Tech 21 Trademark 10

Built an bought in 2003, 330 ? new, local dealer

I think Trademark 10 is well known. solid-state, analog circuit, one input, 3 amp-styles (tweed, britisch, california,), three gain-modes (clean=means stock-amp, high gain, hot), three styles of speaker (flat=8inch built in speaker, UK, US). Headphone, direct-out, seriell effects loop. Reverb, 10 Watts.

Bought it to play at home in living room at really low level.

It does it well, very versatile, mostly I do use the tweed amp style and do change gain-modes and speakers. The other styles I don't like very much.


Rating: 7 when 10 ist excellent or perfect (lack of Blues-Sounds). Should have a foot-switch for mode changing.

I only play at home sometimes with friends, so I cannot review how the amp works in professional situations.

Play it with Les Paul studio and Telecaster classic MIM.

Very rich and full clean sounds, at low level too. Buut there is a lack of good and different blues-sounds, my favorite music-style. Tweed-style rather has no overdrive, none with the Telecaster, a littler with Les Paul. High gain mode delievers overdrive, but less variety. The other amp-styles do go in to distortion early. I don't know whether this ist good sound.

Much better than the sound of the combo ist the sound of the direct-out based on the GT 2 from TEch 21 played through a good hifi-stereo. Very silky sound. Warm and dynamically.

Reverb did not work well from the beginning. After one year the dealer changed it, without costs for me. Dealers warranty not tech 21 warranty.

See above

Do playing about 10 years. If it would lost, would by another amp, not because this one is bad, but to try another one. I like the clean sound at low level, but I miss the bluesy sounds, which a fender blues junior deliever. It looks good in the living room.

The features have been well covered below and if you're confused go to their website.
I bought this amp approx 12 months ago after reading the reviews here at Harmony Central. I use the amp purely for home recording (Sonar 3) and playing. As has been emphasised on a regular basis by others here, and must be clearly understood,this is a practice amp!! Not a 100w combo.
However, it does not have channel switching (not that hard surely???), and the volume is grossly inadequate on the "clean" setting which is a major blunder on the part of Tech 21. All it needed was an extra 5 watts.
Although the low volume on clean is not a problem with recording, it is during practice. For that reason and a lack of channel switching, I will have to give it a 7.

I've played various guitars through the unit and it meets all my requirements. When I'm messing about it's the blues, but home recording is more pop/rock. For what the amp is, the sounds are excellent, whether using humbuckers or single coils. My taste is the cleaner overdriven sound with a lttle edge, and I tend to stay away from the heavier distorted sounds typical of Les Pauls and SG's.
I recently purchased a s/h Eric Christman G6N with a Seymour Duncan JB 4 in the neck and 2N Jazz in the neck. It has a split coil option and I can get very nice Strat and Les Paul tones. No problem.
But.........this is no Mesa Boogie! I had a Mark 3 60/100 Simul Class and this thing wouldn't come close, but neither would you expect it to.
There has been debate on whether or not the "clean" sound is clean enough. Probably not, especially with humbuckers. Jazz players with a fine ear may have problems. But it doesn't present a problem for me.

I haven't had a problem, but it very rarely goes out of the house. I hope it stays that way because I will have to ship it from one side of Australia to the other for service.

I sent an email to Tech 21 for some info before I bought the amp and the reply was prompt. No complaints.

I've been playing for approx 25 years. I haven't owned every guitar and amp like a lot of others, but I have ears. Once again for what it is, it does a very fine job. For those who aren't getting a good sound, you're not trying hard enough. And for those of you who think it's better than a Mesa Boogie.........well ummmm hmmmm.

I bought this amp in late 2001 because I was looking for a practice amp with a decent range of tonal options but was not terribly impressed with most of the modeling amps (Line 6 Spider, Johnson, etc.) that were available at that time. Features are as stated many times below. I also would enjoy the ability to channel switch using a footswitch, but for what I use this amp, that's not really a problem.

