After last week’s success with my Synergy BMan module, I decided to see if the same approach would work with my Synergy Plexi module and the Axe-FX 3.
This is a bit more of a quick and dirty effort. But hopefully you’ll agree that the results are, at the least, very promising.
tl;dr
In this blog post, I demonstrate clean, crunch and heavier “reference” guitar tones from my Synergy Plexi amp module. And I also talk (a lot!) about why I’m doing this, and what I hope is a fair approach to using these reference guitar tones in future blog posts.
Here’s the key audio demos. There are plenty more below if you want more detail.
Table of Contents
- tl;dr
- What Are You Doing?
- Why Are You Doing This?
- What Reference Tones Do You Need?
- Introducing The Synergy Plexi Module
- How Does It Sound?
- Are These Representative Plexi Sounds?
- Miscellaneous Discussion Points
- Final Thoughts
What Are You Doing?
I’m building a signal chain to give me the sound of the classic Marshall “plexi” amplifiers.
Why Are You Doing This?
It’s all because of the Marshall Origin amp.
An Origin Story
This blog really found its feet back in May 2018 when I bought myself a Marshall Origin 20H right when they first came out. I wrote a lot about it at the time, and promised to follow up with a long-term review a year later.
That long-term review will soon be six years late. It’s become a bit of a running joke in my annual pedal platform amp posts. It’s quite an old amp now, and has been eclipsed by the excellent Marshall Studio line of amps. I could probably never mention it ever again, and no-one would notice.
Thing is, I’ve still got a soft spot for the Marshall Origin amp. I’d like to do (one last?) deep dive into it, and apply everything I’ve learned over the last seven years to see what I think of it now.
The Burning Question Of Its Time
Is the Marshall Origin a budget “plexi” amp? Is it something else? I can’t do my long-term review until I can answer that question.
When the Marshall Origin first came out, a lot of folks hoped that it would turn out to be a plexi-tone amp for folks on a budget. Back then, if you had to ask how much a plexi-voiced amp cost, you couldn’t afford it. Valve amps were hella expensive.
The confusion was understandable. The Marshall Origin has a Tilt control that is advertised as adjusting the blend between two vintage amp-style channels. And which famous Marshall amps have two channels that could be mixed together? The Marshall “plexi” amps.
That brings us to today, and my efforts to build a signal chain that will give me a credible Marshall “plexi” amp tone.
Bonus Points For Pedal Reviews
Almost forgot about this point!
Marshall-in-a-box (MIAB for short) / plexi-tone pedals are one of the largest categories of pedals out there. When I write about them, I think it would be useful if I could include a “plexi” amp reference tone, to help demonstrate how close the pedal comes to the actual amp.
What Reference Tones Do You Need?
Targeting Three Tones
I reckon that I need these guitar tones:
- a “pushed” clean tone (think neck pickup on a Strat),
- a crunchy rhythm tone (which is where I live), and
- a higher-gain rhythm tone (think 80s hard rock / metal)
That should cover the main things that I can demonstrate.
Pushed Clean Tones Can Be Magical
Although they’re best known for rock rhythm and lead tones, I think a Marshall plexi amp’s clean tone is pretty magical.
The plexi-style amps and digital models that I have don’t seem to do a pristine clean. I’ve found that they become lifeless and dull if I turn the gain down too much. The clean tones from my plexi-style amps are always going to be somewhat gritty cleans – aka pushed cleans.
I haven’t really explored this kind of tone out of plexi-tone pedals. I’m looking forward to finding out whether pedals can do this.
Crunchy Rhythm Tones Are My Jam
These days, I mostly play rhythm using relatively low-gain crunch tones. A big change from my youth and my long quest for more and more gain!
Maybe it’s just me, but I also think that this is where the sweet spot is on many plexi-tone pedals. I think that this is what they do best – or, at least, what they do the most predictably.
