guitarist using one Greenback and one Eminence Legend–two cheap drivers. He has a Plexi head. It sounded sweet but not as Marshally as with his original cabinet. I loved it. The Marshall sound is a combination of Celestion and Marshall. Interestingly, my Celestion Gold sounds far less Marshally than any of my other Celestions.

Marshall’s electronics do have a signature sound that varies quite a bit from model to model and year to year as you know. You’ll need a preamp with more gain than the Xotic RC Booster I use. How about a Marshall “Govner”? If you don’t have one, try a pedal–any pedal–with a British leaning. There are several available from different manufacturers and they’re promoted as such. All will work well and don’t forget: try to use one with separate bass and treble controls–not a single “tone” control–so you can fine-tune the tone to your liking. An additional EQ pedal will cut some of your guitar’s character so try to avoid that. YOU MUST TRY THE PEDAL BEFORE BUYING. My Xotic, for example, sounds great with tube-type preamp stages but pretty crappy with solid state (great with the 44 though). You must see how a pedal works with the 44 Magnum. Never buy anything recommended by anyone without trying it. We all have a different definition of good tone.
Rock on,
Magic Frank

To clarify, speakers do not “have” wattage. They have a power-handling capacity. It means little in terms of tone unless you need to overdrive the speaker slightly for that saturated sound but be careful; if you drive the speaker hard enough, it could fail. As the EH guy said, you won’t blow the 80 watt capacity cabinet’s drivers. Any speaker rated 35 watts or more would be hard to blow. You could use a 25 watt rated Greenback; just be cautious.

Hi everyone;
Here’s been my experience after living with a Magnum 44. First, it’s remarkable. Its clean tone is excellent. When you push it, you do get extra drive and sustain but be aware: this ain’t no JCM45 or Blues Deville. The overdrive is somewhat buzzy due to the odd-order harmonic content of the class D circuitry, most likely. It still sounds pretty good for what it is and perfect for a small gig, rehearsal (amaze your band-mates), a back-up amp stored in your glove compartment(!) or just practicing.

I’m still not sure if I’d gig with it as it only has around 22 watts (if it’s 44, I’ll run naked through downtown Chicago). I’m talking real RMS power. It seems EHX took a page from the old hi-fi industry and is using “music power” to come up with 44 watts (ad-speak). I need to try it at gig levels and have not yet done so. You should know that it’s highly speaker/cab dependent. After all, it only has a bright switch for an EQ. The better the cab, the better the sound.

Regarding a pedal making a solid-state amp sound tube-like, it’s never perfect. Certainly an English Muffin won’t do it. If you simply want some drive in order to sound like a tube amp pushed, try the Boss Blues Driver if you’re on a budget or an RC Booster from Xotic if you’re not. The latter has bass and treble making it a fantastic addition to the 44. If you want all out fuzz or crunch, the amp’s architecture is less important and yes, a heavy distortion pedal will help a solid-state amp if you want that tone. DISCLAIMER: As a reviewer, I don’t buy a lot of pedals. I get them free for review. I’ve never established a relationship with EHX and they may have some great pedals I’ve never heard. My colleagues tell me they make great stuff. I just cannot comment on anything I’ve not heard. Reviews mean nothing: You must listen to know. We all have different tastes.

The problem with soild state is they suck when pushed but sound fine clean. Tubes get even better when pushed (a good one will; just because it has tubes does not guarantee good sound). You do not know how a pedal will work with an anp without trying them as a unit. Some pedals sound great with one amp and crappy with another. By the way, the 44 sounds best with single coils as humbuckers push it into a bit of tizziness in the tone.

Finally, adding a Celestion to “warm up” a tube amp? What Celestion? They are not known for warmth–hence the Marshall sound–raunchy, ballsy midrange but hardly warmth! The Gold and Blue models do have warmth but you’ll pay dearly. With Celestion, the more you spend, the greater the warmth and chime. Get a mid-priced Jensen or Eminence to warm up the amp and add clarity. You’re obviously on a budget and these two brands are not expensive. I’d guess a late-60’s solid-state Gibson amp would truly suck as did all the early solid-state amps–guitar, PA or hi-fi. I’ve heard great things about Weber speakers too but never reviewed them. Everything else I’ve mentioned above, I’ve reviewed for various magazines. Never heard a Weber. Looking forward to it.
Good luck
“Magic” Frank

