Tech 21 Trademark 30 110 Combo

I bought the Cube 30 first. Returned in a heartbeat and bought the more expensive TM30. Never looked back. This is a analog SS amp with true tube sound. Nails all of the warmth and tone of TUBES. Can't say enough about this little amp. It is the only non tube amp that I own (I own 9 amps) and it get 90% of my play time. Really considering buying it's big brother the TM60...

Absolutely incredible sounding amp. Great tube like break up. I have never experienced this on a SS amp in my life...been playing through tube amps for 15 years. I would buy another if this was stolen...

features
so i just got this amp yesterday.
its balls to the walls best solid state amp ive ever played.
it literally beats any solid state there is.

it has 1 channel
yeah its a downside but it does the job for a practice amp but its powerful enough to play a show and quiet enough to play in the middle of the night while everyones sleeping. and it still sounds just as good turned down.

the different settings for the amp is great too especially the different speaker options flat uk or british it sounds they give you such a different range of sounds.



i play it in my room and im planning on playing shows with it

the reverbs nice but i dont use it that much.

i wish i had a footswitch and atleast 2 channels and a the option for a footswitch would be nice but its worth every penny

im using a shecter hellraiser with emg 81 85s
i play mostly metal progressive but i play all kinds of music and it fits every style its very versitle and sounds amazing

its not noisy at all theres no feedback at all its very clean and every note can be heard
the clean channel is crystal for being a solid state amp

the distortion is godly for a solid state amp talk about kicking ***
this amp is better than any cheap tube amp you would buy.

havent had to call them yet just got it yesterday

havent played a show with it yet but its still pretty solid.

havent dealed with them yet.

ive been playing for about a year and a half.

if it was stolen or lost i probably would buy another one if i was low on cash but id probably try something else if i had some extra dough.

i love how its so small but so beastly it just really bothers me theres no footswitch i think that would make this little amp a little monster but the larger sizes have them.
i cant really compare it to anything else its on its own. its like nothing else.

i wish i had a mesa haha but who doesnt right?

I can't believe anyone is badmouthing this "practice" amp. It is more versatile than any "practice" amp I have ever played. Gets a 10 for what it is...a great "practice" amp. Get a TM60 w/ a power engine for gigs...OK?

OD channel...pure magic. Clean channel...very Fender like.

Not a problem...Nada.

Absolutely the best. 2nd to none.

For those who see this amp as a let down...get a life. Not enough power? It's a "practice" amp. For what it does, this amp sounds like heaven. The Cube 30? Cube 60? Had them both and returned them. The OD channel on the Cubes is not in the same league. Oh...and did anyone mention...the TM30 breaks up really nice like my tube amps...try that with a cube...Game Match Tech 21 again!

As mentioned below, you probably know the features or can see them in other posts below. As I play these days mostly in a church worship band, the best feature for me is the balanced XLR out; in fact that swung the decision for me to buy the thing

I play a variety of styles including rock, blues, country, some jazz. I play a Warnoth Tele with Fralin pickups, a Parker Fly Classic and various acoustics. I go straight into the amp, no pedals or effects at the moment. I've found this amp is able to deliver great sounds for any style I'm using at the time. However, what does sound quality mean to anyone? I always enjoy and value the reviews on this site, but we all know that this one is subjective. I've owned valve Boogies, Fenders, and Marshalls over the many years I've been playing - does this amp sound like/as good as the best of those? No, but do I expect it to? No, again. It does get pretty close though. For what I want, a low-powered, fantastically portable, versatile-sounding amp with an XLR out, I could give it a 10 - I don't think there's anything on the market to touch it. Will you get 'that' valve sound that you've got in your head - probably not, but remember this is not a valve amp

Had it over a year now and used it extensively, had no problems at all. Some posts say it's a noisy amp, mine isn't.

