Triple crown 100 vs Roadster!?

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Samhain

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Can any TC100 owners weigh in?
I’ve had a Roadster for years now and I still love it.
But the new TC100 has me gassing.
Is the TC100 as versatile as the roadster?
I’ve read the cleans on the TC are amazing, but that tweed on the roadster is hard to beat!
Is the EQ on the TC active?
Thanks for any insight y’all can give me.
First post! Loooooong time Boogie boy!
 
Welcome to the forum.

I think it will boil down to what you want from the amp. I play more ‘Modern Heavy-Rock’, and stay away from lower-gain tones. I’m a huge fan of Mark Tremonti and John Petrucci, both style and tone, and I’ve always searched for that mix of power and precision in my tone & playing.

I'm also a devoted Roadster player, over a decade now, and I have just picked up a TC-100.

I've gigged a few good amps along the way.... Started with a Triple Recto in 2001. After gigging with that amp for about 4 years, I started to dabble in other amps (Carvin V3, Marshall DSL, Peavey 5150), but after a few years I realized that nothing compared to that Recto Modern Heavy rhythm tone. I bought the Roadster mainly for the built in spring reverb, which I don't even use anymore LOL, but the amp seemed a lot better for lead/solo playing in the orange channel compared to the Triple Recto, and Ch1 Tweed is the best clean tone I have ever dialed in on a high gain amp.

Again, always searching for 'that' tone, I've tried a couple of different Mesa's while owning the Roadster (MKV & Stiletto) but always ended up back at the Roadster as my main rig. The MKV was great for leads, but lacked the character I needed for rhythm playing. The Stiletto was great for that modded marshall JCM800 tone, but eventually I realized that's not what I'm looking for.

I’ve only played the TC-100 a couple of times at home, but I’m really liking this amp. Tomorrow night is band practice, I’m excited to hear the amp with the band. I’m betting that in the mix my rhythm tone will sound similar enough to go un-noticed, with the bonus of a great feeling lead channel from ch 3 of the TC-100, which is my only gripe with the Roadster. The Rectifiers I’ve played have always been a bit stiff, and even after having the Roadster modded (a custom mod by Trace at Voodoo Amps), it still feels a bit stiff for some of the technical stuff I try to play. The TC-100 feels more like my MKV, but with a fuller bottom end that I think lends itself better to my style of playing. I just don’t know if I can get the same clean tone character with the TC-100 as I do with the Roadster (Ch 1 Tweed).

We have a benefit show coming up on Feb 1st, so I’m not planning to move the TC-100 into my A rig until after that. Tomorrow I’m going to play a couple of our straight forward tunes, (guitar->cable->amp), no cleans and a fair share of lead/solo work so I can get a better opinion of the amp, I’ll let you know what I think.

Once I have the TC-100 hooked up to my MIDI rack it will be a better comparison for me.
 
I have both. domct203 said it quite well. I would find it difficult to let go of my Roadster as that amp is a pure beast with change of preamp tube in V1. I like the tweed setting on the Roadster as well. That being said, the clean channel on the TC-100 is somewhat similar. Set to normal you can get pristine clean up to some lo gain clip with the gain control. Set it to drive and you can literally get into that crunch that will overlap CH2 (lo gain channel). Since the TC-100 makes use of the solo and master volume control, it is easy to balance all three channels. I always found it frustrating if I wanted to use raw or vintage on CH3 and modern on CH4 and maintain a balanced output level with the Roadster. That is just a minor setback and not overly difficult to remedy. Flexible? I would say the TC-100 is to some extent. CH2 is voiced a bit different than CH3 due to the additional gain stage that pulls in on CH3. EL34 are the crown jewels for the TC-100 but the amp does well with the 6L6 tubes too. I did not like the 6V6 in the TC-100 but I did not experiment with them long enough. Thought they sounded better in the TC-50 (yeah, I have that too). To get more out of the TC-100 just add a 5bang GEQ in the FX loop and that will take the TC-100 to the next level. As for the tone controls being active? The tone stack is tube driven. Clean channel the tone stack I believe is nested between the two gain stages on the front end of that particular preamp circuit similar to most Boogie clean channel design. However the tone stack for the lo/Hi gain channels sits at the end of the gain chain similar to the Recto preamp but does not have the cold cathode drive circuit followed by a dc coupled cathode follower to drive the tone stack. The Roadster definitely has more bottom end to its tone. Bass, midrange, treble are reactive enough for tone shaping, with the midrange being the most effective next to the treble. Bass is responsive too but not the dominant tone control for CH2 and CH3. On the clean channel, due to the position in the gain chain where it sits, the bass is more abundant but has more balance between the mid and treble. (I do not think I am describing this correctly).

