Wampler Plexi-Drive Deluxe Overdrive Pedal Reviews

I've had the Plexi Drive Deluxe for a few months now and use it almost daily. It gives my Fender amp a whole new world of tone, taking a clean sounding Fender right into classic and punk rock territory. The eq and the bass and bright switches are great features and well worth spending a little extra money. Many thanks to Aric Ficek of Sweetwater for his assistance, even got the pedal delivered earlier than expected.

I'm a blues jr kinda guy but I love those big Marshall amp sounds. When I realized that most of the overdriven high gain sounds from bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Green Day are using Marshall amps to do the heavy lifting, I decided to look for a pedal that could give me similar tones. This pedal is awesome and it really doesn't change your amp tone completely like most overdrive pedals but it blends nicely together to give it the Marshall sound you're looking for. Paired with my tweed blues jr this pedal sounds really great!

The best overdrive pedal I've ever had. I bought mine last April 2017. I will buy another one. Wampler is the Bruce Lee of MIAB pedals. I love that guy.

I was so impressed with the Wampler Plexi-Drive that I wrote my initial review just days after receiving it. Most or all of the reviews here (including mine) can tell you what an excellent OD pedal this is but, after a few weeks of experimentation, I have discovered what a wonderful clean boost it can be. With the gain at about 9 o'clock, it provides a crisp, beefy, well-defined clean tone that is unobtainable with my other pedals, and I have some good ones (see pic).
I've never thoght of an OD pedal as an "always on" effect but the Wampler Plexi-Drive simply sounds awesome no matter where the gain is set. It is equally useful with single coils, humbuckers, Marshall and Fender amps or any guitar & amp combination. Wampler makes a superior product and the Plexi-Drive is a shining example of this.

I was looking to buy one of the mini Plexis, but couldn't get over the sticker shock. I remembered that Wampler made these, so I decided to give this pedal a shot.

I plugged it into my DSL 40 (don't judge me) and wow. I found the tone I have been looking for all of my life. The left button by itself gave my clean channel a great boost, and with both buttons on I get the tasty overdriven sound I have always wanted.

"$ for a pedal?" you may say. "Yes!" I say. And worth every penny. Thank you Wampler and Sweetwater.

The Wampler Plexi-Drive Deluxe is a great way to get the Plexi sound. It is awesome! You can use just the right side Plexi boost by itself and get a great sound. You can set the top mounted tone controls and gain, that are operated from the left side switch, at 12:00 and get that great Plexi tone. Or you can use both sides at the same time. And all the controls, knobs and switches, actually effect the sound you so you can get the tone and the amount of "crunch" you want. It's very versatile. This is the best overdrive pedal I've bought - and I've bought quite a few. If you want that awesome Plexi tone, or are just looking for a great overdrive pedal, this is the one!

First of all, Brian Wampler obviously has an excellent ear for music. He makes many pedals with useful functions that just sound fantastic. After upgrading my compressor & fuzz with the Ego & Velvet Fuzz, repectively, I began eying the rest of my board, wondering "what else can Wampler do for me". As with the comp & fuzz, I had a well-known OD/DIST that was pretty good, if not very inspiring, that was definitely not up tp par with the other Wampler products on my board.
Second of all, Wampler (and some other top-rated boutique names) have a LOT of products in this genre and I spent many hours reading reviews and listening to demos of many brands on Youtube. I did not go looking specifically for an "amp-in-a-box", I just just wanted a really good OD/DIST for playing classic rock. This being a fortunate year for me, price is not an issue. I gave some pedals, costing twice as much, equal consideration.
Finally, the pedal. I chose the Plexi-Drive Deluxe because is has that definite classic rock attitude I've been missing. And like most Wampler pedals, it is insanely tweakable, giving me a very useable range of tones from thick clean boost (The Wind Cries Mary) to a smooth, almost fuzz-like distortion (Red House, Strange Brew) and all the delightful, ballsy dirt in between. I didn't expect much out of the TS-style boost but it really is a great addition to this pedal, by itself, or when stacking with other drives. This thing actually is three quality pedals in one, which makes it an excellent value for the money.
I honestly couldn't be happier with the Plexi-Drive. It sounds awesome with single coils, humbuckers, British or American amps. If I had to choose just one drive drive pedal, this would be it.

