Tech 21 SansAmp GT2

Well, this stompbox-preamp is quite easy to use, it's very easy to get quite a good sound of it. Simulations are pretty understandable, no problem. Also, you can start with some settings from the manual, they are very useful to understand what does what.

I was using it in my pedalboard along with Crybaby Mister Wah/Volume or Morley Power Wah/Volume and Boss DD-20 echo/delay. GT-2 was a little noisy, it could be caused by a cheap AC adapter, but it didn't really changed when I tried a battery.
I used to plug it in the Laney VC-30 (i bought it for its superior clean sound) and with a single step on it, GT-2 made my amp really roar. Distortion can be very heavy, but with high clarity. It's also absolutely handy when you need to record something to your PC, because of the speaker simulator (it can't be switched off, but it doesn't mess up the tone in a real amp)
I think, that the biggestproblem of this preamp is big compression->its quite hard to get a clean sound of it with your guitar volume control

I personally would take it for a world tour without a backup. It is build like a tank :-)

I really didn't have to deal with Tech21's customer support

I personally play some kind of heavy/progressive rock. This unit is very good choice for music like that, it has a great rhytm and lead sound. I used to play with some kind of Mesa/Boogie simulation - very good sound, very inspiring

If I wouldn't recommended a little more dynamics, I absolutely wouldn't sold it. When it comes to PC recording, it is a very good work horse, but you know - dynamics. I bought a valve distortion pedal and now I am really happy

This is not so easy to tweek a good sound. However, it can be acheived. Hence, it comes with a manual with details on presets to assist. The control pots are very sensitive and covers a wide range of tone and drive unlike a full blown overdrive or distortion pedals.
It has the options for 3 amp models from CA to Britt to Tweed, and 3 typs of gain and speaker mic postions.

I use a dark sounding valve jr with Fender Strats. Used alone it is not noisy on the clean and tweed settings. As mentioned, the level and drive controls can go from mild to extream. I like the Tweed sound with high gain. Even with high gain it be controled to sound clean and "Tube Overdrive" with the adjustmenst of the volume control on the guitar. The manual gives you a foundation to start from and you can get real great guitar "Tone" from the Tweed settings. However, I give it a 9 because the high gain distortion does not work well with my set up, i.e., strat and tube amp. I also use a holy grail for reverb and the tone is most excellent. Also, ther is a hint of compression in the sound when played with the Tweed setting.

This model was bought used in the mid 1990s it has no battery cover and 5 digit SN 100XX. It is made in NYC with a cast box and 3pdt switch.

Unknown

For over 35 years I have played electric and acoustic guitar, and have owned all kinds of stuff. This was/is a keeper. I currently use it on a board with my Crybaby wah, TS-808, Dynacomp (for boost) stereo chours, and Holy Grail Reverb. This is all I need to get 70s rock and serious blues tone. The GT-2 stays on most of the time and I use the other effects to define the tone I seek. It is pricey, but better sounding than the digitech RP150. The RP150 did not work well with my other effects. But stand alone the RP150 can do alot, but head to head for a clean or fat Fender tone the GT2 sounds a lot better.

Easy to use. The tone controls are pretty sensitive so they must be used with care. Let your ears guide you.

This pedal has great sounds in it. I run it in front of my amp, and I get fender tones, and mesa tones that are pretty good. I don't like the marshall settings too much, but that is just me.

The poster below is clearly one of those old guys who likes to "control the grit with the volume knob..." just ignore him. If you are like him trying to play blues on your single coil strat and to regulate the gain with your volume knob while on the California setting then it is no wonder the pedal sounds bad. It isn't the pedal, but the intended use that should be reviewed here...

The pedal can sound a bit overly saturated and compressed if played in front of an all-tube amp. Again, govern yourself accordingly here, and spend the time to get the right sounds out of this pedal. They are there, you just have to find them. I also find that an EQ pedal is a must after this pedal since it has no mids control. I love metal, and love high gain, but while scooping mids might sound brutal at home, it will erase you from the mix if you play live. Do yourself a favor and invest in a good EQ such as the MXR 10 Band EQ.

