Marshall 1987X "plexi" Reissue

It's got the power. No wimpy master volume. Want more? Turn it up! Want clean? Roll back that knob on your geetar! That's what they're there for...


Is it supposed to do something else besides give the magic rock sound? Have 8 footswitchable channels with flange and delay and built in hardrive with automatic porn downloader?

Roars like a Lion. Not fuzzy distortion just rich big delicious sound penetrating to the back of your brainstem.

It's strong. It's Heavy.

Marshall's dont break do they?

It's that sh!t.

Say you want a 50 watt plexi but you feel that a real plexi is ptp wired and say you want a post phase inverter master volume as standard and say you want a new one because the old ones are collectable/potentially unreliable you could go here:
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/product/Akselrud+Amplification/50+watt+plexi/10/1

1995 re-issue 1987x 50w "plexi"
I have spoken with Marshall England regarding the amp circuit.
It has the "67-69" plexi face but its innards are the more favoured "72-73" metalface era, these have increased treble and more gain/crunch.

Its got everything you need for a good tone and nothing you dont.
I like the FX loop but dont think its a great design, I do like it being in series though.

Been playing this amp for 2 years now, the honeymoon is over but Im happily married now ;]

The amp is 100% tube, nice and simple as any guitar amp should be if you like big tone,
Definitely in the top ten amps of all time and for good reason.

It has a special soft, yet hard tone that just has something that puts a smile on your face. it takes pedals like no other, roars at any volume but especially up high.

Ive played alot of amps with the intention of buying whilst owning this one and have bought none of them, nothing compares to it at all.
Ive tried the Twin Reverb, "59" Bassman LTD, "57" Twin, Blues Jnr, all the Hot Rods, Most other Marshalls [although I like any Marshall before the JCM-800] Vibroverb, Supersonic, Vox AC-30 [came close to keeping that one] Roc Pro's, Stage series Fenders, Concerts, and so on,

As for people that bash this amp compared to original specimens I say nonsense, apart from using metal film resistors instead of carbon comp which go out of spec after years of service [not a desired effect at all] and re-issued transformers and some other current production parts, the amp is well built and does sound as good if not better than the amps of the day [I actually prefer the re-issue myself]
Marshall have always used off the shelf, cheap parts for their amplifiers, now these "cheap parts" have an apparent mojo with some amp snobs.

I wouldnt worry about installing MM tannys and point to point turret boards, that would be a total waste of money, but a boutique clone if thats your intention.

Marshall are now using Svetlana winged C tubes as standard, thats my tube of choice, always has been.

Ive had no problems with mine.

Electric Factory [Marshalls Australian distributor] are really bad for service.

Im a Marshall dealer and feel bad selling their products because I know how long it takes to get any spares for any Marshall product.

Its a big shame because I really like their products.

Been playing for about 20 years,
I love my strats and old Marshall amps, I play in a hard rock cover band and dont need any other amp, Its as versatile as they come and has the biggest tone.

I use a low SPL rated 4x12 cabinet so I can usually crank it at most gigs without using an attenuator or blowing patrons away.

I really love it, what more can I say?
Build quality is good, sounds great, easy to use, versatility in its 4 inputs, I always play it bridged.
Plus they look really really cool.
Pretty expensive though but its all good Jerry.

This is a 1987X model plexi reissue amplifier (head). nothing fancy at all which is good in many ways. Bass, mid, presence, volume, standby switch, no effects loop. I recently had mine repaired by my tech because it was blowing fuses every ten minutes. Luckily, it was just a shorted tube and therefore an easy fix, but when he was in the amp, my tech said that it has a circuit board. The big selling point on this amps is supposed to be POINT TO POINT "HAND" WIRED. He told me that it was built cheap and that anyone who buys this amp thinking he or she is getting an exact replica of an original plexi has another thing coming.

