So, the Plexi Treble bright cap

sarge

sarge

Power User
Back on the Gen 1 units, there is the Plexi 2.

I remember the description on the Wiki really nailed it when it said a "More vintage sounding" Plexi.

This was probably the model I stayed on the most.

I think the Major difference between the Plexi treble on the Axe II and the Plexi 2 on the ultra/standard is the bright cap setting. I mean of course there is far more then that. But I find simply dropping the bright cap on the Plexi treble to 200 gets me exactly where I expect the Plexi to be.

Which brings me to this question. It seems to me as good as the Plexi Treble sounds, it has more gain then any of the 1959's I have played. But when I drop the bright cap to around 200, it is more inline with what the Plexi's I have played sound like. Possibly less gain then the real deals at 200, but it cleans up much nicer and is very responsive to the volume knob on my guitar not to mention the picking dynamics are outrageous.

I guess what I am getting at is I am curious as to what the real bright cap on a vintage 1959 would be.

Now, to be fair, every time I have ever played a 1959, the channels have been jumpered. And I know the Plexi Treble is simply the high output channel. So maybe that is the difference I'm hearing.

But to the Plexi lovers out there. I REALLY recommend playing with that bright cap. The amp becomes so responsive just to the way you pick it is crazy for a modeler. Just from the way I pick it gets a kind of bright spanky clean tone to plexi growl simply by picking harder.

A great example of a song like this would be AC/DC "Rock and Roll ain't noise pollution".

The guitar coming in is basically clean then it breaks up slightly when he hits the chords

You want AC/DC "Rock and Roll ain't noise pollution" tone????

Bright cap to 200pf

Master 10
Bass 0
Middle 10
Treble 10
Drive 5-6
 
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Not sure there's a question here (about the Axe II), but this is more of a patch thing, so moving there.

But I will definitely try your settings...

Does help if you post CAB and guitar tho...makes a difference.
 
Well the question is about an amp model specific to the Axe II and why that setting is different on the II, but hey, I don't pay the bills for this site so go for it.
(Come to think of it, considering I have owned a standard, an ultra and a now a II, I guess I did contribute ;) . The the standard was second hand so that probably doesn't count)

I just use the 1960A and B cabs. They sound great with it.

I'm using a Suhr S-4. I have no doubt an SG would sound much sweeter for the tone I am specifically going for.
 
sarge said:
I guess what I am getting at is I am curious as to what the real bright cap on a vintage 1959 would be.
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5000pf (.005uf). But, you know Marshall, they put in whatever sometimes. Alot of people clipped the bright cap.
 
Playing around with the bright caps is one of the types of things I love about the axefx.
With real amps I would be paying techs to swap those things around and never get to truly a/b them.
 
I have two Marshalls, a JVM 410H and a YJM100. I find that bright cap settings around 200 for the JVM and Plexi Treble sims come closer to matching what I hear from my real amps.
 
barhrecords said:
Googled this up

Vintage Amps Bulletin Board • View topic - Bright Cap on 1959 HW (help)

On my reissue Plexi, non master volume, the treble input would basically peel your face off :) And to tame it, you had to turn it up to freakishly loud volume. I was using a slant 1969 TV cab with greenbacks.
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rtcook said:
5000pf (.005uf). But, you know Marshall, they put in whatever sometimes. Alot of people clipped the bright cap.
Click to expand...

Essentially this puts it inline with the Axe FX. And also explains why this was the most common mod done to Plexi's.

This makes me believe the reason they never sounded as bright to me was I had the channels jumpered.
 
axel said:
I have two Marshalls, a JVM 410H and a YJM100. I find that bright cap settings around 200 for the JVM and Plexi Treble sims come closer to matching what I hear from my real amps.
Click to expand...

Interesting as well!
 
Just tried changing it to 200, and it made that model much more usable to me. I did the same thing with the Brit Brown, and that worked equally as well. Great tip sarge!
 
sarge said:
Essentially this puts it inline with the Axe FX. And also explains why this was the most common mod done to Plexi's.

This makes me believe the reason they never sounded as bright to me was I had the channels jumpered.
Click to expand...

I can believe that. Or someone had done a brit cap mod already.

On a stock plexi, non master, you have to get the volume high to tame the treble channel. Even then, I had to roll off the gtr tone pretty aggressively to make it usable. Especially with a a full stack, where one 4x12 is up at ear level.
 
I've been playing around with this model for a couple of weeks. I've tried the op's settings and these Gen 1 parameters below that Javajunkie was kind enough to provide.
lower damp to 4.76
change bright cap value to .22
xformer high = 14965
hi freq res and low freq res = 5
pres freq = 1200hz
tone location = post
sag = 2.01

Agree with the OP's description of the tone. For a more saturated OD , I found that a Super OD in front makes for a pretty sweet combination.
 
Glad that helped some of you.

Since I dropped it down to 200 I can't play any other patches. I just love this one to much.

That is the sweet thing about the Axe FX, gen 1 and gen 2. You can essentially mod your amps.

I mean this is the most common mod done to the 1959 from everything I read. From people lowering the value to cutting it out altogether.

You find me another modeler where you can lower the value of the bright cap.
 
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