I was thinking of possibly getting a Tech 21 Trademark 60 Amp primarily for home practicing and using mostly the clean channel. Does anyone have any experience with this Amp? If so how do you like it and how do you feel it works with effects pedals? Thanks for all of your input.
It's a decent sounding solid state amp. Similar in quality and price to something like a Peavey Classic 30, but a bit more flexible. It's clean channel is very good. The fact that it has real spring reverb instead of a digital simulation helps it a lot too.
Clean channel is very nice and very flexible. I have not found the clean channel to be OD pedal friendly. Modulation and delay pedals sound fine. Depending on your definition of "home" volume the TM60 may be a little loud.
Trademark 60 is one of the better Solid State amps around. There is a little distortion bleed if you max out the gain in channel one and use channel two as a clean channel. This is not the way Tech 21 intended the two channels to be used - as the 2nd channel has a better Marshally tone - but I liked the sound of Channel one at almost full drive. The boost feature is very nice as well. It likes effects in front or in the loop and the effects loop is another nice feature. Global tone controls make it a little limiting, but decent sounds are still in there. Very good Fender-ish tones and Marshall-ish tones in one box. I never tried the line out, but I hear it is very good. The amp idles with a slight hum - I found it bothersome at bedroom levels, but never noticed it on stage. Overall, I liked it - but I don't own it any more. Just my 'two sense' worth
Nope, just been keepin up with the threads. http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=93487&highlight=zvex+nano Also check their vidz and soundz from their site. http://media.zvex.com/nano.mov http://zvexamps.com/ampsound.html Pretty neat stuff. Some of those sound pretty darn clean.
I've got a Trademark 60 with the Power Engine 60 extension cab. Overall it's a very good amp - the clean channel is very nice either completely clean or with a little bit of gain to add a bit of edge - it cleans up well with the guitar's volume control as well. It's the sort of amp that any pro could use to gig with just a couple of pedals and get a pretty good sound (unlike cheaper tranny combos) - might not have the refinement of a good boutique tube amp, but it's perfectly acceptable. You can get a very nice pure jazz sound (Les Paul actually uses one live) as well as a range of Fendery and Vox-type tones from the clean channel. In my experience, it takes to overdrive/distortion pedals very well - I run a Keeley TS9, Keeley DS1 and Barber Direct Drive SS into it and it seems to work well with all of them (sometimes better than some of my tube amps) - the clarity of the notes seems to stay intact and it all feels very controllable. The drive channel isn't too bad either - I tend to run it at a fairly light crunch and then use an overdrive for a heavier sustaining sound. HOWEVER - it's pretty loud for home use - if you're only after a practice/recording amp and are more interested in the clean channel, why not look at the Trademark 30? Same wide range of tones, more useable volume, cheaper and lighter.
These guys have pretty much nailed it, I've had a few other amps come and go, this one hasn't gone anywhere, and I'm gigging this Friday and Saturday, and have been gigging it for certain rooms for a while now, no pedals.
I never played the T60 but, if your looking for something small (5 lbs.) simple, & inexpensive ($200) that does great cleans, check out the Crate Power Block. At 75 watts stereo or 150 watts mono, it's even powerful enough to gig with in an emergency. And it also has a stereo FX loop to boot! I have one in my gig bag in case my tube amp ever goes down.
I've got a Tm10 and used to own a TM60. It is overpowered for the bedroom, just get the 10. In a band context, I could never get used to it. I thought the clean channel sounded good, clean or distorted, but the drive channel sounded thin and harsh. Using it as the clean channel was better, but even so I couldn't find an EQ setting I liked for both. I also found the speaker rattled when pushed (so did my power engine 60). It's a light amp, but wasn't my first choice...
Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I was thinking of this amp in large part because it has an effects loop. Is it alot better to have your time based effects in the effects loop rather than straight into the front of the amp after OD/Dist. etc.? If its not much of a difference then maybe it would be better to just get a good sounding small tube amp. Anyone have some thoughts on this? Thanks again.