I usually run a Bunker Prostar (early seventies model) with a Bill Lawrence 500 xl keystone humbucker in the bridge and a seymour duncan (can't remember what kind) humbucker in the neck both with coil taps. The amp does ONE thing extremely well and that is rock and roll. It has that glassy kind of distortion that angus young is known for and you can really nail some of the harder zeppelin tunes etc. with it, but in terms of clean tone... give me a break. I don't understand why everyone is giving this amp such a great review for sound quality! If you crank it too far, it tends to get mushy and the headroom is limited at best. I have found that I mess with the knobs on this thing trying to get it to sound good more than I actually play it. I think another guy nailed this phenomena quite well when he said that the amp is inconsistent. I can't put my finger on it, but the amp doesn't ALWAYS sound good. When it sounds good though, it sounds great for that ONE kind of music.....

I run it on seven or ten for volume almost all the time. I've been doing that for a year and a half now with a marshall power break attenuator and it's only screwed up on me once... I'd say that's pretty good for any amplifier.

Never dealt with them

The bottom line is that this is a dependable ONE TRICK PONY at best. If you want to sound just like angus young and jimmy page, then this is the amp for you... but it's not that special of an amp because everybody wants or has that very sound. Very fun to play with and it's like a tank. Phony point to point wiring upsets me... it's an OKAY amp for the price if you buy it used for eight hundred and not new for double that.

Recent model (2005). Features...hmmmmmmm...well, not a lot of bells and whistles, but the simplicity was what I was after, and that's something I think just about all of the real classic amps share. Of course, these have the effects loop, but I leave that on "bypass" mode, so it's not really part of my review. I've heard so much about everybody having to "mod" these, and that the effects loop really trashed the tone...blah blah,etc., that I kind of expected something vaugely hideous. Which brings me to the next section...

When I first plugged this in to my Sonic 4X10" cab (Celestions), it had wayyy too much treble going on. I mean WAYY too much. I had some experience with a couple of older (mid 70's) 4-input Marshall heads that I used to have, and opened it up to look for the capacitor they used to solder across the volume pot. I had found before that by clipping that, it warmed the amp up considerably without losing anything in the tone section. Well, this was just a little different, but after going online and finding the right schematic, I figured out that they were still doing that, just that it's on the pc board now. I removed that 4u7 cap..problem solved. That's it. My only mod. Sounds great now..all the tone controls do what they're supposed to, Strat sounds like a Strat, ES-335 sounds like an Es-335, etc. I use minimal effects..a Boss OD-3 for overdrive, a digital delay, and a chorus once in a while. By the way, I do a house gig with a band that plays everything from funk to classic rock to country, and my simple rig covers it all. BIG TONE from this amp. It's why they're still around, and such an icon in the music industry. I use Strats, a Firebird, Les Paul, Lonnie Mack V, Jerry Jones..Marshalls in general really like humbuckers, but after ditching the bright cap, the single-coil stuff sounds good too. Quieter than my Dr.Z too.

I used my mid-70's head for 12 years without a glitch. Wish I hadn't gotten a case of the dumb-ass and traded it off, but...I digress. My point is, I've always had good luck with Marshall reliability. I've always just owned 50 watt heads (and one Bluesbreaker combo)though..your mileage may vary. This one gets used every week at the gig since I got it a few months ago, and sounds exactly and consistently the same every time. I've also been in road situations where the amps got moved around a lot..still didn't have any problems. I don't consider reliability to be an issue with these amps.

I've never had to deal with Marshall directly. These amps are kind of like Harleys though..parts are always available if you need them. Aside from a yearly power tube change and bias check, never really had to mess with it that much. I bought mine in used-but-clean condition, so I suppose no warranty applies.

I've been playing for almost 40 years (yikes!). My other amp is a Dr.Z MAZ 38. It sounds great too, just different. Guitars are a Historic Firebird III, ES-335, Eric Johnson Strat, Early-90's Custom Shop Strat, 2001 Relic Strat, Jerry Jones Neptune, Mid-90's L.P Standard, Lonnie Mack V, and a Gretsch Anniversary. This amp lets the individual character of these guitars come thru. The less crap you put between your guitar and these simpler classic type amps, the better they sound, I think. I have a few Boss pedals and a Budda Wah, and that's it (there's a space left over in my 6-space Boss board/case). I can get the classic Marshall thing without cranking it to 10 by the way. You gotta NOT let your effects overwhelm the amp. The inherent tone of a good Marshall 50W is the beautiful part. Listen to, say, David Grissom for a lesson in amp/guitar tone. Yes, I would definitely replace this with the same thing. It works and it's easy to use. If you need 128 presets, then run as fast as you can from this amp; you don't 'get' it.

