N A D: TC-100

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domct203

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First impression..... Holy Crap.

Seamless channel switching, thank you Mesa!

I can’t wait to get this plugged into one of my Recto 4X12’s.

All I have at home is my vertical 2X12’s loaded with Eminence Delta-Pro 12A’s, and I’m blown away with what I’m hearing, and feeling.

Channel 2 tight 100W, with gain almost maxed and bass at 2:30 will give my Roadster’s Ch4 Modern rhythm tones a run for their money, and without using a front end boost.

Channel 3 tight, with the multi-soak at 50W and cranking the master is yielding juicy high gain solo tones, chunky and dynamic, very easy to play and very responsive to pick attack. Palm muted runs easily generate a wonderful ‘pop’ to each note, legato runs are effortlessly reminiscent of my 90W MKV in MKIIC mode, just a lot fuller in the lower registers, again without a boost in front.

First impression of Ch1 is ‘OK’ for cleans, but to me nothing has compared to my Roadster’s clean channel. In all fairness I don’t like a dry clean tone, so this may change once I have my effects rack hooked up.

So far I’m extremely impressed with this amp. Nothing has done that out of the box since I bought the Roadster. I have a feeling this will be a big upgrade to my current rig.

MKV is already sold.

Dom
 
The TC is a special amp. I have the 50. I love playing it, it sounds great and feels great from edge of breakup to full on metal. Although I find channel 2 a bit on the thin side, but my ears get used to it quickly. I always love going back to the Mark V. For me it can’t replace the Mark V in the punch department, or the versatility. Although the TC is very, very versatile. It is fortunate to have both.
 
I never could totally bond with my MKV. It’s a great amp no doubt, and is much better suited for leads and solo feel, but it always sounds too ‘pointy’, and something about the high mids that seemed shrill to me no matter how I EQ’ed it. I always came back to my Roadster for its heavy modern rhythm tone, and passable lead feel.

With the TC-100 I can get a very modern and heavy rhythm tone in ch 2, and a fluid and searing lead feel on ch 3. It seems like my ideal mix of my Roadster & MKV’s favorite traits.

I’m really excited to play this amp, and can’t wait to play it with the band. Mother Nature threw us an ice storm today so I have to wait until Tuesday to play in context of the group. I predict the amp will cut through yet remain very full sounding, without the low mid hump/mud of my Roadster.

Dom
 
mace said:
<snip> Although I find channel 2 a bit on the thin side<snip>

I was somewhat underwhelmed by Channel 2 also. I put a boost (Rockett Lemon Aid to be exact) in front of it and it came to life.
 
I don’t find ch 2 thin at all, especially without using tight mode. It actually feels like a lower gain version of my Roadster’s ch 4 modern mode. Granted my Roadster is modded to tighten up the bottom and low mids.

I’m going to throw my Xotic EP Boost in front of ch 2 to see how they behave together. I might even give my SP Comp a spin too.

Dom
 
While I find channel 2 on the TC on the thin side, the Mark V is sort of the opposite. Can’t really dial out the mids and thickness completely on Crunch. These are all good things and why one should have multiple amps. :p
 
Wow, what a difference a cabinet makes.

With my Recto 4X12 I can see why it’s described as thin, it has a sharp upper mid, and really comes through the mix. In band context ch 2 is a lot more different from the Roadster than I expected, to me it’s much more reminiscent of my modded DSL, but with a much better bottom end/low mids. The Delta Pro 12A’s in the 2x12 seemed to relax the upper mids a bit more. I have a G12T-75 loaded oversize Marshall (Mode4) 4x12 I’m going to try the amp with also.

I need more time with ch 3, it was too shrill at first, and I’m surprised how low I had the mid and treble after a couple of songs.

Ch 1 sounded way better with the Recto cab and a bit more volume.

I can say I’m still quite happy with my purchase. I was amazed how good the amp sounded with nothing but ‘guitar -> cable -> amp’, and I see this amp getting way more use than my Mark V ever did.

We have a show coming up so I didn’t want to waste too much time playing with the new amp. The guys were impressed with how well the amp cut through without loosing too much of my ‘ballsy’ sound as they describe it. We played a couple of our heavy originals, followed by Iron Maiden’s # of the beast, and Rush’s Limelight. I’d say that’s pretty versatile, especially without my usual boost, comp, chorus, & delay ‘tricks’.

It’s a keeper.
 
This weekend i'll be playing out with my band and the lead guitarist will be playing through the TC-50. He's borrowed it before and tends to load up the gain, mids and treble on the lead channel. I'll be with the trusty Mark V. If we can get some decent audio I'll post a comparison video. Can't go wrong with the TC, it is a wonderful amp.
 
Break a leg! Let us know how the show went.

