Slaving a Plexi Project

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rgorke
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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by rgorke » Wed Jul 16, 2014 11:01 am

efraser68 wrote:Rog, my HotPlate is set to "Load" and I run the Line Out to send to delay and reverb, then back to the Peavy PA. Are you attempting something similar?
I just turn my attenuator all the way down, take a cable from the other speaker jack into my "line level" to the input of amp #2. I'll have to double check that I have the line out wired correctly and put all the controls on zero.
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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by mrgtrman777 » Thu Aug 28, 2014 7:57 am

I had pretty good luck just plugging in and playing on my amp to get the VH tone..

check out the link, thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMmJ7Ttvf_M

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rgorke
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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by rgorke » Thu Aug 28, 2014 12:09 pm

mrgtrman777 wrote:I had pretty good luck just plugging in and playing on my amp to get the VH tone..

check out the link, thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMmJ7Ttvf_M
Is that the set up you used for the AP video? Blades amp?
"If you make a mistake, do it twice and smile and let people think you meant it." Jan Van Halen.

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by mrgtrman777 » Thu Aug 28, 2014 2:18 pm

rgorke.. yes that's the setup I used! :) Thanks

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rgalpin
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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by rgalpin » Thu Aug 28, 2014 3:11 pm

yeah, but there's something extremely visceral and satisfying about taking a big gun and firing it into another big gun just to see what you get. i.e. SLAVING a plexi into another plexi. or like driving a ferrari into the tail pipe of a VW to see what the VW can really do!! :vh: :clap:

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by Blix » Thu Aug 28, 2014 3:39 pm

And the challenge of handling a pretty much stock plexi circuit instead of cheating with Jose gain mods.. :wink:

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by Jeremy1283 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 4:45 pm

ROBIN L. wrote:
Good Guest wrote:WOW...sounds like this could be the way to go....I was just experimenting with "where to put the univox echo " in a re-amping setup. They sound so good being driven by the mxr 6 band I figured that was it ( going into amp1), but thinking of it with your post it could possibly be even better that way(going into amp2). Driven by the whole amp and a purely resitive load with line out volume. The univox is pretty finicky with input signals and depending on what is driving it can sound very different.Thanks for this valuable info Robin L. :D 8)
Yeah, Ed had two Univoxes inside his "bomb", but they were pretty unreliable.
When we set up for the 1984 tour, we used a MXR delay pedal instead of the echoplexes (unreliable too).
The univox was gone by the second world tour.
The 7 band MXR EQ was dropped in favour of a Boss EQ with more sliders when we came back from Japan in the summer of 1978.
Some of Ed's equipment was lost on the way back from Japan and recovered later, so we hunted for new equipment because we had shows already booked.
Ed used the same plexi on all the early VH records, the main difference with the first album was that he used the MXR 7bandEQ as a booster in front of his amp.
But like I said, Ed didn't really like that sound, he just wanted more sustain.
There was a lot of hiss coming outta his rig, virtually no bass and too much high end.
That EQ was noisy as hell.
For that reason, the MXR EQ was not always on, it was wired in a looper box because it didn't feature an on-off switch.
That looper box was labeled "1" on his wooden board.
Needless to say, that wasn't a Big Muff pedal as I 've read some people claim on this board !
Ed never used any overdrive/distortion box ever, he hated these.
He would always stress that the amp should do the job.
When we dropped the EQ, he switched to higher output diMarzio Super Distortion PU's, for more sustain and less hiss.
Live, he would replace the Fender tremolo with early Floyd Rose prototypes.
But in the studio, he would go back to the Fender tremelo and the PAF's pickups that Seymour modified for him.
Ed is a no nonsense, straightforward person, he always knew what he wanted soundwise back then.
Things got changed through trial and error on a weekly basis, transformers were blowing all the time, a lot of different pickups were used, guitar necks would be swapped from one guitar to the other, and so on ...
People on this board should realise that it was not Ed's equipment that was important, he would sound like himself even when he had to borrow other people's gear !
This is awesome info!

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by rgorke » Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:08 pm

This Robin L is not anyone who would know anything....a lot of the information was already confirmed by others.
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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by Jeremy1283 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:16 pm

rgorke wrote:This Robin L is not anyone who would know anything….a lot of the information was already confirmed by others.
oh ok. well that was allot of reading. not sure who said what.lol damn :(

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by mean_street » Sat May 28, 2016 2:43 am

Hey guys, maybe someone could help me out? I want to buy a power amp for slaving and narrowed it down to the Fryette Power Station (which has the load included) and the Matrix Gt1000fx which I would use with the Suhr Reactive Load I already own. Anybody who had the chance to compare both power amps or at least has experience with one of them? I own a Peavey Classic 50/50 but don't like it too much because it seems to be a bit flubby and has a raspy top end I couldn't dial out with the presence knob.

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by bmf5150 » Sat May 28, 2016 11:29 am

I would go with fryette,love mine
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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by harddriver » Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:13 pm

So after all this time was it ever established who this Robin L guy was? He spoke in very certain terms of having first hand knowledge of the tours and equipment as if he were Rudy Leiren. Then after Dave Friedman cornered him he claimed that he never claimed to be Rudy but was still there around on the tours to have first hand knowledge.