Higher-Gain Hard Rock / Metal Tones Can’t Be Ignored
Alright, alright, I admit it: there’s something very satisfying about strapping on a super Strat and turning the gain up on these amps. I was never any good at playing this stuff, but it’s fun to try.
How many plexi-tone pedals can actually do this? Right now, I don’t know, because I’ve rarely (if ever) explored these kinds of tones from plexi-tone pedals. Armed with a suitable reference tone, I can go away and find out.
What About Lead Tones?
I’m a rhythm guitarist. I can’t play lead guitar very well. I’ve also got no idea how to dial in a lead guitar tone on a plexi amp, pedal, or digital model.
So I’d rather stick to what I can do.
There’s plenty of excellent guitarists on YouTube and Instagram who post demos of lead guitar playing with plexi amps, pedals and digital models.
Introducing The Synergy Plexi Module
Completely New To Synergy Amps?
If you haven’t heard of Synergy amps before, there’s a good introduction to them in last week’s blog post about the Synergy BMan module.
What Is The Synergy Plexi Module?
The Synergy Plexi preamp module is Synergy’s take on the classic 60’s Marshall amp sound. Synergy doesn’t name a specific amp, but the general assumption is that it’s a model 1959 Marshall SuperLead amp.
It features two channels with separate gain controls and shared EQ. Each channel has two gain controls, labeled ‘I’ and ‘II’. It’s clearly meant to be a jumpered amp. As far as I know, it’s the only Synergy module that gives us the classic jumpered amp gain controls. All the other modules that are based on vintage amps only give us a single gain control.
I bought mine second hand in February 2019.
How Does It Compare To A 1959 Marshall Super Lead Amp?
Apart from the lack of a power amp (which I’ll cover later in some audio demos), the main difference between the Synergy Plexi module and a 1959 Marshall Super Lead amp is that the Marshall amp has a Presence control.
It’s understandable that it’s missing from the Synergy Plexi preamp: Presence is normally a control that affects the power amp.
While doing background reading for this article, I was surprised to learn that the Marshall Super Lead only has two 12ax7 preamp tubes. (Synergy’s preamp modules are limited to just two preamp tubes by the available space.) I’ve seen people complain on forums about the lack of glass in Synergy modules compared to real amps. Doesn’t apply in this case!
What Are You Going To Do About The Power Amp?
When they were first launched, Synergy preamp modules were designed to be paired with a power amp:
- by plugging into the FX return of an amp (to use that amp’s power amp stage),
- or by running it into the dedicated Synergy SYN-5050 power amp.
Since then, Synergy have launched their own amp heads (such as the recently released Synergy SYN-20IR) that you can plug Synergy preamp modules into. No need to piggy back on another power amp any more!
But I’ve gone another route in the intervening years, and made Fractal Audio’s Axe-FX 3 the heart of my little home setup. So I’m going to use its world-class amp emulation to give me a virtual power amp.
As you’ll hear, the Synergy Plexi module pairs rather nicely with the Axe-FX 3 for a great hybrid rig.
How Does It Sound?
My Rig Today
Today, I’m playing:
- a couple of guitars,
- into the Synergy Plexi module,
- into the Axe-FX 3,
- out to my audio interface,
- and into my DAW.
I’ve chosen guitars that (I think!) really show what I’m able to do with the Synergy Plexi module.
For clean tones, I’m using both my Paoletti Stratospheric Loft HSS and Dexter (my modded Fender Player HSS Stratocaster).
- The Paoletti is the sweetest sounding Strat that I’ve ever played, and I think its neck pickup sounds utterly glorious through the Synergy Plexi module.
- Dexter, on the other hand, offers (what I think is) a useful contrast.
I couldn’t really explore dirty plexi tones without using a Gibson Les Paul. It’s arguably the most iconic guitar/amp pairing of all time.
There’s also going to be a guest appearance from my old 80’s Charvel!
The Axe-FX 3 is running my “HTB Synergy Plexi” preset. I’m not going to do a deep dive into this preset today (just because I want to get this blog post published quickly!) The one thing to note is that I’m using Leon Todd’s “LT TV Mix7” free impulse response as the cab.
