Best of Mini, Compact, Medium and Large Plexi Style Pedals

Next to the Tube Screamer, the Marshall Plexi sound is probably the second most cloned sound around and particularly in pedal format. You have a huge variety of Plexi pedals to choose from - with no signs of its popularity ever likely to wane. I’ve used a number of pedals over the years for my main Plexi sound - including the Empress Multidrive - which I actually included this time around in the OCD / Crunchy Overdrive style selection. My current champion is the superb Origin Effects RevivalDrive which gives you the maximum amount of rich harmonic texture and timbre - and also combines well with its own dedicated footswitch - to allow you to get 3 variations of the same tone - via Mid Boost Engage and Blend Override - of course depending on how you’ve applied the multifarious other settings.

My other ’Plexi’ is the Alchemy Audio modified mini Xotic SL Drive - with the 4 internal dip-switches externalised as toggles. I have it set to a rather dark voicing and in the 18V high headroom mode, and I use it for my Led Zeppelin style tones. I find it essential to have those external toggle switches to be able to usefully deploy this pedal. I’m really not a fan of internal trimmers and dip-switches for key tone-sculpting elements - I believe all of those should be surface-mounted for ease of access and actual usability. I have the Keeley Mini Red Dirt, and I get frustrated in having to screw off the bass plate every time I want to change voicing. In any case the mini Xotic SL Drive is a sort of Jr Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret, but with the ability to switch from Super Lead to Super Bass settings easily reachable via this Alchemy Audio mods. I really like the sound of this pedal, and every time I think I need to change or up-size / upgrade - it surprises me with its amazing tones. For sure it’s not quite in the same league as the RevivalDrive, but it does exactly what I want it to, and does that really rather well.

Further to those two pedals I also have the Bearfoot FX Emerald Green Distortion Machine, Boss Keeley Modified Blues Driver, Dr Scientist The Elements, MI Effects Super Crunch Box V2, Strymon Riverside and Strymon Sunset - all of which can get me into decent Plexi-style territory, so I’m really not lacking in those kind of tone options in my current pedal-chain!

So even though I really don’t need it, I have had the Friedman Dirty Shirley on my wishlist since that first came out. At the time its sibling the BE-OD was pride-of-place in the compact High Gain slot - but that has since been ousted by the REVV G3. I had always intended to have the Dirty Shirley on rotation with the BE-OD, and I still intend to get it, as it’s the most fully featured of the sort of upper middle gain Marshal style pedals. It’s control topology is what I really would have liked for the for the BE-OD, as I feel that is missing the essential Mid frequency control. Here you get 3-band EQ, plus presence and the BE-OD’s tightness dial has been reduced to a toggle switch on the side. I’ve also had the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret as a long-time wishlist target, but me preference leans towards the Dirty Shirley.

There’s a reason I did an article on Brian Wampler - called ’The King of Drive’ as he pretty much has an amazing drive pedal for every occasion - with several of those offered in both Standard Compact or Deluxe Medium Enclosure format - the latter having one or two additional voicing and tone controls, alongside a second / independent boost. This is really meat-and-potato territory for Brian and he rely excels in this sort of territory. I think almost without exception you can recommend a Wampler pedal within a particular category. Very occasionally you may find something else caters slightly more closely to your exact taste, but the Wampler is usually and almost always a contender.

Finally - you may have picked up on a few articles about my very positive impressions of Origin Effect’s Revival Drive - which initially seems over-complex and somewhat intimidating, but is much easier to get to grips with than a Chase Bliss Audio pedal really - even though I of course love and use most of those too. In any case, the RevivalDrive is an incredibly accomplished and versatile pedal which though does need a little patience initially in learning and setup. I find I can achieve all manner of tones on this - where I usually have the left/right split as Vox/Plexi, but have also set up a very nice Dumble-ish tone too. The big proviso here is obviously in the price, as this is a very costly proposition and mileage may vary. If you are interested in this pedal you have to go with the full-fat ’Custom’ version of the pedal with the extra front-panel tone controls, and you must get the dedicated footswtich too otherwise you won’t benefit from the full versatility of this pedal. Some view is specifically as tuning a certain style of drive into a particular amp, while I use those settings to achieve vastly different tones and texture - for an expanded palette of tones!

As mentioned above - I still have the Friedman Dirty Shirley on my wishlist along with the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret - even tough I really don’t need them, I also feel it important to mention Venezuela’s Pedal Pal outfit - who make exceptional medium-size enclosure Marshall style pedals in various configurations. In any case I have more than enough existing Marshall-esque options already so I am unlikely to acquire any more of these any time soon.

Pedals are listed in order of enclosure size - from small to large: