Tech 21 "Character" Pedals

[Televised]

I'm giving some serious consideration for a Santa present to myself and have been looking at the "Blonde" or "Liverpool" Tech 21 character pedals. Anyone have any experience with them?....good or bad? I have a Silvertone 1483 and am leaning the Fender/"Blonde" direction as the amp already has 6L6 & 12AX7 tubes with a 15" Jensen speaker.......but I like the AC 30 too so it's a tough call.

Thanks...

[bpaulsen]

I have both and love them, but I don't enjoy them in front of an amp, especially a tube amp. For lack of a better term it sounds "compressed". Sounds good into an effects return/power amp in of a guitar amp (tube or solid state). Sounds great direct or through a powered full range speaker. When I started experimenting with blending the Liverpool and Blonde in stereo, my tube amps began collecting dust (Carvin X100b and Black Heart Killer Ant).

[Televised]

Originally Posted by bpaulsen

I have both and love them, but I don't enjoy them in front of an amp, especially a tube amp. For lack of a better term it sounds "compressed". Sounds good into an effects return/power amp in of a guitar amp (tube or solid state). Sounds great direct or through a powered full range speaker. When I started experimenting with blending the Liverpool and Blonde in stereo, my tube amps began collecting dust (Carvin X100b and Black Heart Killer Ant).

They sound great but I think you may have talked me out of it. I'm not sure I want to take an old tube Silvertone amp that sounds like a Fender and add this to the picture which will make it sound more solid state. It would give me a lot more Fender sound scape to play with but it sounds like if I use it in front of the amp, (which I would), it would compress the tone. Appreciate the response.

[Whoa Tele]

I was looking at the Liverpool to give my DRRI a little AC flavor and I posted a similar question because I only wanted to use it into the amp. Opinions seem to vary as some people think it sounds okay while others don't like the fact that you can't turn off the speaker sim. If I end up getting one I'll try to contact you with my opinion.

[Televised]

Originally Posted by Whoa Tele

I was looking at the Liverpool to give my DRRI a little AC flavor and I posted a similar question because I only wanted to use it into the amp. Opinions seem to vary as some people think it sounds okay while others don't like the fact that you can't turn off the speaker sim. If I end up getting one I'll try to contact you with my opinion.

Thanks! Bpasulesn's is pretty indicative of what I've been reading on the net with many rave reviews. My amp is very basic with controls with volume, treble, and bass. If I bought this I would have it on all the time and it would probably have it dialed into one or two different positions. I have a modded Ts9/808 tube screamer that I occasionally use and that's about it. It is tube amp, however, made in 65' and I don't want to take away from the sound but sure would like to add a little bit of variety to it. Thanks to the two of you for your input and I'll keep you posted on what I come across at my end too.

[Televised]

Originally Posted by Whoa Tele

I was looking at the Liverpool to give my DRRI a little AC flavor and I posted a similar question because I only wanted to use it into the amp. Opinions seem to vary as some people think it sounds okay while others don't like the fact that you can't turn off the speaker sim. If I end up getting one I'll try to contact you with my opinion.

Ya know I definitiely decided to get me one of these for X-Mas. If you're going for the "Liverpool", I'll get the "Blonde" and we can compare notes, (for once I get the Blonde). The more I read about these the better impression I have. I'll give my impressions on how they sound through a basic tube amp once I get it but yeah, as was already stated, they seem to do best when they are not in front of the amp and especially a tube amp, however, apparently still pretty good in these circumstances. By the way Bpaulsen, I have always wanted to combine a Vox AC30 TB with a 57' Fender Twin with an A/B/Y Box and this sounds in essence what you are doing with these two "Liverpool" and "Blonde" pedals. The sound must be amazing to up stage those two amps you have!

[Tim Bowen]

bpaulsen's assessment is right on the money. Think of Tech 21 gainers as RATS on steroids. That is, if a RAT sounds compressed to you, the Tech 21 and SansAmp gainers take it a step further. They can sound really cool as dimed at home, with gain and sustain for days. However, take those settings out to the bandstand with a rhythym section at real world volumes and it will be lost in the mix in a heartbeat. They're really cool with amps that have monster headroom to spare, such as a Twin, or with a power amp system, or as DI'ed. As with a RAT, the gain from the pedal itself should be quite low with amps of low to medium wattage output. Otherwise, it's an exercise in mush.

