fulltone plimsoul

gimmesometruth27

anyone have any thoughts on or experience with the fulltone plimsoul?

http://www.fulltone.com/plimsoul.asp

i picked up one of these last week. i played on it for a good 30 minutes at the store and fell in love with it. i got it home and plugged it into my gig rig and i can't get it to sound as great as it did in the store on the crappy solid state amp they had there. no matter how i set it it sounds really muddy in my rig. i am using a les paul custom and an sg with a 1974 marshall jmp with the channels jumped and set to a mild/moderate crunch/distortion so i can control the amount of break up with my guitar volume and pickup selector. i tried the plimsoul with my amp really cleaned up and it sounded a little better, but i can not have my marshall set that clean because it is the basis of my tone and i use the amp distortion more than anything when i gig. i have that amp sounding exactly the way i want it and i do not want to have to alter it for just one pedal. it is distressing to me because this is the first fulltone product that i have ever used that i could not get a satisfying and usable tone within about 30 seconds of knob turning. i plugged it into my '94 matchless clubman and it sounded much, much better, but the matchless does not break up as much as the marshall, and that is the reason i am using the marshall over the matchless. i am not going to switch to gigging the matchless for the sake of using this pedal. so i am thinking i am going to have to take it back.

has anyone had a similar experience or heard of anything like this?

DewieCox

I've had similar experience with my MJM Brit Bender. I've found it tends to just kinda fart out when the amp I'm runnin to is a little too dirty. Luckily I've still been able to make it work. Prolly just has to do with the vintage design and components and how the amps they were runnin into were alot cleaner than almost anything out there these days.

gimmesometruth27

DewieCox wrote:

I've had similar experience with my MJM Brit Bender. I've found it tends to just kinda fart out when the amp I'm runnin to is a little too dirty. Luckily I've still been able to make it work. Prolly just has to do with the vintage design and components and how the amps they were runnin into were alot cleaner than almost anything out there these days.

yeah i don't know man. i have always liked fulltone stuff and it has always sounded great with my rig. i played the plimsoul for an hour just before the news of OBLs death broke and i still could not dial it in just right. at some point i have to give up and take it back i guess.

i have heard good things about the brit bender so i am surprised to hear that it does that. we should not have to alter our amp settings a whole lot to get something to work, right?

All Those Yesterdays

Just a question to see if you overlooked anything. What other pedals were in line, and what was the order? Full charged battery?

RedMosquito22

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

anyone have any thoughts on or experience with the fulltone plimsoul?

http://www.fulltone.com/plimsoul.asp

i picked up one of these last week. i played on it for a good 30 minutes at the store and fell in love with it. i got it home and plugged it into my gig rig and i can't get it to sound as great as it did in the store on the crappy solid state amp they had there. no matter how i set it it sounds really muddy in my rig. i am using a les paul custom and an sg with a 1974 marshall jmp with the channels jumped and set to a mild/moderate crunch/distortion so i can control the amount of break up with my guitar volume and pickup selector. i tried the plimsoul with my amp really cleaned up and it sounded a little better, but i can not have my marshall set that clean because it is the basis of my tone and i use the amp distortion more than anything when i gig. i have that amp sounding exactly the way i want it and i do not want to have to alter it for just one pedal. it is distressing to me because this is the first fulltone product that i have ever used that i could not get a satisfying and usable tone within about 30 seconds of knob turning. i plugged it into my '94 matchless clubman and it sounded much, much better, but the matchless does not break up as much as the marshall, and that is the reason i am using the marshall over the matchless. i am not going to switch to gigging the matchless for the sake of using this pedal. so i am thinking i am going to have to take it back.

has anyone had a similar experience or heard of anything like this?

