Tech 21 British

I have never been a fan of distortion pedals. They come of unnatural and never really nailing the tone to which most of them claim on their box. They have a natural tinty sound that comes off as bright and thin and not very pleasing to the ears.

This pedal was a bit of a surprise to me. These character series pedals from Tech 21 has been a bit of a hit or miss. Some have been decent sounding and very usable and others have not sounded very good at all.

This pedal is going for the 70's Marshall tones from plexi's to bluesbreakers to the all out high gain stacks . I have to say that did a pretty good job for a pedal.

UTILIZATION


Tech 21 SansAmp Character Series British V2 Overdrive/Distortion Pedal Features:

Authentic-sounding, tough tones, from Bluesbreaker to Plexi to '70s stack
Six level-, tone-, and drive-shaping controls (Level, Mid, Character, Drive, Low, and High knobs)
Switchable speaker emulation
Use as a stompbox, preamp, or standalone recording tool
Proven SansAmp quality and reliability

SOUND QUALITY

I was a little apprehensive before hearing this pedal because I am just not a fan of the the distortion boxes. When I heard this pedal kick it I was pleasantly surprise at how good this pedal was. Sure it was going to have the feel or the real tone of a bluesbreaker or a plexi but the voicing was right on and the drive of the pedal worked well with a clean amp.

This pedal does a decent job at recreating the Marshall tones from those old 70's records. You can hear the character knob changing the voicing structure of those amps from the plexi's to the stack Marshal's and such. That character control is a cool little feature that allows more options to be had in this little pedal.

OVERALL OPINION

At new these pedals come in at around $169. Not a bad price for this pedal. Is does have a very usable tone and the option you get if you are a Marshall fan are fantastic.

I would recommend this pedal to anyone with a clean amp and wants to get a decent Marshall tone and doesn't want to spend a whole lot of money to get there. You get a good pedal for well under $200 and the pedal works great going directly into your computer using the speaker simulator.

Tech 21's British pedal is one in their 'Character Series' of amp modeling stomp boxes. There are a number of different pedals in this series, all with a similar look to them. This one is made up of analog components and has a single 1/4" input and output in addition to a nine volt power supply jack. One of the coolest features is that it's got a built in speaker emulation, so you can use it on it's own if you choose. It isn't rack mountable since it's a foot pedal.


UTILIZATION

The configuration of the Tech 21 British pedal is fairly simple to follow, but still allows for a good amount of differing tones between the parameters. These parameters include knobs for level, low, mid, and high EQ, character, and drive. That's all that you really need to know in order to manipulate the pedal, but it did take me a few minutes to get a hang of exactly how each of the parameters affected the signal. A manual shouldn't be necessary with this pedal.

SOUND QUALITY

While sound of the Tech 21 British wasn't as great as I'd hoped it would be, this is still a very solid sounding pedal. I love that it's possible to get a wide array of amp modeling done, ranging from traditional clean sounds to more amp-like overdrives and distortions. I guess that the pedal does sound kind of 'British,' but I'm not sure if it didn't have the name that I would have put that label on it. However, it definitely does have a sound vintage and would fit in well for emulating British invasion sort of stuff for sure. The cleaner sounds on the Tech 21 British are nice to have as an alternative to your amp's sound, but the overdrive tones are where this pedal really comes in handy. It's got a nice range of different overdrive sounds to choose from, so finding a few that you like should be pretty easy.

OVERALL OPINION

While I can't say that the Tech 21 British model would be the next pedal I would buy if I could, it's still a very solid and versatile amp modeler/preamp/guitar effects box. I've tried out a couple of different pedals in the character series that Tech 21 has to offer, and this British model is as good as any, it just depends on what you're going for. If you're looking for a simple overdrive box, I'd recommend something a bit cheaper, but if you want a more versatile amp simulator to work with, the Tech 21 British is definitely worth trying out.

This is an analog pedal, a pre-amp that seeks to emulate the Marshall sounds of old. There is simply a 1/4" input and output, as well as a D.C. adaptor input. This is different from most pre-amps in that it is a pedal, and can only be used when the switch is depressed.

UTILIZATION

Getting a nice sound out of this isn't too difficult. I've found that it's a pretty easy device to use once you've found your sound. There are six knobs on this pedal. Level, Low, Mid, Hi, Character, and Drive. Other than character, they are all pretty self-explanatory. The character knob is interesting, I have never seen that name applied to this effect, nor have I heard a pedal with this kind of adjustment. A salesman explained it to me this way; the pedal sounds more "modern" the more you increase the character knob. More on this in a minute. The user manual is very helpful and is refreshing, since it actually is written in a natural, conversational way.

SOUND QUALITY

I have tried this pedal with a few guitars, and I've actually found that my Favorite combo is with a Fender Twin and Les Paul. This is because the pedal is supposed to emulate Marshall sounds, and it just sounds strange when using an actual Marshall. I liked the pedal for what it was, but I found that I was a bit disappointed with it overall. For one, adjusting between sounds is tough, because simply adjusting the gain or lo/hi knobs would seem to always require adjusting the character knob as well. Also, I don't really like the later Marshall sounds very much, so the higher character settings didn't really work for me. Considering that it did rob me a bit of my Fender Twin sound that I love so much. Basically, this thing is cool but only if you really need a bunch of different sounding Marshalls, without actually buying them.

OVERALL OPINION

I like the range of sounds you can get with this thing, but I find mostly that it is really just a cheap Marshall knock-off. If you need that sound for a few things (like a one-off gig or two) but don't feel the need to actually buy a Marshall, by all means look into it. However, most of the time you would prefer the real deal.

Pedal type preamp to directly attack a console, a sound card or return the loop of an amplifier.

Marshall amp simulation.

Total analog.

An input jack. An output jack.

EQ: Severe acute medium.
..... Level button for the output level.
Character ......... button to mark the character of the pedal or delete them.
Drive button ....... what would we be without guitarist drive button?

Missing is the ability to disengage the simulation of HP.

UTILIZATION

Config simple.

RAS.

Super easy to use.

Very practical and portable.

SOUND QUALITY

The knobs are very active.

The EQ gives a rich sound palette.

I started with VT Bass pedal the same series. His Nickel.
I then bought the Blonde (simulation Fender amp).
The British is even better I think.

It is always difficult to reproduce clear sound authentic.
The british simulates well the hyper Marshall amp.
The discovery is that we can get clear sound very good too.

The use of character combined with button button Drive Marshall offers all the sounds that we can know.

Be careful not to overload the input of the soundcard or the console, it comes quickly because the output level of the pedal is important (and that's good .... there is the signal).

The only small thing is, the simulation of HP, even very good, is not detachable.
I would have liked a less colorful without the simulation of HP.

My Home Studio speakers sound Marshall and the sound is super easy with those pedals.

My plan: Guitar -> Console Mackie with auxiliary in G sharp -> sound card.

The G sharp brings good reverbs and magnifies the original sound.

Cheap and really stunning.

OVERALL OPINION

Very happy.

I think after having a Tonelab and POD PRO character series pedals that sound great.

Better. Marshall Grain is there and the momentum is good.

Adding effects, a good reverb TC Electronic is almost perfect. Nothing to say.

The guitar is respected. The grain is nice. And as for the home studio for rehearsals live console, it sounds.