The NUX '63 Diamond and Plexi Crunch get a spin on slots #18 and #19

So a number of readers had asked me to check out the NUX ’63 Diamond to see how it compared with my other favourites on the Brian May / Voxy slot. I of course decided to do a proper twofer feature - where I checked out the NUX Plexi Crunch as well. Both of those got a decent run in my pedal chain before I formulated my lasting impressions.

First impressions in terms of quality of manufacture and finish is very good - and I love how the Footswitches are slightly recessed into the enclosure - that’s a really nice touch. The newer ’63 Diamond seems to have upgraded input and output jacks - that’s why they look different in the visual. Generally the unboxing experience is very favourable really - and compared to my usual fare - these are super affordable at £45 and £39 each - where I picked them up from Andertons.

I tried the ’63 Diamond first - which seems to work best for my preferences with Volume and Master Cranked, and the High Cut dialled all the way back - of course with the Top Boost engaged too. That is pretty instantly satisfying, but truthfully not really up to the quality of output of many of my favourites in that category. Typically the more you pay - the more flavour, texture and nuanced detail you get in the output of that pedal, this is very decent for the price - but it doesn’t / can’t really adequately compete with any of my favourites in that category - they just have more vibrancy and textural rrichness about them - those others feel better under the fingers and sound much better through my twin amp setup.

This brings to bear another related point - where I often hear demos where the Amp is set to slightly cooking already, and whatever overdrive or distortion is run into it is mostly acting as a boost - meaning that most of the flavour comes from the amp in those cases. With the setup of my Clean Pedal Platform Rig - that immediately exposes any weaknesses in the output of a particular pedal, and conversely elevates those which have that higher fidelity and better output quality.

I in part got the Plexi Crunch too as I had heard Rob Chapman use it in one of his Andertons features, and it sounded pretty decent. While I can see now that most of that quality of output was coming from the amp. When I play the Plexi Crunch it never really gets fully into that magical chewy mids textured Marshall sound that I know and love so well. It has a slightly odd searing sustaining quality to it - and where my favourites of that genre are proper Phat and Chewy - and instantly recognisable as that Marshall sound, the Plexi Crunch never really gets close enough to those for me. I spent a lot of time dialling it in - and the MVP control on this pedal is definitely the Presence knob - which requires some smart manipulation - as it adds a lot of brightness with additional gain and sustain at the same time - and wherever I set that dial I never seemed to be able to get the pedal’s output totally in balance - the Presence dial seems to deliver both too little, and then all of a sudden to much of everything! I feel this pedal would have probably been better served by a Tilt EQ knob and a Mids contour knob - but really it’s just a little anaemic overall for me.

Where the ’63 Diamond delivers a reasonable degree of joy, I found that the Plexi Crunch really wasn’t my particular cup of tea. I’ve had quite a bit of success with ’Budget’ pedals before - especially those Mini Mooers! While this budget pairing mostly reinforces my overall experience and impressions with those pedals. It’s not that they’re not well manufactured - where these really are top notch quality in that respect. It’s more that they tend to use somewhat cheaper and fewer core components overall to deliver their sound, and thus mostly just can’t compete with the more evolved boutique variants out there. For a few of the simpler circuits - those can be tricky to mess up - and so there is some mileage in those cheaper simpler circuits - which tend to sound pretty good almost regardless - certain fuzzes in particular.

While in my experience - most of those cheap pedals cannot rreally compete with the best of what’s on offer from the boutique cohort - which need not mean the dearest of its kind - but pricing is for sure a factor - as if you’re using better quality components and including NOS Mojo Parts - then that can significantly ramp up the cost of the pedal.

I always want the best pedal for any genre - but as I keep saying - that means the best for my preferences and sensibilities - not some generally held opinion of that is best. I normally have a max pricing ceiling for every category of pedal acquisition, while when I come across something truly exceptional - I may grant that an exception - and go beyond my usual max level price point.

However - I just don’t get brands like say Isle of Tone - who charge $1,000 - $2,000 and more for relatively simple fuzz circuits - in fact replicas of vintage circuits in mostly larger enclosures. As a counter, Steve Williams of Pig Dog fame charges considerably less - and he gives you a full ’ingredients list’ of all the parts / components used in the pedal - usually with the year of manufacture in there too. While Isle of Tone details typically remain aloof and opaque in their details. I see it as part Zvex and part Pig Dog - but with pricing wholly out of proportion to everyone else. In terms of brand equivalence it’s a little like the Philipp Plein of pedals / fuzz pedals - which is a fashion brand mostly loved by Muscovite gangsters!

In any case here are the further details for the NUX ’63 Diamond and Plexi Crunch! :