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.

Lots of very useful features...This is just a post to get my e-mail address at the bottom of all this. Just in case anyone has any questions about the 10 inch speeker upgrade. I clicked to send the post before I realised I forgot the address.

Better for sure with the 10 inch speeker.

In the beginning my amp was cutting out a lot, over time it seems to have gotten over it.

No idea

I'll give it a 9 simply because it is not a tube amp with (the feel.) although it feels better with the larger speeker. For some unknown reason I feel that the 5 pound magnet on the new speeker pulls the notes in quicker giving a more tube like response. It makes the reverb sound a bit deeper too which I like a lot. I also replaced the back panel with a much larger and (twice as thick) panel, screwed in from the sides, this projects more forward sound. My amp is quite a bit heavier than it was stock but I like it's more robust feel. This amp also needs to be lifted off the floor and tilted slightly back to really hear its potential. An amp stand is reccommended.

This little amp has a lot of features. It has 3 different amp, gain and speaker sttings, roughly based on 3 amp sounds (fender, marshal and MesaBoogie). It has real spring reverb, and most importantly for me, an FX loop. This is unusal in such a small amp, and was the thing that made me get one. I also like the EQ on it. As it is an active EQ (with cut and boost, instead of a passive EQ which will only cut) you can really vary your sound.
It is a really flexible amp which can produce a wide range of sounds from nearly clean (more about that later) to high gain OD.
This is, in my opinion, just a practice amp. I know it is intended for recording too, but I don't think it has a good enough sound quality for recording.

I use this amp with a USA Fender Strat and a Gibson Xplorer Pro, and a load of pedals.
I really like this amp as it is great at low volumes and, for a solid state amp, has a nice warm tone.
There are a couple of things I don't like so much. It doesn't really do clean properly. It sounds OK on with single coils but with humbuckers it just can't do clean at all, and this is on the Fender-type setting. On the Marshall and Boogie settings it wont go clean even with single coils. This is a bit anoying but for the most part I am running fuzz and distortion boxes into it anyway.
Having said that, the distortion is very nice, I like the Boogie setting with the gain all the way up! I get the feeling they designed the amp with distortion in mind, rather than clean.

Erm. Its OK. I know they have a good reputation, its just that mine is a bit flakey - sometimes it stops working, and then I turn the mid range knob a little and it crackles back to life. Also the first one I got I had to send back because the reverb unit was broken.

Never dealt with them.

This is a great little practice amp for those who need low voume, versatility and reasonably good sound quality. For the money and the convenience I don't think you can do much better - I have tried a lot of solid state practice amps and for me this is the best. I found that this was the only amp in its class with an FX loop, nice warm tone and low wattage. I tried to find a low wattage valve amp to use at home, but the ones I found that were quiet enough did not have the FX loop.
Over all I would have to give it 9. Well worth it.

2005 model. See other reviews; this is only an important piece of information: For all of you who think that this amp ist not as warm and vintage-sounding as you thought it would be, but a little cold and tight, try pure nickel wound strings like Fender 150s instead of your nickel plated steel wound strings. Here, the sound change is DRAMATIC; the amp suddenly produces all the sounds you have so far only heard on your favorite records.

You all know the features, lets move on!

I have had this little amp for a few years now and while I was very impressed with it when it was new it was not long before I lost interest in it, mostly due to the small speeker and the lack of tube feel. Well instead of throwing it away I decided to mod it a little just in the way of a 10 inch speeker, hoping to give it one last chance before selling it. It has been sitting idle for about 2 years now. My main amp is a Genz Benz El'Diablo C60 combo, I also have a bunch of amp modellers. Well,the 10 inch speeker project was completed last week and to my surprise it was a complete success! This little amp has come to life now! I will not be getting rid of it. I now deem it worthy to record with. It sounds slightly different in a good way, it also sounds bigger and the best part about it is it feels better, maybe not quite 100% like my El'Diablo but it's 95% there. The 10 inch speeker upgrade is the greatest thing for this amp! I am astounded now each time I turn it on, it' a little monster all packaged in a very small package. How did I pull this off? well, for one thing .. I didn't care what happened to the amp so it did not matter if I destroyed it, I would have thrown it out. I went to Carvin ( which is very near by ) and purchased one of their 10 inch 200 watt multi purpose speekers. (It has a 5 pound magnet) (works for both guitar and bass) this was about 60 bucks. I then busted out the rear panel on the TM10 and chucked it out. I then took the reverb unit out then I took the main head unit out. I then took the front grill off. I then traced around the new speeker (from the inside) I then hacked out the larger hole, drilled new holes, purchased new washers, screws and bolts and put the new speeker in. The new speeker is installed from inside the cabinet as opposed to the old speeker being installed from the outside. I then had to cut a large U shape out of the actuel head unit to fit around the larger speeker at the top. I then had to get 2 clip extensions for the speeker wires (the speeker terminals on the old speeker at the top but on the new speeker they are on the bottom.) I put the grill back on plugged the cord back in, turned it on and BAM! Any pro would love to have this amp now for playing, practice or recording.

It's a 10 ( with the speeker mod ) If anyone has any detailed questions about doing this I'm posting my E mail address.

New (2005? 2004?) Trademark 10. This amp has just been discontinued by Tech 21, so if you want one, pick it up soon. Versatile little "1-channel" amp. Three "model"-type control switches, each with 3 positions. First pick amp "tweed, british, california" = fender, marshall, mesa. Then pick style: clean, high gain, or extra hot. Finally, speaker: US, UK, or flat (no speaker modelling). Essential the amp version of the Tech 21 GT2 SansAmp pedal. Also has drive, level, reverb controls and 3-band EQ. Real accutronics spring 'verb, 10" speaker, SansAmp XLR line-out with ground-lift. FX loop. Tonnes of options here.

This amp is certainly aiming to be the "jack-of-all-trades" amp. It can be geared for basically any sound, dial in verb, can run line out for recording or PA live use. This is a serious line out, not one of those silly little "afterthought" line-outs that so many amps coem with these days. This amp sounds great for what it is. It's essentially a GREAT little practice/bar gig/demo recording amp. Nail the gist of any tone easily, but not quite the tone itself, of course. Jam with it, use it to record song ideas real quick, etc. If you sit down with it, can get some pretty good sounds, especially leads. Biggest problem is actually response. Tech 21 gear seems to get the "sounds" pretty well on the tube amp thing, but nothing except the real deal will yield that tube response . . . Sounds like a tube amp, but doensn't really feel like one . . . I'll give it a '9' for sound, taken in the context of how I use it. If "feel/response" were a category, it would get 6-7.

No tubes! Looks pretty tough, company has good rep. Light! Seems like a cool little box. Carried it around in a backpack a few times, which most amps would not be exceptionally happy with. Never even heard of one failing either.

Talked to them before about a pedal, and about the power transformers on their Trademark 60. Good people to deal with. Fast responses, and very knowledgable.

This amp is a great little box. It doesn't have the response of tube amps, but not a single one of the modellers/solid-state amps out there that I've played has it either. It does however, have a very diverse and usable bunch of disinctly tube-like sounds. Easy to dial-in. Durable, light, compact. IMHO, this is the amp gigging musicians use when they're not out with their big tube amps. In comparison, little tube amps are fairly pricey, and still need to be relatively loud quite often to sound good. No fragile tubes, and can nail the high-gain sounds that the little tube-tykes often can't. Way easier to use than most of the Line 6, Digitech, etc stuff. Just try it and see what you think for yourself.

Okay, for features I gotta give it a "10". Why? Well, this is only a 10-watt practice amp, but it's got three amp types, three speaker types and three gain types to choose from. Plus reverb. Plus FX-loop, plus speaker-out. What more could you wish for?

Here's the deal. I bought this thing about a year ago and I went through a honeymoon period. Honeymoon's over and... Yes, it sounds very convincing... For a practice amp. And that's just what it is.

Except... I've gone back to using a good clean amp with a good OD in front of it.

But as for the TM10:
Fender sounds: OK, not fantastic. Clean is just that: OK. Overdriven Fender sounds are OK, but in the long run still not very convincing. I get a MUCH nicer Fender tone through my Laney TF200 with a FullDrive2 in front of it.
Marshall sounds (played with an SG): Better than the Fender sounds AND the bass-notes have quite a thump for palm-muting. However... If I plug my SG into a Marshall Guv'nor into a clean Laney TF200, again it's MUCH nicer. Much more of that typical Marshall rock "bark".
Mesa/Boogie sounds: quite OK for high-gain Santana-type leads, but a bit too "dark" for metal.

So here's a summary:
Plus points: versatile, quite "punchy" for such a small speaker, user-friendly, good build quality.
Minus: no real clean sounds. Plus overall the sounds have sort of a nasally mid-range you can't seem to get rid of.

Overall: 7/10

I find that in all cases it has this nasally mid-range that you just can't get rid of.

Looks well built. No problems so far.

Been playing for about 16 years. Had a variety of Fender amps and Laneys.

If this was stolen, I'd buy something else.

Purely as a recording tool, I like my V-amp2 better. As an amp... Maybe it would sound better through a bigger speaker or maybe a 4x12 cabinet.

I've gone back to my Laney as my main amp. I've come to really love its clean sound and it's also very open to receiving pedals. Depending on what I'm playing I'll put a Fulldrive2, Marshall Guv'nor or an MXR Dist+ in front of it. Much more satisfying sounds to my ears.

See the excellent Tech 21 website for stats and list of features. You've got 9 choices between amp, mod, and speaker. Line up any 3, and fiddle with the drive, level, tone, and reverb. It's not infinite, but there's a lot of tones here. This is, in my opinion, a recording amp in the truest sense. It is designed for studio use, either miked or direct, and as such, it's a terriffic tool. The headphone jack, the ground lift, he speaker disconnect, all are features that any home studio amp should have. Add the SansAmp DI built-in , and you've got a lot happening here. For live work, I would choose something different and put stompboxes in front of it. Buy this for its intended purpose, and I think you'll be happy. Think about your recording experiences: usually, you mic a nice tube amp and run it into the board, right? Then what? Then you compress it, add delay, pan it, maybe put it through a limiter, flange, whatever...you essentially take that tube tone and tweak it either digitally or analogally (?) until it fits the song. So in a way, this amp sort of cuts to the chase. Oh, and you can pretty much keep the overdrive/distortion pedals in the closet from now on.

Seems to have a lot on the menu, although chimey, bell-like, tons-of-headroom-Fender isn't really represented here. Again, for recording purposes, I usually go direct for those sorts of clean tones anyway, maybe adding some compression for that "sparkle." So this amp does almost everything but that. I love the Billy F. Gibbons sound of those pinched harmonic whistles that this thing can do all day (and at whisper-quiet levels, I might add). It can do a decent weeping violin thing if you're into it, but mostly I like the combo of California/HiGain/UK for general-purpose rock. Adjust the drive and it cleans up a bit for blues; or better yet, use your guitar's volume pot. I play a US Tele with Custom Shop Texas Specials, and so metal isn't really an option for me anyway. So unless you're hell-bent on either extreme (crystal clean or scooped metal mayhem), I'd be very surprised if you didn't find several sounds that will make you happy. And don't just listen to this thing in isolation, either -- track it with the full complement of instruments and marvel at how well the guitar settles into the mix. That's what it does -- it records.

US made! Noo Yawk City! These guys have a reputation that most other companies would kill to have. Too new for me to comment here, but I'm not worried in the least.

See above.

Again, I bought this for one thing: recording. I had a very nice borderline boutique amp that was also billed as a recording amp. I won't tell you it's name, but it was 5 watts, class A, all-tube, hand wired, point-to-point, made by a huge and famous guitar manufacturer once based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It sounded awesome, as long as you cranked it. Problem was, it was too G.D. loud for in-home use at that level, and thus difficult to record. It had one channel. Hell, it had one knob! So it really did one thing - and it did it very well - but with no direct out and no headphone jack, you HAD to hang a mic in front of it, and to get "that" tone, you had to scorch the walls with volume. So, blasphemous as this may be, I went to my local dealer and sold them the Gibson GA5 (oops!) and picked up the Trademark 10. "Fool!" you're howling. "How could you DO that?" Well, my friends, if what you're using isn't doing the job you need it to do, get something that will. Life is too short to spend hours fiddling with knobs. mics, and preamps trying to get a sound. At one point I put the tube amp in the closet with a bunch of blankets, trying to get that crunchy break-up sound without waking my kids, placing a mic inside the closet with it ---how ridiculous is that?? The Tech 21 gives me the tones I want, at ANY volume; for late night tracking, it does it with NO volume, thanks to the XLR DI. No tubes? I defy you to listen to someone play this amp and determine if it has any little glowing glass bottles inside (no peeking, now). And once this gets in the mix, no one but you is going to know you used transistors. And by all means, compare this side by side to whatever Line 6 is offering -- this is, by far, a steal. Oh, and did I mention that this is a recording amp?

This is for a 2003 model, absolutely packed with features. This is definitely the main selling point of this amp, the ability to match different amps to different cabs all at the flick of a switch. This is a solid-state affair, with an apparent tube-like feel.

I play rock'n'roll with a '94 Fernandes Telecopy with stock pickups. I'm basically looking for a bluesy Fender crunch suitable for 60s soul and rock'n'roll and a nice overdrive bite for Ramones/Flamin' Groovies-type music.

I was expecting exactly what almost every single review up here says: "WOW!! I was BLOWN AWAY by the tube tone!!"

Nope. Though this amp is great for a beginner, it still doesn't have a proper tube feel. The sound is intermittently passable, but ultimately doesn't cut it. Why would someone spend $250 on this thing at Sam Ash when you can get an excellent small tube amp like a Fender Champ for $50 more on eBay? It's a bit of a shame that manufacturers are concentrating more and more on tons of features instead of focusing on getting one thing (tone) right. However, this thing still blows away any of that Line 6 garbage.

All in all, a great amp for a beginner, but once you actually play out of a good tube amp, you'll wonder how you could have regarded this thing so highly.

Solid as a tank. I've dropped this thing pretty hard to no ill effect.

Though I'm not nuts about the sounds out of it, I have to admit that the company is the business. Their website is top notch and I'm sure I'd have no problem getting in touch with them.

Overall, a passable practice amp, very good looking and reliable but I don't think it quite nails the tones I'mlooking for. If you want tube sounds, buy a tube amp.

Modeling amp that has a warm analog -tube sound. Three amp settings: Cali (Mesa Boogie), Britsh, and Tweed (Fender). Three gain settings: Clean, High Gain, and Hot. Three Speaker settings: US, UK and Flat. Low, Mid and High equalizer, reverb and level. "Solid state with a tube feel". I mainly use this amp at home, I'm a new guitar player and it's plenty loud to rattle the windows.

I'm using it with a MIM Strat w/ stock single coils. I'm learning to play blues and this amp allows me to get many blues sounds and a little heavier stuff to miss it up a bit. Thsi amp will play down right sopt on SRV and by adjusting a few switches you can get some high distortion rock sounds to mellow jazz and ok clean stuff to. I tested and tryed many "modeling" effects amps before ending up with this one. The all seemed to have a flat digital sound. I think the analog circuitry helps bring it closer to a tube sound.

All I know so far the reverb tank was broken when I got it. I bought it off ebay and it was 2 years old. Other than that it seems to be in graet shape considering it was sshipped across the US a few times.

I emailed Tech21 about the reverb not working and they told me how to diagnose it.(unplug the red RCA cable leadng into the tank and turn the reverb and level up, touch the end and if it hums then the tanks is bad, if no hum it's a circuit board problem). They told me to call and order a new tank ($18.50+$6shipping). This was all in a matter of two days. great customer service!

I haven't been playing long, but I've had friends that have been playing for years plug in, and they were suprised and the tube sound this little amp puts out.

If stolen or lost, I'd probably by another, unless insurance gives me enough for a Fender Blues Jr. and about four pedals.

As others put below.
More features than any one-channel amp in its' class I've ever seen.

Used with Fender HSS Strats.

Incredible variety. Does good Fender, Marshall sounds, Boogie is good enough for me- I do play some Santana style lead, and it covers the base well.
The amp is worth the price for the Fender tone alone. Cheaper and more versatile than a valve Fender, and less flabby on extreme settings.
No harshness, very responsive, the warmest overall tone I ever heard from a solid state amp; in fact it beats some valve amps.
This is the only small amp I will now use!
Admittedly there's no channel-switching so you have to set up one good sound for any particular song if you're using it live, and control the dynamics/ gain with your guitar controls. Luckily, this is what I do anyway, it's my style of playing and comes with experience.
I disagree that it doesn't do clean, though it may break up slightly early for some people's taste. Not mine. I can get clean, and I actually like the harmonic overtones in the clean [tweed clean] sound.
I recently used it at its' first few gigs; sometimes miked up, sometimes DI into PA.
Other pro and semi-pro players in the audience were astonished at the quality of tone I had. I had to hand it to the amp.
Note this amp really does respond, and it sounds at its' best with a high quality guitar.
At it's size and price, in it's range, there's nothing to touch it if you want a really accomplished all-rounder.
Be aware that a large part of any guitarists' tone is in the fingers. This amp accentuates that, just like a valve amp;- responds to how hard and it what way you pick the strings. You can't just slate an amp if you're simply a bad or rough player, because your argument is therefore nullified, and you won't sound professional through anything.
You can find your sound with this amp by experimenting with the controls. Set it right [and play right!] and you can have any-era Clapton, any Knopfler, good general Santana tone, clean country, or edge-of-breakup blues, and beyond. Works for heavier tones and scooped-mid too. The only reason some may not like it's tone per se, is if they're looking for some ultra-modern, very specialised tone, such as maybe a particular thrash/death tone that some current metal or industrial bands have. That said, it does do a nice Metallica impression, with the right guitar and accessories; but I'm not a thrash player.

