I've been playing rock, blues and jazz through a Mesa Boogie MarkII combo since the mid 1980’s. I bought this amp because I was tired of lugging the Boogie around. I’ve been very happy with that decision.
The Box
At 34 pounds, the Tech 21 is much lighter than the 56 pound MB. They both have 12” speakers, they’re both 60 watts and they both include spring reverb units. They both take about the same amount of floor space (about 1.5 square feet) and they’re almost exactly the same height - about 18 inches. But becasue it's so much lighter, this amp is much easier to get into and out of my car than the MB.
The MB is all tube and the Tech 21 is solid state. They’re both two-channel amps and both come with a footswitch to toggle between channels. The Tech 21 footswitch also allows you to cut an effects loop in and out and control the reverb and built in boost function.
The controls for the Tech 21 are located on the top of the amp giving its face a very clean retro sort of look – just a cane grille surrounded by black tolex. It also has metal corner protectors on all eight corners. All-in-all, it’s very solidly built.
The Tech 21 has the usual ¼” input. It also has an effects send and return, headphone out and a SanAmp output for going direct to a mixing board. A great feature for the studio or on-stage.
The Sound
I’ve found the Tech 21 to be very well-suited to what I’m playing these days – a mix of jazz and blues in solo and combo settings. The amp has a very warm, full clean sound. Deep mids and solid bass. To my ear it lacks the clarity of the Mesa Boogie, though. The highs are clearer on the MB and the mids are better defined. Having said that, I’m very satisfied with the tones I get from the Tech 21. It does quite a respectable job handling the nuances of jazz chords and solos and I believe an EQ in the effects loop would allow me to really hone the sounds to perfection.
The distorted tone on the Tech 21 really sounds good. It provides excellent tone and balance without getting muddy. I use it to add a little bite to some solos and some crunch for some rhythm parts, or if I want to really jump out to the top of the mix, I'll really crank it. Now, I’m used to the killer overdrive from the MB and Santana solos clearly sound better through the Boogie. But the Tech 21 does a great job and I’m thrilled at its versatility.
Miscellaneous
1) I’ve noticed that the Tech 21 doesn’t provide as much headroom as the Boogie. It’s plenty loud enough for anything I’ve put it through, but the MB is the clear leader here.
2) I had the chance to run a great experiment at a friend’s music store. He had a Tech21 on the floor and I wanted to try swapping out my speaker for a Jensen. So first we set both amps up side-by-side with the settings exactly the same and compared the two amps. They sounded almost identical. Next we swapped the Jensen speaker into my amp and did the same comparison. To my surprise, the Jensen sounded thin and reedy next to the Tech 21 speaker. We put my speaker back in and I’ve never looked back.
3) While the lack of tubes does take away subtley from the sound, I’m really happy that I don’t have to change tubes with this amp. That and the lighter weight are worth the trade off to me. (Not to mention the HUGE price difference.)
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