Maybe you got a lemon. I'd return it and try another one before I'd do anything.

gimmesometruth27

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

Just a question to see if you overlooked anything. What other pedals were in line, and what was the order? Full charged battery?

i plugged it straight into the amp. i never even got it on my board because rearranging all of those pedals is too much of a pain in the ass. i didn't even plug it into the chain because i couldn't get it to sound right standalone. yes the battery was brand new.

exhausted

this is the problem.... from the fulltone description itself. basically, it's accentuating something the amp already has and all the highs are being overwhelmed, making it muddy.

"PlimSoul has a gorgeous enhanced Midrange and Lower midrange...excellent to transform a combo into a Marhall-like Lead machine, not so necessary if you already have a Marshall-like amp. I use PlimSoul on any combo, I use my OCD on both Combos and larger Marshall-style amps/cabinets."

try an OCD.

gimmesometruth27

exhausted wrote:

this is the problem.... from the fulltone description itself. basically, it's accentuating something the amp already has and all the highs are being overwhelmed, making it muddy.

"PlimSoul has a gorgeous enhanced Midrange and Lower midrange...excellent to transform a combo into a Marhall-like Lead machine, not so necessary if you already have a Marshall-like amp. I use PlimSoul on any combo, I use my OCD on both Combos and larger Marshall-style amps/cabinets."

try an OCD.

ahhh yea, i guess it helps to read the full information lol. overwhelming the mids and highs would make things muddy for sure. i thought that it would still be ok though :oops: . and everyone knows that those old marshalls are very trebley, so that must be the problem. it is a shame too because it sounded really good with the solid state amp at the store. my treble is normally set on like 2 and at times that can be piercing to me.

i have an ocd that i love and use quite often. i got the plimsoul to give me a little more aggressive tone for some songs and it just isn't working out the way i had hoped.

ryanevolution

My good friend JR just got one as well. On my recommend from being an OCD user as well for a couple years now. (We've talked about the OCD on here a few times already). It was between two pedals for him and my other first choice was more pricey so he went with the plimsoul.

I've found that it is sensitive. The sustain knob can be set very low to still get major crunch tone. We worked with it, and I thought he was just too gainy and he was saying "It's only on 5" or whatever. I said, dont go by the number, go by the sound. I liked it set around 1.5-2. He's using it through a 69 original Fender Twin, which is bright to begin with. It sounds good though. Very good and better than many pedals. I haven't used it enough myself to really get in deep with a analysis.

THAT BEING SAID, I highly recommend you consider returning it and checking out TONE MONK'S "SEED OF LIFE" http://www.tonemonk.com/seed-of-life.html This is an incredible hand-built custom pedal that really SINGS! From a brilliant designer and builder, I personally met Kenn at the National Guitar Show in Valley Forge last year. SInce then, he's become one of my best friends and my most trusted guitar and electronics consultant and tech. I am getting my next amp completely hand-built and designed by him.

I got his "Seed of Life" v.7 overdrive pedal about 4-5 months ago. Jaw-Dropping dynamics and response. TRUE amp-like character. Here is an older clip, but its from Kenn himself (the box is the prototype raw box) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl9vOjhyoLw&playnext=1&list=PL77341C2061487993 Harmonically rich. Wide range of tonal flexibility.

I will try and post MY own test and shootout vids later today. I still have the OCD on my board, but I only use it for a more high gain, tighter sound in the HP mode. Everything else sounds harsh to me now compared to the Seed of Life.

gimmesometruth27

i got it figured out. it was a pain in the ass, but i changed some amp settings, and then i adjusted the rest of the pedals on my board to suit the new amp settings. instead of my normal amp distortion i am going to color that a little with my box of rock to fill it out some and give me some crunch, so i will just use that as my default distortion and use the plimsoul for the heavier stuff. i also started using my slant cab again as opposed to the straight one. the straight one has better low end, but with the plimsoul it gave me mud. it sounds pretty damn good now. i think the brightness of the slant cab has helped. i don't have a gig for 2 weeks so i won't know what it sounds like in a big place until then. i am pretty excited to see how it sounds though.