I found myself fiddling around trying to play some old-school hard rock/metal. Even with the excellent OD channel of the Blackstar HT40, it just didn't sound right. The PlexiDrive has done it! It really is that good and sounds the absolute business. I don't find myself using the Boost function much (yet), but the active EQ really let's you dial in some great old Marshall tones.

Been playing for 55+ years have used everything for OD from the first Vox Distortion Booster to ultimately, this Wampler Plexi Drive. To me this is the closest thing to an overdriven Marshall JCM 800 you can buy today, short of getting the Marshall. I have a Kemper so it's not like I lack for effects and for amp tone. What I like about this, I can carry this along with my Blackstar Artist 15 amp and a couple guitars to a gig without breaking my back. And I get all the sounds I need from this pedal and the amp, no need to take along my aircraft carrier stomp board with 16 effects pedals anymore. Simple is best and this is simply the best!!

Hay I got this thing for church and play my classic rock. The church I go to is going directly into the mixer now So there goes the Vox ac 30 .So What do you do to get that brit sound?. Huh this seems the trick. Maybe?.

Just bought the Wampler Plexi Drive Deluxe Pedal and it is awesome!! It is now my go to overdrive pedal and I hace several different types, this thing gets you Marshall overdriven tones on my AC 30 without blowing my ears off!!!

Great pedal! Great for all sorts of genres.

I use primarily strat-style guitars and a 5e3 deluxe copy built by the nice folks at weber speakers. The deluxe plexi-drive adds an authentic Marshall sound to the already great tones of my rig. I like the added flexibility of the eq section and the footswitchable boost. The boost is actually quite useful on its own. This is not my first experience with Wampler pedals, so I was expecting a "wow" pedal that would give up more cool tones than the average amp-in-a-box.

It sufficiently wowed me.

I bought the pedal during gearfest and the sweetwater staff did a good job of simplifying the process of actually buying the pedal. Actually, pretty much everything about gearfest was really like going to a demonstration of what treating customers should be like. I recommend checking it out next year.

From clean boost to overdrive to flat out heavy distortion. This pedal covers a lot of ground. Extremely versatile. On one side you can get various degrees of power tube distortion, and on the other side you can get the tube screamer mid flavored overdrive. Mix and max out the two and you have heavy hot rodded distortion. Two switches for a bass boost and a treble boost. Pedal is well thought out and works well in conjunction with other pedals. No noise, just clean drive. If I had to choose just one pedal, this would be it. Pricey, but covers a lot of ground. Actually two pedals in one.

I have tried way too many distortion pedals on my board, but I think I have finally settled in what I need for my classic rock cover band. I primarily play a Tele through pedals to the clean channel of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe because for many songs, I need that clean Fender chime. At first I put the Plexi-Drive on my board and took it off. But it's what I did with it that made it a go-to. Because I want the tone for many 60s & 70s bands, I was constantly switching settings on a dozen different pedals, and still trying to go quickly from one song to the next. That's the problem. So, now I use pedals with presets, but I wanted to have a Marshall sound on the fly, so to speak. What worked for me was to first dial in the best bass/mid/treble (with gain off). Once I did that, I never modify these knobs, and I only use the post gain. I will adjust the post gain and volume to the level needed by the particular song. This is great. It's quick and amazing how many different Marshall tones I can get out of this pedal. I still have another distortion and fuzz pedal on my board because each song is different, but the Plexi Drive Deluxe gives me what I need for so many songs. But, always best to get the EQ right before you go the drive settings.