Hey guys,
Yeesh. I’m an idiot. Here’s the story: I use two very small super-lightweight cabinets on stage–a true mini-stack but far superior to the Marshall version in every way. Having a bad back, I’ve been using lightweight stuff for the last few years. Here’s the rig: Each cab is made by me and they’re both made from thin 1/4″ plywood but reinforced at the joints. Being small and reinforced, they are quite rigid yet they are only a little larger than the 12″ drivers inside. One uses a Celestion Gold and the other, the slightly smoother and slightly more transparent Jensen Blackbird–two very fine (and expensive) 12 inchers. Since the cabs are actually too small for the drivers, they have an upper-bass and lower middle hump. Since my preamp has bass and treble pots and the amp (get ready), the incredible Crate Power Block, has bass, middle and treble controls (and lots of power), I’ve been EQ’ing the crap out of the cabinets for a cross between Fender Tweed and over-driven Blackface tone! It’s a rare gig (this iteration has seen over 100 gigs) that someone does not come up and comment on my tone. They also ask “Where’s the amp?” I love it!

I actually made a plate that attaches to a mic stand and the Power Block sits on the plate so the amp is right next to me at elbow-level on top of a mic stand! When I change from humbucker to single-coil guitars, I can tweak the amp in a heartbeat without bending over and showing the audience my fat ass. Volume changes are a snap. It’s tube-sound heaven at 4 pounds! With zero maintenance. I leave my real Fender amps at home. By the way, the real deal does sound better but as I play a lot of lead and tend to stay on the 4 or 5 higher strings, the gigging tone form the Power Block class-D, solid state amp with mini-cabs is still, nonetheless, superb with plenty of expression and tone.

So here’s what happened: hooking up one of these dinky cabs, without the benefit of heavy tone manipulation (no tone controls), the cabs sounded lousy when driven by the 44. Once I hooked the Magnum amp to my P12Q in a larger, proper-sized cab, she opened right up. So, it was my own fault all along. It sounds fine. Not sure I can gig with it but it’s pretty darn close. How close? It breaks up a little too soon (I’d estimate it at around 22 watts RMS tops based on the other transistorized amps I’ve made that measured in that area) and it breaks up a bit too late for nighttime practicing! Overall, it’s still plenty cool, sounds decent, and I’m keeping it! Yes, I will try it at a gig.

Please accept my apologies and my thanks for trying to help me unravel the mystery. Now, I have to call my contact at EH and explain how dumb I am.

Thanks for your input guys.

Just spoke to Rick at EH. Just like the Ghost-man, he says their demo unit has plenty of highs. He gave me a return authorization numnber and he’ll evaluate the unit himself. I’ll probably send it out on Monday. When it returns, I’ll fill you guys in. I don’t expect miracles–only an amp that kinda sounds like all the tone pots are at 12 O’clock. If I’m in the ball park, my technique will take care of the rest.

By the way Cry (geez, it seems like I’m picking on him), are you sure you ever play pure sine waves? If so, you’re the only cat around doing that. On certain Stevie Wonder records, he has six or seven guys who do nothing but program the synths to NOT sound like sine waves. The magic is always in the harmonics. It makes synths sound like musical instruments. I suppose you might throw out some pure tones below 60HZ or so. Can you even put out sine waves if you want? I have a tone generator for service but do not know what synths are capable of.

I downloaded an RTA ap for my iPhone to show my kid the difference between sine waves and musical notes on a sub-woofer–same idea. It’s a cool tool.

Thanks everyone for tolerating my opinoins. If Cry is right, Ghost cannot be and visa versa! Cry says one must expect dull sound from an ordniary preapm section not voiced for guitar (I agree; hi-fi equipemnt won’t work as a guitar amp–sounds lifeless) but Ghost says his sounds pertty good! Hey Cry: Do you actually have a 44 or are you guesstimating?

I’m gonna call EH and post their response.

One more thing: this endeavor is not for an article but that’s a great idea. I wanted to gig with it! I’m working on an article right now on the Xotic RC Booster (outstanding product) and their remarkable EP Booster which emulates the old EchoPlex preamp (geddit? Echo Plex) It adds gain but does fatten the tone almost like an overdrive but more subtle–an outstanding produst as well.

You guys can see one of my articles in the “Archive” section at my site: MagicFrankBluesBand.com
If you want more, contact me though the site and I’ll send you some–no charge of course. I was with 20th Centry Guitar Magazine as the Gigologist for years and more recently as a contributor for Premier Guitar. Now I only freelance due to the recession.

I’m the founder of Onkyo USA and I’ve represented Yamaha (still do), Kustom, Sennheiser, Monster Cable, and US Music (Washburn, Randall, etc). I assemble and sell parts guitars. I’m an old guy and play primarily Chicago-style blues–no fuzz tones, no envelope modifiers, etc. Tone is my passion. By the way, if you know Chicago-style Blues tone (early BB King, Otis Rush, even Chris Cain), you understand my inclination for Fender amps. You can’t have the blues in a Toyota and you can’t play Chicago blues though a Marshall stack–British blues for sure, but Chicago-style? Nah…(only kidding!). Tone is in your hands and hearts–not your rig.
Peace

Dear Cry,
Thanks for the reply. You could be right but let’s examine a couple of aspects just for fun. While your assumption about the use as a monitor amp is a great idea, the 44 seems to have no clarity–no high frequency extension, so articulation of vocals is unlikely. I’ll plug in a tube mic preamp and see. Good thought though.

