Tech 21 Trademark 300 Head

Features have been covered pretty well.. I also have a few of the 'add-ons' the rackmount kit, and the ARMD midi converter. (Be warned about the rackmount kit, it comes with no instructions, and you will need to take the amp chassis apart to install it.)

The amp looks sweet as hell rackmounted, btw.

This thing sounds great, IMO. Yes the EFX loop doesn't like pedals, learned that the hard way. In fact I had 2 or 3 disscussions in Email with Tech21, and they kept saying some pedals would work and others wouldn't, then of course I told them I had 4 different pedals from the big companies, and none worked. There is a way around it though, but it'll nueter the amp's volume, you have to manually lower the efx-loop send before it hits the pedals. Not fun. So, I went out and bought an Alesis rack proccessor, problem solved.

Okay on to the sounds of the amp. I have 2 Ibanez RGs, 2 6 strings and a 7 string. ALl of them have dimarzio humbuckers. Alesis Quad2 for efx, and an Ibanez TS9 for a solo-tone-boost. The amp is plugged into a cheapy 4-12 cab loaded with Eminence 125 speakers. Most of what I play falls into the thrash/death/prog metal genre.

The Tweed is pretty good for a gritty tone, but not much in the way of headroom for clean, as mentioned by everyone else. I don't use this setting much myself, unless the urge hits me to play something gritty. lol

The Brit type isn't really Marshall, but it does have the 'british' tonality. I hear some Laney influence here, which to me is a plus. I pretty much use this type for all my gain tones. The 'Queen' setting in the manual do sound very close BTW, so I'd say this amp type clean is pretty close to a Vox. Some might think this doesn't have enough gain for metal, but I think it sounds perfect. Tight, crunchy, with just enough 'sizzle'..

Cali. What to say about the Cali? I don't like Rectifier's without a boost slamming the front end, and this holds true here. Muddy and sloppy opn it's own, punishing with a TS9 in front. This type could have more gain, but it doesn't lack in bass. Clean is where I use this channel. It's surprisingly smooth clean, and you can get way more headroom out of it over the 'tweed'.

Does it nail the tones of the amps it emulates? Not really. What it does do is breath like an amp, something the digital modellers don't seem to do. When we got it in at the store, I cranked it up to check it out. The amp tech came out of his little cubby-hole and wanted to know what tubes it took. :P

Comparing it to other Tech21 gear, I'd say this falls somewhere between the Trademark 10 and Tri A.C. in gain and tonality. The TM10 does a better boogie, but it's just so damn small. lol

Well, haven't had a problem, and I don't expect one. The inside of the amp is insanely clean. Probably the best wiring and build quality I've ever seen in an amp. The cooling fan is a very nice feature, the amount of heatsinks in there inspires confidence as well.

The real test will be when I start gigging it.

They've been nothing but helpful in email(gone so far as to tell me what Celestions come in the matching cab: the 70/80). When I called to order my rackmount kit, I not only got a real live person on the phone, but he didn't even have to transfer me to someone else.

Best customer support I've ever gotten from a company, period.

I've been playing for around 13 years. Other gear is listed above. ^_^

If it was stolen? I'd hunt the fool down(especially because he'd have to take my whole rack, and that isn't light, probably wouldn't get far) and cut his hands off.

I love this amp, the only thing I'd wish for would be a better/tighter/dirtier Cali type.

I was going to buy a Laney TT50H, but their US distributor kept pushing the delivery date back, to the point where it wasn't worth waiting. At that point I decided I'd like to try Tech21, since the Trademark 10 was the best sounding little amp I'd ever heard.

In closing, I'd like to say that anyone interested in this amp should go demo one before buying it. Emulation/modelling/simulated stuff is very much a personal preference thing, some might like one amp, while others hate it.

See list below. Very feature rich.

This amp sounds awesome. No doubt about it. Now, if Tech21 could just get the levels correct. I agree with the reviewer below. There omething SERIOUSLY wrong with the effects loop levels. Too hot for pedals. Also, to the guy that said the XLR out sounded horrible. That's because the XLR level is too damn hot to run into a mixing board. At least it is on mine. WTF?? These are serious issues that T21 should have fixed before releasing this product.

No problems yet. It's solid state. Should last forever.

Never dealt with them.

It would be a great amp, if I could use all the features. But I can't. Effects loop is worthless. Unlike the reviewer below, I'm NOT going to sell all of my boutique pedals to use this amp. Also, I can't run the XLR out straight into a mixing board because the signal is too hot. Shit, T21 really needs to address the signal issue with the effects loop and XLR out. Makes this amp worthless.

Update from my review below. Well, I've had this amp out on about a dozen gigs now......and had some time to play with it, so I thought I would update this board with my findings. The effects loop on this amp definitely does NOT play nice with floor pedals. The line level signal overdrives the floor pedals and makes your signal sound like crap. This was not apparent on other amps I owned. I also tried an Alesis Nanoverb in the loop which did not work well either....but for the opposite reason. With the Nanoverb you couldn't get the level loud enough without the sound distorting (instead of the level being too hot for the pedals). That being said, I did find that the Boss SE-50, SE-70, VF-1 series of half rack modules works quite nicely in the effects loop of this head (make sure to set the attenuation switch to line level on the back of the Boss).

See my review below. I still stand by my statement that this amp sounds as nice as any tube head I've owned (including a Mesa Triple channel Dual Rectofier). Unlike most solid state amps this sounds really sweet cranked up as well as at lower volumes. Keep in mind that I am running this into a Tech 21 2X12 cab. I understand the Tech 21 cabs have "special" speakers (I beleive they are full range). I have no idea what this thing would sound like running into say a Marshall or Bogner cab. It still peeves me that the clean channel starts distorting with the gain only turned up to three. With 300 watts there is plenty of headroom......however, the preamp clips too early. This means that even with 300 watts of power I have to crank the clean channel all the way up to get my clean volume to match the level of my dirty channels (because I have to keep the preamp down so low). This is the biggest drawback to this amp. I've seen similar complaints on reviews of the TM-120. Since the 120 uses the same basic design as this head, apparently there is a flaw in the design. I'm in a cover band......and if we had to play ANY louder than we currently do, I wouldn't have enough volume on the clean channel (unless I didn't mind hearing it clip a little).

A dozen gigs and so far so good. If you need a case for this head try DCCase company. You can pick up a nice case for about $70.00 new.

See my post below.

Been playing since the early eighties. I've owned a boatload of amps in that time. As I stated below, if it were stolen I probably would purchase the same amp again. My gear acquisition syndrome would force me to purchase something else. Maybe a Peavey 5150 or Triple X. Don't get me wrong.......It's a great head. Especially if you need a wide variety of sounds.

Mine is a 2004 Model. This amp has a ton of features. All solid state....but unlike most SS amps, it's also all analog (no digital here). There are three channels. Each of them can be set up using either the tweed, british, or california settings. Each channel has it's own discreet EQ and gain settings. This amp also has a master volume which is an absolute necessity for me. No reverb.......what the heck? Don't know what the Tech 21 designers were thinking (other than trying to emulate a Dual Recto or 5150) when they left the reverb off.....but it was a stupid decision. On the back of the amp there is a ground lift switch and a -10db/0db switch for the XLR out. There are two mono power outs for connecting up to two cabs, a tuner out, and two effects loops (one serial and one parallel. OK, some disappointment here. Notice I said the -10db switch is for the XLR out. They need an attenuator switch for the effects loops as well. I spent some amount of time trying to figure out why the clean channel was distorting, and the overdrive channels sounded like ass when using the efects loops. After speaking with an engineer at Tech 21 it turns out the effects loops are LINE LEVEL ONLY, meaning you can not use floor pedals in the loop as floor pedals are designed to take a guitar signal (not line level) and will distort badly when used in the TM-300 loops. Well damn.....wish I knew that before I dropped over a grand on this head and matching 2X12 cab! Now I have to replace my floor pedals for rack gear. Also, the tuner out has no mute switch. No problem as long as you are not using the XLR into your sound board in live situations. If you do use the XLR out then even if you turn the master volume down on the amp you'll still have full volume to the board while you are tuning. Dumb.....dumb. A very nice footswitch comes with the amp which allows you to switch back and forth between channels, activate an adjustable volume boost for solo's, and switch both effects loops on and off. Only problem is that the footswitch currently has a bug. When the amp is turned on everything is set to default to off (no boost, no effects loop, etc.) EXECPT the boost is activated on channel 2. Not a big deal once I knew that the bug was there.....but it did cause me a bit of embarrassment the first time I gigged with the amp because I almost blew the band off the stage when I switched to that channel (boost was on). Tech 21 was not aware of this bug until I insisted they attempt to duplicate the problem in their lab. John, their engineer was very helpful, and also very apologetic when he realized the problem was there. Points off for stupidly engineered effects loop, and no reverb.

I Currently use several guitars with this amp. Ernie Ball Axis SS, Jackson DR-3, and prototype Lace Strat. I run the head into a Tech 21 2X12 tweed cab, which sounds good, even at very high volumes. I'm in a cover band that gigs close to every weekend. We cover styles from Crosby Stills and Nash through Metallica and Blink, so I needed an amp that can deliver a wide array of sounds. I agree with the points made by the reviewer below that the California channel sounds too pretty, and doesn't have enough low end chunk. Still.....I like "pretty", and use it quite a bit. The British channel sounds great to my ear. I've owned both Marshalls and Mesa's and although the sound of this amp isn't a dead ringer for either, it's very close. Both channels have a good amount of gain, but I'm a gainiac.....and wouldn't mind a little more (which might take care of the "chunk" problem on the California channel). The tweed channel has a spectacular clean sound. Very chimey and sparkly....but it sounds bad when overdriven and it overdives too easily. Anyway, I only use the tweed channel clean. Thanks to the 300 watts this amp is rated at, it has lots of headroom on the clean channel. You can crank it and it still stays pretty clean....unlike my Mesa. Very low noise on all channels. Some other reviewers have complained about the XLR out sound. Hmmmmm.....I haven't had any issues with the sound from the XLR out. I run it to the board all of the time and I love it. Sounds very close to the sound coming out the amp speakers.

Well jury is still out on this. When I opened the box the first thing I noticed was that the transformer was loose and moved back and forth about 1/2 an inch inside the cabinet, causing a noticeable "thunk" when I moved it around. Called Tech 21 and asked them if I would void the warranty if I opened it up to tighten the transformer. They gave me the OK to do so. While I opened it up I took note of a few things. The wiring job was immaculate. Almost a work of art. Everything was tied up neat and tidy. I was disappointed to find that the back cover was secured with wood screws, instead of standard threaded screws and inserts. I suppose Tech 21 figured no one would ever need to open the damn thing up because it's tube-less, and decided that using woods screws on particle board would be OK. Hmmmmm.....I dunno. Certainly didn't give me any warm fuzzies. The transformer was easy to tighten down. The amp actually slides right out of the head cabinet, and is rackmountable with ears that are available from Tech 21. Pretty cool. I currently use a Tech 21 TRI-AC as a backup.....but feel pretty good that this amp will go the long haul with no problems. I'll update this board if I find out differently.

Well....I have split feelings on this. It only took 2 phone calls for me to be talking to one of the guys who engineered the amp. How many companies will offer you that type of service? Lloyd has always been the best, answering my questions, and working with me with other Tech 21 products I have owned......however, this time I felt slightly "put out". Initially I had special ordered a custom fit case for the head through DC-Case company. Because the head hadn't arrived yet I had to use the dimensions off the web site, which I found later to be incorrect. Don't know if the dimensions changed in the production run, or the web designer made a mistake, but two out of the three dimensions were incorrect. When I called Lloyd at Tech 21 to complain that the dimensions were wrong on their website (which cost me about $100) he said "Gee that's too bad......we'll have to find a way to make it up to you. Don't know how we'll do that, but we'll find a way". I think he was just placating me. When I discovered the channel 2 boost bug I called Tech 21. They were going to "lab out the problem" and attempt to duplicate it. John (the engineer I was dealing with) thought the floorboard might be the problem. I asked if Tech 21 could send a new floorboard to me in advance of my sending the "bad" board back, since I was a gigging musician and couldn't go without a floorboard for two weeks. "Sure", was the answer. The only problem was that they weren't willing to cross ship me another board (in advance) unless I authorized them to charge $125.00 to my credit card. Hmmmm. I guess this is how they were going to "make it up" to me.