50% of the time, I’m using the Synergy Plexi as the amp. The other 50%? I’ve dialled in a virtual plexi amp in the Axe-FX 3, using the “1959SLP Jumped” model. I wanted a comparison, to help validate the signal chain I’ve built.
All delay and reverb is coming from the Axe-FX 3. I’ve done no post-processing in post. I will level-match all of the audio demos before uploading them. Level-matching definitely changes my perception of the audio (as does listening position), so I’ve done my best to capture my impressions both at record time and then when listening back to the level-matched audio.
Clean On The Neck Pickup
Let’s start off with the neck pickup of my two Strats.
I’m on the green channel of the Synergy Plexi module with these settings:
- Gain 1: just above 9 o’clock
- Gain 2: above 10 o’clock
- Bass: around 9 o’clock for the Paoletti, above 10 o’clock for the Fender Strat
- Middle: above 1 o’clock
- Treble: above 1 o’clock
Here’s how that sounds.
While recording, I could really hear the difference in EQ between the two guitars. The Fender Strat puts out a lot less low-end; I had to turn up the Bass on the amp to compensate.
The difference in pickup output was very clear to me too. The pickups in the Paoletti are very low output, even compared to the Bare Knuckle Apaches in the Fender Strat.
Clean On Neck And Middle Pickups
As glorious as a Strat’s neck pickup is, I’m happiest playing on the neck and middle pickups together (aka position 4 on the pickup selector). This can be a challenge for signal chains.
Let’s hear how both guitars sound through the Synergy Plexi module on position 4. I’m using the exact same settings as I did for the neck pickup demo.
While recording, the main thing I heard was a difference in complexity between both guitars. The Paoletti sounded rich and complex to me, while the Fender Strat seemed to have more focus on the note fundamental.
Listening back after level-matching the audio, the Paoletti sounds a little thicker to my ears, with a softer note attack. The Fender Strat is bringing out more of that Marshall top-end cut, I reckon.
Crunchy Rhythm Tones
Let’s keep everything the same, and just switch over to the bridge pickup on both guitars.
I’m going to start with just the Paoletti. Despite the HSS pickup configuration, it’s really not any sort of Super Strat type guitar. That really comes through here:
One of things I love about my Paoletti is how balanced the pickups are. I can switch to the bridge humbucker, and there’s no sudden jump in output. This also means that the bridge pickup doesn’t drive an amp any harder.
I can hear that in the audio above. Just like with the single-coil pickups, I’m still getting a wonderfully soft and mellow tone. It’s hard to believe that that’s the sound of a fire-breathing plexi-style amplifier!
Just for completeness, let’s throw in a (virtual) boost pedal. Here, I’m using the Micro Boost model in the Axe-FX 3 to boost the Paoletti’s bridge pickup a bit.
As I hope you can hear, I can get more crunch out of the amp this way, but I’d have to more radical tone-shaping if I wanted to use my Paoletti as an outright rock machine. This guitar’s strengths lie elsewhere.
Here’s the contrast that I promised earlier. I don’t need to boost the Bare Knuckles Stormy Monday bridge humbucker in my Fender Strat at all.
To my ears, that immediately sounds like a classic Marshall rock tone. I’m hearing a cutting note attack, a coldness to the tone, an aggressiveness that I don’t coax out of my Paoletti. It’s all there straight away, and I didn’t have to touch a single dial to get it. All I had to do was switch guitar.
Speaking of which …
The Gibson Les Paul Has Entered The Game
Is there a more iconic guitar / amp pairing than a Gibson Les Paul into a Marshall amp? Rock’s heyday was built on this combination. There’s no way I can do anything plexi without reaching for one.
Here’s my Les Paul on the bridge humbucker, with the gain and tone turned down a little (I’m not an everything-on-10 player, sorry). I’m using the exact same settings on the Synergy Plexi as I did for the two Strat-like guitars earlier.