Then some time later I found some posts by him as if he was just another guitar player getting info on here about a Randy Rhodes amp. So unless someone else swiped his user ID then all the Robin L posts were a complete fraud... For him to claim that a lot of the reamp Marshall had been converted to more of a power amp spec by Jose was the first I had heard of that being done. So after re-reading recently all his info seemed so clear and concise and not the ramblings of an internet sociopath. But I guess true a sociopath believe they are true soooo...

So to all the older Metro members who where here for this to unfold, what do you guys think about it now?

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by eljodon » Wed Feb 22, 2017 5:55 pm

mean_street wrote:Hey guys, maybe someone could help me out? I want to buy a power amp for slaving and narrowed it down to the Fryette Power Station (which has the load included) and the Matrix Gt1000fx which I would use with the Suhr Reactive Load I already own. Anybody who had the chance to compare both power amps or at least has experience with one of them? I own a Peavey Classic 50/50 but don't like it too much because it seems to be a bit flubby and has a raspy top end I couldn't dial out with the presence knob.
I own both Suhr Reactive Load and Fryette Powerstation and they're both very useful. I use an eq after the Suhr Reactive Load to tame the top end and tighten the low end. The Powerstation is great if being used with it's own power amp but not so well as just a load. The Suhr Reactive Load sounds great with many amps but you'l have to slightly cut- 1db of 2k or 4k and up with an eq to tame down the high frequencies. It's much more natural to cut than to add in my opinion. I'm using the Suhr Reactive Load with an Ampete 444 amp switcher slaving 4 different amps and I'm using an RJM mini Gizmo with 5 loops with different eq curves(3 different eq units) for different tones and to match the amp I'm using. it sounds great! I'm using a Mesa Boogie 2 90 as the power amp.
Suhr PT100SE ,Metro/Friedman 68' Plexi, ,Friedman BE100,EVH 5150iiiS,Fender Vibrolux 68'/Alessandro,VoxAC30,Kemper

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by Megaro » Wed Mar 01, 2017 10:01 am

I'll jump in on this. I have the Suhr Reactive Load and a Matrix power amp along with a number of other power amps. I have tried out a bunch of different combinations with 4x12s and a 2x12 cabinet. The Suhr Reactive Load is very good and an excellent way to slave. I think the Matrix power amp is lifeless. I have the two space rack unit. It is very quiet and light, but there is no tone in there. Running my 50 watt amp through the Suhr Reactive Load into a VHT 2150 classic power amp into two 4 x 12 cabinets is just huge. Loud, dynamic, all those things. I have also used a Peavey 60/60 and an older H&H 500 in this rig. The Matrix was the most convenient, but there was no tonal point to using it. I was better off putting my FX in the loop of my 50 watt amp, turning down the volume, and going straight into a 4 x 12 cabinet. Oddly, the best tone I have gotten with slaving through the Suhr Reactive Load was to use an old Mac MC275 as a mono bloc into one 4 x 12. The McIntosh is a hi-fi amp and is not really intended for this purpose. But it was an education to do A/B comparisons of some of the more popular guitar power amps next to an old classic hi-fi amp.

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Re: Slaving a Plexi Project

Post by eljodon » Wed Mar 01, 2017 1:35 pm

Megaro wrote:I'll jump in on this. I have the Suhr Reactive Load and a Matrix power amp along with a number of other power amps. I have tried out a bunch of different combinations with 4x12s and a 2x12 cabinet. The Suhr Reactive Load is very good and an excellent way to slave. I think the Matrix power amp is lifeless. I have the two space rack unit. It is very quiet and light, but there is no tone in there. Running my 50 watt amp through the Suhr Reactive Load into a VHT 2150 classic power amp into two 4 x 12 cabinets is just huge. Loud, dynamic, all those things. I have also used a Peavey 60/60 and an older H&H 500 in this rig. The Matrix was the most convenient, but there was no tonal point to using it. I was better off putting my FX in the loop of my 50 watt amp, turning down the volume, and going straight into a 4 x 12 cabinet. Oddly, the best tone I have gotten with slaving through the Suhr Reactive Load was to use an old Mac MC275 as a mono bloc into one 4 x 12. The McIntosh is a hi-fi amp and is not really intended for this purpose. But it was an education to do A/B comparisons of some of the more popular guitar power amps next to an old classic hi-fi amp.
I have to agree with you about the Matrix! I bought GT1000fx because of the weight and it was too dark! The Mesa Boogie 2 90 sounded so much better. The thing that I like about the Suhr Reactive Load is that it's bright unlike other ones I've used and I had to use an eq after to boost the high end.When I use it with my 2 Plexi's it retains that twang that I like. I'm using a Metro/Friedman with 6CA7 that Dave tweaked for me and it sounds great! I ordered the Audio Source programmable eq so I can have different eq curves because I'm using a Suhr PT100, Freidman BE100, Metro/Friedman and a Mesa Boogie Recto so I have to eq them differently because one might be too bright or the other might need a bit of bass boost. I also have the Sound Sculpture Volcano which gives you different boosts and you can use a volume pedal and you can control everything with MIDI setting up different boost levels because when I switch to the Metro/Friedman it's always louder than the other amps because it's cranked up to 10. So now when I switch between amps the volume is consistent.
I would love to hear the Mac mono block power amp! I bet it sounds amazing!
Suhr PT100SE ,Metro/Friedman 68' Plexi, ,Friedman BE100,EVH 5150iiiS,Fender Vibrolux 68'/Alessandro,VoxAC30,Kemper

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