I have the Marshall MG 100HDFX head and a 4x12 cheapo cab to match. While I only play at home I have played for 30+ years. So, I wanted to sink some cash into a vintage Marshall and improve my sound. Funding would not allow for that. A friend of mine loaned me a DOD250 which helped my SS setup a lot. I decided to look into Marshall in a box pedals and figured this one deserved a shot. WOW is all I can say. This box took my lacking MG to a whole new level. You can find the tone you want in this box. I use the clean channel on my MG with a bit of OD. The bass rolled back to 2.5-3, mid at noon, treble at 6. I adjust the rest with the box. Now I can invest my cash into something else!! Buy it

I had been reading reviews on this for a while, and finally decided to give it a try. I talked to the salesman to make sure this is the Marshall Box I wanted, and it definitely is! I can"t believe how good it sounds. I really haven"t had time to fine tune it, but after playing it through a Peavey and a Vox, there"s no doubt this pedal will will take the place of several!
One side is a gritty overdrive, I"m not sure what to compare it to, the other side is like a Tube Screamer. Put them together and it"s amazing. And the Marshall thing? Yep. It does it. Set either of the mentioned amps on a nice clean setting, step on the pedal and it sounds just like my DSL401. Don"t wait, if you want a Marshall sound, buy this!

There seems to be almost as many "stack in a box" cranked Marshall inspired pedals on the market as there are Tubescreamer clones and variants and most are very good. The trouble I've had with the ones I've had is that, much like the real thing, they are hard to tame. The Plexi Drive gives you the option of getting those pre-80s cranked Marshall tones and adds a few options that makes it a great gig worthy investment.

The boost side has one control and that's a boost knob. It's not a clean boost, it's gritty and sounds good by itself. The left side (I don't know what its called) has a smooth breakup that can be coaxed into some great Marshally growl. When both are engaged you get a nice boost with a little more brightness, edge and volume and grit if you want it. The bright and bass switches are good if you're switching back and forth between bright and dark guitars or single coils and humbuckers.

Bottom line, it's one of the few Plexi emulators that doesn't venture into JCM800/900 territory.

I wasn"t a huge fan of the original. I needed more gain. Anyway, this pedal is one of my favorites. I have too many pedals but this ones is staying. It"s absolutely great. I play both sides at the same time it"s just a perfect sound from crunchy to high gain. Haven"t tried to lower the gain yet. But I will at some point. And I"m a modern blues/rock player. I love it. I"m
Not a death metal, heavy metal player. It"s like having a marshal amp. And I play it thru a great shot plexi amp with some crunch behind it. It still sounds great. Great!!!!

sexy flexy plexi takes me back to woodstock,...great tone investment....now we can all sound like jimi without burning my strat or the midnight oil....a pedal board must. thanks tomir denton for the recomendation

I know it says Plexi drive and Plexi means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. From Jtm 45 to super leads. I know Brian designed this around a JTM 45 but you can easily coax super lead and even JCM 800 and Slash type Jubilee tones out of this amazing little box. Great active eq, perfect voicing, nice flexibility with the toggle switches... it's a perfect Marshall in a box! Can't beat the TS style boost that can be used independently as well, 2 for 1!

This is a must for guitar players ,very simple to use , you can dial in as much base , mids, or treble as you like , there's plenty . The sustain is endless . And the push button switches are very smooth. Wampler products are built to last . Put this one the front end of whatever you are using and dial it in , Five stars.
Rick Skerik
Sweetwater costumer for the past 20 years
Hey not only is Wampler great ! So is Seeetwater.....

I was fortunate enough, to own a Marshall "Major" Full Stack, back in 1969, when I was 19 years old.
Loved the Great Tone, and awesome volume/fullness, it had. Unfortunately, there were precious few
places to actually use it, at it's "sweet spot," around these parts, save "outdoors!" Folks, these days,
both club and bar owners, simply will not allow that kind of volume, to get that kind of tone, and fullness, any longer. So, we're now relegated to using 15-40 watt (maximum), and they still complain! LOL BUT...this pedal allows for that great "Marshall Plexi-Full Stack" sound, at a much more manageable volume level. It's as close to my old Marshall Major sound, as I've found, to this point. Great Job, Wampler!

