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