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Hi guys I am planning to build my first 18W Marshall. But with all those versions I am totally confused. I had a JTM-45 once. This might be close to the sIII. So I can imagine what it sounds like. And this is not what I want.

I am looking for a great clean sound in one channel (maybe I will push this with pedals) and thick Plexi sound in the other channel. This describes best what I am looking for in the "gain" channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCnY0iMzy0

http://www.germinoamps.com/masonette25.htm (you can see gutshots here)

This might have a bigger OT and higher voltages. It is 25W. But maybe I can come close to this. This has is a very fat sound.

I am confused though what all the different plexi versions mean. I think the plexi version you are selling now is something different than the Plexi Super Lead brown version I saw recently?
The Plexi Schematic looks very similar the TMB. But the Super Lead brown looks quite differently.

Just in general a JTM-45 and SLP are both plexis?

Does brown actually mean a fatter sound or something different? From the schematic it seems to mean the opposite ?

Many questions. Much confusion.
I hope somebody can help

I'm not well-versed with the Trinity options, but I own an 18 watt with a Lite IIB channel and a Superlite (TMB) channel. You can get great cleans out and you can get the fat overdrive out but you can't get them at the same volume. The 18 watt relies on a lot of power tube distortion to get its sound. I think most people who play 18 watt amps "switch" between clean and dirty using the volume knobs on their guitars. This is the way plexis are played too. You can build yourself a pedal that will cut the volume from your guitar down to a level will not overdrive the amp, giving you your clean "channel". I'm not sure what everyone else does, I certainly only use the volume controls on my Tele and my LP to do the switching.

A JTM45 has a lot less overdrive than a plexi, I think the plexi has an extra gain stage and there's less negative feedback and probably some other differences, Zaphod and Coco and others will be able to tell you all the nitty gritty.

How would you describe the sound difference between those 2 sounds? The Lite IIB would be an easy option for me at the moment for a first start. But I am not sure about the sound. Superlite would also be possible. I don't even know if I would need both channels?

It would really like to order a Trinityamps kit. Not sure about the shipping costs to Europe yet though.

This could be an option but is much more simple. I am not sure if I am limiting myself with this build too much.
http://www.ampmaker.com/store/PP-18-18W ... ifier.html

Regards Jens

An 18 watt Lite IIB by itself is not a limited amp in any sense. Don't be fooled by the lack of knobs. It does pretty high gain sounds if you'd like it. The superlite has more gain of course and its a bit brighter and slightly tighter. You have some ability to change the EQ with the TMB, as much as with any other Marshall.

Mine was a first build too (my first amp build ever) and I thought exactly like you do now, what if the one isn't enough? So I built two channels into the head. It turns out the two is very very similar in the end, I hardly ever use the superlite channel. I just completed a Trinity tweed and the kit is great. For a first build I would recommend a kit instead. The TMB is probably what you want, one channel that is lower gain and the other with more gain. Both cleans up really well with the guitar's volume knob. Get the VRM too, 18 watt amps are too loud to crank in most situations (even at gigs I find).

The ampmaker kit is prob pretty nice but with the Trinity kit you get the real deal everything and very high quality parts and super help from this forum. I'm not familiar with ampmaker that much, they are probably pretty good too, I've seen their name on a couple of fora.

Feel free to ask anything else.

We have two "18 watt Plexi versions. One is our original effort to get close to a Plexi Lead with minumun changes. The second derives from an effort by unimind, to create the Plexi Brown sound from our original version. That is now our new MkII.


This is true, they were all variants of the same 18 watt design. The MkII moved away from that, but retained much of the 18 watt heritage. However, the preamp is very SLP focused


They both had Plexiglass front panels. We tend to think of them very differently though.


It is not a fatter sound, tho we do provide a fat switch. If you had a VRM or the right zener diode B+ voltage dumper, you could get a good brown sound by slightly lowering the voltages on the preamp as well and the power amp. More compression and high end roll off.

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Stephen
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