I have used this amp with an American Standard Telecaster (vintage noiseless PUs), Route 101 S-S-HR strat (clone), Aslin Dane Jazz 35 (ES-335 clone), Les Paul Deluxe, Ovation, and acoustics w/soundhole PU - therefore, I think I've pretty much been 'round the block with this. I play a wide variety of tunes, depending on my mood: classic rock, punk, country (think Dave Alvin), pretty much everything but modern metal. For the styles I play, I can always find a useful sound. I have to agree to a point with others on the tweed settings - Those chimey 'fendery' and 'voxy' tones don't jump out at you - it takes a bit of tweaking (sometimes more than a bit) to find the right spot. The tone-shaping controls are active, and interactive - to get it right, you have to adjust a little at a time. I usually start with everything at 12:00 and go from there. It takes patience, but once you find the right tone, it's heaven. I can get everything from a ringing beatle-esque clean to a very satisfying grunge roar. One hint - additional settings are available at http://www.cstone.net/~halouis/tm10/index.html?all. These make some good starting places. Also, there is a SansAmp GT2 site - http://members.tripod.com/Milaa/SansAmpGT2/indexGT2.html that has a bunch of settings, and since the TM10 is based on the DG2, these are all usable and give you more to start with than the few in the manual. Also, another hint - I have photcopied the 'blank' settings pages in the manual and everytime I find a setting for a particular tone, I write it down with notes on one of these pages. Anyway - to make a long story short - the tone you want is there - but you sometimes have to work a bit to find it. The only problem I have is that with humbuckers at higher volumes, the speaker gets a bit farty, but that's pretty much gonna happen with an 8" speaker... Oh, as others have noted, good reverb. Also, the amp has touch dynamics and 'breath' that is so tube-like it can fool people (my cousin actually did look in back to see if there were tubes in there!)

I've had this three years. The original pilot light went out and I received a new one from the factory - it was easy to replace. Other than that, it has been solidly reliable. Since I have had this thing apart, I can state the standards of construction are very, very good for a practice amp. Nothing on this amp is cheap or plast-icky.

As I said - the pilot light burned out (apparently a congenital defect on earlier models that has since been rectified) and since I wasn't interested in sending it back to NYC, they sent out a new one with excellent instructions on replacement. I have sent several e-mails with questions or comments and have always received a rapid, thoughtful response. These guys definitely back their products!

Not that it matters, but I've been playing about 35 years - about ten seriously. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely replace it - this is the one piece of equipment I have that is indispensable. I have compared this to almost every other low-powered amp out there, and have not yet found anything superior. Again, I would love to have channel switching, but if I ever really need it, I can get a TM-60.

See other rewiews for features, but I think if you make a headphone amp, it should have an extra input for CD's etc. to play to. IMHO his would make more sense than having an effects-loop since you could always put pedals in front of the amp or use the insert/aux-funktions on your mixer for delays and reverbs when recording.

I tried to get good clean sounds out of it, but it was disappointing. The Tweed-Channel lacks "sparkle" (did A/B it with a small 5-watt, class-A tube Amp
that has 12AX7-5AR4-6V6 tubes). I wasn't able to get a clean Marshall sound
(think Jimi Hendrix "The Wind Cries Mary"), because this setting has no headroom. The overdriven, distorted settings sounded much better to my ears, but that was not what I was after.

I was impressed with the construction. The pots have metal-shafts, not the plastic-ones you sometimes see on other amps (Fender Blues Jr., Ampeg J-12).
The pilot-light, the on/off-switch, the leather-handle, the amp-cover - it gives you the feeling this company cares to give you a quality product.

N/A

I loved the quality construction and the easy "no-brainer" control layout. But since I was very disappointed by the clean sounds (the lack of a CD-input is a minus, too, in a home-practise-situation) I'm returning the amp to the store tomorrow :-(

Looks like everybody mentioned the featurs. The one thing I wish tech 21 did was put in a beter mesa boogie setting, it always is fuzzy and never clean.

This amp sounds beast! after using it on a recording with rode nt1 going to aphex tube pre then to a teac a 3440 I got some real mahavishnu like sounds out of this small amp. Also on a previous recording project where it was fed directly into a daw system via the xlr I got really amazing tones and a wide range of colors with very little noise. The only thing is I like a very wide sound (wich it delivers) but it can fuzz out on really low notes and overtones.

no problems

I LOVE this little amp! I bought it because I needed a small practice amp and I already owned a PSA-1 and a Trademark 60. I'm in LOVE with the crunch on my tremoverb, but this thing sounds cool too. Tech 21 doesn't advertise this as a metal amp at all, but I can get some heavy sounds with this. The California voicing with the british speaker cab and the bass and treble cranked and the mid at 0-25% and u get this great heavy scooped out sound. This is a great amp. I even recorded direct with it into a 4 track and it sounded great. As far as practice amps go, this is great. It doesn't have channel switching, so i won't give it a 10. I can use headphones with it too, which can come in handy.