No need to use this one so far

Overall, this is a great sounding and versatile amp, but unlike most valve amps you can make this one sound really bad if you aren't familiar with it - I think this is down to the active EQ. If you want to try this amp, or have one and can't seem to get on with it, I went through the same thing for a month or two and nearly returned it as I was underwhelmed with the sound. As has been suggested in another post, max the Drive and slowly turn up the Level until you've got a decent sound. With low drive levels you may, as I did, get a thin and flat sound. What I do is set the EQ (mostly all at about 12 o'clock), to suit, Drive on about max, Level to suit, and use the Tweed, Clean, UK settings on the mod switch. With my guitar volume on about 8 I get a great, snappy but rich clean sound that will crunch with harder pick attack or tweak of the guitar volume - this works best with my Tele. I can then turn the guitar volume to about 3, flick the mod switch to Calif and get a fantastic overdriven sound for rhythm using any pickup selection; this has the same output volume as the clean setting, so can work mid-gig. This overdriven sound will clean up or distort according to guitar volume setting - on about 6 or 7 I can get a fluid, sustaining harmonically rich sound for solos and yes, this is still on the Clean setting on the mod switch. I have no idea why this works, but it seems to for me. This method works really well and gets over my only real gripe with this amp, namely no channel switching - at least I can do this between songs if not mid-song. Incidentally, I've given high marks for sound quality, but I really can't bear the Brit setting on any EQ setting it seems to have an unusably zizzy, fizzy and transistor sound that sounds worse than the worst solid state Marshall you've ever heard. Avoid this setting would be my advice!

If you are looking at this review, you've either got one of these but if not, you'll probably already know what the blurb says, and what the features of the TM-30 are, and if don't, then just look here:-

http://www.tech21nyc.com/tm30.html

Almost any sound you require is available, i.e. This Amp is "Wonderful for Blues", (including Woman Tone without the need for adjust your guitar knobs,) "Great for Rock", and "Excellent for Clean" all types of clean. I use an Ibanez 540s Custom (2HB, 1SC) which can produce a huge range and variety of sounds. The TM-30 really accentuates them all.

You can even try to attempt to emulate the actual some of the favourite tones of your existing valve rig. I know that may sound like so obvious, as that it what the thing is designed to do, but try this:-

Plug the output of your TM-30 into the speaker of the Valve Rig, (or combo) and then keep swapping it over. It will take a while changing knobs all the time, but it helps if you've got some sort of switching gizmo. It's not going to be exactly the same, but I have a close match to the usual settings on my Traynor combo. So I can take the TM-30 as a spare, if I've got a REALLY important gig! Or for small venues and easy transport, I can replace altogether. I really does suit my style, which is quite diverse. It even fits on my cycle pannier rack even with the guitar with a ruc-sac gig bag on me!
The distortion is a much as I use, and to fair anymore and the tone just goes. Anyone needing more would already have some kind of metal pedal to use in line anyway.

It is ???NOISY??? in the sense if I turn it up loud and don???t play anything, but what would you expect? At practise levels, I hear no hum or hiss. When plugged into a PA, there is no hiss other than already on the PA channel. I can make it hiss by setting full High and/or Reverb, but why would I want to do that on most normal use?

Haven???t had it long, but it seems really well built. Most amps I???ve used were chipboard covered in black vinyl. This has some chipboard covered in vinyl, but the back and sides, and I hope the front (speaker soundboard) is made from ply. OK, still not solid, but still an improvement!

Lloyd is just so good. Good, dependable, fine-old fashioned customer service!

I've been playing for about 20 years, have worked in a music shop and I've seen most amateur and semi-pro gear that's around. I keep up to date with most of the new stuff on a regular music shop visits.

I accept the ???Scottish??? point in one review about the price being good in the US, and that someone is making pots loads on the import. Well, what can I say? This amp is STILL good value compared with what else is on the market for the price I paid. In fact, there isn???t any amp out other like it.

I did go hunting for a practise amp to replace my Line 6 Spider II, and could only consider either a Fender Blues Junior, and another Line 6 Spider. ALL the other practise amps just don???t cut it for BOTH clean and dirty sounds. Most can do either very well (well considering we are talking about practise amps here!).

I don???t think I would have considered buying it at the RRP of ??349 initially. If I had to make the same choice now, say if I had ??350 to spend for insurance purposes, I still would consider buying/replacing it. If I got a discount on it, then fine, I definately would, but at ??350 I would most probably spend a bit more and go for a discounted Peavey Classic 30. As an alternative, the Fender Blues Junior of course is still a very good amp, despite now being made in Mexico.

I guess if you need a cheap amp to use in the studio for cool tones, this would work for you.

I bought this amp to use for practice. My gig amp is a custom Bad Cat and too heavy to carry up two flights of stairs. I thought this amp might work as it is very lightweight. Unfortunately, it sounds like crap. I returned it to Musician's Friend.

The amp arrived and the spring reverb didnt work. I returned it.

I've been playing for 20 years and own a personal museum of amps and guitars. I would not recommend this amp. I prefer the Roland Cubes for practice and the Line 6 POD XT for studio.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/tm30.html for the essencial spec.