No problems as yet; I dunno if there'll be in future, but being solid-state I hope there won't be.

Not contacted them as yet, as US warranties are more tricky to deal with in the UK, but I might email them sometime.
Heard the're approachable and good to deal with.

In it's range, absolutely nothing to touch it.
I've played 20 years.
I love its' general sound, it's stunning.
It would benefit from two channels live, but that would increase its' price, size and complexity. Anyway, it's mostly used by pros in the studio; I happen to use it live too, because of it's portability, tone and DI ability. I happen to be a straight-into-the-amp lead guitarist, relying on my improvisational skills a lot, and no frills like effects, etc.
Just a GOOD guitar, a GOOD solid, tubey tone from this amp, and good playing feel, will make you sound as pro as you like.

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!

This amp has a tech 21 sans amp type of pre-amp built in. 8 inch speaker. XLR line out. spring reverb. The amp looks really cool- kind of a vintage look.

I had this amp for about three years. I just sold it and bought a Gibson GA-5 Les Paul Junior amp which I like much better. When I first got the Trademark 10 i liked it but over time I used it less and less because I liked the sound less and less. The sound seemed to be dark - I always had to crank the treble up all the way and still had to add treble from a pedal effect. I was able to get a lot of low end bass - I was surprised that a small amp could have that much low end. But eventually i thought the sound was too "boxy". I never liked any of the overdrive sounds. The reverb isn't that good- it sounds bad if you turn it up past half way. I like a clean/overdriven sound. I'm not into a heavy metal sound.

seemd very reliable.

It sounded better after I bought a Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive. But still I grew tired of the amp's sound.

Solidstate amp. 1x8' speaker. Usual bass/mid/treble/gain/volume + reverb. Sliding knobs to choose amp type (tweed, british, california), distortion (clean, high gain, hot) and speaker type (flat, brit, US). On the back panel: speaker out, FX send/return, grounds lift. Rated at 10W of power.

All in all pretty versatile for what is really a practice amp. I took away one point for it being a single channel. But then you can't win them all!

I tell ya... It definitely takes some tweaking as the controls are ULTRA-sensitive. The first time I plugged it in, I was not impressed. Especially not by the sample settings...

After some tweaking I found some very useable sounds. I use a Kramer for my hardrocking sounds and found that it sounds best on British, hot, US. With the gain on about 6.5 and slightly more treble than bass, with the mids at about 2. Got a Boss DD5 delay in the FX loop for the solos and it sounds really good. Loads of harmonics. Fairly good sustain, but not as good as my Laney TF on OD2.

I use a couple of Yamahas for my blues/jazz sounds and the tweed settings are very good. SRV is in there and with a tele you can get very nice country sounds.

My only beef is that it does lack some real "clean" sounds. Maybe I have some more tweakin' to do before I find those, but I haven't found them yet. For straight ahead jazz I haven't found my sound yet.

Also, the Brit and Cafif. settings are a lot louder than the tweed with a moderate gain.

The Californian settings tend to be more noisy too, even with the gain only half way up.

Maybe I'll find more sounds as I go along, but for now I'll leave it at an 8/10.

Only had it for a couple of days. Looks pretty sturdy though. I guess you could gig with it, especially with an extra speaker hooked up to it.

Never needed to contact them so far.

PROS: Size & weight! Solidstate, so low maintainance. Fairly loud for 10W, so with a speaker extension it's giggable. Professional sound at bedrooms levels (and above - the high gain Brit sounds with the volume halfway up is louder than most neighbours would tolerate if you live in an apartment). It sounds like a big boy, despite it's size.

CONS: No really useable "clean" (and I mean pristine clean for jazz) sounds to speak of. No channel switching. A tad expensive. Behringer offers a similar design without reverb for only 99$ and supposedly the sounds are just as nice.

I'm a mostly a bedroom player who plays the occasional small gig so I'm never gonna buy an actual stack. To me this does the trick: it's extremely small, but it sounds very big and all at earpleasing (not earbleeding) volume levels.

I do wish it had a true clean sound, but I'll probably A/B it with my Laney TF. That way I have a true clean + I can switch channels by switching amps.

All in all a good product well worth looking into. For those who can't afford the price, check out the Behringer.

Vera alta qualita di produzione USA....
persino le viti sono eccellenti,l'ampli ariva con tanto di copertina antipolvere.
Singolo canale ampli analogico a modelli che prende spunto dai tre amplificatori di riferimento ....Fender twin..Marshall...Mesa dual recto.
Ovviamente l'ampli ricalca le caratteristiche dei tre ampli citati
non e che li imita alla perfezione e assolutamente impossibile,ma questo,a meno che non hai cominciato a suonare adesso ,gia dovresti saperlo.
Dunque dicevamo modeling dei sopracitati ampli ,regolazione di gain
e imitazione di microfonatura,ottimo riverbero a molle,controlli attivi,uscita cuffie,uscita bilanciata per recording...un vero gioiello in miniatura altro che Pod....veramente famntastico

Il suono che dire non ha la botta dinamica di un buon valvolare ma sicuramente suona meglio di molti "cattivi" valvolari la risposta e buona e i suoni sono molto belli e abbastanza fedeli ai modelli che la tech 21 ha cercato di riproporre.
CLEAN: Molto buono ma mi aspettavo meglio,anche usando una Fender showmaster custom shop lo sparkle alla Knopfler e difficile da ottenere anche se cmq si tirano fuori un bel po di suoni belli
GLI DIAMO UN BELL' 8

SRV: Fantastico...molto somigliante bello e divertentissimo da usare

VOTO 10

AC/DC: WOW di bene in meglio vai con hell's bells a manetta
VOTO 10

HI GAIN BRITISH: Bellisssimo anche questo
VOTO 10

DUAL RECTO: Qui la cosa si fa dura..suona bene anche se dire che suona come una Mesa e un po sacrilego..resta cominque buona l'approssimazione.
VOTO 8
Il suono nel complesso ha una buona risposta dinamica, non suona per niente digitale (tutto analogico remember) e c'e una buona presenza di armoniche pari,il che rende il suono abbastanza valvoloso.
Tutto sommato un gran bell'ampli.

BHHOOOOOO.!!!!!

Come sopra...

Suono da parecchi anni ..di caccavelle digitali ne ho provate tante
puntualmente svendute,in qualche caso regalate.
Ma questo piccolo F.d.P. suona veramente in modo grandioso,non credo che me ne separero piu, e ottimo sia per esercitarsi (suono distortissimo a bassissimi volumi)che per registrare,bellissimo in cuffia ed in diretta nel mixer,abbinandoci un gt2 ci si puo suonare in piccoli locali utilizzandolo con tastiere e batterie elettroniche,oppure utilizzarlo in sala prove.
Un apparecchio decisamente ben riuscito,il fatto stesso che e introvabile usato la dice tutta sulla validita di questo giocattolo.
Sicuramente ogni chitarrista dovrebbe averne uno

Same as noted below. Basically this amp has everything that you could ask for in a practice amp and more. I find the headphone jack very useful for late-night practice. I rarely use the effects loop, but it's nice to know that it is there if you need it. This amp also has a very classy look to it.

I mainly play blues and classic rock. I play an American Tele and Strat. I find that both of these guitars sound great through this amp, especially the tele, which can produce a bit too much treble through some solid-state amps.

This little amp produces a wide range of sounds, everything from a mesa/high-gain sound to a creamy blues tone. I'm also really impressed with the quality reverb that this amp offers. It's comparable with my Fender amp and better than my Marshall tube amp! I find that the best thing to do is to start with the sample settings that come with the amp and go from there. The only sound that I don't like is the "flat" speaker setting which, as the name suggests, makes the amp sound very dull. Aside from that, it doesn't take much tweeking with the other settings to find a nice tone.

I've owned this amp for a year now and I've never had a problem with it. It's very well built and looks like it could survive a pretty good beating.

I've never had to deal with the company.

I've been playing for about 15 years now. I played in a few bands when I was younger, but mainly just play for fun now. I currently own an American Tele, American Strat, Fender Blues Deville, Marshall DSL401 and an assortment of various effects pedals, which I rarely ever use. If this amp were stolen I'd definitely buy another.

I've owned a lot of small, solid state amps over the years (marshall, fender, peavy, etc...) and this is the best one by far. It's a bit more expensive than similar amps, but it's worth the money. I can't think of anything else this amp could use, except a 25 watt big brother.

The simulations are just great. Everything abut them and other features have been commented before.

I play with a Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus. You can get any sound you look for. From Clapton to Gary Moore or Van Halen. The sample settings manufacturer gives are quite bad but if you spend some time you get great sounds. I've got the nicest vintage OD pedals you can imagine (Tubescreamer, british Guv'nor, Japanese SD-1...) but I do not use them with this amp because it sounds great alone. The 3 spring reverb is fantastic too.

I use a '66 Fender Bassman for gigs and I'll continue with it mainly because the Tech21 has no pedalboard to control the OD, reverb etc....

I contacted them to ask for a recommendation regarding the speakers to be used in a external cab and I received their reply in less than 24hours. Try this with fender, Gibson, Ibanez.... NO WAY!!!

20 years playing the guitar and I love this little amp. I'll probably sell my little Fender Tweed because probably I won't use it anymore. If it were stolen, broken or lost I would definitely buy another one.

The features have been discussed many times but it is a 10 watt combo amp with active eq and several amp models. Effects loop, XLR out and headphone jack. On a scale of being very limited to very versatile it is very versatile. Although I play mostly jazz so I don't use it's power all the time.

The simulations all seem very good. There are combinations that I don't like but they can be toned down. I play a semi-hollow dual humbucker jazz box and a solid body mahogany H/H electric for rocking or funking out.

I have owned the amp for almost a year now with no problems at all. I don't think I would gig with it but not for reliability issues but because it is more of a recording and practicing amp. It could probably handle it though (especially run through the mixer at the venue).

Haven't needed it but the manual is very good

Unlike many reviewers (apparently) I've never actually owned a Mesa Boogie or any other "good" gear so I guess I don't have great credentials. My only other amp was a Crate VC3112 (which I chose over a Fender Blues Jr. and Peavey). This little guy is a far better amp then that for what I do. If it were stolen I'd buy another.

this is a good practice/home amp and thats it really...with a DI to the PA it really doesn't cut it unless you want a dirtier sound all the time-also it will get kind of ugly and peaky if you push it at all(which is not so unusual with SS circiuts but the sansamp thing should be better)...if you are messing around at home it's a fine little amp but don't expect it to handle anything more-the Digitech RP-10 floor board i had sounded much MUCH better thru the PA than the Trademark 10 does.

maybe the bigger versions of this amp are better for gigs or anything other than your basement/bedroom-for a practice amp it is probably a good 7 or 8 but the whole DI thing is not very effective. someone else may love this but i wasn't for me.

See below for features. Lots of sounds for a small amp. I use it mainly clean with the different speaker types and no distortion.

While there is a wide variety of choices, the basic sound of the amp is just passable. A clean sound with an archtop is very nice. However add a semi-hollow and the sound is thin, even after adjusting the eq, spaeker type, etc. You cannot get a full size speaker (12") sound out of this amp. I've heard other 8" speakers with much fuller sound.

This is where the amp really stinks. 1 month after the warranty expired the amp started "cutting out". The volume would disappear as if there was a loose connection. I contacted the manufacturer who said this is a common problem and usually occurs when the contacts on the effects loop get "dirty". I bought a contact cleaner and tried to clean the connections by "jamming a 1/4" plug in and out" as instructed by the customer service rep. This didn't work and I had to send in the amp to Tech 21. BTW- a friend has this amp and is having the same problem.

As I said i had to mail the amp to Tech 21. They had it for 2 weeks without a word. I finally contacted them and they called and said the amp was ready. They only charged $25. They said a number of connections were resoldered and cleaned.

I bougt this amp to have a high quality small unit for playing at home and at friends. I could have bought many other small 8" amps for much less money but I thought this one was better quality. It's not worth the money.

When I have band practice, I bring my pedal board with all the efx. This makes practice the same as live. Couldn't do that without an efx loop. This amp is truley geared for professionals in mind, with a small, but effective package!!! It coud use a channel switcher in their next issue, but I use a single channel Marshall JCM800 head anyway, so no bother there.

This is a practice amp??? Jeez. Just go play one. There is nothing that even comes close!!!! This catagory needs to go to 11, but 10 will have to do.

Havn't owned it long enough.

Outstanding. Second to none!!

I have owned every product from Line 6 and like them. This is just better. Here is my TUBE opinion vs. this solid state (or my JCM800 vs. Trademark). Can it compare to my tube amp? As far as "tone" goes, the trademark sounds unreal. But where a non tube amp just doesn't hang is the reactiveness or responsiveness. I can get my head to sound almost clean by picking quieter, then a raging distortion if I thump on it. The range is just unreal!! This translates to you as a guitar player having a "oneness" with your amp. You can control it in a way that "channel switchers" will never understand. The tubes become an extension of your playing. Solid state by it's nature just doesn't react like this. It is transistor and metal. Tubes practically have a pulse. Now that said, the Tradmark 10 is by far the most unreal little amp I have ever played and don't intend on selling it. Kudos Tech 21!!!!!

I perhaps shouldn't write this as I only tried it out in a shop, but I had a good go with it and was amazed.
This is a small solid state amp with - I think - an 8-inch speaker and the additional electronics equivalent to a sansamp GT2.
For a practice amp it's extremely well appointed, but I was told it has a balanced XLR out for putting straight into a PA. It therefore has the bizarre property of being good for low volume practicing or auditorium gigs, but isn't powerful for smaller gigs without a PA.

I sat by a group a large super-well appointed combos, a big Vetta and suchlike, to try out this little amp and I couldn't believe the sounds I was making was all coming from the Trademark 10.
I didn't buy it because I'd just bought a sansamp GT2, which is most of what's in the Trademark 10, but I may buy it yet.
The sounds were as close classy and big as one could ever hope for from a small amp. At 10 watts I doubt it would carry over drums or saxophones, but it would do well for rocking up an acoustic session and would be excellent for practising any style.
The switches emulate clean, driven and very driven sounds from fender, marshall and boogie amps, with three different miking styles. It has active boost/cut controls for bass and high, a level knob, and a gain control for overdrive. I found the fender clean sounds very warm and full and the hi-gain sounds were astonishing for the amp's size.

don't know

Don't know

I've been playing for a quarter of a century.
I have a small Boogie Caliber, a Fender HR Deluxe, a Sundown Artist and a Laney LC 15. I use Variaxe, music man, a Ventura jazzer and an old oriental epiphone shallow body.
I didn't buy the Trademark 10 since I've already got a sansamp gt2, which instead of being a small amp is pocketable and should do me for the PA, while I can pop it in front of any practice amp to get the same versatility at home. I am, however, still thinking of getting one, and duplicating my purchase, because it's that in-betweeny lightweight size, smaller than my laney, but a bigger sound than any small tranny amp I've come across.
I think anyone looking for portability or versatility at home should make sure they try this one out.

For a practice amp, it has a lot. I don't like to lug the big equipment around to practice, so if it had an efx loop and foot switch, I could use my pedalboard with it. Also, I would seriously consider taking this to small gigs. But as it stands, features are fine.

Simply blown away that I was on a practice amp. I had the Peavey Envoy (nice practice amp actually), the mediocre Marshall 15 watter, and Roland's "similar" Cube amp. These arn't even in the same league folks!! The Tech 21 is a legitimate rocker, the others are considered true practice amps in my book, this one is more than just that. I liked the British/Drive/British setting the best (Marshall). EASY 10

I'm sure it's ok with it being solid state.

I've called and they simply are out to serve us, their customers!!!

Buy it and don't look back. It is simply the BEST practice amp available. The looks are very botiquish and cool. The on-board EQ is ultra sensitive to touch and opens up a lot of possibilities that other amps don't. It's a little pricey, but you won't sell it and loose money like you did on the other inferior practice amp. So pony up!! I don't work for them, I just love this amp and it deserves all the glory.

2003 Model. You know the features. 10 watts but enough to practice with a dynamic drummer who can play at volumes that don't require ear plugs. I wish it had 2 channels with independent controls and a footswitch so I could use it at clubs (seriously!).

Tried and tested with a 2003 Les Paul Standard and a Fender HMX, mostly using the bridge pickup. Pretty quiet amp, sweet warm distortion. I REALLY LIKED this amp. It has a plethora of nice tones and sounds. After testing it for a couple hours, however, I found ONE BUG. When I played single note melodies distorted up around the 12th fret on the B string, there was clanky-clanky sound that it generated with a pitch about an octave below what i was playing. Tried both guitars and the effect was the same. This was *very* disappointing because I was basically satisfied with everything else this amp had to offer. Sure the clean wasnt as bright and chimey as a Blackface, but I could potentially play this thing for days and days and have myself a good time.