Since the moment I first cranked a quad of EL34s in a Marshall, I have been in love. I have never been one to use stompbox distortion or overdrive, and in fact didn't own a single one for many years. This one, however, is an exception, and a fine stand-in when a Marshall isn't available or practical. It truly captures the feel and tone of a cranked British tube amplifier. I've A/B'd it with several different Marshall's I own, and it more than holds its own. While in my opinion there is never truly a substitute for tube saturation, I wouldn't argue with anyone who thought the Wampler Plexi-Drive Deluxe was superior. In addition, the Pre-Gain feature is a fantastic Tube Screamer-style drive, and I use it to push my Marshall during solos. Two pedals in one, a triumph for sure.

I have to say I am not a fan of new pedals.....wampler is making a believer out of me and has shown me the error of my ways. I am a convert!!!...this pedal makes my strats have the punch they need to not have to buy another guitar. (who am I kidding right?...lol) If you want balls to the wall crunch reminiscent of those marshall stacks from all those years ago look no further.....

I have had this pedal for a little over a day now. I assume many of us die hard fender amp players really love to build upon our clean tone we covet so much. I have been buying dirt boxes for a while now and have tried to convince myself that I'm happy and money was well spent and honestly I Had to lie to myself to think what I bought sounded good. I've played boss pedals that sounded better than some of the boutique pedals I've bought and that's not knocking boss at all, they make some Killer boxes, just look at some of your favorite "pros" rigs. I play through a 68 fender custom deluxe reverb( wonderful amp in its own rights) and as a dirt box buyer I have been seeking a pedal that didn't sound like, well...... a pedal. I could never justify spending $200 plus on a pedal but finally broke down and bought this Wampler. This is what I have wasted way more money, than the value of this very pedal on other boxes trying to find. It literally is another amp(Marshall) at your feet. Just do it already, quit spending hard earned cash on stuff that sounds like "decent quality for the money" because you will spend way more that way. As always no better place to get my gear than from sweet water, I bought some of the new carried gravity picks and if you like jazz picks give the minis a shot! They feel excellent but that's another review for later. Thanks Dustin keesbury!!! Awesome tech and awesome service!!!

I am very happy with this pedal, after trying multiple pedals to get some Marshall tones into my setup. Works great with single coil Strats and my Les Pauls. I am now getting many of the sounds I was looking for without needing to crank up my amp and annoy the neighbors. Seems like a lot of control knobs at first glance, but I find I am using them all. My amp is a Rivera Venus 3, which is already flexible, but this pedal expands my possibilities greatly. Another great recommendation by Joel Helton.

I own both the original Plexi Drive and now this Deluxe version. The 3 active EQ controls are so great to have and I'll tell you why. I prefer having a warm clean tone (slightly scooped down mids, balanced treble, and more bass), think a la John Mayer. With all the bass I add on the amp, the original Plexi Drive didn't cut through the mix as well as it should (I play live at a church). With the Plexi Drive Deluxe, all I gotta do is roll down the bass knob and my signal cuts through perfectly! Thank you Brian Wampler's and my Sweetwater sales guy Paul!

The is the pedal I have spent 30 years hoping to find. It really has it all if you are looking for a pedal for blues and rock. I am using a variety of amps including a Mesa Mark 25, Fender Deluxe, Carr Rambler and both a Les Paul and Strat sound fabulous. You can dial in so many different sounds that it works well with almost rock/blues application. Dial back on the distortion and you get a "just about to break up" tone that is very sweet. Crank it up the distortion and it can still be very articulate. Add in the boost side and gives it a bit more compressed nice singing tone. I like all of the different tone combinations as well from the bass/mid/treble and switches.

For overdrive I have been using the distortion channel on my Mark 25, but after getting this pedal I am just staying on the clean side and using the Plexi Drive for the overdriven sound. I tried the Pinnacle and Dual Fusion and would much prefer the Plexi if having to choose just one (all great pedals).

I own lots of nice overdrive pedals (Klon, KTR, OCD, ToneBone classic, Original TS808....) and I really feel that the Plexi can cover most of what all of those can do and so much more.

I would highly recommend this pedal, and highly recommend ordering from Sweetwater (Dave Brow is awesome).