[Televised]

Originally Posted by Tim Bowen

bpaulsen's assessment is right on the money. Think of Tech 21 gainers as RATS on steroids. That is, if a RAT sounds compressed to you, the Tech 21 and SansAmp gainers take it a step further. They can sound really cool as dimed at home, with gain and sustain for days. However, take those settings out to the bandstand with a rhythym section at real world volumes and it will be lost in the mix in a heartbeat. They're really cool with amps that have monster headroom to spare, such as a Twin, or with a power amp system, or as DI'ed. As with a RAT, the gain from the pedal itself should be quite low with amps of low to medium wattage output. Otherwise, it's an exercise in mush.

Thanks for the helpful hints and more insight into the sound of this thing. The more that I read on them, the more "bpaulsen" seems to be on the mark. As much as I fantsize about opening for U-2, in reality, my Tele and Silvertone never venture too far from home. We have friends over and put together a bass, drums, two guitars, and a lot of noise about every two weeks. My Silvertone gets about 25 watts on a good day with a strong tail wind. The amp does have a great tone to it with a 15" Jensen and 2x12 Celestion cab. I think I'm still going to get the "Blonde" but use it more as a stomp box rather than having it on all the time and main controller for my tone. We'll see.....just depends on how these two get along when I plug them in together. The Silvertone straight up, along with the Blonde set on God know's what, along with the modded Ts808 tube screamer should give me plenty to work with for the 4-8 people I play with on a regular basis. I'll keep you posted and thanks again for the gain and volume suggestions.

[Colorand]

Televised
I tried to pm you but you dont accept them - anyway I have both pedals you mentioned and really like them - esspecially the liverpool but need to sell them and was going to give you first choice - pm me if interested otherwise I will put them in the classifides

[Zeppelanoid]

My experience with those Tech 21 pedals is they sound fantastic through SS amps, and mediocore through tube amps. Like bpaulsen says, they sound too compressed.

Good pedals overall though.

[Televised]

Originally Posted by Colorand

Televised
I tried to pm you but you dont accept them - anyway I have both pedals you mentioned and really like them - esspecially the liverpool but need to sell them and was going to give you first choice - pm me if interested otherwise I will put them in the classifides

Thanks for the consideration but a friend of mine has friend who's is selling some Tech 21 pedals and a "Jangle Box". Now I need to decide if I want to go with the Blonde or go with the Jangle Box with a Tele. Zeppelanoid, (and bpaulsen), pointed out that the character pedals work better with a solid state vs. tube amp and that jives with everything I've been reading along with the "compression sound" when matched with tube amps. I'm hoping that since the Silvertone are in essence Fender type tubes that the Blonde and Silvertone will get along but that's probably wishful thinking.....we'll see. If it gives a good sound and offers a different type of tone than my tube screamer I'm probably going to be pretty satisfied so I'm setting the bar pretty low. I may not be getting near the sound or variety out of it that it's capable of but if it's good at all I'll be happy. Thanks again for the responses

[Durango Twango]

I have both the Blonde and the Liverpool and use them quite a bit. I find that they CAN sound great through a tube amp but you really have to tweak them and use them in a focused kind of way. Here's what I've found:

- The cleaner the platform, tube or solid state, the more they shine.
- The Blonde is an excellent clean boost in front of a tube amp
- The Liverpool does a nice soft clip in front of a tube amp and if you hit it with a gain pedal things start sounding very AC 30. Trying to get the Liverpool to make an amp sound like an AC30 by itself doesn't sound quite as good to me as the stacking approach.
- Running direct, you can make both the Blonde and the Liverpool sound very similar in terms of clean tone. Gain wise, go with the Blonde if you're a Fender guy, Liverpool if you're a Vox guy.
- One of these should ALWAYS be around as a backup.

A REALLY cool use for these pedals is to spilt you signal off of another pedal. Run one line to your amp and another to the board via the Tech 21. Lets you get a huge tone (fixed my Twin withdrawls nicely) without getting too loud. Great trick if you want to be able to use a small amp in a lot of settings.

[Whoa Tele]

My wife bought me a Liverpool for Christmas. I think it sounds pretty good through the front end of my tweed Blues Jr. and my Blues Deleuxe RI. I'm only using it for the clean jangle to slight breakup tones (think Petty Beatles). While I have limited experience with Vox amps, this thing does seem to get me in the ballpark. I like the Liverpool more than the Vox Over the Top Boost pedal I had previously owned as it seems to capture the jangle and chime to a greater extent IMO. I imagine the pedal would sound better direct into a PA or recording device. I haven't used it in a band context yet so I can't comment on how well it sounds in a live mix.