I knew that it would bother me in the longer run, because every time id hear it I would notice it. SO, I called the manufacturer and talked with them. They were pretty helpful and said theyve never heard of the problem. They were willing to pay for shipping so i could ship it to them and they could check it out, but I bought it from musician's friend (MF) and i didnt want to nullify my warranty. Instead, I returned it to MF and they sent me another.

The second one had a lower serial number and I think it might have actually been a return but i dunno. Oddly, I found a box cutter in the amp's box, which was shipped stand-alone, as opposed to the first which came inside a larger box with popcorn package stuffing in it. I thought this was odd but was eager to check it out.

Of course, first thing I did was check out the distorted single note bug, and it was my pleasure to find that it didnt have this problem. Unfortunately, I found something else. This one had a different bug: when playing a 3rd interval on the B and G strings distorted (major or minor, but major was more pronounced) a rattling clickity-clickty slash grumbly sound was made (again both guitars, same phenomenon). This sound was much lower in pitch, maybe two octaves or so. I was *very* disappointed to say the least. This bug however was more minor than the other, since I more often play single note melodies distorted than I do 3rd intervals.

SO, I reluctantly gave up, returned the unit and haven't looked back. I'm writing the review 1 year later, because I've re-begun my search for THE amp, and I feel I owe it to the harmony-central reviewers to give my opinion/experience on this product.

Don't get me wrong, this amp is sweeeeeeet. All kinds of cool sounds and so many usable distortions. Because the 2 bugs I found were different and what not, I tend to think the problems were the result of mishandling during shipment. Based on this, my opinion is that the amp is a tad delicate. It's solid state and i bet that the PCB is relatively thin. Since this amp is basically a SansAmp pedal with a speaker and solid state amp, it might be better to just get the pedal. I haven't checked it out, but i sure will once I find THE amp. Already checked out a Bogner Shiva, THD UniValve, Mesa Boogie F30, BadCat 30R and a Fender VibroVerb Custom. Don't know what I'll be getting just yet, since price is not an issue and Im looking for the amp i will have for the next 20-30 years.

I spoke with customer support and as soon as I mentioned playing a 3rd interval, they transferred me to a technician. The guy was really cool and offered to pay for shipping and all that. I declined, but they were really very friendly. If i ever go to New York city, you better bet that I'm going over to Tech21 to take my pick from the lot!

Been playing for 15 years. Got a 2003 LP STD, Fender HMX, '63 Martin classical. I'm a minimalist, so I don't have lots of extra stuff. At the moment, the only amp i own is the first one I bought when I was 13, a 10W Boss piece of ass. Can't wait to find my dream amp.

I'd definitely buy this one again if I saw it in a store where I could test it out. If I didn't find any bugs with it, like the aforementioned ones, there'd be NO QUESTION!! It's a really cool amp, and I'd love to have one. Fantastic value! No doubt! Just can't stand to find a problem with it because it will eat at my everytime i play it. Like having a scab that you can't help pickin at. Oh well... Anyone experienced these probs?

If you have any recommendations, let me know! I'm in search of THE amp. Price is NOT AN ISSUE. Been looking at some boutique amps, but basically want a super bad ass amp for my LP: 1x12, tube, 2 channels, w/footswitch and independent reverb controls less than 30 watts. The best fit I've found is a Mesa Boogie F30 but I dunno if it's just right just yet.

Already mentioned bellow. No Question about it.

Best ever built Practice amp, and far more.
Iam a hardcore Rock Metalhead. Been playing guitar since.... dont ask maybe 1984. I have legions of gutars. Yeahh my intruments are old ones. Fenix, Yamaha, Washburn Wings series Squiers, I love Japanese guitars of 80's. And certainly have an EBMM Axis. All the Instruments are Dimarzio Equipped.
This little amp as good as it is. Mr Anonymus said, that there is no clean. Then I say buy a Guitar! With my neckthru swamp ash maple top guitar, with my Parallel Bluesbucker pu, and parallel Megadrive I able to reach nearly acousic sound. Dinamic is Incredible! Yes it is 10 watt only.
I use it as a practice amp, and as a preamp. In our studio I use it with Peavey 50/50 pewer, and a 412 Marshall stack. Sounds fantastic.
I used a Mesa single recto solohead before. I loved it as well, but this little thing with peavey poweramp is however the devil itself, and more versatile. Has a couple of useful sounds. If someone buy one has to tweek days to find the sounds.

Never broke down!

see above

I bought this via the UK eBay site about a year ago so not sure of the exact age. It's a 1x8" combo with reverb, drive, volume, and ACTIVE bass, mid, treble. There are switchable options for amp type, speaker response type and drive type eg:

Amp: Tweed, British, American
Drive: Clean, Drive, Hot
Speaker: Flat, British, American

Insert Tweed=Fender, British=Marshall, American=Boogie and you won't go far wrong.

The common observation is that the clean option is vastly reduced in volume compared to the other 2 and that it is never pristine sparlky clean. I don't feel this is a problem as it is not designed to be a live-use switchable sounds type of amp.

The amp comes with a booklet of suggested settings which are excellent - particularly the ACDC type settings and flip to American/Hot and it's pure Carlos. There is also a (non Tech 21) website where users list their favourite settings and these are a good starting point to see just how verstaile this amp is.

My amp recently developed a fault - the reverb packed in. apart from that it's a solid state device and is very robust

I e-mailed Tech 21 when the reverb gave up the ghost and they replied the next day with detailed instructions regarding how to diagnose where the fault is - (it turns out my reverb tank is dead)

The response was swift and detailed and it's my best experience of dealing with any manufacturer.

In detailing the above I have completely failed to express how much I love this little amp - the sound is transparent enough for the individual voice of each guitar to come trough yet the inherrent quality of all the tones is excellent. The recent problem with the reverb is a shame but I would recommend anyone to try one of these little fellas if they are in the market for a small amp.

I need to respond to "Jake," who took issue with my review. He says that I am probably not sure about anything. I agree. However, I "know my models." My review's purpose was to point out to those who are looking for real versatility in regard to ALL tones, one needs to look beyond the many reviews here. This amp, as I tried to say (though I might not have been successful at doing so) is packed with features, is great at emulating the entire gamut of overdriven to double-rectified tones, but if one is looking for that AND an abiity to play clean, it's NOT GOING TO HAPPEN with the Tech 21 TM10. There is no way to ever get one note out of this thing that doesn't have at least mildly overdriven harmonics added. That might be a good thing for many, but know that what the masses might think about sweet tones might not be what you consider sweet tones. They think they're right because of their number, but your idea about tone is distinctively yours.

Anyone who loves the full gamut of distorted tones will love this amp (and so will the neighbors), but couldn't there have been one setting that would have been truly clean, to which all of the other wizardry could be added by degree?

2003 Trademark 10 combo. This is a versatle little monster for any style of music. It has enough features to cover any base you need. As a 20+ year player and teacher, I now teach at the college level, I instuct a R&B type college band and plugged into a 4x12 cab it cut through the mix just find with out the xlr output.

I play humbucker guitars playing rock, jazz, r&b, funk,and anything else that get my fancy for the week.It is very quiet even turned up in our rehearsal hall, and with my rhythm section you have to be cranked enough to get throught the mix,and dont forget the horns. this amp makes the perfect sound for me.Tones I have been looking for and only seem to find in large, loud amps this machine will do it for me.The clean channel is that good dirty clean when you roll back the guitar and chunk a funky rythm.

Hope it last forever.

Caled the company before i PUCHASED.Super nice. we talked about a hour.

I have been playing over 20 years and as happy as a little school girl with it.and a 14 lbs it will be easy to get from gig to gig, yes it is loud enough to gig with if you use an extentionspeaker.it ssounds great,I would buy another one if this one wasnt so easy to luge around.

Here's a quote below and then the reason I pointed this out:

"Here's the deal--and I know I am the odd man out, here, but I'll give it to you straight. I have bought and sold three of these."
"... but I keep selling these because this amp does not do clean--at all. But if you want to play clean--even on occasion--forget it."

Dude, if you bought/sold this 3 times you are obviously not sure of anything. You are probably A/Bing modern clean fender amps to the TWEED which has a raspy-biting sound and isn't 100% clean period! Learn your amp models and sounds before complaining about the sounds. This amp accurately mimics the amp models it has.

This amp has features galore. It could be considered a miracle, in a way. Certainly, I can see guitarists back in the 70s fantasizing about something like this, never thinking that it could ever really be. For features, it probaly deserves a "10," but the pull-down menu here has the "Versatile" next to it, and this amp is versatile to a great degree--but to a "10"? No. Features =10 Versatility = 8 or less

Here's the deal--and I know I am the odd man out, here, but I'll give it to you straight. I have bought and sold three of these. The concept and the promise is a tremendously alluring. And the aesthetics are incredible. There's something about the cane front, that piping, and the clean-line lettering of "T E C H 21" that makes me salivate, but I keep selling these because this amp does not do clean--at all. If you're into any variey of distorted tones, from the little-bit-more-than-just-mildly-overdriven to the massively distorted, you'll be more than happy. But if you want to play clean--even on occasion--forget it. The Tweed setting will get you closer, but it's anemic comapred to the other settings, and all one has to do is do a quick A/B with a real Fender amp to see that the clean one was getting with the TM10 wasn't really clean at all. For overdriven and distorted sounds, I would think this amp should get a 10. But if you have some idea that you would like to play clean sometime, you'd better look elsewhere.

Musicians Friend, from whom I bought one of the three of these that I have owned, has a nasty habit of shipping these--counter to the recommendations of Tech21NYC--in the display box. That the amp can survive that speaks to its durability, I believe.

I wrote them an e-mail that they never responded to, but I don'y know if that is an indication of what customer service is like. Others have had much better experiences than I have, so I will reserve judgment.

For complete features check their website or the other reviews. That said, this amp has everything you could possibly ask for in an amp of this class and pricerange.

Awesome. I mainly use the Fender and Marshall amp settings, and use the full gamut of "Mod" settings (affect the amp character, ie extra poweramp tube setting "hot" etc), and I myself always use the British speaker setting.

The EQ knobs are very sensitive like most Tech21 products, so you'll find a million sounds but will need to take the time to find the sound you want.

Like I said I don't use the Mesa setting. I find the British setting to be very accurate in sounding like various Marshalls, and combined with the MOD switch you can get most Marshall sounds over the last 20 years.

Same for the fender sound. Also, in-between the two you can coax out a pretty great Hiwatt tone too.

This amp is just absolutely phenominal sounding. I use it for practice and recording. I mic the amp using a large diaphragm condenser. It has become my main recording amp, and I've recorded everything from huge all-tube 100w heads driving marshall 4x12 cabinets to 1x12 boutique tube combos. This amp has the tone. Despite having a relatively small 8" speaker, the amp has wonderfull tight bottom end on palm mutes and the like. It translates across as a wonderfully resonant, chunky cabinet sound when miked properly. I can't say enough good things about this amp. My larger, tube amps will come and go, but this one will stay. Invaluable as a practice amp and recording amp.

(ps. i cannot comment on the direct recording, but I have heard people say it is somewhat inferior to POD's and the like. Most good producers will tell you, mic your amp. If you can afford to do so, you'll be very pleased with your results on this amp).

Also, this does sound much better than the digital modelling amps. I have a PodXT as well, and while it's great, the tone is somewhat cold and harsh. The trademark 10 does "model" but it's all analog and the distortion is warm and smooth.

I bought it new... no problems yet. Seems very well made though I don't ever mistreat my gear or move it around much, so it'll probably remain here in the studio for it's life.

I've emaield them a couple times for various things like manuals, etc. Always quick to reply and friendly.

Excellent value. More expensive than other "practice" amps, but this one is more than a "toy" practice amp; it's a full-blown boutique-level recording combo. Top notch, and this is from a guy with tube Marshalls, and now a Soldano.

The feautures are great. The 3 character switches allow you to dial in just about any type of sound you want. My only gripe is the inability to switch sounds with a footswitch.

I am using a Samick Wolfgang Style guitar with a Dimarzio Tone Zone bridge humbucker and this amp sounds amazing! I play a variety of music from 80's metal (AC/DC, Dokken) to modern rock (3 Doors Down, Collective Soul, King's X, Fuel, P.O.D.) and it works great for all of it. I mainly use this amp for direct recording and jamming in my home studio. I have owned all of the modeling amps and preamps including the POD Pro, J-Station, Genesis 3, Valve FX, AX2, and a ton of others and this has a more natural sound than any of them. Most modeling devices always seem to lack something in crispness or tonal quality, but the Sansamp sounds more like a real amp than any digital modeler I have tried.

The built in speaker is astonishingly good for being an 8" speaker, but this amp really came alive when I plugged it into my Fender HM-212 cabinet. I think the Marshall sound is the most authentic of the bunch. It has the right combination of chunky bass and sizzling highs to give you that heavy Marshall sound. The amp is not very loud on clean sounds, but I was amazed at how loud this amp could be plugged into a cabinet with the gain and volume cranked to about 8. Wow! The loudest 10 watts I have ever heard. It is loud enough to play with a drummer if you are playing heavy distortion and through a cabinet. This amp is versatile enough to record clean guitar, chunky rhythm, singing lead, and even thumping bass. If you are looking to get into home recording, this is the best money you could spend. Buy one of these and throw a chorus pedal and digital delay into the effects loop and you are set. I am giving this a 10 based on bang for the buck! I have played $1,000 amps that didn't get me as excited to plug in and play as this amp.

Haven't had it long, but it seems well built. The red jewel light doesn't always come on, but it doesn't effect the performance of the amp at all.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

I have been playing for about 16 years and have been through tons of gear in that time. I have bought and sold thousands of dollars in equipment in just the last year. I love to buy stuff on ebay, try it out for a while, and then resell it if I don't like it. This is one of the only things I have bought that I am not planning to sell. I will keep this amp no matter what else I come across. It works great for recording direct or just jamming and practicing. These sell on ebay for 150-180 bucks all the time. I got mine brand new for 169 on ebay! If you have around 200 bucks to spend on an amp, please don't waste your money on a Crate, Peavey, or even the smaller Marshall. In this price range nothing else even comes close. If you have more than 200 bucks then I would buy this amp and a cabinet before I would buy another amp. The channel switching is the only gripe. If you wanted to use it live that would be a major problem. The Trademark 60 and 120 have channel switching, but I don't think they sound the same as the 10. Go figure! For live use I am thinking about going with the PSA-1 preamp or maybe the Trademark 300 head. I also own the GT2 pedal, and it sounds great too.

Bought this for in-home play/practice and for digital recording. I like the fact that it will work as a Sans-Amp in recording applications. I'm not crazy about the 8" speaker, but it does sound better than I expected it would. The folks at Tech 21 say they play theirs out of an 8-ohm 4x12 cabinet all the time, so I'll probably end up getting a 1x12 cab for this one.

The amp has an amazing tonal range, with lots of useful tonal profiles. I use it with a '73 Les Paul Gold Top, a 2000 Fender Strat Roadhouse, and a Larivee L-09 with a Fishman. Works great for all of them. My son plays his PRS through it. Even gets decent thrash tones out of it.

Wish it was a little louder in the clean category, but for 10 watts, what can you expect? In clean mode, I tip the amp up to face me, and it's fine. Pound for pound, it's the most versatile amp I've ever used.

So far, perfect.

I contacted their customer support before I bought the amp. I made it clear I'm not a customer, but wanted answers to technical questions before I bought. They were responsive and like talking amps with old amp-gearhead friends. Not corporate punks or career boys. After I bought, I found their advice to on the mark, and exchanged an email or two with questions after purchase. Still, the best customer response I've ever seen. My son, who plays out of a Fender Blues DeVille is considering throwing it over for a new Tech 21 product. Their support and the sound of their amp inspires that kind of confidence.

I've been playing for 35 years, and played in H.S. and college bands around Kent, Ohio in the 70's - the Volume Era. Used Ampeg V-4, Marshall Stack, Peavey 100 6x12, Traynor 8x10, Kustom, etc. Now I'm in California in a tight housing development and just the speaker hum from the V-4 would bring the police. The Tech 21 is a great way to get big tone/feel for practice and recording. It's a flashback to my youth. At this price, it's a must-have.

I purchased the Trademark 10 about 5 months ago. I live in a relatively small apartment, so having an amp that could model (and send out a signal via XLR out) a variety of larger combo and head sounds was important. Probably the best quality of this amp is the fact that it has a SansAmp included within. There is active cut and boosting by 12db for Low, Mid, and Treble. There's a reverb and a three by three matrix for adjusting Amp Type, Gain, and Speaker type. It's pretty extensively configured considering this amp is a "practice amp."

THe major problem I have with the sound of this Amp is that the cut and boosts, while nice add a ton of noise to the signal. Now, obviously, inherent in any signal boost is going to be a some kind of noise boost, but at the higher gain values, it's too much. What this means in practice is that the boost/cut knobs really work much more effectively as only cut knobs. With that said, the tones that come out are great. I'd say the Fender modeled tones are comprable to a Silverface Deluxe. I have limited familiarity with the Marshall and Mesa amps so I can't comment on how well the modeling is there. The noise makes me say -1.