While recording, I just couldn’t help but feel “there it is”. Something about the Les Paul really brings out that percussive attack. Somehow, the amp sounds more a Marshall now, even though all I’ve done is change guitar.
For comparison, here’s all three guitars on their bridge pickup again, into the exact same amp with the exact same settings:
I can hear a big difference in the mid-range between the Fender Strat and the Les Paul. The Les Paul is pushing more mid-range than the Strat, almost making the Strat sound a little mid-scooped by comparison.
I suspect that which one of them sounds more iconic to you depends on the classic rock that you’ve heard the most. For me, the Strat sounds more early 70s-era (Blackmore / Deep Purple), while the Les Paul sounds more late 70s (Thin Lizzy) or early 80s (early Whitesnake).
That right there (with the Les Paul) is already all the gain that I need for classic rock styles. Go back and listen to 80s rock records, like Appetite For Destruction (still the single greatest rock album ever made). They had a lot less gain on the guitars than you might realise.
But what if you want to play heavier?
True Super-Strat For Heavier Tones
All the guitars you’ve heard so far feature vintage voiced, low-output pickups. What happens if I pair the amp with a more modern guitar with hotter pickups?
It’s time to dig out my old 80’s Charvel. It’s practically the very definition of “Super Strat”.
A typical Super-Strat would be rocking a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge. I’ve got a Bare Knuckle Polymath humbucker in my Charvel. I think it’s a reasonable substitute. Both pickups are built for hot-rodded, peel-the-paint-off-the-wall blistering sounds.
To start with, let’s hear this guitar with the same Synergy Plexi settings that I’ve been using through all the other earlier audio demos.
That’s a very different sound to my Les Paul! The Polymath sounds more mid-focused to my ears, which makes a lot of sense for a pickup aimed at heavier styles.
So let’s switch over to the Synergy Plexi’s red channel, which I’ve dialled in with a bit more gain. I haven’t touched the Bass, Middle or Treble controls.
Ow, that low-end! It was really fun to play through, but I’m finding difficult to listen to on playback. Even with the rounded top-end of the Polymath, the Synergy Plexi module is cutting to the point of harshness.
I think the best way to describe this tone is “raw”.
But even this isn’t what why I got the Charvel out. Let’s crank the gain up to around 2 o’clock, dial back the Treble to around 10 o’clock, and see how rusty my metal playing is:
You don’t want to know how long it took me to practice that, nor how many takes I needed to get something so simple down. I’m really not used to controlling that much gain. One of many reasons why I never turned my childhood dream of being a metal rhythm guitarist into my career. I suck (and I don’t mind admitting it).
As for the tone itself … I can get a variety of heavy tones out of the Synergy Plexi module just by varying the balance between Gain I and Gain II. But it’s still got that booming low-end at heart. That’s why the mighty JCM 800 replaced the plexi-era amps as the hard rock amp.
Now that I’ve dialled in these tones, it’s time for a bit of self-reflection.
Are These Representative Plexi Sounds?
The Dilemma
Is it fair to compare plexi-tone pedals against the sounds you’ve heard in my audio demos today? There’s a bit more to that question than the obvious.
First off, have I managed to capture a reasonable idea of what a plexi-style amp sounds like?
That’s a tough one for me to answer, because I’ve never played through a cranked 1959 Marshall SuperLead amp. I don’t have any first-hand experience.
So what would be fair?
Avoid Definitive, Authoritative Claims
I think it’ll be reasonable to say “and this is how pedal X compares to my Synergy Plexi, a valve amp module that recreates the sounds of classic plexi-era amplifiers”.
It’s accurate. It makes a claim about a comparison with the specific setup / signal chain that I actually have. It sticks to the experience that I’m having, and that I can share through audio demos.
It also avoids any sweeping statements that might not stand up to scrutiny. And that’s very important, so that it’s fair to the pedal manufacturer too.