So far so good. I bought this pedal used, and the user had it for 10 years!!! That says a lot to me about the quality of this pedal. I would say it is up there with Boss, MXR and Ibanez/Maxon pedals for reliability and durability.

Haven't had to talk to them, and hopefully never will.

Great pedal for what it does. I wish it had midi controls (while still retaining the all-analogue signal path) for more flexibility. That would make this pedal a true must-have.

Would I replace this pedal if I lost it? Maybe, but provably with their TRI-AC or something of the sort. I would recommend that anyone try this pedal, but if possible try it during band practice so that you figure out if how to cut through the mix. The California setting is great for that mesa sound, but then again, easy to over saturate and compress.

A noise gate may also be needed at high gain settings.

Pretty easy since you can't put the volume or drive above 12:00 or it's too noisy, so that limits your choices. Also, you can't use the british since you'll completely lose all the low end, even with the low turned all the way up, so that limits your choices.

Horrible. It simulates "amp tones" ok, but it takes away all touch sensitivity. If you're into the awful EVH sound, then you'll love this thing, but if you're an adult, looking to play adult music and not that Nu Metal crap or whatever it is, then you'll be disappointed. Buy an attenuator and a decent distortion/fuzz

Got it used to try it and see what the buzz was about. It was pretty beat up but still worked fine. I didn't have it for long, so I can't say if it would last with regular use.

Just plain bad. The tweed was he only setting that didn't produce too much noise, but that messed with the mids too much. Bad bad bad.

Juts 4 knobs with 3-way switches x 3 for Mod, Amp, and Mic. Not really hard tough, but you'll need a LITTLE bit times to get used to those controls' characters. If you already get used by it, then it's heavenly easy to get what you want!

I use my Washburn Mercury I series (I think it's already discontinued) and this "chameleonic" pedal since I was around 13 (7th Grade) until now I add Boss CH-1, Boss NS-2 (for elimetaning noise, of course), and Boss GE-7 (and more, next time) to add more wider sounds.

I got almost all DRIVE I need from this pedal, from bluesy drive to cruchy crisp to growling roar! Lately I play an Alternative Rock-kind of band and it help a lot! A little weakness is it difficult to tame when it goes WILD! lol

tank-built! Too bad I hate the on-off switch. It got troubled sometimes, like, it sometimes can't turn off! some other times, can't turn on! Maybe it just old, I hope. That's make an 8.

I buy this pedal second hand, so I didn't got any manual or even box (just a home-made box with Budweizer label, looks funny lol). When I E-mailed them for pdf version of the manual, they e-mail me back right away! Best costumer support! comparing those spoiled gear sellers in Surabaya

If I lost this pedal, maybe I'd quit playing music :'( many friends here ask if I want to sell it but my answers is : HELL NO!!! because I can't buy a new one for it's high price!

This thing is very user friendly. The manual gives a variety of ideas but using it with bass guitar I just set it and forget it.

I used it for a little distortion on bass. Although I do set it for one style, occasionally I will preset it for California or British depending on the venue. Regardless of what others may say, I personally like the speaker simulation for bass. It won't make a bad sounding instrument better but it will give you what you want with a good sounding one.

I have 2 of these. One for backup but have never needed it. As they say, it is built like a tank and never fails me.

Every time I've dealt with them they have been very accommidating but they won't give up their secrets.

I started playing bass in the 60's but I still like a lot of the new music especially Christian rock. I don;t use the GT2 all the time but I keep it in my pedalboard for particular songs and a bit of character. I love this little box because it beats the competition for that hint of distortion though it's capable of much more.

Easy. Knobs are obvious. Plug into mixer or into effects return of an amp. Do NOT plug into instrument input of amp.

First, let me say this: Tech21 absolutely NAILED the preamp section in this pedal. I am almost shocked. Beautiful dynamics like I've never heard in a solid-state pedal, very close to my beloved rare Crate tube amp, and you will hear them in any setup. Responds to picking beautifully, especially through the Brit setting. A MILLION times better than the digital Behringer V-Amp 2 and Line 6 AM4 in this regard. I am impressed. The power amp simulation is also not bad at all and much better than anything else I've heard.

