POD HD500 & Tech 21 Blonde together?

In my goofing around, I found a most intriguing combination – HD500 and Tech 21 Blonde. The Blonde is on my pedalboard, running before the HD. Amplification is to my QSC K10 (haven’t tried it with my Power Engine 60 or Mesa F30).

I use mainly Fender HD patches – Twin, Bassman, Deluxe – usually the Twin. The Blonde was dialed up for a similar sound on its own as I was checking on the how close the HD came to the Blonde. Switching the Blonde on at first did almost nothing – like the tones were almost perfectly duplicated. (Note: I’m running a hybrid setup. HD is just my amps/cab, volume, tuner, and a couple of simple FX. Comp and overdrive are handled by pedals.)

But I started messing with the Character and Drive knobs on the Blonde – and got happy fast! I’m thinking the Blonde adds some analog warmth (without apparent distortion) and really fills out the overall sound. And my overdrive pedals sound even better in the bargain! It’s not really dual amp – the Blonde is running like an overdrive, with other overdrives behind it before it gets to the HD.

So if anyone has a Tech 21 Character Series laying around, you might want to give this is a try. It would be very interesting to try some of the others like this.

The idea was not really mine. I’m a Wampler fan (dearly love my Ecstasy) and had just received his teaser email on his new Tweed 57 pedal. Hearing that got me thinking, so I grabbed the Blonde (usually used for real quickie gig where I can’t use an amp) and this was the result.

Anyone else try this? I’d love to hear of your findings.

Greg

Interesting... I use the Digitech RP1000, and I used to own the Tech21 Liverpool before that. Reading your post makes me wish I had kept my Liverpool to try it out in conjunction with the RP1000. Guess I'll keep my eyes open for any used Tech21 Character pedals. I really like your idea.

I have now integrated the Blonde into my HD setup. It works very well. I ran it inline at first (right after the compressor and before the drives - just had a spot for it I could wire easily) and it sounded good. Someone suggested running it in the loop, which is even better, and that's how it's wired now.

So now I can dial in a much or as little Blonde as I want relative to the HD amp. I actually have the Blonde hotter than the HD, and it sounds great. Very powerful, a best of both worlds sort of thing.

One thing I learned though - it works way better with the HD Fender amps than anything else. The new Plexi didn't like it at all. The Dr Z wasn't too bad, but not a clear advantage. And so on. Maybe with more tweaking - the Blonde's controls are very powerful. And I'm not really getting a true dual amp sort of tone - just a bigger Fender tone. I know, doesn't make sense how I'm saying it. I admit I was so happy that I quit experimenting and started getting ready for Sunday worship, which was more fun with the enhanced tones.

In the end, I believe my sound is upgraded notably and feels more like a real amp in the house and monitors.