Absolutely no reliability issues. I have dropped it, nearly ripped plugs out (accidentaly) and there have been no problems.

Haven't dealt with the Customer Support.

I have been playing on and off for about 10 years. I own several guitars (Gibson ES-175, Fender Tele (with changed pickups), Ibanez Flying V copy, etc.) and for those of you who don't want to lay down $2000+ for a set of Marshall, Mesa-Boogie or Fender Amps, this is a great buy. It's the kind of amp that will allow you to grow better as a player; you won't find yourself limited two years down the road by the tones it offers. If you are going to spend money on a practice amp, spend your money on this amp! If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy another--no doubt. The only wish I had, as I mentioned above, is that the boosting wasn't so noisy.

This is actually my third posting for this amp.
I have really enjoyed this amp although I began to ecounter a buzzing problem after about 1 1/2 years use.
It came on slowley and it is probably because I like to pplay with allot of bass.
Anyway if anyone else has experinced this problem it is the chassis buzzing against the cabinet.
I tried a few things and found weatherstripping to work the best to stop the buzz.
Just stick around the outside of the chassis and retighten it snugly and then tighten again about two weeks later.
Dont look inside the chassis or you will feel cheated!
IT STILL SOUNDS GREAT THOUGH!

Oh hell, you all know what features this amp has, and I won't comment further! This is the best little amp I've ever encountered; it makes Peavey Rages' wet thier pants in fear!

That so much real TONE could be crammed into such a small package is absolutely amazing. I tried this little bugger out at the local music store because I'm thinking about buying a diffrent Tech-21 product, and I wanted to get a general idea of what passes for tone with these guys. Needless to say, they passed the test.
It's like this; I am absolutely DONE with digital preamplification! NO MORE!!! And by the way; if you absolutely MUST have a digital modeling device, save yourself a HEAP of money and buy a used Digitech RP-2000 off of Ebay. In the digital realm, that unit is un-freakin' TOUCHED. Of course, you WILL need the brains that God gave a mule( or more ) to properly EQ the thing and set up patches, but no other device( yes, that means ROLAND, BOSS, LINE-SUX; er..."6" I mean, or even the hallowed Rocktron ) comes close to matching the sounds of a Rectum-Frier, a Mush-all JCM 900, or a Fender Twins' clean sounds, PER-I-OD! And let's face facts, shall we? The digitial realm is STILL operating in 24-BIT MODE!!! Yeah, there are a FEW items out there that are now up to 32-bit...but PAHLEEEZE; until digital can do dual 128-bit or more, you're NOT gonna' get a real tube sound or model!!!
As for ME...I want warmth and colossal CRUNCH. I want robust and rounded clean tones that are warm and full...and I DO NOT want to f*** with inconsistent, tempermental, and NOISY little globs of GLOWING GLASS that became technologically obsolete BEFORE "Leave it to Beaver" went off the air!!!!
Don't get me wrong; there IS a place for a well-made tube amp...it's called "The Recording Studio". Or, if you are a rich and famous rock star with an army of roadies that can take care of your gear whilst you sip Moet' White Star and do lines off some groupies a$$, then by all means; GO ALL-TUBE!!! As for me, I'll take low maintenance and consistency please...

Anyway...
This little amp is just a BEAST! I couldn't believe the rich, harmonic CRUNCH coming out of this little thing! And the tone controls are absolutely killer; a little twist in any direction really animates the tone. Kind of like an old British Trident mixing console... I can totally see why so many guitarists( and bassists too ) swear by Tech-21; they have analog D-O-W-N.
The only negative remark I can make about the tone is that when the speaker emulation is set to "Flat" or none, it doesn't sound very good on ANY of the mods. But since you don't HAVE to turn it off, then I guess it's not really much of a problem now is it?!?!?
The reverb is o.k. I guess, but I'm not much of a reverb kind of guy. And lets face it; you're not buying an amp with an 8" speaker for the "amazing reverb" now are you???
Every kid who is learning electric guitar should get one of these as a MANDATORY purchase/first amp/practice amp because it is a LOT more fun to practice and learn if your tone sounds like your heroes and is pleasing to the ear.

Tech 21 stuff is built like a brick sh*thouse. Enough said.

They answer thier e-mail within a day; whaddaya' want anyway???

A killer little amp that's great for bedroom jammin' and home recording. Best sounding 8" speaker amp I've ever heard. Would also be a great backup amp to keep handy just in case your regular stage amp shoots crap in the middle of a gig.

Made in 2003, bought from ZZounds. This is an awesome sounding studio amplifier/live preamp, unfortunately it doesn't fit the bill for my needs. 1 channel, an effects loop, a headphone jack, speaker out and direct out. It's all analog circuitry that does an incredible job of emulating the classic tube sounds from the best amps.

This amp rocks. I'm totally blown away by this little amp. It's amazing how good this thing sounds. For the music I play (clean, gritty blues, some rock, rare hard rock) this amp is very good, but maybe too much. I had the opportunity to do a side-by-side between this amp and a ROland Cube 30 and this amp totally blows the Cube 30 away on authentic tube sounds. The ability to choose the amp, mod and speaker makes this amp extremely versatile and very useable. The cube 30 by comparison is very clean, a little sterile (can get some useable sounds). The TM10 accurately captures that 'krang' that comes from a tube amp driven really hard (actually, it's a little hard NOT to get that sound from this amp). I did notice a bit of noise when the amp was on the hi-gain and hot settings, but it wasn't intolerable.

I have not idea about this, since I only had the amp for 24 hours, but it looked ok.

No idea about tech21nyc.com, but ZZounds took it back with no questions.

This amp is amazing. I can't believe they can get the sounds they get without having any tubes inside. In the end I didn't keep it but instead went with the Cube 30 (Roland) because of it's versatility -- it has an acoustic setting which sounds amazing with my FAAS-equipped guitar, and because the Cube 30 is louder and stays clean at loud volumes. The TM10 sounded great right from the getgo, but as others have said, if you crank up the volume the speaker tends to fart-out and the housing will rattle a little bit -- that's not so hot.

My intention was to find an amp that I could easily tote to jams, that was lightweight, loud, had good sounds and some versatility. The TM10 certainly is lightweight, has incredible sounds, but it doesn't get loud enough with it's 10 watts -- if the amp did get louder, like maybe had 20 watts, I would have swung the other way, forgoeing the acoustic simulator and the digital (average) effects, but in the end that's what made me go with the Roland.

I wasn't looking for a studio amp but got the TM10 because a reviewer on the Cube 30 page said to check it out, after panning the Cube 30. I have the Pod 2.0 to solve my recording needs and I know I can get similar sounds (though, I doubt quite as rich and tube-like as the TM10). I need an amp that won't break my back, sounds decent, is loud enough for bass and drums and has some tweakability. For my purposes the TM10 didn't cut it, thought I might get one in the future.

This amp has a long list of features. The basics are that it's a solid state 10 watt amp, 8" speaker. It uses Tech 21's Sansamp technology to provide three different amp models; Fender, Marshall, and Mesa Boogie. For each amp model, you also get three drive settnigs; clean, overdrive, and hot (which emulates an extra tube in the power amp section). And then you get three speaker models; flat, UK, and USA. Also has drive, master volume, three band active EQ, reverb, effects loop, headphone output, and direct out. Quite a lot for a small box. Oh, and an added neat trick. Hook a simple mixer into the effects loop, and you can play along with a CD or drum machine (great feature in a practice amp).

Well, with all those setting options, there is plenty to choose from here. Fender setting offers lovely smooth, clean tones, but the overdrive is a little wimpy (like actual Fender amps). The Marshall channel is stunning; awesome crunch and depth. I'm not a big fan of the Boogie channel, but then I don't particularly like the Boogie sound anyway. Reverb is great. The active EQ means you need a deft hand on the controls to dial in a sound, but in return you get a broad palette. My only criticism would be that even with the Drive set to the minimum, on the clean setting the Marshall and Boogie channels still break up too easily. The Fender channel is the only one that gives good clean sound. But it gives VERY good clean sound. For a 10 watt amp with an 8 inch speaker, it's brilliant.

Well, I've had it for six months without a problem. Seems pretty solid.

I have to rate Tech 21 very highly here. I've e-mailed them with a couple of questions, and they've always responded the same day.

I play at home in my spare room. I wanted an amp with killer tone that wouldn't shatter windows or summon cops, and this baby fits the bill. It has a great range of killer tones. After I got this I sold a Fender Stage 100 DSP and a Marshall MG 15DFX - I just didn't need them any more, because this amp does everything they could and then some. I don't think you'll find a better amp for the size. It's kind of pricy (retails for about $250) compared to the solid state competition, but it's worth it. Knock $50 off the price and clean up the Marshall channel and you've got a 10. As it is, this amp rates a solid 9.

Gain Bass Mid Treble Reverb Master and the three three-position switches for amp style, gain quality, and speaker quality. Out back are the fx loop, headphone out, speaker out, and di w/ground lift.
The controls are more than sufficient for what I do. The reverb is good enough.
It would be nice to have channel switching, but after learning how to keep the volume high and gain lower, I don't desire it so much now.
This amp has been used for playing alone at home and for some backup guitar tracks on various recordings.
If a pre-teen sees the amp, they take it for being old on looks alone. Must be the color scheme and style of knobs.

A P90 or two Duncan '59's go through the amp. It handles both of them very well. The amp definitely uses what it is given, but does not alter the qualities of the pups. If the P90 is picked hard and all it gets all twangy and crisp.
The amp is clean. It must be the cables that add in hiss.

After using the amp out of the house to practice (and be loud), I discovered that the gain control way low while the master is cranked is a great setting.
I use the calif/clean/us settings and now have a way to have a slightly dirty sound that could be pushed with a pedal to get things interesting.
I will try this amp setting in the future and not worry about blowing the speaker. I swapped the factory speaker with a heavier Eminence. I have to boost the highs, but don't get as much low-end rattle like I used to.

One reverb tank tie-down snapped. I'd use this at a show if I were crunched for space. I'd maybe plug it into a cabinet if one were available, but I wouldn't be ashamed to use it all by itself. I'd place it as close to the drummer as possible, but that's it.

There have been no problems to date.

I've had this amp almost four years. It's a great practice amp and it makes good noise for recording. I am happy to have discovered the great low gain/high master setting.
Tech 21 put out some great things at lower prices. I see more bands using their bass driver box in live settings, but haven't seen the TM60 or 120 (or 300) on stage anywhere. The TM10 is a great amp to have at home. It's light, versatile, easy to handle, and reliable. I keep that plastic cover on when I'm not using it and I keep the amp in its shipping box. I want it around for a long time.

XLR output. Geat for recording. small size. optional gig bag is great. different selections for amp type, speaker type, and gain type.

I use an old single coil "Audition" brand guitar (sold at woolworths in the 60s/70s). Pedals used: Frantone Creme Puff, Z-Vex Machine, Tech 21 XXl, Line 6 distortion modeler, Line 6 delay modeler, Line 6 modulation modeler. I play clean "surf" guitar and fuzzed-out Jesus and Mary Chain noise.
The settinings i like best are the "Tweed" amp, "U.K." speaker, "Clean" Gain. I don't like the other amp, speaker,and gain settings. I keep the setting clean with a tiny touch of amp overdive and get my main overdrive and fuzz from pedals. the sound is great! Over the years I've use Peavey Decade, Roland Cube and other small amps. This is by far the best small amp I've ever used. Al the other small amp sound thin and small. the Trademark 10 has a surprisingly big, full, deep sound. Great spring reverb. the overdive/distortions it can make make are extreme, but i just don't like them. I like a clean sound or a fuzz box sound. I don't really care that i don't like the other settings because I'm glad that I only need one great setting and I love the sound I get from this amp. I'd give it a 10 based on the one setting I love. but since i don't like the other settings I'll give it an 8

Seems sturdy and strong. has never broken down but it has never left the house. I use it for recording.

I've never needed support.

see comments above.

No need to repeat what's been said. This is a high quality recording and practice amp with simple controls that produce a wide specturm of color. And it's one of the very few this size with a real spring reverb. Comes with a plastic cover that looks like a shower cap for a robot, but there's a slick gig bag available as well.

It's amazing what kind of variety of tones you can get from three switches and six knobs. The amp doesn't have any of the built-in modulatuion effects you find on a Line 6, but I think the analog-derived sounds are much more natural. I use this with everything from a big jazz box to my Strat and it delivers. There's even enough volume for jams in small rooms.

Haven't had any problems with any Tech 21 gear yet.

For the intended use- recording and rehearsal- this simply can't be beat. It's cheaper than the original SansAmp pedal and still gets most of the sounds. Some guys use it on stage and run the DI out into the PA, which really speaks for itself. I'm thinking of carrying it on gigs for a spare to be used that way. If we had a bigger PA, I might not even bother with a bigger amp! I'd replace it in a heartbeat if I lost it.

It's a bit pricey for the size and volume, but given the featureas it's still a pretty good value.

This is a follow-up to my review of 3/22/2001.

Until recently, I had only ever used this amp for practice and recording. But a few weeks back I got the opportunity to play out with it twice in a small combo format.

The first night I played my James Trussart Strat with Joe Barden pickups into a Banzai Fireball II overdrive pedal into the TM10 on a loud clean setting (Tweed/Clean/US). The guys I jammed with were all impressed with the tone of my little rig and couldn't believe that it wasn't a tube amp and that it was so light and compact.

A few nights later, we were going to do an acoustic set, so I decided that instead of relying on a someone else with a dodgy PA to get my sound, I would take my Larrivee Parlor with a Fishman Rare Earth soundhole pickup and play it through the TM10. "What?!", you cry, "a flat-top through an electric guitar amp?!" Thanks to the amp's excellent EQ, I was able to get a nice, punchy acoustic sound with the Tweed/Clean/US setting I had used the other time out. Talk about versatility! Since then, I've been experimenting with the Larrivee/Trademark combination at home and have been having a total blast! With dirtier settings, I can get the most awesome controlled feedback I have ever experienced, something I will definitely use in my home studio recordings.

Don't you just love it when you buy a piece of gear and it not only inspires you to use it heavily for its designated purpose but also opens the door for applications you never thought of before?

I LOVE THE TRADEMARK 10!

10watts, 8in speaker, Drive/Level/Low/Mid/Hi/Reverb. 3 switches for amp model, gain type, and speaker model. One channel. Headphone and speaker output jacks. Less than 15 lbs. Pretty versatile.

I play mostly heavy music and originally bought this amp based on reviews just to practice when out of the house. It turned out to be better than my other amps: Marshall AVT20 and Crate GFX65. It doesn't have much gain but has a good sound. It's very quiet and can work with pedals pretty well. I like the Mesa/Boogie and Marshall sounds. I've never played Mesa/Boogie but I like the sound coming out of this amp. The Fender is nice, I guess. I don't much use the Flat Speaker setting. I usually play the Mesa model w/ the Marshall speaker because it sounds bolder and more defined. One of the guitars I use is an Ibanez RG250DX with stock pickups and it gets a variety of sounds. I get a nice Master of Puppets sound with the Mesa. I can also pull off some Witchery/The Haunted riffage. I just wish it had more gain. If I want to get more extreme sounds I play my strat-style Dean Avalanche with and X2N on the bridge and then we're into death metal territory. Then I can get some pretty mean sounds with this little amp. Actually, I have it running into a Powerengine60 extension 1x12 cab, also made by Tech21. I did this because the T10's 8in speaker can't handle the amount of bass I like to use with the Mesa/Boogie setting. I would have probably traded the T10 for its bigger brother the T60 but I happened to accidentally damage the face of the amp. But the Powerengine is very cool because I can plug in some of my pedals and get better sounds out of them than with my distortion amps. I would recomend trying out the T60 for the speaker size unless your desire is a small practice amp for relatively quiet practice. But this one seems to get better reviews than the T60.

It seems sturdy enough. Like I said, I damaged the front part of the amp by tripping over it and ripping the cloth with my nasty ass work boots. So, it'll last if you're not a clumsy ass and take care of it.

Have not used it.

I've been playing over four years and also own a Crate GFX65 and a Marshall AVT20. I use Ibanez and Strats. The Crate was my first amp and is high gain but is pretty fuzzy. The AVT20 has better tone than the T10's Marshall setting but it sucks for palm-muting and has an 80's sound quality (bad investment). The AVT20 actually sounds better through the Powerengine60. The trademark is definitely the better amp. It might not have the gain that I would like and the speaker farts out of control with a lot of bass but it sounds great for the price.

Purchased January 2003. Lets you to assemble your own amplifier from different presents - 27 different combinations BEFORE you adjust the active EQ, the gain, and reverb! Features XLR or 1/4" out for use on stage or in studio. Effects Loop. What it does, it does amazingly well. However, I wish that the special design speaker could be recorded 'properly' (according to the booklet) with a dynamic mic. Also, I wish that this amp had a bit more power - or that the Trademark 60 was more like this amp.

