Plexi-Drive. British Overdrive
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!
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.
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