I was still getting some ear piercing highs in ch 3 out of the Recto 4x12 (no lie, certain notes hurt my ears and I was not playing that loud), so I gave my Mesa 5-Band GEQ a try in the FX loop with lackluster results. Every time I thought I dialed in good sounding tone, I’d switch out the loop and realize how much better the amp felt. Even leaving the FX loop on and switching off the EQ gave the same results.

I also tried my EP Boost out front with channel 2, definitely wakes up that channel even with just a moderate amount of boost, even ch 3 responded well, making all the strings feel ‘alive’, the amp got very touch sensitive at lower gain settings. I also felt it gave ch 1 more of my Roadster’s Tweed character. I’m pretty sure that will stay in the chain.

My big surprise is how my Mode4 cab sounded. The G12T-75’s seemed to tame that piercing freq, and they felt great with the amp. The cab is pretty much the same size as the Recto cab, but I found myself able to turn up the bass in the gain channels just a hair. This combination was very inspiring to play.

Today I’ll play with clean tones abit, I have a TC Corona chorus I can’t wait to try out front.
 
Thanks. Actually, I misspoke, my buddy likes to load up gain, mids and bass (usually treble is 10-11 o'clock) on channel 3 on the TC-50.
 
The amp has a lot of usable treble in the 9:00-10:00 range, that’s for sure.

The more I play the amp the more comfortable I get with it, it’s quite a different beast compared the the Roadster. I keep finding myself staying in ch 2, tight, mids, treble & presence in the 8:30-10:00 range, bass around 2:00, gain around 2:00 & master at noon.

I was hoping to find my lead voice in ch 3, hasn’t happened yet. In tight mode it doesn’t have that fullness to the higher frets like ch 2, and in normal mode it loses that sizzle and juicy feel.

Ch 1 was a winner once I brought the gain up past noon.

My only complaint is how tight mode makes the mids a bit too ‘boxey’ sounding. Hopefully that will be different in the mix of the band.
 
Hi and congrats for your new amp :)

I see that you also have the Stiletto Deuce stage II.

Since you have both, I'm wondering if you could give us a detailed and informative comparison between the two amps? I'm very much interested in that.
I'm thinking of buying one of the two, as I allready have a Mark V and a Dual recto reborn and I want to be done with the British sound as well.
What I'm really interested in is:
1) an EL34 glassy clean sound, reminiscent of Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary".
2) a modded plexi distortion, reminiscent of Dokken's - unchain the night.
3) a modded JCM 800 distortion reminiscent of Zakk Wylde.

I'm hoping that one of these 2 amps can cover all of that.. Am I asking too much :roll:

Thanks in advance,
Chris.
 
psihiatros said:
Hi and congrats for your new amp :)

I see that you also have the Stiletto Deuce stage II.

Since you have both, I'm wondering if you could give us a detailed and informative comparison between the two amps? I'm very much interested in that.
I'm thinking of buying one of the two, as I allready have a Mark V and a Dual recto reborn and I want to be done with the British sound as well.
What I'm really interested in is:
1) an EL34 glassy clean sound, reminiscent of Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary".
2) a modded plexi distortion, reminiscent of Dokken's - unchain the night.
3) a modded JCM 800 distortion reminiscent of Zakk Wylde.

I'm hoping that one of these 2 amps can cover all of that.. Am I asking too much :roll:

Thanks in advance,
Chris.
I think with the right boost/od/eq pedals either amp will approximate those tones.

The TC-50/100 will be more versitile with 3 channels vs 2 channels on the Stiletto, and is still in production.

Dom
 
domct203 said:
I think with the right boost/od/eq pedals either amp will approximate those tones.
The TC-50/100 will be more versitile with 3 channels vs 2 channels on the Stiletto, and is still in production.
Dom

Right, thanks man 👍🏼
 
psihiatros said:
domct203 said:
I think with the right boost/od/eq pedals either amp will approximate those tones.
The TC-50/100 will be more versitile with 3 channels vs 2 channels on the Stiletto, and is still in production.
Dom

I agree that the you can definitely get those three tones with the TC-50/100. I've been playing my TC-100 now for a few months, and there are very few tones I'm not able to conjure with this thing. If I'm playing my strat on channel 2 ("Lo"), I can easily get that warm, just breaking up glory in "The Wind Cries Mary." Now I no excuses for not playing the song better, lol.

As far as classic metal, this amp will get you there. The overall tone of the "Lo" and "High" channels, to me, is somewhere between a Dual Rec and a Marshall. As long as I don't add too much gain in the "High" channel, it's stays nice and growly.

Which amp did you end up getting and how his it going?
 
Oh! Hey man, thanx for your reply. I was just reading other threads and just saw your reply.. Holy ****, A year later! **** me.
Anyway, i haven't bought anything yet cause i'm not sure about it. I'm thinking an EVH Stealth might do the job better, i don't know..
 

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