Less is more in this case, I bought this amp for what it doesn't have!

I have the version of this amp with the effects loop, I might be posting in the wrong section, sorry if I am. I hate to think of the junk in the loop, but it really works very well, Marshall finally learned something. I have loved and lusted after that hard raunchy vintage Marshall tone all my life. I like Yngwie's type tone btw so my comments here on out is usually me driving the head with a modded YJM 308 along with my trials and tribulations until I finally landed in heaven and got it all right. In stock form (no pedal) I was already prepared for what I got: A very loud, violently bright and brittle monster that was totally unuseable for me but I was ready to get down to business and tame this beast so I could enjoy it without going deaf which would have been a matter of days. First up was a must: a master volume and I installed a post phase inverter type (thank you Rich whoever you are) and it worked like a charm. Sounds loud and cranked at low volume and does not get the miserable raspy, mushy broken amp sound as do all other master volume mods I've heard. This mod adds NO gain to the preamp, it leaves the phase inverter in the equation to distort as it does with the amp is cranked. Next, it was time to voice because highs were still out of control, yes even with the channels jumped. I replaced coupling caps a few at a time with Mallory polyester type and this was starting to help. Then I put a small 47pf cap across the phase inverter plates which tames just a touch of the extreme highs. Thank you Thundertweak! Now I was in the ball park but it was not quite there yet. Tried vintage carbon comp resistors and went too far, this was TOO vintage for me; too dull and grainy and I had lost the electric chime that keeps a strat twangy. In went audiophile caliber Holcro metal films, half watt (my personally fav), and finally got the cap right on the volume pot; a 3.7nf film type after a 5nf Ceramic was just a bit too abrasive. Stock it didn't have one at all btw. Now I'm done! Massive, devistating upper mid presence that only a good Marshall does! A tone orgy any day ever day! You really hear that solid clanking iron bar type of tone that I just can't get enough of. I like sustained sound, but must hear my strat tone loud and clear, without being screechy. My strat sounds at all times like an electric guitar, meaning hard and clear with all the cluck and quack and at very manageble volume too. I couldn't be happier. The above is a bit out of order and oversimplified but I wanted to make the point that this amp can be made into the Marshall of your dreams and total parts cost was probably less than $20.00. It was much more fun than frustrating and I had faith there was no reason I couldn't get it right. Just one innapropriate cap value or even wrong type of cap is all it takes to stand in the way. Since I can't resist tinkering here and there, I may go off and drop in full hard wired board ala metroamps, that way swapping parts is simple. Prying up the board to get under it with solder iron as I've been doing must be done VERY carefully, and one day I'll cook a trace for good. Hope my comments are helpfull, anyone is welcome to e-mail me and I'll answer if I can. Modern metal music needs more amp tones like this!

A1 for me, and that is from someone who knows just enough to be dangerous inside the amp, that included a bad solder joint (mine) on a 220K by the phase inverter that put the nuclear meltdown on the power tube and the amp didn't fry. That was the brightest I've ever seen a power tube glow!

NA. I havn't ever tried to contact them, but with 30 million heavy metal morons e-mailing them from around the world every minute of the day, I would not be surprised if getting a response from them is tough.

I"ve been playing 25 years now. Even at the height of my ultra hi gain metal days, I always secretly envied the clear, electric tone of a great Fender amp. Now I've got the twangy tone, but heavy and mean too and all the sustain I could want. I may buy other amps (LOVE the Soldano hot rod 50) for other styles but I'll never turn my back on this tone ever!

Plexi Magic!