OK bitch session over. I will say that all of my other experiences with Tech 21 have been pleasant, and even after this experience they are still better to deal with than most companies. Lloyd is the best, and I liked the fact that they put me directly in touch with an engineer when I had problems. Points off for charging me for an advance exchange on a "faulty" floorboard when the issue was their fault, and for the posting incorrect dimensions on the web-site.

Well....I'd be lying to you if I didn't mention that I walked away from this purchase slightly disappointed.

Been playing about 20 years. Owned just about everything in that period of time. Mesas, Marshalls, Fenders, tube, solid state, heads, combos, you name it. If lost or stolen I think I would go with a 5150 II. Don't get me wrong, it's a great amp, I just never buy the same amp twice, and the California channel could be a tad more brutal for my taste. It needs a mute switch for the tuner, a reverb, and a way to attenuate the loop level. With those improvements this amp would be killer. All in all, it sounds as good as any tube amp I've owned. If you need an amp that can deliver a wide array of tones you should consider this one.

Features have been listed...

3 Channels all are the same configuration, but you can dial in different settings and thus create 3 different sound options. In theory you could dial in 3 settings of the SAME channel. Why you would want to is beyond me. But that is how it is set up, which is kind of cool.

The XLR out is attractive, to a POINT. It is a good idea but it sounds really, really bad.

Okay.

Tweed (Clean) is very nice at times. But if you crank it to overdrive it a bit it creates a bit of a fuzzy distortion that sits more like overtones than actual overdrive. It sits on the sound like oil on water, not quite mixing properly. I dont like it. But for straight clean it is very nice.

British. Hmmm. Only sounds good maxed out. The rest is a bit weak and lacks the punch of British amps - Marshall etc. In fact, it actually sounds very little like a Marshall. It is a little bit creamy which is nice, but doesnt emulate the Brit valve sound at all.

California. This was the most disappointing. It is just too... Pretty. It doesnt get dirty enough. It lacks REAL bottom end and does not have the warmth that the boogies maintain even though they are crunching really hard. Its hard to explain. With good dual rectifier tone you hear every string and every overtone. With the TM300 you just hear a crunchy sound. It lacks depth and it lacks character.

However, the versatility and flexability is second to none for the price you will pay for the head. Bang for buck the TM300 is very good. Compared to the amps it seeks to emulate... It comes nowhere near close to the actual tones of the more expensive, but often less configurable units. It is a trade off between convenience and cost.

Now. When I was trying the Tech 21 TM300 I was looking for something for my home studio to help me do direct recording at low volumes. Given the TM300 is built on the GT2 technology I thought it would be okay... However, when outputting the XLR out to a Mackie desk to some Sen headphones... It sounded just terrible. It is not useful as a direct recording unit as the direct out sounds really thin and nasal compared to the speaker sound.

I am rating it a seven based on flexability rather than pure tonal quality. For a guy in a cover band that needs MANY amp tones, this is a good place to start but because you can only dial in three at a time I am not sure how strong this theory is in reality.

Probably good. Tech21 arent fools. It looks well made. I didnt buy the unit, but did test it extensively.

No idea.

I have been playing for 15 years and have owned various Soldano (SLO100 and X99), Marshall (JCM 800 and 900) and Mesa Boogie (Calibre 50 and Dual Rectifier) amplifiers. I have also looked deeply into the different modelling amps and though the Tech 21 gear is neither valve nor digital, feel I have a good perspective on that which it is not, and that which it seeks to recreate.

Firstly. The Trademark 300 sounds NOTHING like a Boogie or a classic Marshall Stack (I am talking the JCM 800 era because in my opinion that is the last great amp head marshall have made).

If you want to say that I am being fickle because it is so much cheaper than a Dual Rectifier Boogie or a real vintage AC30 then fine, but when you name channels after very definite tones I believe they should be at least relative to those tones, and the TM300 does NOT deliver in this regard.

I am NOT a valve addict. I love my Yamaha DG212 digital amp combo. It rocks hard and has great versatility. The TM300 just lacks something... I think basically the sounds have very little soul. I really wanted to like this amp because it would have solved my home recording issues and maybe even replaced some of my old valve heads if it had lived up to the reviews I have read in the music press. However. It does not live up the hype and I left it in the shop. I am buying a Tonelab (VOX) for direct recording and keeping the Dual Rectifier Boogie for live.

