THE JTM45 ROUNDUP
belief that the current crop of 6L6s sound Mojave Ampworks
and perform better than newer KT66s. NOS Special Edition Plexi 45
and vintage 6L6s are also less expensive Anyone familiar with the JTM45 would surely
and more plentiful than NOS KT66s. Our be jealous of Victor Mason. Not only has
immediate response to the Classic 45 was he seen more than his fair share of vintage
that it was a lively and aggressive amp, with Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt and other rare treasures
tons of power that made the pick explode come through his shop, but Victor recently
off the strings. In ways it reminded us of acquired 26 of the all-time greatest JTM45s
our favorite ‘ 67 Super Bass in its volume ever assembled via the Kronemyer collection,
and attack, but it still retained the sound and he’s got the pictures to prove it! This is just
of a 45. It may very well have been the one of the factors contributing to the obses-loudest amp of the bunch, and that volume sive nature of Mojave (and the associated Plexi
translated to a feeling of excitement that Palace). Having been around for over a decade
made the amp extremely fun to play. It on the internet, Vic has been repairing, restor-was present without being shrill and had ing, buying and selling vintage Marshalls for
a super-tight bottom end, no matter what quite some time now. Stemming from his early
guitar we played through it. While the desire to find out how EVH created the classic
Classic 45 had tons of natural gain on tap, brown sound, Victor embarked on his journey
it also cleaned up nicely when rolling back through countless hours of digging into vintage
the volume on the guitar, revealing a bright amps and learning where their strengths and
and sparkly chime. This amp is a real beast, weaknesses lay. Mojave now offers an entire
and it could hold its own against 100W line of amps to serve the classic Marshall tones
amps without flinching. and well beyond with innovative features and
germinoamps.com designs. The Mojave Plexi 45 also has two very
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45
DEGREES OF
TONE
unique features over a stock JTM45. First is a
simple feature to allow volume control by way
of throttling the power level. Second is a line
level output, which is adjustable and incorporates a ground lift.
Standing apart cosmetically from the rest of the
amps, the Special Edition Plexi 45 is built on
the same footprint as the Coyote and Scorpion
designs, with a white-and-black color scheme
and chrome hardware. The head is built with an
open grille cage that allows for maximum airflow
to keep the set of completely NOS glass cool.
The 45 supplied for the roundup consisted of
a pair of 1970 NOS Genelex KT66s, 3 Mullard
12AX7s and a Mullard GZ34. Like the Germino,
the Plexi 45 is based on the R/S transformers,
which are custom wound by Mercury Magnetics.
The chassis is a thing of beauty; the .09” thick
aluminum, with a high tensile strength and welded edges and seams will ensure it will not flex,
bend or develop fatigue, like the early, folded,
softer chassis, and will prevent the heavy transformers from causing the chassis to sink in and
downsize.
exclusively from
www.guyatone.com