Once again, I love the distortion on this thing. The key is to turn up the bass and treble to give it more balls and play around with the california and british voicings to get the type of distortion u want. Play around with the mid to get a scooped sound or something with more bite. The British cab setting is more trebly and gives more of a crunch, while the california cab is bassier and deeper sounding. I can't comment on the tweed setting because I don't use it too much, I use the tweed setting on clean mostly with a distortion pedal because this amp doesnt do channel switching. I like the heavy sounds I can get out of this amp. It only has a single 10" speaker, so theres only so much u can realistically get from it, but just the same, as far as 10 watt practice amps go, this this is amazing. The distortion can be heavy and thick or more overdrivelike. U can get a cool old overdrive sound by setting the amp to british, then clean and turning up the gain all the way. U get the idea. This amp; and all tech 21 amps, seem to act like REAL tube amps, as opposed to say a POD which is definitely digital. I'm not knocking the POD, but this is a different species of technology. Tech 21 amps are not digital, they're analog.

its a solid state amp. enough said.

n/a

a 9, because it doesnt have channel switching. I just end up using a distortion pedal with the tweed setting anyway, but it'd be nice to use a clean/crunch feature on this. Overall, it's a great practice amp that should give all others a run for their money.

I can't add anything that hasn't been covered before. It has lots of features and the reason I rate it a 9 is because I never give 10's. So a 9 is the highest score I'm prepared to give anything. Certainly there are amps with more features but for me what counts is that it has exactly the features I use and nothing more. Who needs features that one does not use?
Also has a nice vintage look...

This little box certainly sounds a lot bigger than it is. I use Strats, LP's and one hollowbody jazzguitar and it sounds great with every single one. Thanks to the amp sims it is very versatile and will cover any stile of playing.

It also responds well to the effect in front of it or in the effectsloop. Usually I have a dunlop crybaby and a tubescreamer in front of the amp and a chorus in the loop. The spring reverb also works nicely.

I think its about two years old now and I've had no problems.

I once mailed the guys at Tech21 and had a response the next day (not bad considering that I live in Europe).

I really love this amp. I got it in a trade (Laney all tube amp) and never had any regrets. It's mainly for use in the living room and for that it's perfect. It is not very loud but sounds like a big amp.

Three amplifier types. Three overdrive settings. Three speaker types. The resulting 27 tone combinations can be tweaked via the drive knob, 3-band EQ, reverb and master volume. There is a lot of variety of tones available therein. The relatively high score reflects the ease with which one can attain these tones, and do so with ease.

The aspects of these features that impress the most: spring reverb?it isn?t a fender tube reverb, but it sounds pretty good, and makes a big difference in making the ?tweed? setting sound as good as it does; XLR out?I can?t emphasize enough how nice this sounds recorded, and because it?s a combo amp, you can do something here that you couldn?t with, say, a POD, which is use microphone technique to mic the amp, while recording the direct XLR out simultaneously, either in stereo or two mono tracks; effects loop?I don?t need this very often for effects, but if you use rack stuff, it?ll come in handy, and this also enables you to run another preamp, such as a POD, into the return input, thereby bypassing the amps preamp and using it as a power amp with something else.

For a $250 practice amp, this feature set is highly useful, and I?ve found nothing about its design that isn?t a valuable function.

Let?s be clear about this category?this is not a tube amp. It does share some behaviors with good tube amps. There is a degree of ?sag? to the attack, but it?s most pronounced in the clean ?tweed? setting. Settings with higher amounts of distortion (and therefore increased compression) are less dynamic in this way, but not so much that it?s a drawback. When you dig into the string with the pick, i.e. hit the strings harder, it gets louder, just as it would (or should) with a tube amp. Does it have the same level of touch dynamics as a good tube amp? No, of course not. It isn?t a tube amp. But it?s a very fine emulation of one, and provides qualities that most tube amps don?t-portability, light weight design, other features mentioned above.

Here?s a question?is it better to have a really lousy tube amp or a really great solid state amp? I?ve read reviews by customers who are disappointed that this amp isn?t louder or to doesn?t have channel switching. That?s like buying a compact car and complaining that it doesn?t go off-road. This is not an amp for playing in a loud band?maybe a quiet jazz combo, but that?s about it.

