I've owned a lot of OD pedals over the years. Thus far, my favorite for Plexi style tones has been the Carl Martin Plexitone (V1).

But my buddy clued me into this pedal last night. He's got some on order for his shop and I intend to be giving one a serious test drive when it shows. I've been eyeing the Friedman Buxom Betty as a pedal platform down the road, and I'm thinking that this pedal would just kill into that amp. Sounds so alive and amp-like.

P.S. Great to see Reinhold getting more and more into old school plexi tones these days. I've owned a Shiva (EL34) and XTC (Classic), as well as having long-term possession of an XTC 101B and Uberschall Twin Jet. All were holy grail amps, But all were very Bogner-flavored. There's nothing wrong with that, but older guys like me are always seeking-out the classic brown sounds, and ya gotta go plexi style for those. I knew he had that in him, so it's great that he's been exploring more of that these past couple of years.

Yeah, I watched a few demos awhile back on that pedal. Reinhold has been whipping up some interesting stuff lately. Something tells me that it would sound better than the Radial Plexitube I used to have and the Wampler Plextortion I currently have.

I tried some of the Wampler stuff for plexi tones and they just sounded like mud to me. I kept one of them for all of a single day, before selling it off. The Carl Martin Plexitone is still here though. With the Friedman and Splawn stuff in the man cave, I rarely use the Plexitone, but it's a great pedal to have around for a "fly rig" or whatever. Years ago, when I bought my first one, I plugged it straight into my Rocktron Velocity 300 SS power amp as a quick test to make sure it worked. I wasn't expecting a very good tone that way. It sounded awesome. I knew it was a keeper right away.

In regards to Bogner pedals.... I really like my XTC Red and Blue. Had two of the Reds in fact. So I expect the La Grange to be killer as well.

Yep. I have a XTC Red as well.

And I agree on the Wampler, it's a muddy sounding pedal. Ok for light dirt/slightly gritty tones, but other than that, it's muddy. I tried selling it on CL awhile back when I was taking my college classes and needed some money, but nobody bit, so I still have it for the time being.

Yeah, I dumped my brand new, used for one day Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe at a big loss. Actually, I traded it for another pedal that's worth less, that I also hate and can't get rid of (Carl Martin Hot Drive & Boost). Brilliant stuff. It's been sitting in a box for the past six months. Can sit there forever for all I care. But I keep hoping that I'll eventually pull it out, plug it into a different rig, and it will sound great. I think I did have it set up in conjunction with a compressor once, for a gritty Brad Paisley country lead tone. Haven't needed that in a while, so it gets no love.

That's one thing I've noticed about these preamp pedals, they can be finicky about the amp and even speakers they go through.

And I got my Plextortion in a trade. I traded my Mesa Triple Rec for it, an AMD P1, AMD V1, a TC Electronic G System, a not so great Alesis poweramp, a Monster 3500 power conditioner, a couple rack cases, and a bunch of patch cables. The guy I got it off of said that it was his live rig and just wanted something different. I can't blame him, thats alot of crap to lug around.

One of these days when I feel like it, I need to just try those pedals into either that poweramp, or into the FX return of one of my heads (none of the pedals I got in that trade like being in front of any of my amps). I know when I did that with my Bogner pedals, they sounded great. Or maybe I just need to build a poweramp based on the Marshall 1959. I don't know......

I'm not a big pedal guy for the most part. In fact, it's just been the past couple of years that I built-up a collection. Most of the time I still just prefer to use my Line 6 M9 for verb, delay, and a clean boost in the loop of my Smallbox. I've got the Digitech Hardwire chorus, delay, and verb in the loop of my Quickrod and they do sound great I'll admit. Since both of those amps are so awesome, I don't use any kind of an OD pedal in front of them at the moment. I do have a Cusack More Louder as a clean boost in front of the Smallbox though. It's very transparent.

But I kinda miss having a good, clean pedal platform around. That Supersonic Twin with the Bogner XTC pedals sounded just like my old XTC Classic. So I'm definitely planning on picking-up the La Grange in anticipation of getting another great clean rig at some point. I will likely eventually get yet another Bogner Red pedal (my third!) to run in that rig as well. I prefer it much over the Blue, because it's totally got the pissed-off XTC red channel thing going. So I'd have those two pedals, and maybe even my Plexitone on that board. Though I can't imagine needing the PT if I have the La Grange on there already.

My buddy has been raving about the Strymon stuff for years. He's finally got me interested in starting to look at those. The delay and reverb pedals would be the first ones I'd buy. So lush, yet natural and transparent. Good stuff....

I wouldn't say that I'm a hardcore pedal guy, I like an overdrive in front of my amps, a wah if I'm in the mood, and a chorus & delay in the loop for clean stuff. That's usually about it, but for some reason lately, I've just been skipping it all and just plugging straight in.

I guess what draws me to preamp pedals is more curiosity than anything. And I guess part of me thinks it would be handy to have two or three of them on a pedal board running into a compact poweramp of some sort, which I guess is more of me being curious if it would work worth a damn.

I've been doing more of the same this year. I do like to throw a bit of verb on at times... mostly just want to hear the pure tone of the amps in their un-molsted glory.

You guys don't skimp on boxes do ya!

Nope.

I'm primarily a bedroom/at-home player so this pedal REALLY appeals to me.

I'd love to just buy a plexi amp, but for the volumes you need to crank them to for tone heaven it would simply be too loud.


The La Grange sounds damn good from the few demos I've seen/heard.

My local shop has two on order. As soon as they show up, one will be coming home with me. I can certainly run it through the clean channels of my Splawn and Friedman amps. But I think a better test will be through the clean channel of my Roland Cube 80XL. If that proves to be yummay... I may have to try a Roland JC40 combo as a clean pedal platform. Been wanting one of those.