First let me say my head has been up my ass for decades.
The only Marshall I've yet to own or play, etc... is a Plexi.
I've owned a Bluesbreaker, JCM 800, JCM 900, JMP & I'm sure a couple more. My only problem with all of the Marshalls I listed is there's No Low-End. Even my Bluesbreaker lacked Chunk.
Not the Plexi, it has the tone of a JTM 45 with the Low-end of a Bassman or Bandmaster.
My Les Paul sounds great thru it, but my LP Jr. is amazing thru this Head.
I run a Barber LTD in front of it or a Zakk MXR pedal. Both are Low Gain & work well with the amp.
This is a very good sounding reissue. I know it's not Point to Point & that's OK. I've owned many vintage amps & I can do without the repair bills that go along with them.

I'm sure it will last!

USA support blows for Marshall products.

I don't really know where my tone quest has taken me, but I hope it stops here with this amp. I fell in love Bandmasters about a year ago & after a couple big repair bills I had to move on. This amp is the best of both worlds for me. I can use it in the studio without a pedal & use it live with a pedal to keep all sound-men off my back.
Over 20 years of doing the Rock & Roll thing & when you have great tone it makes everything easier. If you ever wonder where AC/DC & Thin Lizzy got their killer tone, then buy a Plexi. If you like Chunk with Clarity, buy a Plexi. If you hate the high-end shrill of most Marshall & Hi-Gain amps, buy a Plexi.
I feel like a dumb ass to never have played through one of these amps.
The Boutique amps can kiss off! I've tried most of them & owned a few. They always do the trick for a while & then from Ghost notes to overall weird tones I end up moving on.
The Fender Bandmaster led me to this amp in a round-a-bout way.
Now I know why my guitar heroes from the late 60's & 70's used these amps. If you think you can get this tone out of a 2 channel amp YOU"RE WRONG! It will never happen. If you need more than one channel then stop playing guitar. Find a Great tone a milk it!
This Amp RULES in every way!

2005 made in England. I really love this amp!. Very basic feature. Two channels high treble and normal. You can also blend these two channels for some tonal varieties via patch cable. Normal treble, mid and bass with a presence control. I love the simplicity of these vintage series amps. I play a lot of blues, classic rock and also modern stuff like RHCP and it fits perfectly with these styles.

Some claim to get a distortion but I wouldn't call it your classic high gain distortion but more of a cleaner crunch. But along with turning up the amp to try and get that crunch sound you'll bound to say "holy shit" and quick to turn down your amp because these things are loud. Again a lot of headroom meaning it stays clean upon higher volume where most amps will break up. It does break up but not what people might assume as the classic Marshall break up of a JCM 900. The break up is there but retains a lot of clarity but has a lot of warmth and retains the textures of your single notes and chords. I play exclusively a Gibson Les Paul Standard and Vintage series Strats and both sound amazing through this amp.

I play straight into the amp when playing chicago style blues and turn on the pedals when I'm doing some modern rock or harder classic rock like Hendrix and Cream. You can get some classic rock tones with straight into the amp but you won't get that far. Remember the old rock bands like the Who, Cream and Hendrix used effects pedals to create and experiment with new sounds so don't limit yourself.

Some classic rock purist claim that this amp is good plugged straight in for classic rock...I would really like to hear this. In order to get a really classic overdriven tube crunch you need to at least have some some pedals. Most of us would go deaf within a week playing this thing at high volumes in order to obtain that overdriven crunch. However this amp has so much headroom that you'll be hard press to get that crunch anyways. Don't get me wrong Marshalls are meant to be cranked for optimum tone but how many of us play with the volume at 10 for 1 to 3 hours straight? ok ok if you play stadiums then you are an exception. But I play gigs in clubs and I hardly go past 5 or 6

Been gigging with this thing for 4 months and hadn't had anything blown out. Just retubing which is standard pratice with tube amps. I think it might last a life time. If you follow standard tube maintenance pratices then you will have a, in my opinion, great amp that will be very reliable for a long time

I've own mostly Marshalls and their customer service is great. Although there was an issue I had with them in the past where it took 4 months to replace a faulty footswitch but I haven't had any beef with them ever since then with getting advices on replacement parts and taking my amps in for dealer services.

I've been playing for 15 years and I have always been impressed and a little bit partial to Marshall amps. I've own Fenders but I always seem to come back to Marshalls. I know some people that looked at the specs of this amp and say "what? no reverb?" well it could use reverb but I find that it doesn't at all. If you need reverb you can always get some pedals. But for me its fine like it is.