Running this through the clean channel on my Archon 50 running EL-34s, and delivers that sweet Marshall tone that I've been wanting to hear out of my speakers for a long time! Now I can have that classic rock tone and a modern rock tone coming from one amp. Very versatile pedal, allowing such a great range of rock sounds, and works with a variety of my guitars. Can't wipe the grin off my face!!

'Every thing said about this pedal ( the hype ) is true. It is an extremely versatile OD pedal with great note definition, especially in the bass with no noise or trash in the signal. I like playing the blues on my strat and I am able to achieve the tone and sound I have been looking for with the Plexi-Drive Pedal.What the Plexi-Drive does the most is put the fun back in my playing. I run a Wampler Ego-Compressor right ahead of the Plexi on my board and they compliment each other so nicely. Hats off to Brian Wampler, the man knows what he is doing. Of course Thanks to my good friend Brandon Eden at Sweetwater for expediting shipment of my order like he always does! If you are looking for the best in OD-Distortion Pedals I would recommend the Wampler Plexi-Drive Deluxe.

Fo sho now my desert island pedal! I am truly amazed by the tones I can achieve with it. At last a pedal that really emulates that cool Plexi-Drive, classic rock sound. I have tons of boutique pedals and plugin effects. To be honest many of those purchases were somewhat disappointing. I'm also really specific, OK picky!. I know what I want hear. Guitar players of the world, this is it!! Wampler is a genius! I became an Instant fan! I cannot wait to try another of his creations. You can tweak this thing any way you want. It's incredibly quiet and versatile. It can also be used as a pilot pedal. Its not cheap but worth the money (I hate saying that!) I'm loyal here but picked this one up in my travels. Made well, gig worthy, dependable and just plain great!!! Buy one at Sweetwater. They are THE BEST.

I love the mids on this box. Rocks harder than any plexi box alike!

I'm one of those guys who is never satisfied. I got the bug for a Mesa amp a while back and once I got it, found that I no longer wanted or needed to use many of my pedals. My board went from 8 or 9 pedals down to three. One of the ones I got rid of was the first Plexi-Drive, which I immediately regretted. Thats the dumb thing I did. That pedal has some magic.
Anyway, even though I got an amp that does many things really well, I missed the Wampler pedal, so I invested in the Deluxe. I play a strat or a humbucker-equipped strat through a Mesa Express 5:25 Plus and as far as I'm concerned, this pedal is the perfect compliment to that amp. The hype is true: this thing can do complex and amazing JTM 45 stuff up to awesome crunch and everything in between. Hendrix to Trower to ACDC to Slash, etc. Where this pedal leaves off, I can go to channel two on my amp for really high gain flavors. Wow. The boost fits the drive really well and also sounds good on its own. The killer for me is the mid control and the bass or treble boost. Humbuckers and single coils both love this pedal. Low-gain strat sounds with tight lows sound amazing. I wouldn't change a thing. It now sits next to the only other dirt pedal I need, the Wampler Velvet Fuzz. Soooo tasty. Thank you Mr. Wampler. Also, thank you Bart at Sweetwater for getting it to me THE NEXT DAY…..

I've only had the pedal for 2 days, but I've already gigged with it and it sounds great. It really does nail that plexi drive sound. I use a 3rd Power Dream 4 amp, which is a plexi re-build, and the Wampler clones the character of its overdrive impeccably. Why do I use a pedal when I have the amp? I use a number of different drives & fuzzes with a clean amp sound. I know I'm crazy but I dig a plexi clean tone and how it reacts to dirt boxes.

Without the TS boost, there are several flavors of vintage Marshalls available. Depending on how much you add, the boost can take it from a slight thickening up to hi-gain, hot-rodded JCM800 territory. With the awesome 3 band EQ, you can take out the mids and crank the gain and do some nice 80s/90s metal sounds. So far, I prefer the bright switch ON for every guitar and setting, too, but it's nice to have the option to turn it off.

