Retro-King Amps Plexi-50 Combo

Two channel, Marshall "plexi" style amp.50watts,EL 34 driven,solidstate rectifier. Ordered mine with the master volume mod and neg feed back control, one 12 and one 10 inch celestion. Black tolex and cane grill with gold piping. This amp dos'nt pretend to be anything it's not: a high quality, simple,rock and roll work horse, but it does have some pleasant suprises!

In the past I've owned both tube and solid state amps.High end boutiqe and didgital modeling amps. I lost the lot down here in NewOrleans due to a recent moisture problem. For the last year and a half Ive been using a Roland Cube 30 amp. To My suprise,this amp actually thrashed all previous, an amazingly versatile and convincing little machine. So,when I began toying with the idea of re-investing in a high end tube amp , I set my self a criteria: It had to cost me less than 2000,[ what I could afford,and what I honestly felt what I wanted was worth] and of course had to give me the range of sounds I wanted. I'm mainly a slide player with influences as diverse as David Lindley, Ry Cooder,through Ben Harper and Luther Dickenson. I wanted an amp that could touch on all the above.Allot to ask! Id allmost given up when I discovered Chuck Deans web site. Very impressive,yet strait forward sound bites! This could be the one! The price was right so I decided to take a chance. No regrets! The amp arrived promtly ,exactly as I ordered,and worked perfectly. This is a beutifull amp.The cab and workmanship is impecable. the ten twelve combo sounds balanced and cuts through. The sound of this amp is very organic and thick. Clean sounds chime and sustain seems to swell up like internal compression. One of the pleasant suprises I mentioned: as you push the amp into clip, it takes on an allmost fender like quality, very dark and gritty. Add a little tremalo, and your at the cross roads, atouch of delay and your a swamp fox par-excellance! No fear though, as you press on into higher gain settings allthose classic "Plexi" qualitys shine through. Lows "Spertwanggg" and shake the window sashes, mid range blossoms like a radiation leak, and the high end sizzles and spits at you with a vengance! Anouther pleasant suprise: with the master volume mod, when you bridge the two channels, the two channel volumes act as duel gains,each with a different character. I've found Myself leaving the tone controls at an allround good setting and mixing the two gains for tonal variation!...nice!!

If the workmanship is anything to go buy should be fine. Only had mine a few months though, but not worried.

chuck dean returned my calls almost imediatly and was very helpfull when ordering the amp. This is one man, making one amp at a time. Your not going to see that very often.

Even though this is a vintage "retro style amp, it is no "one trick poney". THIS AMP IS LOUD! I had a Mesa tremoverb 100 watt combo that the Retro King would have kicked into the dirt. With that kind of clean head room,you could play many styles of music through it. I had to buy a hot plate so I could push my power amp tubes at lower-mid levels. I expected allot from this amp, but, with a little tweeking, its given me every thing I need. I expect to be living and playing with this amp for a long time. Thanks Chuck for providing the working man musician with an affordable "dream" amp. And for anyone wanting My take on the Tube-verses-Modeling argument, The modeling amps have got dam good, but the differences are still there, and arnt a figment of a bunch of old farts imagination. Buy one of these babies and crank it up a bit, and youll know!