I primarily use two guitars with this amp, a Fender Telecaster outfitted with Harmonic Design pickups (great pickups!) and a vintage Gibson ES-335. I play all kinds of music: indie rock, fingerstyle, R&B, country, jazz and all points in between - which is why I love this amp! It's warm and full, but not TOO warm and full. It's still crisp. I don't think of it as 'emulating' a tube amp, I think of it as what the solid state amp should be. Sure, it's sounds are based on Fender, Marshall, and Mesa Boogie but to say that this amp merely 'emulates' those amps insults the versatility of this amp, because it can also visit all points in between. The amp can be a little noisy on high gain settings, but c'mon it's high gain and high gain is noisy. The clean sounds are clean, the distortion is grinding, but best of all, in my opinion, is that little bit of grit that you can dial in so easily. For what it does, I give it a 10. But I do wish that it could do a better Vox AC30 style sound.

I haven't had any problems yet and I've had it for a year and a half. It's solid state, so there's no need to worry about tubes burning out. I would gig with it in a heartbeat, although I might look silly gigging with such a small amp. It has an XLR out, so I guess you could do it.

I haven't had any reason to contact Tech21 regarding my Trademark 10, but when I received their BassDriver for Christmas it didn't have the user's guide booklet with it. I emailed them and it took them, I think, a couple of days to email it to me. A quicker response would have been nice, but it was just after Christmas and I imagine they were both understaffed and probably pretty busy. The person that emailed me the booklet was very nice and quite helpful.

I've been playing for 15 years or so. I've had a lotsa guitars and played through lotsa amps. I got a POD during the POD craze, but I hate practicing with effing headphones on. I'm an occasional bassist, and I actually got the BassDriver before this amp, for recording pruposes, and I was so impressed with it that I gave this amp a try. (Actually, I returned a bunch of Christmas presents I didn't like and spent the money on this amp! Don't tell my family!) This had become my favorite amp, even though it's a tiny little thing. I could never settle for an amp that 'only' makes Fender, Marshall, or Mesa Boogie noises. For what it does, it is amazing. I do wish it had more power so I could play it with my band (I know, I could get a Power Engine 60 and I probably will...), and I wish that it could do Vox AC30 better, but what it does is what it does, and what it does is great.

I submitted a review for this amp last year, this is an updated review just to say that I have recently bought a 4x12 Ampeg cab, loaded with celestion vintage 30's.

Guys/girls, if you get the chance then run the amp through a 4x12 cab. Its ridiculous. The low end response on the scooped metal settings are amazing and the clean tones are massive. Go on try it!

Bought it September 2003.
Awesome range of tones.
I play everything from classical, country, blues, rock, metal, etc.
It covers all the bases very well.

Playing a Parker Nitefly with it.
Sounds amazing. So much fun to play.

Seems to be well built and well designed.
Very classy looking design too.

Awesome tones, great portability and expandability with the extension cabs.
I have been playing for 18 years.
I would buy again in a heartbeat if something happened to it.

The thing is, that I kind of panned the Tech21 GT2 in the user review section of this site.
Even though this amp is based off of the GT2, I find it sounds infinitely better.
As the three band eq allows the sound to "open" up more. And having an actual speaker that is moving air beats a digital modeler any day.

So I took a chance by buying the Trademark 10, because I wan't too enthusiastic about the GT2.
I AM SO GLAD I DID. This amp freakin' rocks! I love it.

The speaker sounds great. You can actually get some nice lows pumping out of it's 8 inch speaker. Very impressive.

I have owned all sorts of tube and digital rack gear and amp modellers over the years. This is by far the one piece of gear I have been most blown away by.

Disregard my review of the GT2. I'm a Tech21 fan for life.

Character section allows you to mix and match individual amplifiercomponents and "architecturally" create your own rig in seconds
Drive control adjusts the overall amount of gain and overdrive
3-band, active tone controls, boost or cut ?12dB
Rich, full sounding Accutronics? 3-spring reverb
Special design 8" speaker
SansAmp XLR Direct Out for stage and studio applications allowsyou to go direct to any mixing console. For live gigs, you can run directly into the PA system. In larger venues, you'll be able to utilize the PA monitors to supplement your stage volume.
Effect Loop
Headphone output, which can also be used as a 1/4" direct out
Speaker output

I'll tell you the truth, It doesn't sound exactly like a tube amp, but it's supposed to EMULATE one, a close approximation. It does this just fine. I think Tech21 is FAR superior to line6 when it comes to live stuff, it sounds much more "real". For a practice amp, this sounds awesome. It doesnt have channel switching, so thats a bummer, but it's not mean for that.

it's S.S

n/a

I LOVE tech 21 stuff. I find the idea of amp emulation facinating. As far as direct recording, line6, hands down, so buy a POD. For live use, tech21 ALL the way. I recently bought a line6 spider and am now exchanging it for a trademark60. To be honest, it was the trademark10 that made me want to get the 60. At 10 watts or 300 (yes, theres a 300 wat head version!!) these amps sound fantastic. They kind of have their own sound, but still warm and full; for S.S.

I'm playing a 2003 model. I play hard rock and metal, and this seems to be the ideal practice amp for just about any genre. The amp is a single channel 10w direct recording combo with a 3-band active EQ, Spring Reverb, gain (drive) control, 3 amp, 3 mod and 3 speaker emulation settings, direct headphones out, balanced XLR sansamp direct out, speaker cab in and an effects loop...oh yeah and it's solid state (with the balls of a valve amp).

This amp is extremely versatile and although a lot of reviewers have commented that a footswitch and a second channel would be handy (I can't argue with that), for recording, the single channel layout is simple to understand and dialing in a different sound is easy.

I use this amp for rehearsals before a live show or when jamming at home, but it's VERY good for recording through the XLR out. The clarity of sound is amazing and the number of different amp sounds is just unbelievable for such a small combo.

I know it's a pain in the ass when reviewers start wising off about what nice equipment they've got, so I won't, suffice it to say, my guitars all have active humbuckers (EMG 60, 81).

The amp reacts to your playing style very well, just like a valve amp and it produces some really cool overdrive sounds. It's also one of the quietest solid state amps I've played, so full marks for that, even with high gain settings.

The Clean channel sounds really cool with some reverb and a little chorus if you can, and sounds impressive when double tracked. The overdrive is warm, soft and silky (just how you like it), and you'd expect to find some glowing 12AX7s under the chassis, it certainly kicks the JCM800's ass on overdrive, this amp has balls!!!

It's not exactly a loud amp, but the overdrive channel stands up pretty well in a band jam when you crank the volume up.

While I wouldn't say it's built like a tank, it is pretty good quality for a small amp combo, and although I don't use it live, I guess on the trust thing, I would use it without a backup, it's very reliable, but then again I haven't had it THAT long, so only time will tell, but for now I've very happy with it.

When I first got the amp delivered, I plugged it in straight away and jammed with it. However, the reverb wasn't working and I know that past reviewers have had this problem, however that was rectified when I realised they'd plugged the reverb tank in backwards (nice on Tech21), so if anyone else does have that problem, try reversing the cables that feed the reverb!

Never Used them for a problem (there hasn't been any) so I don't know, although I have e-mailed them asking for further information and they were more than helpful on that one.

I've been playing guitar for 10 years and this amp has definately inspired me to practice more that I used to. If it was stolen, I would definately buy another one, either that or a shotgun to deter further gear stealing bastards.

I chose this amp after reading the reviews on hear and hearing sound bytes from various website, and I hadn't actually used one, but I'm very glad I did, although I don't usually buy stuff without playing them first.

I suppose a second channel would be good for those guys who wanted to play it live, but then again I get along fine without one, so I'm happy. Above all, this amp was pretty cool value for money.

Recent. Solid State Practice/ recording amp. The features are well known. Very versitile with all the ins/ outs.
10 watts, 1-8" speaker.

I use this amp with an ASAT, and strat style guitars with a JB bridge pick up. I play alot of diff styles from blues and roots to heavy stuff. This thing fills the bill better than any practice amp I've owned. Loud enuff to crush without waking the kids. I dumped several of my "modeling" boxes after playing and recording with the Trademark.
The clean sounds were simply much more realistic. Let's face it; there are tons of boxes for distortion. The hard part is making a rec pre feel right in clean sounds. The T10 does all. GREAT clean, GREAT
grind and GREAT boogie lead tones. Plus it responds to your playing like a good tube amp. I have been running the output to a V30 12" speaker cab for practice and this helps the "boxy" sound of the 8" speaker. In retrospect, ALL 8" speakers sound that way to my ears, so its not Tech 21's fault. The 8" in the Trademark actually sounds better than most. The reverb sounds really good and juicy without washing out at max levels.

So far so good.... had it a week.

Haven't used them, haven't needed to. My old XXL pedal and Tri-O.D. are still crankin' and I expect the Trademark 10 to be the same way.
So I give an "8" based on my experience with other Tech 21 stuff.

I have been playing for 25 years, and tried all sorts of gear for practice. Most are cheaply made, and sound like total garbage. Other small amps I've tried have DSP FX on them. Handy, but usually to cover up the crap sound of the amp itself.
The Trademark 10 is the amp I've been waiting on. I do like the sound of the 12" speaker better, so I wish Tech 21 made a single 12" cab. Or a single 12 cab with the compartment for the 10's chassis.

Recording/Practice Solid State Amp with built in GT-2. 1 8" speaker. 10 LOUD watts of power. Spring Reverb. It would be nice if it used a footswitch to change sounds. But that would surely drive the price up.

I'm using a Japan 60's Strat with Custom Shop '54 pickups. Right now I'm going straight in with no effects. This Amp is VERY versitile! Clapton (Cream Era), Santana and SRV are all in there! Probably not for Thrash Metal. As others have said in their reviews, this is a VERY inspiring practice amp! I'VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!!!

Works perfect. I've turned it on 100 times so far.

Great customer support. I talked 25 minutes or so to a Tech and we were both very enthusiastic about this unit.

Like I said before this Amp INSPIRES me to practice. It is so small for what it delivers. Kind of like a dream come true!

10 watts of power, 1-8" speaker. Download the manual from Tech 21's website. With 5 being average, the Trademark 10 rates an 8 in my book. The effects loop, headphone jack, ext. speaker jack, and direct out are definitely above average. However, it would be nice to have footswitchable channels. 5+4-1=8

I play a PRS Custom 24, a re-issue '64 Strat, and the rarely seen Ovation UK-II. This amp sounds fantastic with each guitar. I like playing classic rock (Hendrix, Zep, Sabbath, Skynyrd, etc...), grunge (mostly AIC, Smashing Pumpkins, and Soundgarden), as well as stoner rock (Kyuss, Fu Manchu, QOTSA, Nebula). The Trademark 10 can cover all of these bases, how's that for versatility? I found that the amp has enough clean headroom for my tastes, but I think the distortion sounds alone justify the price of admission. Even with the Drive dimed on the "California-Hot" setting the amp doesn't mush out. The character of each guitar and it's pickups still shine through. I can't believe how amazing the high gain sounds are on this thing. If you buy one of these you can say goodbye to your overdrives and distortions. In fact, you would be wise to invest that money into a chorus or delay and maybe a sonic maximizer. I use a Boss DD-3 and CE-2 as well as a BBE 362 in the effects loop and you wouldn't believe how huge the tone is! The 8" speaker can be limiting, but I have to admit it sounds a lot better than I was anticipating. However, don't forget about the headphone jack. You can wail away for hours in near silence! Is the Trademark 10 perfection? No, but it is definitely outstanding. I've spent two to three times as much on old tube amps that didn't have any of the features of the Trademark 10 and far less versatility. If you're in the market for a practice amp that will inspire you to play, look no further. In fact, I played mine so much in the first 3 days I had it, I developed blisters on my fingers!

I'll reserve judgment here. I've had mine for a week, so I really can't say how reliable it will be. Although when the amp arrived the reverb tank had come loose and I had to screw it back down into place. Fortunately, everything works. As far as gigging goes, I don't know how many of the reviewers here play live. My guess is that most of them are bedroom guitarists and there's nothing wrong with that. I include myself in the ranks of the bedroom guitarist as I write this. That said, I couldn't see myself gigging with this amp. When I was gigging, I was using either an Ampeg V-4 or a Marshall JMP through a 4-12 cabinet. If you are in a rock band or really any performing band, you need a real amp for live shows. Who would you rather see: Band A rocking out in front of stacks of equipment? or Band B standing on an empty stage plugged into the PA? The Trademark 10 is a great practice/recording amp, but not necessarily what I look for in a gigging amp.

I haven't dealt with Tech 21. The Trademark 10 comes with a one-year limited warranty. The warranty information is included in the manual which can be downloaded from Tech 21's website.

I've been playing guitar for 9 years now. I've owned nine different amps in those years: Fender Bullet, Crate Blue Voodoo (combo and head), Ampeg VL-503, Ampeg V-4, Marshall JMP, Fender Blues Jr., Gibson GA-6, and now the Trademark 10. I held onto my Gibson and sold all of the rest. The GA-6 is a fantastic amp. It's a clone of the famous Fender Tweed Deluxe and it has tone for days. However, it's not exactly practical for everyday use and it isn't going to give you any high gain distortion. I was looking for a practice amp that had good tone, good distortion, didn't burn expensive tubes, and had a headphone jack to keep my wife happy. I was considering the Trademark 10, a Songworks Little Lanilei, or a Tonebone preamp to use with my Gibson. The Little Lanilei has a smaller speaker and costs $100 more. Replacing tubes is getting more and more expensive so the Tonebone was out.

I have to admit that I was skeptical about the rave reviews that this amp has been given, but I also must admit that Tech 21 hit a home-run with this one. I started with the suggested settings and wasn't blown away, but I set the eq for a tone I liked and now the only controls I use are the Drive, Level and Character switches. With a chorus or delay and a sonic maximizer in the effects loop, this thing kills! All of the super-heavy fuzzed out sounds I love are there. The classic rock sounds are all there. Beyond that, there are great crunches and overdrives on the Tweed setting. The Trademark 10 has exceeded my expectations. I was expecting a good amp and I got a great amp.

When was the last time your tone was so good that you couldn't stop playing? If you can't answer that question, maybe you should check out the Trademark 10. I'm glad I did.

ALl the feautures have been mentioned before. Yes it doesn't have a chanal switch but who cares I still give it a 10

I play through Ibanez guitars and don't use efeccts ecxept for a wah-wah pedal, let me tell you you can get any tone that you like a very reasonable volume no problem it's not noisy at all and inspires you to play on. You feel like a 70's - 80's rockstar it's amazing.

Pretty realiable I guess no problems at all except for the power lamp that burnt out but who cares it's just lamp not the spreaker right and I got it replaced anyway.

Friednly and nice people. Send me my power lamp right away. Got it within a week or so.

You can record, play live through a PA and practice at home and I have to say it's in the to 3 amps I've ever owned and played. Kicks everyones ass. I would buy another one if something happens to it, but I'm sure it won't. Get it if you can. You will not regert it's not you average practice amp, no no it goes way beyondx that.

Character section allows you to mix and match individual amplifier components and "architecturally" create your own rig in seconds
Drive control adjusts the overall amount of gain and overdrive
3-band, active tone controls, boost or cut ?12dB
Rich, full sounding Accutronics? 3-spring reverb
Special design 8" speaker
SansAmp XLR Direct Out for stage and studio applications allows you to go direct to any mixing console. For live gigs, you can run directly into the PA system. In larger venues, you'll be able to utilize the PA monitors to supplement your stage volume.
Effect Loop
Headphone output, which can also be used as a 1/4" direct out
Speaker output

I can get nice and clean, to raging metal. The character switches are brilliant! It sounds close enough to a tube amp, that if it had channel switching, I'd run it direct into the board at gigs. I even tried miking it, and I liked the results.

It's solid state, so it'll be pretty reliable, I would think?

I won't give it a ten, because it doesn't have channel switching; but it only has one channel anyway, but you know what I mean. If you could program the switch settings, that would be cool. FYI- the Sansamp GT2 appears to be the pedal version of this amp. I own one and I LOVE IT! It was the GT2 that inspired me to buy this amp. It's very versitile, and if it were programmabe, I'd use it live. That feature would make it a 10.

One more feature.
Previous review below.
If you run line in to return it works as a speaker simulator from the XLR out.
I have been using it with my univalve for gigs without a mic it fits perfect on the univalve head.
Only the reverb control works with it set up like this but the univalve has a volume pot on the line out so it works great.
Anyway one more feature which I didn't know it had.
Liking this amp more the longer I have it.

2003 model. What an amazing little amp. I cannot believe the wonderful, lush "Tube" sounds this solid-state little baby can produce. TECH 21 really hit a home run with this one.

There are three different modes...Tweed, British, and California. Each mode has three different overdrive settings...Clean, Hi Gain, and Hot. The unit has an FX loop and direct out for Headphones. The headphones disables the built-in 8" speaker, to allow for silent playing.

I use this amp as a 2nd, portable amp...my main amp is a Vox Valvetronix (See my review--by Tritium, dated 1/30/2003 of the AD120VT Vox Valvetronix)

Only wish the Trademark 10 had a footswitch. But for my purposes of using as a super portable practice amp, reaching down to the amp controls to change settings is not really an issue.