The Amp Tone Part Of The Comparison Is The Easy Bit
Secondly, there’s the issue of the signal chain that I’m plugging a plexi-tone pedal into. That gets complicated real fast.
There’s no such thing as the definitive pedal-platform amp. There’s merely amps that have pristine clean channels (ie channels with no added distortion). They’re all voiced differently. Do those differences matter? You’d have to do a big side-by-side-by-side shootout with the same pedalboard to work that out.
Then there’s speaker choice. Speakers make a huge difference to the overall guitar tone. And none of these pedal platform amps are designed to be paired with the speaker cabs of a 1959 Marshall Super Lead amp. They’re running into 1×12 or 2×12 cabinets that sound very different to a 4×12 loaded with Celestion Greenbacks.
Which amp(s), cab(s) and guitars did the pedal designer use when inventing the pedal? Which amp(s), cab(s) and guitars are the pedal buyers going to use? And how much overlap is there between the two, especially when a pedal is designed on one continent and then bought by a player on a different continent.
The point is, there’s a lot of moving parts in a pedal’s signal chain. There’s no way that I can hope to cover them either. I mean, how many pedal designers or pedal players are using the Axe-FX 3 as their main pedal platform amp?!?
Acknowledge The Limitations Of The Comparison
Ever since I started writing about pedals, I’ve always tried to stress that I’m capturing what I experienced through my rig.
I think that’s the only way to continue, especially once I start adding in comparisons with my choice of reference tone.
Miscellaneous Discussion Points
Why Didn’t I Use The Axe-FX 3 Models For This?
The Axe-FX 3 has quite the selection of plexi-era amp models. So why didn’t I feature any of them in this blog post, especially when I did use the Axe-FX 3 models in both my 5e3 Tweed Deluxe and 5F6-A Bassman blog posts?
I simply wanted to get this blog post out quickly, and it was much easier to do that if I just worked with the Synergy Plexi module.
The Bassman models were very similar to the equivalent Synergy module. My experience with the plexi-amp models is that they’re not like-for-like with the Synergy Plexi module. As I understand it, that’s because the Synergy Plexi module isn’t a straight-up plexi amp. It’s a bit more of a hot-rodded plexi-era amp, while the Axe-FX 3 models are a bit more faithful to the original.
I will go back and dial in the Axe-FX 3 amp models, because they sound phenomenal.
When Can We See The Full Preset?
I will do a deep dive into the Axe-FX 3 preset once I’ve added the scenes that use the Axe-FX 3’s 1959 SuperLead models.
I need to cover it because there’s a couple of key differences between how I’ve built this preset and how I built the 5F6-A Bassman preset.
What About Other Synergy Plexi-Style Amp Modules?
Synergy also do a couple of other plexi-style amp modules: the Metro Plex and the Dirty Shirley. The Metro Plex is based on George Metropoulos’s 1959 Super Lead amp, while the Dirty Shirley is said to be inspired by a Marshall JTM 45 amp.
I have the Metro Plex, and it sounds very different to the Plexi module. It also seems to work far better through the Bassman 4×10 cab than through the Marshall 4×12 cab & speakers. That interests me, because maybe it’ll overlap with the Marshall Origin more than the Synergy Plexi does? Expect a preset & blog post before too long.
I don’t have the Dirty Shirley module. Part of me is tempted to get one for the Marshall Origin review. And if it does do the JTM 45 thing, that would be very handy as a reference tone
But I could just use the Dirty Shirley amp model in the Axe-FX 3 instead? Honestly, it’s hard to justify buying real amps now (unless they’re tweed amps!) And (foreshadowing a bit!) the Axe-FX 3’s Dirty Shirley amp model sounds really good to my ears so far.
Final Thoughts
I have lost count of the number of times that I’ve tried to nail this tone. I’m feeling so relieved to finally have something that I’m confident enough in to post on here.
Now I just need to plan out what I need to cover in a Marshall Origin long-term review blog post series.