Another issue?the marriage of specific guitars with specific tube amps?the tele/fender deluxe, les paul/marshall plexi, rickenbacker/AC30 (etc.) are popular recipes because they work?they sound great. I have several amps and lots of guitars. The TM10 is great because it sounds good with all my guitars. I can do the twangy/trebly telecaster one minute, and get a warm soulful tone from my semi-hollow the next. I can play blues on my strat or go shred deluxe with the les paul. It?s a true swiss army knife in that sense. But I wouldn?t use it with a live drummer, and I wouldn?t think of running it into a P.A. unless I had no other alternative. There?s a reason why they still build big combos and stacks?you need to move the air, get that natural feedback, feel the notes you?re playing with other amplified musicians?for these situations I would recommend using something other than the TM10. And let me also point out that I have indeed run the TM10 into a 1x12 cabinet and a 4x12 cabinet. It is true that these cabs make it feel louder?there is definitely more bottom end with a 12-inch speaker?and you might be able to get a loud enough sound to play with a drummer, especially if the drummer doesn?t play very loud himself. My opinion is that this only speaks to the versatility of the TM10. I would not point to this factor as a big selling point, only that you can get some beefier sound this way?and if you do, be sure to set the speaker type to ?flat? as you will be getting your speaker characteristics from an actual speaker?in my case, celestions and EV?s?

So, the sound quality is great for direct recording and practicing. My personal preferences are for a fender ?tweed? setting and the ?uk? marshall setting with some crunch and overdrive. I already own a boogie tube amp, and that tone is arguably much more satisfying at a louder volume?I?ll probably focus on the former two settings for practice purposes.

I?ll give Tech21 the benefit of the doubt, based on the fact that I?ve owned the Sansamp Classic, which held up for years, and was recently re-furbished (by Tech 21)for a very reasonable price. It?s now back to nearly-new condition and sounds great as ever. This is a company that stands behind its products.

Ditto.

If you are looking for a small practicing amp which sounds great and adds utility to your recording arsenal, then I recommend this product. I also love the fact that it is so light and portable. Note to those who wish it had channel switching?right now I?m running through an effect with stereo outs, with the left channel going direct to an A/B splitter, and the right channel going through the POD into the other side of the splitter. The splitter main out goes into the TM10. Voila, instant two-channel amplification system. And the POD sounds good with this amp (with some tweaking obviously) because it?s designed for amp modeling, with flat EQ etc. so I typically run the TM10 fairly clean, and the POD channel with some overdrive, maybe some effects?.for practicing or one-on-one jamming, it works out great. I?d recommend this amp to anybody.

Packed. The versatility this amp offers in such a small package at such a decent price is astounding. As if 27 permutations of Amp Model/Drive/Speaker weren't enough, you can tweak each basic sound with a Gain knob, three tones and an actual reverb tank.

Frankly, I don't understand others' complaints about the lack of a footswitch. I see the Trademark 10 as mostly a practice and home-recording amp. Neither application requires instantaneous channel switching. If you must go from, say, a clean to dirty sound on the fly, I suggest either using a good pedal or buying an amp that's made for that purpose.

And bless the good folks at Tech 21 for including a cover. Nice touch.

Most of the 27 combinations are useful. I don't play metal, so I rarely crank the Drive switch or the Boogie simulation, although that soaring Santana tone can be had using both. The Marshall setting reproduces that classic scooped-mids tone for rhythm, and at higher-gain settings, it can scorch without blowing out your eardrums. Both Marshall and Boogie clean sounds are grating and harsh, although I'm sure many players could make them sound musical.

The Fender model is where I spend most of my playing time. I play blues, rock, country and a little jazz (very little), so the warm, clean tones are what I'm after. For a little dirt, I'll throw the Drive switch in mid-position. But the modeling on this amp is so realistic, that you can drive the Fender setting to distort by digging into the strings, just as you would a tube amp. The handling and tone aren't identical to a good tube amp -- you won't get that sweet, liquid sound of tube overdrive -- but they're damned close. And for $200 and not having to deal with temperamental hot glass, I'll make that compromise again and again.

The 8-inch speaker is surprisingly excellent. It won't give you the bass of a lager speaker, naturally, but what's there sounds . The amp isn't very loud, and its headroom for clean tones is rather low. But I do much of my playing at night, after my daughter -- and frequently my wife -- are already asleep. There's a headphone out, but even the best headphones rarely equal a full-sized speaker, even a small one.

