Tech 21 Trademark 10

Cool features, not your normal little combo amp. Everybody knows them by now. Discontinued. Effectively a one channel amp. Wish it was three seperate. I use it at home. It only has enough (very little actually) power from there. The DI helps in a small rehearsal if you can operate on a single channel amp. Solid state, mosfet power amp, 10 watts, could give a satisfactory sound through a regular 4x12. Vintage 30's seem to behave pretty good though far from full range or flat that nomrally this amp would like

How can I write a review for such a loved amp?
two guitars mostly. Epi gothic les paul floyd rose and yamaha rgx1212s(jackson copy). Have tried many from dirt cheap to outstandingly expensive custom shop guitars. I use this amp to judge how a guitar sounds!

I don't give a .... for vintage style sounds but this little amp, wipes the floor from any line6 style modeller, or plexi pedal or whatever. Actually it is the best sounding low level amp I've heard period. If you value a sound, tube sound if you want, as the result of your picking, guitar and its pickups a preamp providing a signal, a power amp providing dist, an output transformer providing pressence through whatever trick, or sag or any other technicalities that make a tube circuit feel orgasmically good(sweet spot in a phrase) then you should add speaker distortion or even thump. And NO amp has that in low volume. But this tiny amp, has it. You can palm mute and feel and hear...thump!!! It is great. Is it a preamp thing? Is the tiny speaker that resonates in lower volume? I don't know for sure but it works!!!Great!
It has vintage growl if you crave it but can do metal very very well, not modern recto metal(never had that in mind) but metallica or ozzy type sounds. You will find yourself thinking that in certain settings it just sounds perfect. Is it all good? No. An active though very musical eq such as the -+12db that this one has can bring out some very extreme bad sounds. And through time I find that the point that the gain control balances between compression saturation and enough gain to let you riff quickly, is where the best sounds are. And lower gain levels allow you to have more treble that don't fizz!

On the clean side, it does have very good cleans fender type or marshall type. But it still is a clean that will distort and of course now headroom...In your house this thing has great dispersion: A friend could not believe the bass or how this small combo sounded so big! But it is not a TUBE clean sound rather than a warmer solid state sound. Even as such it still reacts very very good with your picking dynamics: Even better than many mediocre(in this area) tube amps. But not a TUBE clean sound...

I could go on and on for hours about how many sounds you can attain.

The one very very good hint for this is that even though hot type of gain (the middle switch) sounds great when playing alone it is very fizzy when going direct. Same goes for the EV or JBL emulation on the speaker department. Try high gain, with less gain and treble and Uk speakers when going direct. It records very very good.

All in all I should have given an 8. 9 beacuse it is not the bes amp in the world. 8 beacuse it does not have a true clean channel. Ah screw it. It is 10 points satisfactory! And that counts for me.

Should be a 10. It has the occasional in many amps effects loop jack problem. Stick a short cable if you don't use effects. It is always fine since I did it. The volume pot(master at the end) seems to not hace sound anymore at its initial travel but still opens up gradually. Also the reverb seems to be less effective over time. Maybe I got used to it or a srping is bummed. So a 7. Also it may need a service after many years of constant use. And I live in greece...Oh boy

The perfect TEN I live in greece but andrew barta responds in a flash and even talks openly about whatever is on my mind as a question! Absoluteley perfect.

I bought it for 400 euros!!! It may very well be the highest price paid for this amp in its history. **** the greek ******* that wanted to profit through every amp he brought to Greece. But only shows that a) I'm impatient. b) I need a warranty. I'm usually very unlucky!!!But hey what it really shows is that c) I really really wanted this little guy.

Overall rating TEN. Can you find it for 100$?Do IT

The features have been covered in detail. Basically it can mimick any single channel amp out there (for the most part) including effects and reverb. It's not loud enough to gig with unless you go direct and use it as a personal monitor, which works great. It's weird showing up with a little shoebox amp but nobody is unhappy with the sound.

I use it in a bunch of different settings, but if you want to hear samples of it with a ES-335 knock off (Washburn HB-35, the model with all the bells and whistles) with Duncan Phat-Cats you can check out www broadjam com/peek.

The first 2 tunes (Hey Hey and See How it Ends) are recorded direct into a hard disk. The second tune (See How it Ends) has a solo just before the 2 minute mark and you can hear how it sounds with Fulltone Fulldrive.

There's a third tune from the same session (Train) using a Guytron GT100 FV, and its weird but in my opinion the TM10 killed it. I ended up selling the Guytron and buying a pair of TM60's eventually.

