Tech21 Sansamp Liverpool?

[Squierrel]

Has anybody tried this pedal? It's a solid-state analog (no tubes but nothing digital either) pedal emulating an AC30. I have been looking for some piece of hardware to improve my sound in home recordings, because none of the digital modellings I've tried is very close to the real thing. I've tried Tonelab EX, but I wasn't able to get anything good out of it. I've tried various tube preamps, but they seem to be more distortion-oriented devices.

I also tried a Tech21 Sansamp Blonde pedal, which was a very good Fender amp emulator, but unfortunately the Liverpool pedal was out of stock.

There is a guy in Youtube (username: jalveste) playing very convincing Shadows tunes with this pedal instead of an amp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mesWah7CniY

There are many other Youtube demos too, most of them concentrating on Beatles and Brian May type of sounds, all of them quite convincing.

Any opinions about this?

[Martyn]

I'd also be interested to know/hear more about this.

[AlanH]

Hi,

I bought a Tech 21 Liverpool on Tues. The new model has a speaker sim on/off switch, and the older model does not. This would appear to be important if you want to play through an amp.

I don't know how they do it. No valves. It removes bass like the Ariab, but adds the tone you want. Fine tuning the sound you want takes a while because the low, mid, high and character all interact.
The bottom line is I like the tone. My Ariab is in the cupboard now along with a tube pre. Now I go from guitar to Tech 21 to Magicstomp and into my AC4TVH. Tech 21 have a big range of pedals and they
are all made in the U.S.A. and look solid enough. I have never met anybody that owns one, so don't know how reliable they are. The web site has very little tech info, and the instructions supplied are nothing more than a 5x4 one sided sheet, but I will give the product top marks. I am very glad I have discovered Tech 21.

Cheers
Alan H

[Martyn]

That's useful to know. New York based Tech21 have a huge reputation for quality and reliability. Their Trademark 60 and 120 non-valve amps arguably get about as close as any such amp can to an accurate tube sound, so I'm not surprised this device is as realistic as you say. Perhaps you could post a brief A/B comparison in the soundfiles section comparing sounds with/without the device? I'd be keen to hear one as there are no local stockists for me to try one for myself.

Cheers,
Martyn

[AlanH]

Hi Martyn,

Sorry I can't help with a recording. I do not have any gear to do this.

I understand that the whole range of pedals do a very good job without an amp. I found a player with the Blonde, and he went straight to the P.A.
The sound was very convincing.

Might cost an arm and a leg to get a range of sounds though. $250 per pedal/sound. On the other hand.......Christmas is coming !!

Have you listened to the guy in the link above. Sounds pretty good to me.

Cheers,
Alan H