Look, I want this to sound good. I like EH prodicts and the compnay and it would’ve been a hoot to show up with a pedal board 4 X 4 inches with a little pedal feeding the 44! As I stated, the Xotic RC Booster (or my own custom preamp) helps a lot but it’s still barely suitable for gigging–not in terms of volume–in terms of chime, clarity and overall balance. I HOPE it’s defective. I WANT to keep it. It did get some positive strokes but only on this forum. I still have my hopes up. I’ll call the company. I have contacts there from my writing.

Now to the overall tone issue. First of all, you are simply incorrect when you say it’s only a power amp. If it had no preamp, you’d get very little sound. Try plugging a guitar into a real true power amp. It cannot work. The signal coming off the pickups is at microphone level–thousands of a volt. A power amp might need 1.5 volts to start cookin’ hard–that could be a thousand times more. It has a preamp; see the bright switch? While the preamp is really as simple as it can possbly be (just a voltage boost and a cheap high boost–or more likely, a high cut if “bright” in actually normal), the overal sound should be far better and it can be. There’s nothing inherent in spectral balance issues with class-D amps, just smoothness sometimes but not a complete lack of character and transparency.

Finally, I was astounded at your statement about the tone coming from the amp (or preamp). While the amplifier makes a giant difference, you must start with a given. Tell me, Cry, does a Fender guitar sound like a Gretch or a Gibson? How about pedals and amps that completely obscure the original tone? They do exist because they are so colored they can’t get you your sound (if that’s what you prefer). I assure you sir, my 60’s Gibsons sound different from my newer Les Pauls. In fact, every Les Paul, semi-solid Gibson and Epiphone (and D’Angelico) I own sound a little different from each other and all my amps–practice or gigging–show the difference, The 44 cannot. Guitarists use the words “tone woods” because even different woods sound, uh, different. Different pieces of mahogany sound different from each other. A good amp reveals and enhances the difference while adding it’s own color. I love great amps. I detest toneless amps designed from day one as promotional products that appear to be good deals at the guitar megamart.

I almost forgot: The amp worked slighy better in a 2X12 even though it’s a 4-ohm load–a function of the speaker blending of the two dissimilar drivers. I am always careful with solid state driving low impedances unless they are optimized for that load. I did not play it super loud and shut down quickly as the sound did not improve much anyway

Once again, thanks for the reply and the insight.

I’m completely baffled. I got my 44 Magnum today. It’s quite dark sounding with a fat, congested lower mid-range. I admit I prefer the Fender mid-scoop sound and this is completely incapable of approaching that type of tone.

I’s plenty loud but lacks detail and depth. It has no richness. It gets closer with my Xotic RC Booster with the treble boosted all the eway up but it really sounds best with single-coils. My wonderful PAF-equipped vintage Gibsons sound, for the first time ever, like crap.

I’m an older working pro (and a magazine reviewer and writer with over 30 articles so far), and really love the idea of lightweight stuff to carry to my gigs. The Crate Powerblock, another Class-D amp, sounds fantastic, partially due to the preamp but even with the preamp bypassed, it’s transparent, allowing the real tone of the guitar to come through. My 44 Magnum destroys (humbucker’s) tone.

It’s not badly distorted and the built-in overdrive sounds a bit better while providing plenty of sustain with my 335-type instruments but it’s just so loud and dull at that point, I cannot use it at any gig unless I’m bringing my Strat and/or my Teles. Is it possible that the positive reviews all involved processing before the Magnum? How do your samples sound alone?

Finally, I was kind of amused when I saw the picture of a huge pedal board with the little amp on board. What’s the point of a tiny, lightweight amp on a large heavy board? Just having fun, one supposes (or a back-up amp, maybe?)

Is there an upgrade to bring back the highs and transparency? Any suggestetions out there? Does EH read the forum posts? Shall I write them directly? Seems like a voicing problem–not an issue with class-D architecture.

Oh, one more thing: You might want to know what I used for speakers. I tried both 4 and 8 ohm combination of cabinets, all home made and used for magazine speaker testing. I tried the Jensen Blackbird, Celestion G12-65 and a Kendrick Brownframe–all good speakers.

I’m stumped.

I welcome your thoughts fellow players.