[Pajama]

Originally Posted by Whoa Tele

My wife bought me a Liverpool for Christmas. I think it sounds pretty good through the front end of my tweed Blues Jr. and my Blues Deleuxe RI. I'm only using it for the clean jangle to slight breakup tones (think Petty Beatles). While I have limited experience with Vox amps, this thing does seem to get me in the ballpark. I like the Liverpool more than the Vox Over the Top Boost pedal I had previously owned as it seems to capture the jangle and chime to a greater extent IMO. I imagine the pedal would sound better direct into a PA or recording device. I haven't used it in a band context yet so I can't comment on how well it sounds in a live mix.

I have had my Liverpool for about a year now and love it for just what you described. It sounds awesome for clean and slight dirt and very "Voxy" to my ears. I have only used it w/ clean tube amps and have absolutely no complaints. I don't think the Brian May distorted tones are as convincing and this is definitely a pedal that does not like other dirt pedals. For Vox clean and slight dirt you can't beat it though, and it isn't very expensive compared to lots of other pedals out there.

=-) PJ

[Televised]

Originally Posted by Whoa Tele

My wife bought me a Liverpool for Christmas. I think it sounds pretty good through the front end of my tweed Blues Jr. and my Blues Deleuxe RI. I'm only using it for the clean jangle to slight breakup tones (think Petty Beatles). While I have limited experience with Vox amps, this thing does seem to get me in the ballpark. I like the Liverpool more than the Vox Over the Top Boost pedal I had previously owned as it seems to capture the jangle and chime to a greater extent IMO. I imagine the pedal would sound better direct into a PA or recording device. I haven't used it in a band context yet so I can't comment on how well it sounds in a live mix.

Thanks for getting back in touch with your feedback on the "Liverpool"! It's been fun and reassuring to do my own seperate R&D on the internet and then come back to the forum and see forum members reflecting just about every variable plus and minus that are issues with these pedals in this one thread. From what I can tell, both you and I will share the worst case scenerio with running these character pedals in front of a tube amp and from what I can tell these still do a good job under these circumstances. My "Blonde" is in the works and I should be able to give my impressions on it later on this week for what it's worth. Thanks for everyone's input and hope all have a good holiday season......(now I need to come up with a way to justify getting the "Liverpool" too! Sounds way to good to pass on.)

[Whoa Tele]

Originally Posted by Televised

Thanks for getting back in touch with your feedback on the "Liverpool"! It's been fun and reassuring to do my own seperate R&D on the internet and then come back to the forum and see forum members reflecting just about every variable plus and minus that are issues with these pedals in this one thread. From what I can tell, both you and I will share the worst case scenerio with running these character pedals in front of a tube amp and from what I can tell these still do a good job under these circumstances. My "Blonde" is in the works and I should be able to give my impressions on it later on this week for what it's worth. Thanks for everyone's input and hope all have a good holiday season......(now I need to come up with a way to justify getting the "Liverpool" too! Sounds way to good to pass on.)

You're Welcome. I think you will like it. I played mine a little more today and to me its sounds better playing rhythm parts as opposed to lead lines as it can get a little shrill through a tele bridge pup. I'll probably end up boosting it with another OD to see if I can smooth it out a little.

[stantheman]

Originally Posted by Zeppelanoid

My experience with those Tech 21 pedals is they sound fantastic through SS amps, and mediocore through tube amps. Like bpaulsen says, they sound too compressed.

Good pedals overall though.

Tech 21 Pedals sound INCREDIBLE through Hybrids with a S/S Pre-Amp like 70's Peavey Classics and Music Man Amps that don't run a Pre-Amp single 12AX7
(1st generation Music Man Amp had a single 12AX7 in some models.)

The reason why I never bought a Bluesbreaker Re-Issue is because of The GT-2 from Tech 21 made my '78 Peavey Classic sound better than the Re-Issues - even the tweaked ones with actual KT-66's.

I'm looking into getting a Liverpool when I sell off a few more things - it'll sure beat the pants off of lugging around an AC-30CC2 and I can use it with my Peavey Studio Pro which will be sweet.