Unfortunately, this thing has one huge gigantic pitfall: built-in speaker simulation.

Why? Two reasons:

1) The cab sim itself is complete crap. It produces fizz like plugging a ****** over-EQed distortion pedal directly into a Red Box Pro and cranking the 10Khz. It doesn't matter which of the 3 mike positions you choose, it's always there. Generally unusable for most recordings. It's IMPOSSIBLE to EQ the fizz out properly, enhancers help little but distort the flat EQ which comes out of the pedal which is actually well done and desirable but, again, plagued by fizzzzzzzzzz. You can hear it in the recordings on their site, but it's a lot worse in practice.

Some people have suggested plugging this into a separate speaker sim to tame the fizz. VERY, VERY BAD IDEA. You don't mike an amp twice; this is the effect pluggin the GT-2 into a cab sim will produce. I have Palmer, Behringer, and Red Box cab sims, and the GT-2 sounds like pure compressed **** through all of them. Instant presence-killer. Even with good EQ-ing and enhancing, a Sansamp into a second speaker sim sounds like tin compared to any decent recording. Believe me I have tried everything for months on end, because I cannot believe they ruined such a beautiful dynamic solid-state preamp with such a ****** cab simulation.

2) YOU CAN'T DISABLE THE SPEAKER SIM!!!!!! Why in the world would you want a speaker sim driving your tube power amp??? I have tried this into multiple amps' effect returns and the presence loss compared to their regular distortion is striking. I can't believe nobody else hears this. THE SANSAMP GT-2 CAN NOT BE USED IN PLACE OF A REAL PREAMP!!!!!!!! The only way you can get a GT-2 or any sansamp for that matter to sound right into an amp is if you're using a very or relatively clean power amp and cabinet, such as the ones Tech 21 themselves produce. Anything else = instant colored tin can sound, even with loads of equalization (which is what Tech 21 recommends to compensate for the simulation - yeah right).


This is really why I am writing this review. I am calling Tech 21 out on their ********. This pedal is really close to something great with its awesome preamp sim, that's true, but this "universal output" is a joke and an insult. Instead of providing separate options for the total TWO, maybe THREE possible scenarios this unit could be used in, they've created a horrible mesh of half-***** poor compromise "speaker simulation" which they're advertising as some magic solution for universal good tone. I am ashamed I have fallen for this.

Plastic, but fairly sturdy. Good enough.

I e-mailed Tech21 asking if they had a model without speaker simulation. They basically told me I was a dumbass. Either they don't know how an amp works at all, or their circuitry is one gigantic hack which happens to magically include some semblant of speaker simulation and this is why it's built into all their models and they're pretending they don't know how amps are actually supposed to be wired so they can sell it to dumbasses like me.

This pedal and the other sansamps have the potential to be the greatest, most versatile solid-state simulators ever produced. I'm serious, I have never heard a solid-state preamp section react as well as the GT-2's does. All it needs is a fourth "bypass" option on each of the sliders, to disable the speaker sim and power amp where necessary (for example, just disable the speaker sim and substitute it with my much better Palmer PDI-09, or disable the speaker sim and power amp to plug preamp-only into a tube amp's effects return, the way it's meant to be).

Instead, this pedal is remarkably limited, you're STUCK with a ****** speaker sim and power-amp simulation, making your better cab sims and tube amps sound like a joke and making it FAR from the versatile beast people claim it is. They've made the same mistake with their new 'character' series and most of their sansamps, too.

