The Marshall Plexi is a thing of legend. It is synonymous with everything from Hendrix and Clapton to Eddie Van Halen and AC/DC. Literally referring to the control panel being made of plexiglass at the end of the 50’s, the term covers both lower gain Bluesbreakers as well as the Super Leads of the 60’s. The Carpe Diem from Fire Custom Shop captures the vast range of magical tones in a single small pedal, and even includes a boost.
In Classic mode the Carpe Diem goes from cleanish edge of breakup Jimi tones, through to classic rock cranked amp gain. In Hot Rod mode the pedal has more gain on tap an recreates the high energy rock tones of the late 70’s and beyond. The Presence knob is a post gain treble adjustment allowing you to match the pedal to a variety of amps without having to change the main settings. Bass Gain and Treble Gain knobs recreate the setup of a “jumped” plexi head where you would jump the two different pre-amp sections allowing you to blend both into the signal. This allows you to dial in more or less gain separately for bass and treble allowing for combinations such as a creamy thick top end with a cleaner, clearer bass response. The Master volume control sets the overall output of the pedal and the last control is a Lead switch that gives you a pre-gain boost that doesn’t make the pedal much louder, but does give more gain and thickness to the sound.
One thing I have found true about many of the Fire Custom Shop pedals, and which is certainly true about the Carpe Diem is that there is a lot of harmonic and overtones present. Pick squeals, tap harmonics and general second order harmonics show up naturally in your sound and give their pedals a real life that isn’t found in many other pedals. The pedal is very quick and has a great representation of your attack transient which is key to a pedal that is invoking the Plexi character as palm muted chunky playing feels great.
If I am going to try and find any faults in this incredible pedal (full disclosure, I am selling them which could bias my opinion, though honestly I am selling them because they are insanely good), I’d have to say that the Lead switch is awfully close to the knobs which worries me a bit about using it in a live situation. Normally I’d be using a switching system of some sort so the bypass switch isn’t an issue for me, but a remote jack to activate the Lead would have been a greatly appreciated feature. Other than that the foam that is in the cool metal tin they ship their pedals in tends to be stuck to the pedal when you first get it (not really their fault but more of a shipping thing), it’s a little annoying but comes off easy.
All in all the Carpe Diem by Fire Custom Shop is on my list of pedals that will stay on my board full time (with another list of rotating pedals to keep it interesting) and hasn’t disappointed me when plugged into any of my amplifiers.
INCOMING SHAMELESS PLUG!!
You can buy them now (or pre-order if they are sold out) at our Reverb store.