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]After playing Matt’s Plexi at gearfest ive been counting my penny’s and as usual I’m miles off being able to afford one.
However I came across a mod to the 5e3 circuit which makes it fairly close apparently.
I’d leave the bright channel as it is because it’s awesome and shouldn’t be touched. However I never play the normal channel and rarely blend it in with the bright.
So for not a lot of money I could convert my normal channel to Plexi style circuit.
Should I?

I’ve already had Baja Electronics install a MV on the amp and a 3 way NFB switch so it’s not unmolested anyway.
Will modding it further devalue it more?

MOD IT!!!!!!!!!! Any amp that can do tweed and brown is a valuable amp in my books.

kdawg2a wrote:MOD IT!!!!!!!!!! Any amp that can do tweed and brown is a valuable amp in my books.

For not a lot of $$ it would sure make it more useful to me, hopefully others would see it’s value as well.

Another vote for modding it, looks like an easy change!

I'd imagine a 6V6 based plexi would be something you could push without so much destruction of your hearing system. I have no idea how invasive it would be on the stock layout. Not something I'd do to my 5E3.

That mod does sound pretty good but don't forget part of the reason the plexi sounded so good was it's big and loud and moves some air. I think a smaller watt amp will always struggle a little to capture that.

The demo makes the mod sound good, but I'm against calling it a 'Plexi' mod. The mod is jigging with just the first gain stage which makes a difference to the simplicity of the 5E3 preamp, but is still very unlike a Plexi circuit. The Deluxe has little preamp gain but sounds huge because of how you can overdrive the power amp section - the Plexi sounds huge because of preamp distortion/voicing from twice the number of gain stages of a 5E3. The mod might get the sound close at a particular setting and (most importantly) that might sound great, but I wouldn't expect the amp to 'behave' like a plexi. But if it's a simple mod and you don't like the normal channel, it's worth a try!

RectifiedAmps wrote:The demo makes the mod sound good, but I'm against calling it a 'Plexi' mod. The mod is jigging with just the first gain stage which makes a difference to the simplicity of the 5E3 preamp, but is still very unlike a Plexi circuit. The Deluxe has little preamp gain but sounds huge because of how you can overdrive the power amp section - the Plexi sounds huge because of preamp distortion/voicing from twice the number of gain stages of a 5E3. The mod might get the sound close at a particular setting and (most importantly) that might sound great, but I wouldn't expect the amp to 'behave' like a plexi. But if it's a simple mod and you don't like the normal channel, it's worth a try!

Interesting info, I like the pushed Plexi sound as apposed to preamp gain on full Plexi sound. So it might end up just pushing the 6v6s into fizzy preamp gain territory?
Although as the normal channel is essentially unused modding it to something more useful still might be worth it.
He posts his schematic here, which includes other mods he did as well. As I don’t really know how read the schematic can you tell me if it all looks legit?

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7474/293 ... 0b8f_b.jpg

what speaker are you using with your 5e3 Reg?

what speakers were in the cab with the plexi?

You didn't get a chance to put your 5e3 through that cab did you?

AiRdAd wrote:what speaker are you using with your 5e3 Reg?

what speakers were in the cab with the plexi?

You didn't get a chance to put your 5e3 through that cab did you?

Good point, I didn’t try my amp through his cab (which is an open back 2x12 with a Greenback and a Blue)
In my cab on that day I had my Celestion V type but I usually have a Celestion Gold in my 1x12 cab.

How close does the 5e3 through the Gold get when you jumper the channels and turn it up LOUD?

AiRdAd wrote:How close does the 5e3 through the Gold get when you jumper the channels and turn it up LOUD?

I have tried this but I don’t remember exactly how it compared.
I would say the 5e3 has a looser tweedy vibe as apposed to the plexis stiffer strident punch in the face type feel.
Tone wise I couldn’t confidently say how much difference there really is as it’s been a while since I tried this.
I am in the middle of building a detuned closed back 1x12 cab which might help to get closer to the feel and punch.

Reg18 wrote:I would say the 5e3 has a looser tweedy vibe as apposed to the plexis stiffer strident punch in the face type feel.

A lot of that comes down to tube VS SS rectifiers, assuming the plexi you tried was a JMP.

godgrinder wrote:

Reg18 wrote:I would say the 5e3 has a looser tweedy vibe as apposed to the plexis stiffer strident punch in the face type feel.

A lot of that comes down to tube VS SS rectifiers, assuming the plexi you tried was a JMP.

Not sure which model it was, it’s this one.
https://i.imgur.com/5E6dDBQ.jpg

Then there's the difference made by 6L6 tubes rather than EL34s.