In 2021, discussions began again about reviving the Lerxst amps from before. A new look and possible new designs were first discussed between Mojotone and a business partner of Alex. There were many discussions about how to bring it to the market in a very flooded arena of amp clones. The whole idea was brought about to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Rush’s album “Moving Pictures.”
I did a little digging into the rig that Alex was using during that time. He was using a mix of Hiwatt, GK, and Marshalls. So, I brought up the idea of updating the Omega circuit to be a true 2-channel amplifier, with the clean channel pulled from the Marshall Club & Country and keeping the Omega circuit as the lead. This would give players the ability to capture a very close representation of the Moving Pictures era of Alex’s sound.
It was decided to keep the circuit the same but give it a new “look” instead of a circuit update. As far as the Omega would go, there would be two “versions” of the amp. One would be the handwired version of the original Omega, and the other would be a high-quality PCB version of the same circuit. The handwired version took more time to build since everything was built on a turret board, whereas the PCB version could be loaded, wired, and more consistent from build to build. The ideas, pushbacks on parts availability, and marketing went back and forth for quite a bit until it was almost two years after the 40th anniversary of Moving Pictures, so the MP40 icon was removed from the faceplates.
The way to tell the difference between the two amps: The Omega that is covered in dark grey tolex with a red pinstripe is the PCB version, while the Omega Special Edition that is covered in a “blacked out” look is the handwired version.