Hell yeah I'll replace it if it is lost or stolen. These vintage series are of course on the expensive side but you won't regret the investment you put into these awesome amps.

it is an amp that does basically 1 thing and does it very, very well.
The tone is amazing!
got mine in 2003 and made 2 records with it and played many gigs.
I play loud rock'n roll and only rely on pedals for drive and volume boost for solos, so this amp does not need to be versatile (I hate, multi channels, reverb, FX loops and other features).

I'm a vintage Fender player: 2 Strats ('69 and '74) and a Tele ('68). So, it's single coils heaven!
I'm a Marshall user as well: 2 Marshall tube heads and 3 Marshall cabs (4x12 25w greenback reissues, 4x12 75w and 2x12 65w).
The 1987x is the best amp I ever owned (have a Marshall 100w Super Lead plexi reissue and had two JCM800's and rack models tube power-amp and a transistored pre-amp).
I record direct to the amp and use a Power Braker to push the amps to the limit.
The tone and drive are fantastic when cranked!

Hit the floor a couple of times, played many gigs and traveled some other time: sound JUST LIKE when I took it out of the box!

Never needed.
I only posted a couple of months ago a picture for the "reader's amps" at the Marshall web site and they published. Very kind!

It's my main amp. It's rock sound to me!
I play very loud and love when it overdrives.It's very beautiful!

Buy it new today so its a 2005...I was not a Marshall fan,,i had manny before,,jcm 2000 triple lead,,valvestate,,,jcm 900 and the last before my 1987x,,,the handwire 2061x..But i decide to try a plexi vintage 50 watts and decided to order that one..I had a good feeling even if there is no gain control,,no reverb and one channel only. They now have an effect-loop with a real bypass and power reduction for that one.

I use a Gibson les paul classic 1960, a strat usa with texas special and a hand-made fast guitar with a paf and 2 fender single-coil...I play blues-rock and hard-rock and let me tell you,,,that this amp is not only a good amp,,it s the best i have never had..Im happy to find out that Marshall have continue to make vintage-plexi amp,,because that one is the king,,,as i said before,,i think all the others kind of marshall are,,sorry for that,,,SHIT. 1987x give you a warm sound,,a perfect clein sound,,,sustain in solos,,,,and a perfect rythm rock sound..Its like a mesa-boogie but with the marshall caracter,,a dry dry sound.You can hear all notes in a chord even if you push the amp to 10. Its very loud for a 50 watts,,,the over-drive is wonderful when you push the amp,,put it come so loud that you may need an over-drive pedal when you turn it down..I use a guv-nor marshall stomp box..It give the guts you need and keep the character of the amp. I know there is many guitar players that consider that marshall amps have no sustain,,,that the distortion is agressive and thin,,,,,,Try that one,,,you will start to beleive in Marshall again..As i said before,,i manny amps before,,peavey classic,,traynor tubes amps,,fender tone master,,marshall 2000 triple lead,,soldano,,manny mesa-boogie that i still have,,,and manny manny more...YOU MUST HAVE THIS ONE IN YOUR GEAR,,THATS THE PERFECT CLASSIC ROCK TONE. I have mention before that my last was a handwire 2061 x marshall that is more expensive and have only 20 watts..That one sound good,,,,but is nothing beside the 1987x.

I dont know for that one because its too soon to tell,,,,but i never had a problem with my others Marshall amps in 25 years.

Im a dealer so i order it from Erikson music in montreal...Tony,,one of the representant was very helpful with me,,,because i had order the 2061x and did not like it and return it and change that for the 1987x without any problems...Received it the day after,,,wow

Im 35 and play since im 9. Having tour a lot and record a lot too. I think i have try all guitar and amps that is possible to name..I say it again,,that one is a king,,,Marshall should stop to make all there shit and concentrate on their vintage amps...I like to trade a lot,,had never keep my musical instrument too long except for my gibson les paul classic 1960,,my strat,,my mesa-boogie subway-rocket and finally,,i will always keep that 1987x marshall head that is not only a classic but the end of my long search for THE TONE.