I play lead guitar in a band called Loud. We play a range of music covering all the bases between blues and metal. The amp has three channels and i've found a sound i like in each of the three preamps. Thick blackface chunk, plexi/JCM800 sizzle, massive low end rectifier style crunch, yeah, it's all in there... very loud (i can't turn it past halfway) very usefull adjustable boost function

I'm playing an all mahogany Carvin DC127 and one thing i love about the amp is that it responds very well to playing nuances and changes in feel.... you back off your volume knob and the amp cleans up well. It responds equally well to humbuckers and single coils and two weeks into owning it, i'm still finding new sounds in this amp. This amp really is like owning a small collection of tube amps.

Well, i've only had it for two weeks, but it looks very sturdy and seems built for the long haul.

I wouldn't know

I shopped around for quite a while before settling on this amp. I knew i wanted a 3 channel head, with plenty of power, a wide range of sounds and an affordable price. The modern and aggressive styling of this head was also a big plus.If anything happened to this amp, i'd rob the liquor store to go get another one and wait impatiently until it showed up.... This amp is alive and it's a monster.... Overall, i couldn't be more pleased with it.

I am guessing it was made in early 2003. Either I am playing jazz in a trio or I am playing rock in a band. Either way, this amp does the job. Three channels that can be set to do anything. The footswitch controls both FX loops, three channels and the boost. SansAmp DI out.

300watts @ 4ohms
200watts @ 8ohms
150watts @ 16ohms

100% solid state, no digital or tubes.

I play a Parker NiteFly and a Carvin mainly. Stock pickups in each. As I have stated above, either I play in a Jazz trio or in a Rock group. It is not noisy. More quiet than the tube amps I have had. It does have a cooling fan though, but once playing you can't hear it.

Each channel has a 3-way switch (Fender/Marshall/Mesa). From there you just tween the active tone knobs and drive. It really does act like a tube amp. The added bonus is the "boost" fuction that realy helps cut though the music during solos.

If you want the overdrive to be brutal, it will be brutal. The Marshall and Mesa settings have a lot of drive. Does it sound exactly like the amps listed? No. Does it sound good? O yes!

I have gigged without a backup before. Usually I bring my Trademark 60 in case of a problem. The cooling fan would be the big thing that would worry me, but I have never had a problem.

No servicing.

Called them many times on issues with the Trademark 60 and to get manuals for this amp. There is a licenced dealer in town, but I have never had an issue yet.

I got this amp used for $450. The only thing wrong was the carrying handle was missing, which I fixed. For $450 this thing is a steal. I'd try to buy another one if I lost it. I love the flexiblity and lack of reverb unit built in. I dislike the cooling fan. I have the Tech 21 Trademark 60 which is great. I have 5 amps total. This is the most flexible one. I needed an amp that could do it all. I needed an amp that had the power to play large venues. This think is LOUD. Running it at 16 ohms, I have never had the master volume over 5-6.

Great support. Very flexible. Very loud. Very reliable. It's not a tube amp, but in most cases is better, especially compared to other amps under the $800 range. For $450, you can't touch it.

I just bought this amp from www.bmusic.com.au (excellent service) I'd never heard one before and i just went off reviews and people from the u.s who had heard it..im the 2nd person in aus to get one.. I played my first gig last night and it was pretty versatile i played stuff from hard rock to punk to clean melodic emo stuff and it suited them all and i didnt even have much time for tweakig i just plugged in and fiddled for like 10 mins and i got a really good sound. Its got 3 Channels, mesa,marsh and tweed.. all are pretty unique no matter wat the tool with the bad review said i dunno about his amp but my mesa/calif channel was heaps different from the marshall. it has effects loops and headphone jack etc.. The BOOST button is the best thing ever, boosts 9Db for solo's i used it heaps :D

I Use a '84 fender strat with the original pickups and i used to play through a 100 watt marshall valvestate. I was a bit wary letting that go cause i was so used to the crunchy distortion but now i think it rocks! The amp was humming a bit when i cranked the gain, but it wasnt the amp i think it was because of a shotty lead in my effects box. I cranked the clean right up and there was no distortion there so that was good and i had the distortion down low and up loud and it essentially was the same..the good thing about the amp is you set your sounds in each individual channel and then you can turn the master volume (which controls all channels) right down but it keeps the same sound. The calif setting rocks hard you can get massive lows or highs it depends what your into but i can guarantee you will get a good tone on this amp.

