In this video we'll take a look at an unusual Plush P1000S. The amp is making some crackling noises, so we'll explore what the issue is with that, look at a schematic, tear down and talk about the construction and history of Plush amps a little, and finally, we'll do a tone demo of the overdriven sound.
This Plush is one of those late 60s, funky, vinyl covered amps with the colorful 'plush' covering which looks more like cheap 70s furniture, or this inside of a pimped out van than an amp really. Very similar in appearance to the Kustom amps of the era, although the companies are unrelated. Kustom made mostly solid state stuff, but this amp is a 100W tube beast which is supposedly a copy of a Fender Showman.
This monster has excellent cleans, good reverb, and breaks up nicely as well! The original Utah speakers in the cabinet were blown when I got it, but the head had been nicely reworked.
I've talked to Andy Fuchs, who owns the rights to the Plush name today and once worked at Earth Sound, he claims there was no connection between Earth and Plush other than geographical proximity, from what he can tell. "The Lipsky family (who I think was involved with Premier amps) owned Plush," said Fuchs. "Marc Neumann and Dave Garret were the partners who owned Earth."
Fuchs also told me the iron in Plush amps was designed by an engineer at Marantz: "Plush wanted Fender iron copied," said Fuchs, "and the companies had a problem doing it for some reason. Not sure why they didn't simply go to Schmacher. They went to Saul Marantz (yes THE Marantz) for help as he was in Long Island City, a train ride from the Plush NYC shop. Marantz and Sid Smith (his engineer who designed the legendary Marantz 7 preamp and Model 9 amps), redesigned the iron and it was supposedly better than Fender."
15 сен 2024