Ask Tech21 to send you a manual and you'll have the most trustable source of information on the features...

It perfectly meets my needs...

Ibanez RGT 220A Prestige > (Morley Little Alligator - sometimes) > Trademark 30

clean setting: Drive 0, Calif, Clean, US Speaker, Bass +1, Middle Flat, Treble Flat. Really natural sound, deep and balanced basses, not invasive mids and singing highs. It is a sort of neoclassic sound (Surely I don't mean a neoclassic shred sound, at last for the clean setting), veeeery beautiful...

distorted setting: Drive Max, Calif, Hi-Gain, US Speaker, Bass +1, Middle -1.5, Treble -1.5. Awesome!! Let me repeat: this is a really awesome sound. Truly expressive, liquid when I want it to be liqiud (fast legatos, sweeps, tapping) solid when I want it to be solid (fast alternate picking passages, muted notes)... It really fits my playing style, but I am conscious that this impression can be completely different depending on the player...

Please notice I exclusively use the Calif model paired with the US speaker... those seeking for a Mesa sound will be completely satisfied... Just to be clear: my Mesa V-Twin is taking dust now, and believe me, I really loved it...

I absolutely don't like the Brit model, but no surprise, I don't like the Marshall sound... The Tweed model is usable expecially on low Drive settings: similar to the Calif model, but with added clarity.

I admit the reverb sounds really good, but I think spring reverbs sound innatural, and I generally prefer a dry sound, so I don't use it for most of the times... Take into account that I play the TM30 in a large room so I have a natural reverberation for free...

On the noise question... I don't notice any noise, nothing with the clean sound, nothing with the distorted sound. However I use it as a practice amp and my level setting never goes further than 9.00 o'clock, and usually is even lower...

No problems until now...

I repeat I had no problems, but they where really kind and helpful in asking my questions...

If it had another channel with completely indipendent controls (I mean both the character section and the eq) it would be perfect for me...

I plan to buy a TRI A.C. to have more flexibility, even if I am a bit sceptical about the exact reprobucibility of my TM30 distorted setting on the TRI A.C. (less controls on the TRI A.C.)... If the "TRI A.C. pluggeg into the TM30 return" set-up will leave me usatisfied I will use an A/B box to switch between the TRI A.C. and the TM 30 preamp: I really can't renounce to that sound...

Active EQ along with 27 combinations through 3 three way switches - add REALLY GREAT REVERB and as master volume and gain......if you can't find a good sound in here you aren't really trying.....unfortunately the active eq means that it's real easy to dial in a bad sound too...

Well...here's the thing...I have finally come to peace with the fact that this thing really isn't a guitar amp at all....it's a powered stompbox with a speaker. The reason I say that is because "transparency" isn't a word you could use for this thing. There is always a lot of coloration happening. Additionally, as mentioned elsewhere, there is a frizzie krizzie noise that exists when distortion trails away and when i focus on it it drives me mad....that being said, if you ignore it, this thing is a great RECORDING and creative tool...and fun for getting neil young skronk noise all the day long.....could be used for a small gig but I would be nervous about it having too much personality and not enough transparency for live applications.

Not an abundance of features, but covers my needs for a practice amp. Just one channel, but easy to switch sounds (see below). I like the built-in reverb. I can't really think of any features that I'm missing, but then I tend to prefer simple setups.

I've been playing through this amp with a Strat-style guitar, with Fender Noiseless singlecoils.

You can get a good amount of useable tones with minimum tweaking. The three 3-way buttons that allow you to select amp, gain, and speaker simulation makes it easy to get the sound I want very quick. It's so easy that there's really no need for a 2nd channel unless you want to switch sounds on the turn of a dime.

It's not noisy at the levels I play at (master volume on 10 o'clock when playing clean or 7-8 o'clock with distortion).

One thing I've noticed, is that the amp really responds to my right- and left-hand dynamics. Same goes for pickup selection. With such a small amp, you almost expect it to sound the same no matter how you play, but that is not the case here!

I think the clean sounds are a notch or two better than the distorted ones. But IMO it floors the Roland Cube, which a lot of people rave about.

I've only had it for three weeks.

As others have said, Tech 21's customer support is excellent - I've e-mailed them a couple of times with general questions.

If there's any other amp that is as good as this one for the same price or less, I'd like to see it! As mentioned, I would rate this much higher than the Cube. I've also compared it to a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT. The TM-30 won, thanks to it's superior hi-gain tones and ease of use.