Got to give this a "10" for sound. TECH 21's analog circuitry has nailed the true sound and dynamics of a tube amp. The only downside is that the "Clean" channel is very low in sound level...if you crank it up, it no longer stays clean. It has a nice Fender "Tweed" sound. The solution to this would be to get TECH 21's Powerengine60, which would amplify the signal from the Trademark 10 without coloring the tone. With that said, the creamy OD of the "British" model gives a great Plexi vibe. The California model sounds like a Mesa Boogie MkIV...and is fantastic. Endless singing sustain with this model.

Distortion is very smooth and harmonic, with no fizzyness or buzz. With a very sensitive gain control, the Trademark 10 can go from just breakin' up Blues, thru Clapton or SRV boosted OD, to EVH or 80's Hard Rock sounds. This amp will not do Nu-Metal, if that is your thing. HOWEVER, it responds great to a stompbox at the input, so I suppose if that type of music is your thing, you could slap a BOSS Metal Zone pedal on the front-end.

I have only had it a few days...everything worked perfectly right out of the box. Seems rugged enough. Aesthetically, this is a very pretty amp. It has a beautiful, vintage looking basketweave grill and Tolex style covering.

HAven't had to call TECH 21, but I hear they have great support.

I would highly recommend this little puppy for those of you who want a small little practice amp which is absolutely portable. My main guitar room is on my second floor. My living room is on the first, and I thought it would be nice to have a small little amp I could play guitar on the couch in front of the TV, just to practice whenever I want (when the wife is away or asleep).

You know, sometimes you just don't feel like hooking up to your main amp and making a big production out of it. I think it is kinda nice to just kick back in your "comfy" chair and have a nice baby amp to do some relaxed shredding

Anyways...I totally fell in love with this little amp while I was playing the Parker at the store. It has a totally convincing tube sound...and I mean totally. While it doesn't of course have the incredible modeling permutations of my Vox Valvetronix, it's three flavors (Tweed, British, California) with adjustable Clean, Heavy, and Hot gain settings give you a lot of flexibility and plenty of variations in tone.

While not using digital modeling, the Sans Amp analog "modeling" has all the warm characteristics and dynamic playing feel of a tube amp. It is interesting that TECH 21 has accomplished the same feel as the DMA type technology. Actually, I understand they where doing this probably before Line 6 and Roland pioneered the DMA revolution.

No, it won't replace your main amp, but that is not the point. Check this amp out if you want a great small, portable amp with excellent tone. Heck, for you diehards, you can even play guitar while your on the crapper.

By the way, I recently returned a Mesa Boogie Rectoverb head and a TC Electronics G-Major because I found myself lovin' and playin' my Valvetronix more often than the newly purchased Rectoverb. The sounds comin' out of the TECH 21 Trademark 10's "California" model (Mesa Boogie MARK IV) are IMHO bettter then the RECTO buzz distortion I was getting out of the "Modern" mode on the Rectoverb. It has an excellent SANTANA type singing sustain...creamy with no buzz.

Just my two cents.

Oh, and if you wanted it for gigging, it has the San Amp direct out to the PA...or you could get TECH 21's innovative 60 watt Power Engine to get gig level volumes.

I bought mine new in April 2003. It is extremely versatile. I get a beautiful clean sound and all flavors of distortion from subtle to heavy, including Fender, Marshall, and Boogie. Incredibly, the amp does all that they claim it does. It has an extension speaker jack that mutes the internal speaker and lets me drive an external cabinet. I made a closed-back cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 30, and this amp will make it play loud enough for jam sessions and loud enough to make my ears hurt when I'm practicing, if I "want" it to. It has a "flat" speaker setting for driving an external speaker, and it sounds awesome. It also has an XLR output for driving a PA or mixing board without a mic, and an earphone jack. The hardware, knobs, etc., have deluxe, quality feel. The handle looks and feels like comfortable leather, which is a luxury because the amp only weighs 14 pounds--really light.

I've tried it with Gibsons with humbuckers and a couple of Fenders. It sounds fantastic with everything. It is remarkably quiet, one of the quietest amps I've played. It will produce all the sounds I want, including clean jazz, beautiful country, Larry Carlton singing sound, Johnny Winter blues, roaring Marshall, SRV Fender, Boogie lead. It's unreal. I never considered one for so many years because I figured, "Hey, it's 'analog,' so it probably sounds like a buzzy fuzz box." I was WRONG! It sounds like the real thing! I have no idea how they do it. It's like a miracle! I played about 9 hours this weekend, and I only quit because my fingers are too sore to play any more. I'm getting all the sounds I always wanted. The clean channel has plenty of headroom, and it's easy to use a volume pedal to go smoothly from clean to slighty distorted to distortion that's as brutal as you want it. No eight-inch speaker will play like a 12-inch speaker, so I use an extension cabinet a lot of the time, but for an eight-inch speaker, it does fine. A Celestion Vintage 30 makes 100 dB of sound with one Watt of power, and the ten watts in this amp will make about 110 dB, which is a lot louder than I want to practice. And it sounds beautiful. Like magic. I have two Marshalls, a Boogie, and a Line 6 amp, and this little TM 10 will make all the sounds I get from those other amps, with ease, and at this point I think it makes those sounds better than the signature amps themselves.

I bought mine from American Musical Supply. The reverb didn't work on the first two they sent me. It sounded so good without reverb that I was tempted to keep the second one, but fortunately the third one they sent had working reverb, and the reverb is beautiful, and as deep or as mild as you want. I've logged about 25 hours on the amp in the last couple of weeks. It seems to be fine, but it will take a while to get confidence in it. I recommend always taking a backup amp, because you never know when something will happen. American Musical Supply is a great company to do business with. They paid the shipping for returning both defective amps and were a pleasure to talk with. And their prices are competitive.

The warranty is one year. I hope I don't need to contact the company. I hope it just keeps working forever. We'll see.

I've been playing since the 60s--you do the math. I have a bunch of guitars and amps. I would definitely get another TM 10 if something happened to this one. It's like a dream come true. It was the positive reviews of the TM 10 I read on this website that prompted me to buy one, and I am so glad I did! If you want channel switching, I would think the TM 60 would be the way to go. I may have to buy a TM 60 for the heck of it.

Single channel, 1x8 speaker. Has an awesome accutronics spring reverb - very subtle and classic sounding. It has an effects loop that can be used as a pre-amp out, and also an XLR out that you can use to go direct to a PA system. It has 3 speaker settings, USA (Eminence), British (Celestion), and Flat. I've had the amp for about 3 weeks now. I wanted to wait awhile and see if my enthusiasm for it would last, and believe me, it has. I love this amp. For the first time in my guitar "life" I feel like I have a quality amplifier (I've never had GAS, and could never afford a lot of stuff).

I play an 83 American made Telecaster that came with EMG's (bought the guitar used). I used to have a Fender Pro Jr, and it was too loud and too generic a tone for me. I play blues and am now getting into jazz. This amp does it all. It has a variety of great sounds. I usually use the clean setting, and change between the speaker settings often. At first I primarily played through the USA speaker, but lately I've really liked the British/Celestion sound a LOT - especially through a TS7 tubescreamer I just bought today. Very nice. I've also been practicing jazz and doing so using the suggested jazz setting that is in the manual. For that I use the flat speaker setting and it sounds good too. I don't gig, but I do try to make it out to a blues jam at a club nearby me on Thursday nights. I was skeptical about using the Trademark 10's XLR out to the PA because I was worried it wouldn't sound good. So first, I went over to my jam buddy's house, who is a harp player. He has all kinds of tube amps and cabinets. I used one of his 2x12 cabinets (old thing, no name) and believe me, this thing was LOUD and with a very nice tone. I was stoked. I played for 4 hours straight and loved every minute of it. That Thursday I took it to my local blues jam and as I expected, the house band leader looked at me like I was nuts when he called me up and I asked him to plug my amp into the PA. The house band guitar player just shook his head and said no no no it would sound like garbage. I got them to do it, and it sounded pretty good, but the problem was they didn't mix it correctly, so for the first song we did I was struggling with my volume and tone. The next 2 songs were great though - it sounded very good. That said, next time I'm just going to use the TM10 as a master and slave one of the house amps, which has plenty of volume. If I were in a band and had a sound guy I would have no doubts that the TM10 going straight to the PA via the XLR would be great.

I would think it is very reliable. I've banged it around a few times, bringing it to my local jam session and to a friend's house. No problems yet, and considering Tech21's support I think no matter what happens it will get repaired or replaced without problems. I bought it "new", though it was really used in my opinion. Basically, I called all over the Philadelphia metro area trying to find a TM10 in stock, and finally found a small shop about 40 minutes away that had one. I show up and it was clearly either used or a demo model. And at the same full retail price (actually had to get him to match the internet price!) of $249. It did have the warranty card and all, but it clearly was used. Heck, I had to have one, so I got it. No problems so far.

First off let me give you an idea of myself as a customer - I have NEVER called a support line in my life, never emailed or written a company. But after reading about Tech21's helpful support staff, and with my not knowing how best to use the little TM10 at my local jam, I emailed Tech21 and asked them what they recommended. Within 2 hours, the Product Manager for the TM10 emailed me back with a lengthy and detailed, step-by-step way to use the TM10 as both a direct box straight to the PA, and also how to use it to go through the house amp that I described in my email. He was awesome, very thorough and helpful. So then I figured I'd push my luck and ask if they sold an amp cover (I didn't want to spend the $44 on the gig bag for the TM10, though it sure looks nice). Again, within a short time they responded and for $2 (postage included) they sent me a dust cover for my TM10. Very cool (beats the trash bag I was using!). Tech21 is an awesome company, and I've never said that about ANY company before.

For the money, this is the best amp one could get. Tube amps are too loud for most people unless you live in a very big single house and have a very tolerating family. Cus you have to turn em up to get any kind of tone out of em. I had a Fender Pro Jr before this and I hated it. I've had all kinds of amps, but nothing good. This amp is awesome. While it is a super loud 10 watts solid-state, it's still not loud enough for clubs/gigs on its own, but considering it's XLR and pre-amp out (you can use the effects send as a line out via the SansAmp technology built-in) it is the most versatile amp I know of. Espcially when you consider that you can get one of those Power Engine 60's to boost the power up to handle most live situations. And for those that complain about it not having a 2nd channel - I just purchased a TS-7 tubescreamer and it works awesome as a lead boost. I love this amp, and would buy one again in a heartbeat if it were stolen or lost.

Bought new at Sam Ashe Music in South Florida last week, so I guess it is a 2002-3 model. You know the features if you have read previous reviews. I give it a 9 only because it would be perfect if it were two chnnel.

The sound of this little amp is uncomparable to anything else in the price range. Very rich, full, round sound. Offers a ton of various flavors, from teed to Marshall sound and everything imaginable in between. I really cannot say enough about this little amp. It is very high quality sound reproduction.

Will find out! Other reviews sound very positive. I am a new owner, so I cant comment here. Seems very sturdy and very well made.

Not needed as yet.

I have only been playing for two years, but I do recognize quality sound. Hell, Im a child of the 60's man! I know sound. I have an American Peavey T-27, early 80's and an Epiphone 335 Dot. Both sound great thru this baby. Very smooth, very "Tube Like". Lost or stolen? I would cry, then run out and buy an identical Trademark 10. It is very loud for a 10 watt amp. The sound of this amplifier was heads above the Marshall, Vov, Fender, and Crate in the same or slightly higher price range. You want tube sound in a practice size amp, this is the one and only. Nothing. I mean NOTHING, comes close. Really big thanks to the people at tech 21. And made in the good ole' U.S.A. too!

I got this amp as a birthday present, I had no previous knowledge of this product. I was very impressed with this amp it hs great tones for a non-tube amp. I have only had tube amps in the past and have always had the please turn it down problem even with my THD Univalve with a 6V6 and hotplate on. You can actually get good tone at low volumes with this amp. Of course if I hook the T-10 my 2x12 cab it can get pretty loud too. It is a great amp for the money and is the only amp I have found with good "tube" tone at low volume.
Its a must have for apartment,bedroom (in anothers house ),or hotel playing.

I use single coil strats mostly play hard rock blues and it sounds great . Like I wanted my Univalve to sound at low volume but could not achieve. It is very quite even with my unshielded strat w s/c pups.
I am very happy with the selection of tones on this amp it is vey versitle as an amp especilly at the price. The marshall tones are great as well as the fender. I am not sure of the mesa because I never had one. Try tweed , hot gain , Uk , for a Good SRV. notch up low and mids notch down high.
I wouldn't gig with this amp because ther is a hint of non tube sound but it does sound great for what it is.
The line out sounds great.(XLR)

This is probably a very reliable amp but I have only had it a month so I don't know for sure.
Looks to be built and designed well.

I don't know haven't had a problem and I wouldn't expect to get much help with an a practice amp.

If this were stolen I would buy another one if I had any money.
I love this amp for its great tone at low volume.
I wish it had channel swtching but I am sure marketing wouldn't let that happen at this price.
If you are looking for a low volume amp with tone "TRY THIS AMP!"

Another review of this excellent amp. Features listed below, somehow Tech21 managed to get the character of their GT2 preamp into an amp without the excess noise that the pedal generates. THE BEST direct out of any amp I've used. Only thing I wish it had was channel switching.

Excellent clean, marshall and high gain sounds, subtle changes with speaker fiddles. Can sound like just about anything. My only niggle on this end is that when you dime it something rattles in one of my 2. Not sure if it's speaker or cabinet, but I've had the same problem with other Tech21 stuff, I suspect they underbuild just a bit. Takes to pedals well.

No serious problems, see above.

No idea...

Perfect church amp, darn good for smaller venues or even larger stuff if plugged into the board. Just about the only thing I play out if there's a decent PA to tap into.

This amp is very versitile. It has 10 watts out of an 8" speaker. It is extremly loud for only 10 watts. It is tech 21's tube emulation solid state that is a cross between the Trademark 60 and the Sansamp and 100% analog. It has california (Mesa/Boogie),Brittish(Marshall), and Tweed(Fender) models. It also has a switch for US and UK speaker stiles as well as accutronics reverb. Only 1 channel, but has effects loop, headphone jack, and gain stage switch.

I have an Ibanez RG470 that is very versitile. I play mostly metal/hard rock, but play some blues and clean stuff on the side. The fender and marshall models are good, but the mesa/boogie model sucks and sounds like the marshall setting with a little less mids. The 8" speaker also sucks and makes the amps bass and palm muting sound like shit. The volume doesnt distort the clean very much and only does when up all the way. Many outside effects sound bad in it(especially distortions). If you play alot of metal, dont buy this amp. My rating is mainly for the clean part of this amp.

I bought it used on ebay, and the reverb didnt work. Other than that, had no problems.

I emailed the company about the reverb and they never got back to me.

Ive been playing for 2 years and know what is good. I would only recomend this for clean or bluesy stuff. The hi gain stuff sucks on it. I dont know if the other tech 21 stuff has better distortion, bur I hope so. Dont make the same mistake I did, try this out before you buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The features on this amp are excellent. This uses all the sansamp technology, which absolutely sound great. I use this amp weekly in a live setting and totally love the sounds I get. the line out (XLR) sounds 100% like the amp, unlike most amp line outs that sound like crap. I've never used the headphone jack (does anyone?).

It is only 10 watts, so it does have to be mic'd or use the line out. But that happens no matter where you play.

The major drawback is that this amp has only 1 channel. Granted this amp is intended for a practice amp, but it sounds sooooooooo good, that people use it live. Plus the fact that it only weighs 14 pounds is amazing. I live in NYC and don't have a car. Weight makes a difference here.

I use mostly Ibanez and Music Man guitars mostly in a rock setting. I can dial up in a breeze the exact setting I like. I pretty much leave the tone knobs the same (bass 9, mid 8, treble 70), and just change the AMP and MOD switches. I can get the heavy, crunch and clean sounds I need by simply switching those. I leave the SPEAKER set on U.K.

The distortion is flat out, bar none, the best you will find for any amp of this size or slightly bigger. I had a Mesa-Boogie DC-3 tube combo amp and the Trademark 10 eats it for breakfast on every level.

TOTALLY dependable.

Haven't needed support, but I did go to the office in NYC and buy a gig bag for it. They were all cool.

I love the way this sounds. I've been playing 17 years and would have died to have had an amp this sounding this good 15 years ago.

If someone stole it, I don't know that I would buy this same model, simply because of the channel switching thing. that ONLY matters because I DO use it live weekly. If you don't intend on using it live, GET IT!!!!!

Like I said, the biggest problem is that it OVERDELIVERS. No one expects it to sound so good, so they use it live, and then are disappointed with the lack of channels. Quite a conundrum. They should make a version with the TRI-AC pedal built in, so that 3 settings could be accessed. THAT would be priceless. The next size up is the TRADEMARK 60, but that adds another 20 pounds. It has two channels, but I'd like 3. They can do it on the pedal. Why not do it on the amp?

This amp was made in 2001, bought it mainly for practice and because it was small with an effects loop, and could get a variety of sounds. I think the price is great and I'd buy one again.