I am horribly disappointed with this pedal, simply because they came SO close to producing a great musical tool, but managed to turn into a toy for Metalzone-bashers. I give up.

easy to use, didnt have a manual as it was used but the best and hardest thing is every tiny move on the dials makes a unique sound...it really is deep, but simple to dial in...LOVE that about it. it seems a lot of the new zoom and other digital pedals takes aweek with the manual...NO FUN. basically like an old school pedal with old school sounds. blows so many past pedals away its silly.

i dont find this noisy, and i use it mostly on the tweed clean settings so...? I think i have an older version? you have to take out 4 screws to replace battery...when battery starts to die the noise appears...thats the sign folks.
After having multiple tube amps from princetons to champs to carvins to peaveys...I have found a winner...and it has no tubes! well, pretty much...heres what i mean. I love the tube sound, hate the solid state on most, but definitely not all amps. Sold all the tubers to raise funds, then found out i was out a good amp after trying the under $300 tube amp variety out there. Nothing really sounded that great and the starved=plate designs left me wanting...so I got a cheapass gx15 crate, ditched the speaker for a 12" vintage alnico and put it on clean...man it sucked. So i got this...kapow! For $150 total (crate was almost free it was used and so cheap) i got me a winner,,,,no wieners. In fact, i like the effects better than the roland microcube, which says a lot...plus you get the volume with this setup. If you get the roland, plus this setup you can pretty much cover any sound available for recording and live (mic'd for bigger venues)
effects are perfect...but i usually only use clean tweed and semi-clean california though the british does sound fine!

seems fine but i hate those type switches...though they supposedly last for a long time (russian mics usem so you know they are bombproof)
no backup needed

ahhhhh....NO....hopefully will never need to use them. Now, if you use bartolini pickups and need customer support...HAHAHAHAHA...good luck

After 25 years of hundreds of guitars, effects, amps, basses i am pared down to the essentials, and this is one of them. to give you an idea (and believe me, have owned, used, bought and sold more stuff than any used music store has at any given moment) of my setup I have (definitely not braggin here...just ended up with the best sounding basics) fender mim vintage reissue strat with duncan ssl pickups, danelectro reel echo fake tape loop box, meistersinger chorus, this box, boss extortion, roland microcube, crate gx15 POS with new speaker GREAT!, and cheapo bennet samick bass with really good pickups....cant ask for anything more or better unless a carey sound or mini-dr- tube amp comes around.
THis lil stomper fits the bill nicely, and can record direct! which i rarely do, but will prob. do more of as this sounds so GOOD direct. As good but not as deep as ampfarm...and you can hold it

Fairly easy to good a good sound out of this unit. You have to experiment to find what suits you best.

Well, the interesting thing is that I've begun to use it playing live.
I use a Fender tube amp so I don't really use Tweed settings and I also use a Tube Screamer. What this pedal now does for me is get the real high gain and crunch sounds that I've used other distortion pedals for. It is a little noisy, but for the high gain sounds I'm using it doesn't really matter.

The unit seems pretty reliable, doesn't eat batteries too quickly. The only problem I've had is the battery cover which I have had to tape.

N/A- no problems

I play I wide variety of styles and have been playing for 25 years.
I own a few amps of varying size and numerous effect. My main guitar
is a Strat also use a Tele and occasionally Les Paul Jr.

I bought this unit several years ago after it first came out. I purchased it for recording purposes and used it solely for recording.


Primarily when I use this live I'll got back and forth between the California and British settings with varying degrees of gain depending on what the song calls for.
I believe that this pedal is very underated as a distortion unit for live applications. It took me awhile to figure this out, but I certainly would recommend this to anyone seeking a pedal that will deliver a myriad of tones both vintage and modern.

Well, it's easy to work with, you quickly find out what all the knobs and switches do, but to get a good sound out of it that will take a little more dedication! the manual has all you need to know...

I'm using a Fender Telecaster and a Epiphone Black Beauty into a Crate Blue Voodoo and a Fender Twin Reverb.. The unit isn't noisy at all, I think it is the most silent I got.. But the sound quality.. I've cried rivers for the money I spent with this piece of s....t.. The only usable sound is in the California amp switch, clean setting.. the rest.. well, it costed me 250??? and my 45??? Boss DS-1 beats it in a blink!

It seems reliable, I'm even thinking of throwing it to the wall if I can't sell it real soon!

Never needed, I seldom used it..

I've been playing for 15 years now, some bands, local gigs and I own some cheap gear, except for the amps all is very cheap, and everything works real fine, this was the most expensive pedal i bought and the greatest disapointment.. if it got stolen, poor robber! couldn't use it and couldn't sell it!