Tech 21 Blonde pedal

[Aslan]

I am a die hard tube amp man but I bought a Tech 21 Blonde pedal as a back up so if one of my amps died at a gig I could plug straight into the board and keep going. I wasn't prepared for how good this pedal sounds direct, in fact I'm tempted to start gigging with just a G2D Custom OD into the Bonde followed by a Visual sound H2O chorus/delay, with this setup of three pedals I was able to play everything that I wanted and the tone was as good or better than using my amps ( I have 6 tubes amps from Fenders to Oranges to Top Hats). Anyway, I never thought I would consider not taking a amp or two to a gig but the sound and the "feel" of these pedals are amazing. I liked it so much that I bought California pedal and again it sound just like the Boogie amps I've owned in the past. Has anyone else had this experience or have I just gone over to the dark side and don't know it?????

[Shane Sanders]

I've got the Blonde, Liverpool, and British. For me, they allow a wide range of respectable possibilities that I would otherwise not be able to afford or mic properly given my studio environment at home. And they do all this while saving me a ton of CPU when recording. Obviously, I'm liking them a lot.

If you are recoding using a computer, give the AudioDamage chorus a spin ($29 VST fx plugin). Combined with the Blonde, you can get some Eric Johnson tones on the cheap.

http://www.audiodamage.com/effects/p....php?pid=AD016

[erikm5150]

I've been wanting to get the british and the liverpool.

Aslan, how does the blonde take OD pedals?
Do you have the blonde set to clean and use the OD pedal for dirt?

[Alter]

yeah, i have the same question. how does the blonde perform on clean sounds?

[Shane Sanders]

A fairly revealing YouTube video of the Blonde:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOaxbQzhXwE

[Shane Sanders]

Originally Posted by Alter

yeah, i have the same question. how does the blonde perform on clean sounds?

With the 'character' set at 12-ish and the 'drive' close to zero, you can dig in on it and it stays super clean and Fender-y. Upping the 'character' knob starts to push it into classic tubby-mids-dirt territory (in a good way). I end up adding post EQ to the highs if I've got the 'character' dimed, adds back some lost sparkle.

That's been my experience with it so far using both a Strat (S/S/S) and Steinberger (S/S/H).

There's a lot of gain to be had with the 'drive' knob, though. I haven't needed a pedal in front of it, but I imagine it would be fine, possibly losing some of the character.

[Shane Sanders]

The knobs on these pedals are highly interactive, an eighth of an inch of movement can do a lot, which I think underscores the first post. You can really dial in some convincing tones due to how they've designed the thing overall.

[Aslan]

In answer to the questions regarding how they take pedals: I've used a G2D Custom, a Keeley modded Rat and a Route 66 pedal all in front of the Blonde and they sound very good. I've used a Carbon Copy and a Visual Sound H2O after the pedal and again it sounds just like they would in the effects loop of an amp. These Tech 21 Character pedals are impressive, and not I don't work for Tech 21 and I don't own a store selling them. I'm a musician that as of 2-3 weeks ago would never consider using a pedal direct into a PA instead of an amp. I've tried some of the modeling stuff (Line 6, etc.) and I just could never bond with it, they never sounded like a real amp. I will get the VT pedal for my bass as soon as Musicians Friend gets them in stock and I'd love to try the Liverpool pedal but I'm happy with the two I have now, although it would be cool to have all four of the guitar pedals on a pedal board in loops so you could switch from a Vox amp to a Fender amp to a Marshall Amp to a Boogie amp but that would be more choices than I need.

[peridot1]

The Liverpool can do this too. Keep the gain down and the character knob around 11 or 12 o'clock.

I liked to see Sansamp make another Tri AC type pedal but with an extra character knob, a Liverpool patch and an extra save patch.

[tjalla]

Just my .02 - I've been using the Blonde for half a year now, live direct to desk every week in a church environment. The controls are indeed very interactive, almost to a fault for live work - some weeks I love the sound, other times I fighting my tone - just the way the character knob interacts with the eq takes some getting used to, moreso when using different guitars/dirt pedals, I only use the Blonde set clean anyway, the gain can get a bit processed sounding as often can be had with Tech21.

For live use, I would have preferred a 3-position switch for blackface/tweed/JTM (or something) rather than a continuous blend across the extremes.

Having said that, I'm thinking of parking the Blonde on my computer desk for direct recording where it really does do well to knock out good sounding tracks with minimal fuss. I'll be taking it on upcoming overseas gigs too, for a few festivals with 'mystery' backline equipment.

[BlueHeaven]

How well do they clean up w/guitar's volume control? Can you set them to a bit of drive and get a good clean by dialing down? At the very least these pedals sound like they could be gig savers.
Greg

[ruger9]

Everybody seems to like this pedal direct... how good a job does it do of "blonding" another amp... for example, you want a Blonde Bassman tone, you put this pedal in front of an AC30...

Just wondering if one could venture into Blonda Bassman territory using the pedal this way, until one ("I") could afford to get Blonde Bassman rig...

And along those same lines, I wonder how the Tech 21 compares to the Menatone Dirty Blonde?

[ruger9]

aah.... I just read the Tech 21 has a built-in speaker emulation that can't be turned off. So I guess it won't work very well going into the front end...

Does anyone else besides menatone make a "Blonde" pedal? (I guess the Dirty Blonde" is no longer being made...

[Mike McLenison]

The Liverpool pedal does it for me. I'm curious about their other Character series pedals though. My SansAmp Original/Classic pedal gets an Eric Johnson Marshall tone that I've yet to hear sounds as good.

[redpill]

The only version of these I don't have yet is the California - and that will be coming soon. I use them to go direct. I love the results. They sound and feel like amps to me. The range of sounds in each pedal is quite remarkable. You can put and OD or distortion in front of them, and they handle it well. They are the 'amps' in my main rigs now.