Some people say it's grainy or abrasive, and it can be. But you've got to work with the controls. They are very powerful and you can dial in a great sound, or complete shit if you don't watch it.

I own the TM10, TM30 and two TM60's and have never had any problems.

Lloyd is a god. I have called him and emailed him numerous times and never been anything other than thrilled. Once I thought I had a problem with a TM60 and sent him the chassis. He sent it back, free shipping, and told me to check my pedals. Sure enough my Fulltone Full-Drive had crapped out. But he was totally cool the whole time, and treats you with respect.

I have been playing for too many years, although I wish it showed in my playing! I have a couple of degrees in music, for what it's worth. I'm 42 and got tired of lugging around tube amps a few years ago. I ended up trying all the line 6 stuff, Vox etc and stumbled on Tech 21 in the process. I love how it feels like a tube amp (not exactly, but close in feel), especially with pedals. If you like your pedals in your tube amp you can plug them all into the Tech21 stuff and it's great, unlike say the Line 6 stuff. This line of products are the best out there right now.

10W analog modelling amp. 3 Amp, speaker and gain settings. Reverb and active EQ (boosts and cuts sound).

Clean sounds: Clean sounds are ok but if you are looking for that crystal clear fender sound maybe you should look somewhere else. Not so much experience in this area.

Not so clean sounds: This is where the amp shines. I normally play it with amp set to british, mod to high gain and speaker to U.K. The gain is enough for 80's type metal too - debending on guitar of course - but if you looking for really brutal distortion you may need a pedal. The gain is never muddy but can get quite harsh when played in high volumes, though keeping in mind it's a 10w solidstate amp it does excellent job.

It looks very solid and no problems so far.

Summary: Excellent value for money practise amp.

Solidstate. 10W. 8-inch speaker. 3 amp-types. 3 gain-types. 3 speaker-types. Reverb.

Basically three different types of sounds (Fender / Marshall / Mesa Boogie).

Fender clean: Yes, you CAN have a loud useable clean with this tiny amp. Especially with single coils. Just turn up those mids and back off the bass / treble just a tad. This renders a fairly warm sound that lends itself well to jazz-playing.

Fender high-gain / hot: Overdriven Fender sounds galore. On some guitars you need to match it with the 4x12' speaker setting, though. Otherwise it's a bit dark. It's also rather mid-heavy, so on these settings back off the mids to about 9 o'clock.

Marshall clean: Not really clean. More like a slight overdriven sound and with a hot humbucker you get quite a bit of rock'n'roll bark already at this setting.

Marshall high-gain / hot: Nice high-gain sounds covering everything from classic rock to eighties metal. Nice sustain and the amp does remain fairly hum-free even with the gain wound up. For its 10W solidstate... It gets pretty loud! For the best results, put it a bit higher up like on a chair or something.

Only dislike here is that you DO get that solidstate harshness and also the gain is not very transparent.

Mesa Boogie clean: I use this to get Robben Ford kind of sounds. Still pretty useable sounds on tap here.

Mesa Boogie high-gain / hot: Too dark and mid-heavy for me. It does the trick, but I'm not a fan.

Overall pretty good.

Very reliable. Just fire her up and she'll play for ya.

It did come with a busted reverb-tank, which seems to be a common problem. However, I don't really use reverb, so I never had it fixed.

Been playing for around 17 years now. Have owned mostly Fender amps (both tube and solidstate) and now this Tech21 and a Laney.

As far as practice amps go it's pretty versatile, but I do feel there are better options out there today. Also I think it's pretty expensive for what it is. If stolen I'd probably buy a Roland Micro Cube. In fact, for the same cash I put down for this Trademark 10... I can buy a Cube 60.

Also, I'm bugged about the harshness once you turn up the volume. My V-amp2 is digital and sounds a lot more natural to me.

Overall, it's okay but I just feel it's had its time. The plethora of cheaper AND more versatile AND even giggable digital amps just render it obsolete in my books.

Bought this used as my other amp is a Peavey Vintage 2x12 and way too loud for practice. This does practice very well, and can jam with small groups. A larger jam session with other amps and it does not project well (10 watts).

I use it with a strat copy, single coil guitar. Reverb is good, it does distortion very well, Van Halen and Metallica presets are spot on perfect, even the amp feedback sound is perfect. My complaint is the Fender clean sound is a thin, and VERY quiet. Hard to get any punch. I agree with another reviewer, this amp was made with dirty sounds in mind.

Occasionally I will notice sound dropouts and I wonder about a loose connection. I would not want this to happen when it counted.

n/a

I love its light weight compact size and XLR output. Very cool, easy to use. Would love switchable channels and more power. If it were stolen or lost I would replace it with the Trademark 30 as it is still very light and portable but enough power to be heard in a room without overtaxing this guy.

