ceriatone_plexi51_all-access [Madison Square Bedroom]

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====== Ceriatone Plexi51 All-Access ======

My main amp is the [[https://ceriatone.com/british-style-plexi51-access/|Ceriatone Plexi51 All-Access]], which is a 50W Marshall clone, aiming to recreate late 60s and early 70s Plexi and metal panel Marshalls. It has a tons of switches and knobs, which swap in and out different component values that correspond with different models as they changed over time. 

It has both a tube and solid-state rectifier, 2 12AX7 preamp tubes, a 12AX7 phase inverter, a GZ34/5AR4 rectifier tube, and a pair of EL34 power tubes.

===== Favorite Settings =====
 
I experiment a lot with all the different component value settings, but I of course mainly target what Page would have used around '72, which is rumored to be a late '68 100W Plexi with EL34s, before any KT88 mods or other supposed changes he had done over the years.

To dial in the sound, I used the same method that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4SHnvjEYM4|Abrildel85]] does, by setting everything to noon, and then tweaking up and down, by ear, til it sounds right/good. 

I wound up with: //Vol I// around 4, //Vol II// 0, //Bass// 0, //Presence// (TBD, I forget), //Mids// (TBD, up high, forget the number), //Treble// almost max.

For reference, I am usually always shooting for a 1972-era, [[htwww|How The West Was Won]]-style tone, rather than the 1973-era [[tsrts|The Song Remains The Same]] that most people seem to target. I just like HTWWW best, probably because I heard it first and have listened to it most.

===== Mods =====

I swapped the 1000pF bright cap to 4600pF, to try to get more of that quite bright sound Jimmy generally had. He didn't seem to crank his amps, contrary to what you might assume, and below a certain point on the volume pot (7?) the bright cap has more effect compared to cranked, where I believe it's basically out of the circuit.

I tested out KT66s a few years back, when I was going through a Cream-era Clapton phase. That was one of the things that drew me to this amp; you can tweak it to emulate quite early Marshalls like Clapton did, as well as use KT66s. I honestly didn't hear much difference though, even with a blind A/B test.

Otherwise the amp is stock.

==== Tubes ====

Currently I have mostly vintage Mullards for each tube position:

  * V1: 12AX7/ECC83 Mullard Blackburn, from 1959
  * V2: 12AX7/ECC83 Mullard Blackburn, from 1960
  * V3 (PI): 12AT7/ECC8 Mullard Blackburn, from 1961
  * V4 (power): Mullard Blackburn EL34 xf2, from 1972 (HTWWW :)
  * V5 (power): Mullard Blackburn EL34 xf2, from 1975

I've tried modern production tubes, and done blind A/B tests with identical settings and a looper pedal, and I'll be honest: I don't notice a ton of different between them and the "mojo" Mullards. But I was able to get them reasonably, so why not?