Here is a short video I made with the TC-100 and the 5BGEQ in the FX loop. I was just mulling around. Some adjustments to the controls during the video along with changing the sliders on the 5BGEQ, off and on, etc.... Was hoping to cover as much tone and gain variations but probably did not do that as good as I could have. Note: the power tubes I had in the TC-100 were drifting to the dark side. I swapped them to match the color code of the TC-50 when I was comparing the two amps. The general tone of the TC-100 is not as muffled as it sounded in this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV-fi9ddAIQ&t=131s

I did not compare the TC-100 to the Roadster, yet. I would like to hear what the blend of the two would sound like. Perhaps I can use both 412 cabs but the one I use with the Roadster will overpower the other as it is loaded with EV speakers. (for me, that was the best mod I ever did as it remains tight no matter how much bass gets pushed into it, could not do that with the V30 speaker as it looses detail). I would highly recommend you try out a TC-100 if you can just to get a real experience with one.
 
I thought I should follow up on this thread.

It’s been a few months now with my TC-100, and I find myself gravitating to that amp over the Roadster as my main gigging amp even after the ‘honeymoon stage’

Since February I’ve gone back and forth between the two amps 5 or 6 times with the band. In the end, I find the TC sits in a live mix better. It cuts through, but is very full sounding. I’d say the Roadster is a fuller, thicker tone, but for a live gigging amp the TC cuts through better, switches channels better, feels livelier for lead work, gets a great aggressive modern rhythm tone, has built in MIDI control and a Cab Clone to feed the in-ears.

Sure, there’s one or two original songs we play live where I miss the Roadster, but the rest of the set I’m loving the TC and not missing the Roadster at all.

I’ll need to get some recorded tracks of the TC for comparison, but we just finished tracking an 8 song disc and the Roadster sounds great for all the rhythm tracks. I used my (now sold) MKV for all the solos. Once we mix I’ll share some of it.
 
The TC-100 does an excellent job, it is a hard amp to beat until you get to a song that requires a Dual or Triple Rec. I still have plenty of love for my Roadster and it has become a main part of my desired rig setup. However, TC-100 is one of the go-to amps for jam sessions when I have company. Since I recently bought a Multi-watt Dual Rectifier, this amp has become the top amp in my collection as it is a suitable replacement for both the Roadster and the TC-100. It has even displaced my JP-2C from time spent playing through it. I blame some of this on the Mesa switch track that allows me to blend two amps together and the MWDR + Roadster is hard to beat. The TC-100 MWDR is also amazing combination as both amps do offer similar characteristics but yet are different. I can see now many say the TC-100 is too close to the MWDR or vice versa so they abandon the possibilities that awaits them. :lol: I looked at my last response and called the 5BAND GEQ something else "5 bang GEQ" :oops: So if you need to tailor your TC-100 into more range, the 5 BAND GEQ in the FX loop will aid with that. That FX pedal does not work as well with a dual rectifier, especially the new born due to its tuned preamp but you can use it to boost midrange if needed. I have also experimented with some different preamp tubes in the Roadster to improve its high frequency response when using Modern Voice on CH4, the other modes or voices still sound great but now the Roadster no longer drowns itself, still on the dark side but definitely an improvement over stock preamp tubes. I should revisit the combination of the TC-100 and Roadster together just to update my memory as it has been a while since I did that. TC-100 is an excellent amp, sounds really good by itself and it gets even better when you pair it up with a Rectifier or Mark series.
 
I feel the same about my Roadster, I’ll never part with it. But for a weekend warrior player, you can’t beat the simplicity the TC brings to a rig. The TC also does lower volume playing much better than the Roadster, which really needs to be LOUD to sound it’s best.
 
domct203 said:
I feel the same about my Roadster, I’ll never part with it. But for a weekend warrior player, you can’t beat the simplicity the TC brings to a rig. The TC also does lower volume playing much better than the Roadster, which really needs to be LOUD to sound it’s best.

I totally agree with this.

The one thing I'll say about the Roadster: it offers a huge array of modes. The TC-50 is more targeted, but the voicings it has are really good.
 
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