Loaded with featues...more than $1,000 amps. Effects loop, XLR Direct line out to PA or board, speaker extention, REVERB !! Reverb on a $200 amp is amazing. Awsome 8 inch special design speaker. It has to be magic how they can make an 8 inch speaker sound so FULL and LOW !!!

The marshall and fender settings with high gain are very useable, as well as the fender clean. The Mesa sound is just the Marshall with more low end. The flat speaker setting is useless except for Pink Floyd's Wish you were Here intro sound of a broken car stereo speaker. Good for Skynard, old Sabbath, classic rock and country...not a metal amp, not enough gain or low end. its a 8 inch speaker. But it sounds amazing and full of boutique tone at low volumes

Built solid and with quality

Never used it

Great recording or practice amp, for $200 it can be beat.

You surely know the features by now. It is very versatile. Using the stock internal speaker, it has plenty of power for a practice/studio amp. It's not the amp's fault that no 8-inch speaker is going to get a big sound; it will always sound like an 8-inch speaker in a small box. But I suspect that if you mic the speaker cone, you'll get a much bigger sound because you'll be getting the sound from the front of the speaker instead of the sound of the box in the room. BUT...the amp has a speaker jack so you can drive any 8-ohm cabinet with it, and 10 Watts through an efficient Celestion speaker cab will produce 110 dB or more, depending on how many speakers you have in the cab. For example, 10 Watts through a 412 cab with Vintage 30s should make 116 dB, which should be fine for a lot of gigs. But the best part is that you get a big, full sound when you use an external cab. So, it's a nice portable amp head with a built-in speaker for low-volume playing, and it sounds good through headphones for late-nite practice.

The biggest limitation as a gig amp is that it has only one channel, and a two-channel amp with a channel-selecting footswitch is desirable playing with a band.

I use it for a wide variety of sounds with a variety of guitars. Like most amps, it takes a while to figure out the tone controls. But a wide range of sounds is available. I wish it had more compression and sustain in the Fender sounds, but with an outboard compressor (I recommend the Barber Tone Press!!!), it sounds fine.

The tone controls are an active 3-band equalizer, and small adjustments to the knobs produce large changes in the tone. So, you have to use them differently from many amps where you have to turn the knob a half-turn to get any perceptible change. Here, a very small difference in one of the knobs can make or break your sound. But I think this is fine, because with care, you can get a variety of great sounds. Try playing while you rotate each of the knobs, to hear what they do, and you'll have a versatile tool.

I had to send the first couple of amps back to get one with working reverb, but I've had no problems with the third one after a few years of playing mostly at home. So, I'll give it a 9, but it's continuing to work and it has a well-made feel. Actually, it looks beautiful and feels like a solid piece of gear.

I've had no experience with this, but the company has a good reputation.

Been playing over 40 years. I have many guitars, amps, and stomp boxes. My satisfaction with this amp and most of my amps went up 100% when I got a Barber Tone Press compressor = easy to use and the best sounds I've gotten yet. This is an update to an earlier review, which I am submitting because I have more experience with the amp now, and I like it better.

Bought the amp used at a pawnshop auction. Probably a few years old. I bought it to have a bedroom amp at home, works great with and without headphones.

There's a lot more rock (overdriven sounds) in this box than I really use. But I find it very versatile in dialing in fine crunch and clean sounds with just a bit of break-up. And it's nice to have those heavier sounds available (at low volumes!)

My style of music (soul, altcountry, pop, folk). It's not as crystal clear as an old Fender tube amp. But still really good.

1962 Guild archtop CE-100DP (ES-175 body, two P90 pickups)
Gibson Les Paul Standard

I like it a lot, but it isn't a tube amp.

No reason to doubt it. Seems wellbuilt, and now I have even opened it up - the inside looked clean and well organised for an untrained eye.

I bought this amp cheap and used at a pawn shop auction. Turned out its red pilot lamp was broken. I emailed Tech21 asking for how to replace it - and they sent me (overseas - all the way to Sweden) a new lamp+wires with detailed instructions on how to do it. I changed the lamp in five minutes. Didn't charge me anything - though the postage alone costed 2.55 bucks.

Before asking about the lamp I also contacted Tech21 about the manual being available as PDF - I got it sent to me the same day.

Great to know here's a company taking pride in its products and its reputation. I might not go to the pawn shops to buy Tech 21 gear in the future ;-)

Intermediate player. Got a few guitars, 14 pedals. My next amp though will probably be one of the chinese VOX AC-30 reissues. Real tubes, tremolo, volume.