The biggest surprise was how smooth the footswitches are. They are solid, clickless and they make my other pedals feel like toys. Being able to use the TS boost with the pedal off is a great feature, and the bass boost REALLY does make my 1x12 closed back speaker cabinet sound convincingly like a 4x12, as well as making my usually-weak Strat bridge pick up sound beefy and humbucker-like...I can actually use it now! In addition to the Strat, I tried it out with my Tele and several humbucker equipped guitars, all with great results. My pedalboard loves the top mounted plugs, too.

This is my 3rd Wampler and they really are about as good as you can get without having to take out a 2nd mortgage for something you step on! Also, Bob Furlong did a great job getting the pedal to my door quickly!

I already own the Xotic SL Drive and the Boss ST-2 and while I like both of those pedals the Wampler goes the distance by giving you the EQ and boost stage you need to send it into real Marshall Tone Territory...if you're on the fence about this pedal and maybe the price point don't be...it's worth every dime...this just might be the "Marshall In A Box" you have been looking for...

It took some fidgeting and I had to deviate from my longtime setup of wah to uni-vibe to echo then distortion effects and move the plexi to the front of my pedal chain to get the sound I wanted otherwise I thought it sounded limited and artificial. But at the lead in my line up sounds very natural with my ac30

Very pleased, using through Sweetwater Mod Princeton Reverb RI 12" Spkr. Open Plexi Amp-like tone, Wide bandwidth, no digital artifacts, mimics the compression thing. Boost to Middle+ gain stackable, Low noise floor, usable BMT EQ sweeps, Blues, 60s Classic Rock, Humble Pie Flavored. Wampler doesn't cut corners. Made in USA!

another great pedal from Wampler ,after a lot of contemplating i finally called SweetWater and not only am i a fan of wampler pedals I'm a new customer at SweetWater their knowledgeable and very helpful they get your delivery packed and out the door to you! very pleased!!

Great pedal very versatile

very satisfied with my wampler pedal a lot of combinations and the boost is an excellent addition

So I really wanted to own a Wampler pedal. So much so that I've been saving for a year. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered the Plexi Drive Deluxe. As always the Sweetwater sales staff are beyond wonderful to deal with and the shipping is so fast it's crazy. I plugged it in and started jamming. The problem is that the tones I was getting were not even close to the quality of Plexi/Marshall tones I was getting from two cheap ebay finds. I have a Digitech Hardwire sc-2 and a Boss sd-1 (both bought on ebay for a grand total of $80) and they are fuller, rounder, and sharper that the Wampler pedal is on every possible setting I tried. It could just be my particular rig or my fingers and their inherent tone but I'm sending the Plexi Drive Deluxe back for a refund.

Problem I had with this pedal is an unpredictable boost tone. Sometimes the boost would be tonaly correct and be somewhat close to matching the sound created by the tone control settings and other times the boost would be muddy, dark and unusable. After changing tone dials I could not just click on the boost and go with it, so it became a problem. I have an Eathquake Palisades overdrive with a boost and no matter the settings, the Palisades always boosts with the same tone and does not alter the tone or muddy it up in anyway. I feel one is better off getting a the Plexi Drive and not the Deluxe and just stack another pedal in front for a boost. Also the boost by itself is just okay, not that big of a deal. I use a Plexi Crunch made by NUX and a inexpensive tube screamer and get a quick predictable plexi with a boost (tube screamer) that always right.

This an ok sounding pedal but when you engage the pre gain it seems to boost the mids and changes the tone of the pedal. If that could be remedied I would be willing to give this another test drive. I like the Friedman overdrives better.

There might be something wrong with mine, I appear to be the only one that doesn't like it.. I can't make it sound good at all. It has very little gain, nasty mids
and harsh highs. I have the Tumnus, that thing is amazing, go figure. I ran it through my Hotrod Deluxe and my Randall RDH45, it just sounds bad.. Going to return and try something else.

After recieving and playing this pedal I felt compelled to comment. I used a Ric 650 through a old Holmes bass amp, a red knob Fender Champ, and an Orange T.T with a Webber blue dog alnico...AMAZING! So ,so versitle and worth every single penny. Your amp can be a plexi; seriously.... If you want that sound you simply cant go wrong.