My only other gripe would be the reverb. It's pretty good, but not great. Above 11 o'clock, it's a bit flubby-sounding. Still, it's an actual spring tank, an Accutronics at that, and a hell of a lot better than the boingy digital reverbs on comparably-priced solid-state combos.

Can't say. I haven't had it long, but it seems sturdy. Besides, I don't gig anymore. My playing these days is limited to the spare room.

I've never dealt with Tech 21. The store from which I bought it, on the other hand, is tops in my book. They could have sold this amp to me as new because the previous owner didn't keep it long. The box was stll pristine, and the amp cover was still flat and pleated, never even unfolded.

When the guy returned it, he told the salesman it "didn't have the sound I was looking for," which probably means it wasn't loud enough to rattle his bedroom windows and annoy his parents. I shouldn't make fun of him, though, because I bought it for just over half the original retail price.

That said, I believe the best customer service is producing a good product from the start. This seems to be a winner.

I wish these amps had been on the market 25 years ago, when I first started playing guitar -- or even seven years ago, when I picked it up again after a long hiatus. It's much more versatile, pleasant-sounding and quieter than my first cheesy, solid-state Kustom. It's less troublesome and actually warmer-sounding than the tube Crate I played as a teenager. And it actually cost less than the buzzy solid-state DOD I bought when I started playing again.

I doubt I'll ever own a high-end Fender, Marshall, Boogie or a boutique, hand-wired beauty. Considering that I play for my own amusement these days, I couldn't justify the cost of those expensive toys. But I can get sounds that come pretty close to all those benchmark amps with this $200 Tech 21. And the sound levels won't wake my family or start a feud with my neighbors. All in all, it may be the best buy I've ever made.

Everybody before me has pretty much covered the features of this great amp. The greatest feature of this amp is its versatility. You can dial in so many amazing tones from this thing! A footswitch would've been nice, but Tech 21's packed so much into this little wonder that I can overlook this detail.

I'm mostly a bedroom (actually, computer room) musician. I wanted a small little amp for late nights when my wife and son are sleeping. I looked into the TM-10 because I read so many things about it. It seemed like the right ticket for me, as I like to tinker with sounds and whatnot. The TM-10 was everything I was looking for.

Using this amp is pretty darn easy. I checked out some Line 6 amps and they didn't seem as user friendly as the TM-10. The sample settings are a great starting point to get a taste fo the amp's capabilities. It's a blast to turn a few knobs and find new tones. The knobs are very sensitive and reponsive to the slightest turn, so be patient with them.

On top of all this, the Trademark 10 is one good-looking amp. It has a nice mix of a both vintage and modern vibe. The fit and finish on this amp is also top notch, which from what I hear, all Tech 21 products are.

I'm running an '82 G&L SC-2 thru this baby. To be exact, it's:
SC-2 > Original Dunlop Crybaby > Trademark 10

The fact that you can combine so many settings and get a plethora of completely different vibes blows my mind. For such a small box, it really can pack a wallop. I've read that the 8" speaker was specifically designed for the tonal range that this amp puts out, and it shows. It's surprisingly powerful and can handle a lot of punch.

I don't gig at all, so I never really get to crank things up to ten. Even without cranking it up, the TM-10 crunches out some real nice distortion tones. I've never owned a tube amp, for the sheer fact that I can't afford one. This amp is prolly the closest thing I'll get to a real tube sound.

I was able to get some nice clean sounds that worked for me. A good place to start finding a clean tone is to have the settings at: Tweed / Clean / UK and then all the knobs at 12 o'clock. Play around with the Low Mid and High knobs with the Reverb knob going more towards 10 o'clock and I'm sure you'll find something that works for you.

As mentioned in a previous review, there is a cool site where some folks have submitted their personal settings. It's at: http://www.cstone.net/~halouis/tm10/

Tech 21 has a pretty solid reputation when it comes to their products. I expect this amp to keep on keepin on for a long time.

I wouldn't hesitate this amp to anyone looking to get a lot of bang for their buck and like the idea of experimenting with a modelling amp. I will never afford to own a Fender, a Marshall, and a Mesa amp all at the same time, so the TM-10 lets me live as though I own them all. Plus, I got this used for $140, which is just a sick price for such a great product. I prolly got my money's worth from the first week alone!

This definitely aint an amp for tube purists, but for people who need a solid small practice amplifier and can't play at high levels, this amp would definitely be worth considering. If you especially enjoy tinkering with settings, the TM-10 is just chock full of possibilities. Try one. It'll shock you!