So I'm looking at getting an amp fairly soon (hopefully from a fellow forumite as I've seen both on here) and it's between the Cornell Romany or Plexi. Problem is I'm struggling to choose. My main issue is that I'm currently in a shared house and I'm worried about volume, although I know the Plexi goes down to 1/4 of a watt, which is great. Continuing with the plexi, I love the naturally overdriven tones and how it cleans up; however, I love the Romany cleans and could put a nice overdrive pedal in front of it. Style wise I play blues/jazz/rock. So the question is, if you were me what would you go for and why? And before someone chimes in with the obvious, the answer is no, I can't have both
Comments
Plexi's are a wonderous thing though.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
I'd be tempted by the Mesa Subway Rocket in the classifieds...
So three posts in an already quite mixed opinions. As it happens, I Iiked both amps when I tried them, although on reflection I remember the Plexi sounded effing huge! Anyone else wanna throw their tuppence in?
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/95661/mjw-goldstar-ss-1x10-275-donation#latest
Romany Plus: Superb jazz and edge of break up pop / blues. Not much clean head room (I struggled to hear myself when playing live with this against the band); if overdriven it can get really flubby on the bottom E especially with humbuckers.
Plexi: if turned up, a great early Marshall sound. Average sounding if attenuated for home use; you will struggle to keep your volume consistent live if you try and use your guitar volume control to switch from clean to drive.
If you look on old threads on Cornells you will see the phrase "they are a one trick pony - but what a trick!" and it's true. If I was in a Cream covers band it would be the Plexi, and if I did smooth George Benson jazz it would be the Romany but IMHO there are better options if you need more style flexibility and need to use it for home and live.
I now have a Tone King Imperial Mark 2 which covers the range of both and is good attenuated and also has lots of volume for live. A used Fender is a good cheaper shout.
If you want clean at home volumes and the ability to go loud for gigging I would suggest, if you have the room and ability/will to move it around, a Fender Twin. No really. It has the same sound whisper quiet as roaring loud. Failing that my Bassbreaker 18/30 does the same thing on the 30 watt channel, albeit without reverb. It is however about two thirds the weight of a Twin so is relatively portable.
Either buy an iso cab, or use a Kemper or Axefx2. I have all these, and favour the AF2, when I'm not playing through big amps
can't comment on the Romany plus as I've not played one.
I can play the plexi 7 loud enough at home so it sounds as intended. I love it
the plexi 7 sounds nice clean and unattenuated with pedals for dirt. If you needed really quiet you could do that with the MJW, or either Cornell
When I tried a Lazy J it was gone. It's not in the same class as something like a Lazy J. I've not played some of the other amps mentioned above like Carr but they are probably better as well. Like I said above, with what I know now I'd prefer a Fender PRRI to the Cornell. To me push pull power stages sound better than single ended ones.
I'd be interested to hear what speaker was/is in your Plexi 7.
I've long been tempted to get rid of my 50w Plexi & 4x12 in favour of a Plexi 7 - for space as much as volume, I'm predominantly a home player but I do get away with murder in terms of dB (although I do use a Power Brake).
Does the Plexi 7 sound like a small amp?
@beed84 Could you use a drive pedal at home?