Only had it for a few days so i cant say much but its massively solid :)

I emailed tech 21 a few times before i bought the amp, being in the usa it took a few days for them to reply but they were always informative and pretty helpful. The warranty on the amp is a year.

I've been playing for 7 years and ive used Peavey's and Marshalls mostly, i played a deville once but i didnt like it. I Play the tech 21 through an ENGL quad box and it sounds phat. If it were lost or stolen id have to save up again (*cries*) but id definatly buy a new one. I didnt compare before i bought it but now i think it got a better sound then my marshall and even then the boogie and engl heads i tried out. It definatly kicked ass against the line 6 flextone II's shitty distortion tones.

This amp is definatly something which will change your playing. I was sick of my marshalls 1 Distortion tone, i wanted to have different tones for different songs for just variety and this amp did that, i changed from calif to british for heavy to punk and it changed the bands sound. The clean sound is also very bright and pretty, i added a slight chorus to it and it sounded gorgeous :)

This has all the features I need. Others have listed them already, so I won't bother with this section.

Wow, this amp sounds amazing, especially since it's solid state! It responds much like a tube amp. The tweed clean setting sounds great. The british setting has a nice crunch and works great for blues as well. The california setting is what I use the most since I'm in a metalcore band. It pumps out a huge wall of distortion. I play through two 4x12's and it sounds VERY thick. This amp is so versatile. With my guitar though it can be a bit muddy, but I'm positive it's my pickups (duncan design). I'm about to replace them though, and that will certainly make this amp shine even brighter. I highly recommend this amp. It has tone, that's for sure!

When I first received this head, I connected everything, and when I went to turn it on....nothing. No sound. No lights. I could hear the fan spinning inside though. I contacted Tech 21 about this through email. They called me the next day and walked me through on how to fix it. One of the connections inside of the amp came off during shipping. It works like a charm now. I'm still a bit worried if that connector will come off again though. If my amp doesn't work in the future, at least I'll know what's wrong. Other than that, everything seems reliable.

Tech 21 has the very best customer service. I've emailed them at least 3 or 4 times now, and each reply has answered my questions thoroughly. Like I said above, they even called me up and walked me through on how to fix my amp without me having to send it back. Very fast and friendly customer support.

I've had this amp for only a few weeks now, but it has lived up to my expectations. It has everything I need. I'm about to go rack, and that is another cool thing about this amp. It's rackmountable! Just send in an order (with $19.95) and they'll send you the kit. I'm so glad I bought this amp, and I will definitely get another if this were to get stolen (and that better not happen). It has everything I could ever want or need. Go buy one!

I play music between large range with 16 year experience: funk, rock, metal, alternative, blues. This amp's for me and what I've searched for years! Three different channells is enough to choose from between many different sound types. 300 watts is totally enough for anything... Floorboard is very simple and convenient, especially the boost and two efectsloops, only minus is a lack of reverb.

I mainly use Les Paul & Strato with DiMarzio Tone Zone-bridge pickups. I've tested this amp face to face with 5150, and it's very similar. I just love that Marshall-type sound (British-position), it's so tight and what a high gain! For example like in Alice In Chains "We Die Young", and even more, like Fear Factory etc. Clean channel is very warm and smooth, up to Vaughan-style raw blues and 60's pop. You can also find many different sound variations from California-position, Korn/Slipknot-type muddy and crunching Mesa-roar.

I've owned Tech 21 SansAmp for over 10 years and it still works exactly like new one, lived through tough times, played with it in many gigs in many dirty hellholes. I think it's bomb-proof or something, waiting for nuclear war... This Trademark 300 looks like a modern tank and seems to be very reliable and "bomb-proof" as well, especially there's no tubes in to worry about. Solid as a rock.

If this amp were stolen from me, I'd definitely buy a new one. I highly recommend! One thing is to mention: you may not found your desired sound just by plugging in, you maybe have to search and tune for a while, but believe me, it's there!