This amp puts the enjoyment back into practicing and playing. I use five guitars each very different and have to tweak the settings just a little for great tone. Sound is fantastic with no noise. I turn the reverb off and use a Boss reverb/delay pedal. Try the Brit-Hot-UScab setting with the tone and gain controls @ 12:00 - Incredible! I don't use clean too often, can't comment. Blows away ValveState, and forget about getting larger amps to sound this good at low volumes - been there tried that. This 10 watt sounds like a cranked 4-12 at levels you can have next to your bed and doesnt piss your wife off!

No problems yet, has never left my bedside.

N/A

I've played for over 20 years and currenty using Johnson amps for rehersals and live situations which also have proved worthy and reliable. As far as Tech 21-10, it exceeds all my expectations, my favorite to play with. I am considering obtaining the new 200W head because of its easy settings, and just use a couple of effects pedals with it. Keep it simple and it will sound awesome.

Ok. The amp is about half a year old, so it's model 2002. The features have been listed below. Only what's missing is another channel, as others have stated. Well, at home I really don't need another channel since I've got lotsa time dialing in the tones. The active eq is wonderful! It also has lotsa power, I really didn't believe my ears when I turned her on. For the "missing" channel 2 I give it only 9.

I'm using standard Fender mexico Telecaster with stock pups, though I'm considering to change the bridge one to hotter pup, maybe JB junior or so. I'm playing blues/classic rock/modern rock/grunge/proggressive rock, nearly everything and it excels in all of them! I just got the amp and in thirty minutes I was able to dial in anything from creamy blues sounds to brutal distortion (think of early megadeth stuff). It's really versatile. I can't get the clean channel distorted without making my neighbours mad, so I'm perfectly happy with it! Only "complaint" is that with reverb you have to be extremely careful for not to overdial it accidentally. It's quite sensitive, you see.

As far as I know about Tech 21 products, they're quite sturdy. Solid-state technology doesn't heat up like tubes do and stuff... I'm not planning of having backups for this baby.

The guys at the local store are really nice though I dont think I'll need help.

I've been playing something like 10 years. I don't have (yet) effects, and this amp is so versatile, that I can forget about overdrive/distortion pedals whatsoever. Maybe a wah and a delay, that's all I need. I chose especially this amp since now I don't have to mind about changing tubes...and it happened to be a real bargain. I can recommend this for anyone playing at bedroom/recording in a home studio/in rehearsals...go for it!

This amplifier was purchased new in 2001, alas, at the peak of its price curve (much like my mutual fund portfolio). The features are described by other reviewers below, and more detailed specs can be found at www.tech21nyc.com for those who care about such things. As others have noted, the only "missing" feature is channel switching, which I suspect was omitted because the Trademark 10 was meant to be used in a studio/bedroom rather than on stage. Its 10 watts are more than adequate for its intended uses.

I run a Reverend Commando (neck single coil and bridge humbucker on a semi-hollow phenolic frame) straight into the Trademark 10 without any effects. No, I am not a tone purist -- just too cheap to purchase any stomp boxes. I use the BRITISH (Marshall-esque) amp setting and U.K. (read: Celestion Greenback) speaker setting for the majority of my playing. I find this provides a versatile substrate from which a variety of tones can be generated by adjusting the guitar's volume and the amplifier's gain and EQ. With the gain mod switch set to "Clean", tones suitable for anything from dirtier blues to cleaner punk are available. Switching to the "Hi Gain" or "Hot" settings calls up anything short of the heaviest metal. The TWEED setting sounds best to me at lower gain levels. As the gain is pushed, the breakup is not quite as smooth as I would have liked to hear. It is also on the TWEED setting that the limitations of the 8" speaker becomes apparent when the bass is pushed past 2 o'clock. C'est la vie. The CALIF (Mesa/Boogie) setting emulates its namesake quite well and can deliver distortion beyond what the BRIT setting offers, but I rarely venture into that part of town. I will echo the comments made about the active EQ controls. These are remarkably sensitive. For those accustomed to throwing the knobs through a 180 degree arc, be aware that an adjustment of just one clock position can mean the difference between too dark, too bright and just right. The MID control in particular has tremendous impact on its tone. The spring reverb is excellent and can be pushed hard before becoming too murky.

Useful tones are easily achieved, but the Trademark 10 rewards patient tweaking. For a moderate rock crunch using a bridge humbucker, I use (as a point of origin): BRIT/CLEAN/UK; DRIVE 2 (o'clock); LOW 2; MID 11; HI 1; LEVEL 10; REVERB to taste. Again, note the relatively conservative EQ curve. Cutting the mids much further will put put you on a fast train to Metallica-land (if such is your desire). Using a neck single coil, I use the following setting for blues: BRIT/CLEAN/UK, DRIVE 10; LOW 12; MID 1; HI 1; LEVEL 12. One comment needs to be made about amplifier placement. Given its compact size, high frequencies are significantly attenuated off axis. The amp will sound considerably brighter if raised closer to ear level or pointed upwards appropriately. While this may not be relevant for solo practicing, recorded tone may be too bright if you adjusted the EQ while listening to the amp off its speaker axis.

Its light weight is welcome, but does not exactly call out "idiot-proof." When first purchased, the amplifier chassis rattled a bit when I played the open low-E at high volumes, but this settled down and disappeared after a few days. I have not encountered any other problems after nearly one year.

Kudos for a nice, informative website, but otherwise no experience with their customer support quality.

Horses for courses, folks. The Trademark 10 was meant to fulfill specific functions, and it succeeds. It works beautifully as a stand-alone practice amp, and I'm sure it excels in the studio as well (I have only started using it for recording). There are certainly tube amplifiers with better tone, but how many can achieve that tone at bedroom volumes without power soaks or outboard processors? How many of those cost less than $300, new? How many feature a balanced direct out? Finally, how many of them can jump from surf to thrash by flicking a switch? The Trademark 10 should be auditioned by anyone looking for a low wattage amp, particularly those who are considering digital modeling amplifiers for their tonal variety.

I play a variety of music from mediocore jazz to energetic metal. This amp covers everything. I use it for recording and practice. It sounds absolutely awesome. People give this thing bad reviews, but I dare you to find another practice amp that sounds anywhere near as good in this category.

I use it with a Lone Star Strat and a 2000 USA custom shop Jackson guitar. The clean channel is outstanding and can do both blues and jazz. The distortion sounds great too, but since the EQ is powerful, you can get a bad sound if you don't use your ears. I think the distortion is potent enough to do an And Justice for All type sound. You don't really need more than that--it probably suffice for everything--even death metal--if you have good pickups

Mine was a demo model, so I doubt it will break any time soon.

1 year.

Been playing 7 years. I would definately buy it again. I've tried or owned just about every practice amp in existence and this is the one I liked the best. I only wish it had a footswitch (buy the Tri AC pedal and you can switch between 4 sounds effortlessly).

The fatures have been well covered in previous posts, so I'll just confirm that they're all there. Yup, sure are. Musically, I go where the song takes me, and this ampmakes suggestions about the route. I do wish it had channel switching, but for me in the "studio" it does just fine.

Most versatile amp I've played through. Ever. I use a custom guitar with Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro II and Pearly Gates pickups, and a Godin LG with the Tetrad pickups. They both sound very nice. I've also tested this amp with a Strat in the shop, and it sounded just as good there (how often do you hear that?). It's all there, at your fingertips *though I'm still working on a setting for an acoustic guitar).

I've had it three weeks now, and there's nothing loose, noting rattling. My sister has one of their Bronzewood amps, and she's never had a problem with it in nearly three years. They both seem very solid, very dependable. If I gigged, I'd make sure I had a backup, but mostly due to paranoia...

Never dealt with. I'll let you know if I do.

I've been playing for 14 years, through all manner of gear. Crates, Ampegs, Carvins, and Fenders. This one has them all beat for flexibility and for tone.

I bought this amp as a small portable practice amp.It serves this purpose very well,since it is light,and not too loud.Also,the EQ is extremely responsive...and a good EQ is a key component to getting a great tone.

You can choose from 3 different amp types(Fender,Marshall,and Mesa),3 gain types,and 3 cabinet settings.In other words,"you can mix & match different amps with cabinets."

There's really only one thing that I don't like about this amp.It has only a single channel...so I need to use a distortion pedal if I want to play songs that switch from clean to distorted tones.Of course,the larger Tech 21's do offer channel switching or;I could also buy two Trademark 10's and A/B them.

It does have an effects loop,a DI output for recording or going straight to a PA system,and a speaker extension jack...all of which are nice features,but rare in small practice amps.The amp also has a headphone out.

I can't believe the sound quality and versatility of this amp! It is the best sounding solid state amp that I've ever heard.It even beats my old Randall RG80SC on versatility---and I can perfectly match the Randall's nice distortion and Jazz/clean sound.That's saying a lot,because the Randall was the only solid state amp distortion that I liked...until now.But the Randall was very heavy,and very loud.

The Tech 21 is better than a lot of tube amps that I've heard(not high-end ones,of course).And you can get the tone at low volume.With the Tech 21,I can get close to ANY sound that I want...from a jazzy clean,to a SRV blues,to a Marshall crunch,to an AC/DC rock,even a Metallica Master Of Puppets sound.It would have better bass response with a larger speaker,but it has a speaker extension jack--so I can't really complain.I just wish it was 2 footswitchable channels....then I'd give it a 10.

I mail ordered this amp from American Musical Supply.I bought a "factory non-sealed" one,at a slight discount.Unfortunately,the first one didn't work.But,AMS is a great company--they sent me a brand new one at the same price!

The tech 21 certainly isn't as roadworthy as my old Randall,but not many amps are.I'd say reliability is about average for a solid state amp.

Never needed them/don't know.

I have 5 different guitars,each with different pickups...and they all sound different through this amp(and that is a very good thing).I've been playing for over 16 years now,and this amp can play almost ANY kind of music.

With all of the features,this amp is well worth the price I paid!
I personally don't think most tube amps are ideal for the average guitar player due to reliability,cost,and volume issues.Unfortunately most solid state amps have terrible tone--so the Tech 21 was a very pleasant surprise.

I think that ANY guitar player(novice or pro) could find a use for this nice practice amp!

1. 3 different overdrives
2. 3 different amps
3. EQ
4. REVERB

HOLY MOLY !!!E213243, OH BOY UHHHH OH BOY......
MY GOD !!!! HOLY HELL !!!! GEEEEEES WIZZZZZZ !!!
UN F BELIEVABLE !!!

DAM ! DAM DAM

SOUNDS BETTER THAN MY F BIG AMPS !!!!!
NOT KIDDING !!!

THE OVERDRIVES ARE AMAZING
THE CLEAN IS GOOD ALSO, NEED TO TWEAK to get that sweet spot
for this size of amp, this FRRRR get a 10 !!!
i also have a power engine 60
i want 2 power engines to plug into this FRRRRR
then i'll reeely be a BAD ASS

NEVER HAD PROBLEMS WITH THE TECH 21 products

don't know

1. Kinda Pricy
2. One amazing sounding amp
3. Reverb is very good
4. The EQ is very good

Man o MAN.........

I bought it 2001 and I guess it's made in the same year too. (at least the music store was a brand new one).

If a guitar (like mine) has good pickups, this amp suits really well for any metal from Stratovarius to Cannibal Corpse. I haven't tried other styles, because I'm not interested.

My dream amp would have three channels: Clean, Rhythm and Solo channels. The problem with TM-10 is that is has only one channel. So changing between different sounds takes a few moments. That's where I'll have to cut down the points.

I mainly use this amp for practise and the 10 watts power is enough. Actually it could be even less. I've also played some cover songs with some friends. We use an electric drumkit so 10 watts are definately enough. The only problem with bandplaying is that the 8" speaker is quite bad at playing low tones if the master volume is too high, so the bass knob must be turned down. I once tried a small extra cabinet when we were playing and the low end problem was fixed. I've also played a few times on the stage (at school mostly but last summer our band had a half an hour gig at a hotell restaurant. On the stage, I've always felt mighty and powerful with my TM-10. The mixer guy was quite awazed how the hell I can so great guitarsound!

One great feature in TM-10 is the SansAmp direct out. It simulates a multi micked real tubeamp and does it quite damn well! If you attach the amp to PA, for example, you'll soon forget that you play a mini-sized amp. It really sounds big through big equipment! And that's the way to use this amp on the stage too.

My guitar is a custom Jackson with two active humbuckers and as I said earlier, this amp is great for metal. But, your guitar is got to be pretty good too. I've tried the amp with my old guitar (a crappy Epiphone) and it sounded like crap.

The amp is not noisy at all. I practise in front of a computer screen and that makes a bit noise, but it's not the amp's fault! When we are playing with the band, no noise can be heard even though I always use high overdrive. But the reberb makes a little noise. And when you play clean, it makes a lot of noise.

TM-10 works best when you're playing rhythms. But the solo sound could be much better. If it was, the sound would get 10 points.

As a metal musican I can't say much about the clean sound. My guitar is adjusted to boost the middles (which is delivers a better overdrive) and the sound is distorted a bit in the guitar already. But with the clean sound the amp must be played at half on full volume. All the distortion seems to be coming from the guitar.

The drive is really brutal if your pickups have enough output. (mine has quite fucking lot of output!) With passive pickups I'd recommend to use some boost pedal.

I've had this amp for a year now, and so far it's worked perfectly.

Never dealt with them.

I've played guitar about eight years. Though, the first five years were quite passive playing. I really don't need much more that my guitar and the amp. In the effect loop I use an Ibanez Echomachine delaypedal. Crappy, but does it's job.

If it were stolen, I'd definately buy it again! So far it's the best amp for me I know.

I have tested Trademark 60 side by side with the smaller one. The funny part was that TM-10 really kicks TM-60's ass if we're talking about the quality of sound. But TM-60 is a real killer for traditional bandplaying and has no problem to kick the drummer's ass! ;) I played it on about half power and it shaked the whole house and the treble was still clear (at least through earplugs).

Today I went to a local music store to test Marshall jcm-800. It could not beat TM-10 in any other way than power! At least if you play death metal. (maybe my mighty pickups broke the Marshall :)

The more other amps I've tested (though, I haven't tested much yet), the more I've began to respect my dear little Trademark 10.

How did I find it? My earlier amp was a crappy Samick and I went to the local music shop right away, when it was opened, to look for a new amp. The first one I tried was Laney TF200, which a friend had recommended. Didn't suit my style at all. Then the salesman told me to try Trademark 120. Hmm.. It was better, but still a lot was missing. I told them that I had like max $700 money and then they brang me this TM-10. As it was the opening day of the shop, I didn't hear much what it sounded, but when they gave me headphones, I fell in love with this amp! ;) I played and played and played. I had found my SOUND!

Currently I'm planning to but a second amp for solos and a third one for cleans. And when I'm rich, I'm going to buy and Engl (but I'll have to test one first ;)

Summary:

Good:
- An unbelievable rhythm and lead sound for headbangers (as far as I've heard it can handle any other style too)
- 10 watts is perfect for home use
- Reacts very well to your playing style
- SansAmp output
- Small and light
- Price

Bad:
- Solo sound
- Only one channel
- Reverb is a bit noisy and can't be toggled
- 10 watts is not enough for band use

I have spoken.

Brand-new amp, all the features have been covered by other reviewers. The tone controls are ACTIVE, not passive like just about every other amp, and have a great deal of range if used properly. Headphone jack, balanced direct-out, that's about it for features. Wish it had a switchable 2nd channel, but it IS a 10-WATT AMP! I practice with it, but definitely plan to record with it.

This amp could do it all, metal, blues, jazz, country, pop, whatever you want or need. I'm pretty much a metalhead, but I like metal that has a variety of guitar tones, and this amp fits the bill perfectly. I'm usually playing a Parker Fly Deluxe through it, and with that versatile guitar, can get any, I mean ANY, sound I need. I have several other axes and they ALL sound good through this amp! The factory suggested presets are OK, but experimenting with this amp is a necessity. The secret is to turn the knobs S-L-O-W-L-Y, a little at a time, because you really can SHAPE the tone any way you want. At first I thought the clean sounds were a bit weak, but only until I learned to balance the controls. The bass response, for an 8-inch speaker, is unbelievable! I've found the British amp model, hi-gain mod, and U.S. speaker setting to have the tone I use the most, but it's nice to have the hot mod setting to add a bit more oomph when I want it. And I can get the sounds I want at a VERY low volume. It CAN get pretty loud, but that's NOT what this amp is about. The bass gets pretty muddy when turned up too loud, and the cabinet can rattle a bit, so I keep the volume down, and get GREAT sounds out of this little gem. This amp gets as brutal or as sweet as you need it to. For God's sake, it's a 10 WATT AMP! It shouldn't sound this good, but it does!

It's solid state, and I've had a Tech 21 Trademark 60 for more than a couple years with absolutely NO problems whatsoever, and it's been bumped pretty hard a few times, so I expect this little bad boy to hold up as well. Wish I could say the same for other amps I've owned.

When I filled out the warranty card for my Trademark 60 a couple years ago, I wrote some nice things on the comment section. Shortly thereafter, I recieved a letter from Tech 21, who appreciated my comments, and doubled the warranty period for the amp. Class act, in my opinion. I don't really aticipate needing customer support too much with this company's products. They're built pretty well for their intended purposes and will last a long time.