For my purpose and the deal I got I give the Trademark 10 a 10! It is a great bargain. Small, versatile (headphone jack, fx loop, modelling, real spring reverb and really good overdrive), and it's goodlooking (!) - a better home amp for me is yet to be made.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.

Just an update to my review from 2004.

To combat the slightly wimpy sound of the Fender (Calif.) clean setting, I run my guitar (Strat copy w/single coils) through a Boss Blues Driver. I turn up the stomp box's Level control and keep the Gain control pretty low. I get lots of sparkly clean tone without distortion. I'm sure any comparable distortion pedal will produce similar results.

I'm sure many of you will ask, why bother with an amp whose basic clean sound requires you to augment the guitar's signal with a stomp box? Well, it's all about compromise. This amp has many wonderful features with one serious flaw -- the dropoff in tone and output in its clean Fender setting. With the stomp box setup, you get the amp's good sounds -- plus its portability, versatility, actual spring reverb, etc. -- while mitigating (if not eliminating) the bad. I'll take that every time.

Reverb tank died after about six months. So I did what several other reviewers on this site have done: e-mailed Tech 21. They answered within a day. Told me how to diagnose the problem, how to order a replacement tank and how to install. All for the low, low price of $24.50 counting shipping. Operators are standing by!!! (Sorry, got a little carried away.)

Judging by the number of reviewers who've mentioned having to replace these tanks, this must be a fairly common problem with Trademark series amps. I don't know if it's a quality control issue with Tech 21 or Accutronics. But the new tank has worked fine for the past 9 months. Even if I had to replace the tank every year or two at $25 a pop, it would still be less trouble than having to replace those freaking little bulbs of glowing glass (matched, of course, and possibly requiring a bias adjustment) every 6 months (if you gig).

I bought this jewel for $200. Now I'm in for $225. It's still the best buy I've ever made for musical gear. How I wish there'd been something like this 25 years ago!

Having the reverb tank fizzle out asctually impressed me more with Tech 21. They kept me from regretting that I had bought their product. And they didn't seem as though they were going out of their way to make the amp right -- as if polite, prompt customer service were the norm for them. Score one for professionalism!

I still believe the Trademark 10 is the best practice/personal amp on the market. It's got great tones (use the distortion pedal trick for cleans) even at low volumes, incredible versatility, small size and light weight, yet it still is loud enough to arouse your sleeping neighbors. I don't use the direct outs for phones and recording, but they're there for those who do need such features.

I'd buy it again if something happened (stolen or more than reverb tank going kaput). But would I have to pick one up from Ebay? Musician's Friend and Music 123 both list the Trademark 10 as discontinued, although the Tech 21 site still describes it as an available product.

Maybe I should just buy a spare -- not because I'm worried about mine crapping out, but because in a few years guitarists will realize just how good these amps are. And the used market prices will explode.

- Do you know what year the amp was made in? 2004
- Is the amp versatile enough for you and the styles of music you play? Oh yeah!
- What are those styles? Blues, rock blues, and rock
- How many channels? 1
- Does it have channel switching? No
- Effects loops? Yes
- Headphone jack? Yes
- What features do you wish it had? Pretty darn happy the way it is.
- Why? Simple, versatile, with great tones
- Are there features you never use? Haven't used the mic out yet.
- Where do you use this amp? Home, practice, small gigs
- Does it have enough power for you? Surprisingly loud for 10 watts! Blew away my Vox Brian May Special.

- What guitar and pickup styles are you using it with? P-90s, Tele singles, PAFs
- How does it suit your music style (and what is that style)? Blues, Rock Blues
- Is it noisy? Not really
- What kind of sounds can the amp make? Great, overdriven Fender Tweed sounds; Great Marshall Sounds; Great Mesa Boogies Sounds
- How much variety? Lots
- Is the clean channel distorted at high volumes? Not a super loud clean amp, but what do you expect for an otherwise great sounding, warm little 10 watt amp with 8" speaker!
- How brutal is the distortion? Great singing overdrive and distortion.

Only had the amp for a few days, but seems to be really well built. Bought used in near mint condition. Previous owner had no problems and no signs of issues so far.

Haven't contacted Tech 21 for anything...so don't know.

I've been playing over 20 years and was just floored when I found this little dream at Guitar X in Denver. For $135 it was a no brainer to take this thing home and retire my Vox Brian May Special. Has more balls, more volume, more warmth, more versatility and simply great tones for blues to rock. Covers Clapton territory from Cream, to his country blues in the 70s to his recent reunion. Also does great at Gary Moore and Santana tones. Love it.