TC Electronic launches Ampworx Vintage Series of 3 x 1960's classic amps as DSP Replica 2-Channel Preamps

An intriguing yet somewhat seemingly hasty launch of a new line of preamp pedals - which TC Electronic is calling the ’Ampworx Vintage Series’ - highlighting the recent advances in DSP modelling - while there seem to be a few oddities about the overall decision making process here.

Nothing wrong with the actual target source amps - 1960 Vox AC30, 1963 Marshall JTM45, and 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb - and those 3 TCE preamps actually sound relatively decent enough - while someone else needs to conduct a proper head-to-head comparison against the usual suspects to calibrate overall quality and value - where the entry level price of $150 here is obviously very good value on the surface at least - versus $250 for the Victory V1 Series of Preamps (bottom row), and $319 for the UAFX Preamps (middle row) - featured here for context.

I chose the two other brands as they had sufficiently significant overlap with TCE’s output - while the middle column has relatively different preamp types - JTM45, Tweed and Plexi essentially. There is a fairly direct overlap though in the first and last columns - where we see slightly different takes on the same source amp.

With all Pedals - the criteria for your personal choices and selections are of course fairly broad - and usually do include naming and aesthetics - where the origins of these particular TC Electronic pedals seems to have been somewhat unnecessarily rushed surely?

Those are some of the most unappealing designs I’ve seen in a long time - with particularly lazy naming conventions. I’ve no idea why they went with the blue DC30 as being representative of the AC30 - and why not go gold for the JIMS45 enclosure to differentiate that more from the same black of the Combo Deluxe.

I noted that when Behringer took over TC Electronic - they significantly cheapened and lessened the appeal of the brand - and that process seems to be continuing here. They’ve even sullied the 1590-BB style of enclosure a touch - which looks decent on my Ditto X2 - but somehow really cheap here?

Obviously these are relatively budget pedals - being priced at $150 - and their look and naming - instead of elevating the brand’s core values and qualities - actually further cheapens them.

The original source amps are very well chosen - while I guess these pedals appeal more to the latter TCE Smorgasbord Series fans, than the former mainline TC fans (Tore ’Pedal Jesus’ Mogensen era!) like myself.

I always questioned the approach of diluting the core TC brand values by listing the Smorgasbord ones in among the others. When the Smorgasbord series was originally introduced it was a separate diffusion line (rebadged cheapo Behringer pedals) let’s say sort of a metaphorical equivalent to Armani Exchange (but way cheaper), while TCE is now effectively mixing in Armani Exchange with Emporio Armani - a much more detail-oriented and higher value proposition - that whole approach is totally incongruent as far as I’m concerned! Somewhat akin to having Tesco Value products for sale at Harrods!

This launch seems to be somewhat ill-considered for me - regardless really of whether these pedals are any way decent or not in function and output. There are scant notes on the core sound design methodology or process of modelling - challenges etc. I guess many people just don’t care about those details - and those that are most likely to buy these surely care most about the pricing.

You should know by now that I’m very much a details guy - and quality of thought and application is of significant importance to me in a core brand value - and worth paying a little extra for. Sure the UAFX preamps here are twice the price of the TCE Ampworx ones - but then again they look like more than twice the quality!

In this day and age - with all the archives, references and resources that we have at our disposal - then surely we could have expected better than this - where about the only thing that is totally right on those new TC Electronic Ampworx Pedals is the pricing!

What are your thoughts?

Here are the individual details on those 3 pedals - the other two brands are here just for context and have already been covered on this site - where I will further link to those previous articles.