I've been playing over 30 years, have a Lee Jackson Metaltronix amp and a Johnson Millennium, as well as other amps, several nice guitars, and would rather play them through THIS amp, rather than the much more costly, feature-laden amps. ALL my guitars sound good through this amp, unlike others I have or have had in the past. THIS amp inpires me to play, rather than experiment with effects and amp settings, like the Johnson, for example. I hate NOTHING about this amp. I compared it to other small practice amps and found nothing else on the market that could compete sonically with this one.

It's not the 60's, 70's or 80's anymore and technology has come a lone way. Once you grow beyond the "tubes are better than solid-state" mentality, which USED to be a fact, you can focus on something else. It's all about the TONE. This amp is a TONE MONSTER. And I just wanted a low-volume practice amp! I got SO much more with the Trademark 10!

If you are Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Rory Gallagher, or Jeff Beck , this is a nice amp for you to use in your bedroom (if you are still alive).When you need to move it out of the way to clean the floor like I do, its easy for you to lift, cause it weighs less than a case of Heinekken bottles, and your back is as old as mine is (or would be, if you were still alive). You can plug it direct into your little Tascam tape machine, just like I do. Since your'e only screwing around in the bedroom, you don't need to footswitch through a bunch of stuff, just a little EQ tweak, add some 'verb & go, like I do. Plus effect loop, headphone out & speaker out. If you need any more stuff ( 2nd channel, more power, more whatever), look for something else. I've seen all you guys live, and none of you ever used a 10 watt/8" amp ON STAGE at Cobo, or the Grande...of course, now your'e just looking for a nice little home amp...here it is... gotta give it max points for what it is. Plus, its black - amps should be black. And its made in the good old USA.

Unlike you guys , I only have one guitar. I've been playing as many years as you, but there are a few differences between us: I'm not any good, and I play in much smaller venues (my house).I love the sound of my Fender Champ I bought new in '65, but I'm giving it some time off for good behavior. Let's say your'e Jimmy, but you'd like to sound like Jimi...flip a few switches on the "SansAmp GT2 Tube Amplifier Emulation" circuitry...bingo. Choose among all the popular amp/tone phrases like "tweed-hot-clean-hi gain-British" and 4 others. Close enough for $185. The 8" speaker sounds like an 8" speaker. This one does a nice job of producing some pleasant sound waves. I'm happy. My stock G&L Legacy is happy. My wife is happy enough (she thinks it sounds the best when I play it through the headphones). I'm going to go with...TEN POINTS!!

Every time I turn it on it works just fine, although I thought I had a problem once...I turned it on and nothing happened...until I plugged it in (apparently does not have battery/solar/nuclear power supply). Therefore, 10 pts.

I emailed for some product info...got it in a few days...10 points to be shared with US Postal Service

$185, shipped new in a box, with a cover...I've paid more for dinner for 2. Nice price, woulda cost me $80 more at local retail. So lets see, compared to all the other new $185, analog, tube-emulation, speaker-sim, direct-out, 14 lb. amps that work right and sound right, I like this one the best. Grading on a curve: Ten points

I bought this used on Ebay. All solid state based on the Tech 21 pedal. One BIG sounding 8" speaker. Mainly a "watching tv" practice amp and a vacationing amp. I can't be without my guitar!! See the other reviews for featurs. Covers lots of sounds and feels.

Good god....this thing amazes me. NO...its not a tube amp replacement but for its size, output, and tone...this thing is worth every penny I spent on it. I mainly leave it in the UK mode, higain, and flat speaker response. It has a very "tubey / analog" feel to it, which is really nice. My other amps are all Mesa Boogies and I've used modeling amps in the past. This little tyke is a giant killer. Sure it doesn't have the heat of tubes, but for solid state, it will kill all other solid state amps and make digital amps ashamed they cost so much. Harmonics leap from this little amp and the bass response is awesome for a 8". I might replace it with a Weber C8Q just for poops and giggles. I love Weber speakers.

It seems really well built and its analog!!! No digital crashes or tubes to burn out!

Haven't needed them

A very good practice / travel / bedroom amp. I really like it a lot and I'm glad I bought it. Now i know why these things sell like hot cakes on Ebay and command decent prices. Mint ones will go for about $190 to $200. Brand new they are around $250. Not much depreciation there.

same features as mentioned below, channel switching would be nice but it has a full array of other features that work well together.

I've only had this amp about 2 months, so I'm still discovering sounds it can produce. So far I'm impressed. I play a PRS Custom 22 with dragon II humbuckers, along with a PRS Singlecut with Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbuckers and a stock US Tele. I, like many other gear heads here, have tried a lot of different guitar/amp combos over the years. I probably haven't tried out as many amps as guitars, but in the last 5 years I've had a 5150 combo, Victoria Double Deluxe, and JCM 800 and 900 heads. Currently I play for fun in a local cover band through a versatile, kind of sterile sounding Line6 100w stereo Flextone II combo. I mention all of the amps because I have had the opportunity to play through tube and modeling amps. Although the 32 preset channels are cool, I have found that the Line6 has too many tweaking options for me. I like to set up, dial in and play. I have found that the Trademark 10 allows me to do that at home and still have a lot of the versatility that I have grown dependent on with my Line6. I get the variety of good tone flavors that I need and want, without the blandness that a digital modeling amp can produce. It's quiet, and all of the controls seem to make the correct difference in the sound so you can really adjust the hell out of it. I can even get a pretty good acoustic tone out of it when I plug in my Takamine. My favorite setting so far is the brit/hi-gain/uk....pretty darned Marshall-like. For a practice amp it's almost everything I could want. Who wants to screw with tubes and high volume for home practice? It does sound solid state, but GOOD solid state, and the 8" speaker sounds like, well, an 8" speaker. Probably shines through the XLR out with a good board and PA, and I can always utilize a cabinet with the speaker out line. I'm currently experimenting with putting a Tubescreamer w/808 mod in front of it for a 2 channel type of gain/volume boost.

Bought mine used in perfect shape. No rattles, lights out etc. So far, so good.

No exp w/customer support yet

I love this little amp. It motivates me to play more at home because I can switch it on, play for 20 minutes, and switch it off. It's always ready to go and quick to change. I bought it because I was down-sizing my practice gear, kind of liked the sound, and definately liked the direct out capability. I knew that if I was out jamming or practicing with my band I could bring a smaller setup and get a bigger sound through the PA. I had no idea that I would enjoy the tones I can get this much. I can't wait to try it through my practice PA (Yamaha powered head) or my gig PA (all Mackie). It hasn't disappointed me yet, although I'm realistic about the fact that it is primarily a practice amp. $300 is a little expensive for a new one, but lots of fun for the $200 that I paid.

2002
Very versatile
One channel only but two of these and an a-b box are cheaper than a good tube combo and you would have to mike it anyway.

Use a strat to gig with mostly. Tele for a backup, dano for slide old gibson es330 around the house.
This thing can get most any of the sounds you want.
The thing you have to remember is as a guitar player we like to hear a good amp But the people that listen to you want to hear what comes out of their stereo. That is what this thing sounds like, exactly what you hear out of a good stereo. Not processed and lifeless but the good sounds that do get recorded from time to time. Do you really think all the great bands from the 60s and 70s sounded the same on tape as they did live?
With the tm 10 you can like the recording.

Have not had it long so I really can't say

Have not had to deal with tech 21

Been playing for 25 years. Have lots of gear but you don't really don't want to hear about that.
I would buy another if lost or stolen.
I HATE non tube amps and I bought this one.
I DO NOT write reviews for other people to see what kind cool gear I think I own, in fact this one is the first.
Go buy one you will not be disapointed.

This is a follow-up to my previous review. BTW, I did manage to get a new amp without much hassel...and yes, like many people have mentioned, the reverb on this little thing does sound pretty decent.

OK...here's the deal...I'm not trying to convince anybody to but or not to buy this amp...I just think I've got some new thoughts which are not entirely compatible with my previous review so I want to be honest...
First of all--yes, this is the best solidsate I've heard, despit it's low-wattage and 8 inch speaker, that's for sure. But to be honest, I miss tube sounds. Tones provided by this little thing sound impressive at first (at leadt for the first couple of days)...and then it almost become unbearable to me. Why? Well, it's probably just me. But these tones do sound artificial, and I get a yucky feeling after palying it...now I just play my PRS accoustically. Well you might have expected someone with a PRS to have a good amp, right? I'm actually away from home now so I have to take into consideration of how I'm gonna take my setup back home on the plane...
So here's the deal: if you want (I do) quality at low volume, like many have said at amptone.com, you have to get a low-wattage tube amp. And in UK Cornford provides them (6 watt recording amp)...but the price is twice as much as the Trademark 10...so I'm still debating whether or not to go for it. But anyway....

Fairly decent structure overall.

If you'are not bothered by the fact that you're not hearing tubes, then I think this thing is a wonder. Tech 21 did achieve something very special here. But sadly, I miss tube sounds...so this thing is going to end up on the second-hand market.

Pretty much as everyone else here has said. Well, of course I'd wish it had channel switching, but then again, that's gonna cost more, eh?

Sounds great to me. I traded in my Marshall AVT50 combo for this little thing. Well, I do miss it a little. But the thing is, I can't crank the 50watt all the way in my apartment, so it's a waste anyway. Tone-wise, I think this little thing does what it's purported to do and it does those things well: nice tone at low volume. Connnecting it to my home hi-fi is also a pleasant thing to do (well the 8' speaker does sound like an 8' to me, but I can certainly live with it).

I got the unit FAULTY. The reverb doesn't work at all. Damn. But then again, I don't really care. I bought it to play at home, and if I want reverb, I can get it with my effects. No big deal. I ain't gonna bother having it repaired. For this reason it gets a 5, otherwise, yeah, I think it's very dependable. Just make sure that you REALLY test it at the shop if you could. (I actually did, but just didn't pay attention to the reverb...damn...)

Haven't dealt with them and don't think I will.

It's a great recording amp, that's for sure. And it does make playing at home a pleasure...other than that, well, don't expect too much from it.

This category gets an 8 because of the lack of channel switching. I'm looking into the Tri A.C. for that.

Ok, here's the deal. Apparently we have some debate here between 10s and 1s. This is my first review for a product, and I'm one of the 10s. This is the modeling solution I've been looking for - I just sold my POD on Ebay. This amp inspires me to play and has inspired me to actually take time and write a review. If I ever meet a Tech 21 employee I'm gonna hug them. My bass player and drummer keep staring at this little amp and picking it up looking for the magic fairy inside making those sounds. This whole tone argument is subjective I suppose, but let me just say that I'm done searching for a modeling amp. Now here's the all important catch - I'm using the direct XLR output into a Carvin 1000 watt mixer/amp into Carvin 15 inch PA speakers with Carvin horns, so perhaps that has something to do with it, ya know. I have not played with the amp by itself too much. In other words, the Tech 21 Trademark 10 amp might truly deserve a 5 in the Sound category. But the Tech 21 Trademark 10 amp through a Carvin PA system gets a 10. It all depends on your particular setup folks.

Had the amp for 2 months. We'll see.

I've called with questions. They've answered.

Channel Switching! Tech 21 are you listening?

This is a follow up to my review of 2.23.02 (Tom). I've now had it for a couple of months and I've gigged with it weekly thru the PA in a number of venues. I'm afraid it's come down a lot in my estimation. As a practice amp I think it sucks big time. There are one or 2 tones which actually sound good and by good I mean the sort of tone where it's actually 'pleasant' to listen to. Thru the 8" speaker anything overdriven or distorted sounds farty and not unlike a kazoo. Hold a note and the overdriven sound farts out at the end to a clean sound. It doesn't inspire me to play at home at all. I have a Behringer V-amp and I can get some absolutely beautiful ear-candy clean tones and juicy smooth high gain tones and everything in between thru headphones so I NEVER use the Trademark 10 at home. However, with the Trademark 10 thru the XLR input into the PA I can get one stage-usable sound that work fairly well with the keyboard and backing track band I'm currently in. It's not a great sound but it's adequate for small venues where my Fender HRD amp is too big. The thing is, I only ever have it on one setting (a clean Boogie setting) and although it does sound pretty good out front it doesn't sound THAT good and it makes a mockery of it being an expensive (for a 10 watt tranny) 'modeling' amp. Most settings just sound artificial, transistor and 'wrong'. The only use I have for the sound that comes out of the actual amp is as an onstage monitor for that one usable thru-PA setting.
So, until I ever find something that suits my purpose better for small venues I'll keep it but I don't actually like it, and I think I spent too much money for what in reality it actually is useful for. In my opinion if you want to sound good get a good one or two trick 'real' amp and if you want amp modeling go digital (although digital things don't sound quite right live they are wonderful at home or in the studio).
I'll be giving Tech 21 a miss from now on.

Features have been explained previously. It has a lot of features for a practice amp. A definite plus

I play a Warmoth Strat w/ rio grandes. It does sound good, but I really don't think that it deserves all the 10's and glowing tube like praise. It is noisy and doesn't sound tubey. I run a stereo set up with a Crate VC 508 (modded with JAN Phillips 5751 and Jensen C10R speaker) and the Crate has better tone, clean and distorted.
It is a good practice amp with versatility in sounds, you can make some good music with it. The speaker is too small to get a really inspiring tone. Let me just say it sounds good.
The California and UK settings allow a good amount of drive and sustain. They are noisy, I can't be too close to the amp w/ the Strat. The Clean setting is good, but doesn't have enough oomph to say Fender.

I'm sure it will be reliable. Tech 21 has a great reputation. I wouldn't gig with it because of the low wattage. To be fair, I haven't tried the direct out to a PA. It would, probably, be passible for decent tone. I have owned this for 1 1/2 months and have experimented with different sounds heavily.

Haven't used them.

I have been playing guitar for 10 years and in a band for 5 years. I have owned a Line 6 Axsys 212, ART SGX 2000 Express, Crate VC 508, Ibanez JEM 555, Washburn HB 35S (underrated guitar), and various acoustics.
I purchased this because of these ratings. I live in a rural area and have to travel about an hour to get to a decent music store. The reviewer who said this sounds better than amps 5X the price is off his medication. This is a practice amp that has versatility and sounds good for what it is, a practice bedroom amp. I think that the modified Crate sounds far superior, but does not have the features of the Trademark 10. I will sell this amp if I can get a fair price.

I'm just going to add one thing to what everyone else says about this amp...it does all the things mentioned below, but, no channel switching...so, I bought a digitech RP200, put it between the guitar and the amp, and, viola! channel switching! I set the amp up for a VERY slightly over-driven "Fender" tone, and put it on a tilt-back , small guitar amp stand, messed with the EQ, and now I have a great little practice/recording setup that I can CHANNEL SWITCH! Anyone else use thier amp this way? Just curious...other then that, it is all the things that everyone says it is....read on!

Nothing new to report here. For the money, this amp has more features than you could hope for in a practice amp. Three amp voicings/distortions, 3 speaker 'simulations', and it even has REVERB! I got this amp as a screw around amp, but after hearing it I decided it's good enough to record with!(In limited applications)

I mainly use an Ibanez RG570 with stock pickups, and this little turd sounds incredible! I was bored one day in my local music store, and decided to plug into it just to see if what I had read here was worth anything and...wow! This little booger sounds better than amps I've owned for 5 times the price! I mainly play rock/metal, and it has an impressive bark. I was expecting an anemic little wheeze to come out of the little shoebox when I hit a chord, but what I got was a ballsy, meaty roar! Just to piss people off, I wish Tech 21 could endorse a guitar god like George Lynch or Yngwie, and have them scrap their stacks and use one of these on tour instead. You probably would'nt be able to see it if it was miked! Maybe they could put it up on a stool on top of some phone books so others in the back could see it. Anyway, this amp is a great little rock amp. You can roll off your volume knob and get a great bluesey sound. Needless to say, there's not much headroom for the clean sounds, but for what it was designed to do it's fine. For $250.00 you get plenty of useable sounds. The most impressive part was using it for recording direct. No...this is not a tube amp, and no... this is not a Mesa or Marshall stack, so don't draw comparisons where there are none. I have not seen any ads from Tech 21 stating this amp is a tube killer, or will make you sound like your favorite player, cure cancer, or create world peace, just that it's a good sounding amp for a cheap price. This is a PRACTICE AMP guys!

This amp seems pretty sturdy. No tubes or effects means there's little to knock loose that would kill this little guy. The same day I tried this amp out, I also tried out it's larger brother,the Trademark 60, and it died as soon as I turned it on. From what I hear Tech 21 makes a pretty reliable product, so this was probably a fluke. Anyway, I'll give it a 7 just because it scared me.

I also own the PSA-1 rackmount preamp they make, and I've e-mailed them a couple of times with lightning quick responses. I feel that they would take care of me if I needed it.

I've been playing for about 18 years now. I have/or have had every piece of guitar gear ever made it seems. This amp is probably the best money anyone could spend for a great sounding practice "beater" amp. I cant think of another amp anyone makes for the money that sounds as good as this amp. Coincidentally, I tried the Trademark 60 and 120, and I really thought they both did not sound as good as the Trademark 10! The 120 seemed especially muddy and unfocused. The 60 was close, but the distortion didn't have enough bite for my tastes. I got this amp on a whim and I have'nt looked back. It's a good sounding, solid, and handsome midget monster that will stay with me for a long time.