The SansAmp GT2 is a direct-in or preamp-in tube amplifier emulator. Basically, that means this product helps the user reproduce that warm, natural sound of a tube amp, all while allowing the tonal personality of the instrument to remain unaltered. To go a step further, the GT2 doesn't just emulate a "generic" tube sound, but instead can be adjusted to emulate the tones of some of the worlds greatest tube amps like Fender, Marshall, and Mesa/Boogie. And the best part is that getting these great tones is easy.
As I usually do after receiving a new piece of equipment, I did a quick read through the owners manual and was happy to find that it looked like operating the GT2 was going to be a piece of cake. It was! On that note, I feel the need to mention one of my favorite "features" that came with this Tech21 product. The funny thing is, it's not even an option on the unit itself, but instead something I found in the owner's manual a quick-start, sample-settings guide. These few pages are a great idea, and a great way to get someone started using the GT2. Although I personally like the challenge of tweaking and changing settings in search of that perfect tone (regardless of what type of equipment I'm testing), the fact that I was able to get into the ballpark of a sound I was looking for quickly, was definitely well received. This is also a nice benefit to those musicians that may not be familiar with the classic tube amp sounds being emulated here. They may not know what they're looking for and this gives them great place to start.
Now, back to that tweaking I said I love so much. The SansAmp GT2 has 4 guide knobs and 3 "Character" switches. The "Drive" knob controls the overall amount of gain and overdrive. The "High" and "Low" knobs are active tone controls. As the manual states, boosting Low and High compensates for the limited range of speaker cabinets and combos. The "Level" knob adjusts the output level without altering any of the tonal characteristics. But it's in the character switches where things start to get really interesting.
There are 3 "Amp" switch settings located on the SansAmp GT2 and each one represents a different style of amplifier. The "Tweed," "British," and "California," represent the Fender-style, Marshall-style, and Mesa/Boogie-style, respectively. The "Mod" switch is used to influence the gain of the Amp-style selected. 20lean" resembles a stock tube amp set up, while "Hi-Gain" and "Hot-Wired" push out a more overdriven sound. The last of the character switches is the "Mic" switch. Here the "Classic" setting increases the mid-range and gives greater definition to the notes. The manual recommends this for classic early tube amp sounds and for live applications. The "Center" setting gives greater high mid-range and increased low end, and is recommended for getting a bigger, stronger crunch sound. And the "Off-Axis" setting is similar to the Center setting, but produces a smoother sound with less upper mid-range.
Now that I had an understanding of what these controls did, I was ready to start the fun. I first plugged my ESP LTD 300 guitar into the SansAmp GT2, then ran the GT2 into our Mackie 808S Powered Professional Mixer that supplies power to our two 300 watt speaker cabinets. I decided that I would try some of the sample settings from the owner's manual to get started with. All of these sample settings provided great sounds, but I soon found myself in a frenzy of knob turning and switch pushing. I was finding that I could produce so many great sounds with this little box that I couldn't make up my mind what I liked best. Was it the Marshall Plexi style, or was it the tone I got when I started with the sample setting for the Boogie Original style, then added a bit more low end and drive to the mix? Decisions, decisions But hey, that's a good thing, right? Versatility and variety are always positives regardless of what kind of gear you're working with and those are certainly things you get with the GT2.
Next, to be sure I gave the GT2 a good, well rounded, working over, I decided to see how it sounded through a guitar amplifier. I knew it sounded great through the PA, but would it shine through an amp the same way? To my pleasure, it did! Using the same guitar, I ran the GT2 into my Fender Princeton Chorus, solid state amp. I used the clean channel on the amp and left all of my EQ settings as I normally would when playing. I then tried out all of the favorite settings I had found from my previous session, and the GT2 reproduced them through the amp splendidly. I was even able to improve on a few of the sounds by activating the chorus function on the amp. I love what chorus can add to some sounds and had a blast letting the creativity flow. As a matter of fact, keep in mind you can use a variety of other effects with the GT2 as well. Try adding some delay, reverb, chorus (like I did) or even a wah pedal to really shape your sound. The manual will even tell you where in line (before or after the GT2) to place the additional effects.
The next test was to see what the SansAmp GT2 could do for an old 15 watt, Peavey practice amp. This idea stemmed from me seeing the lonely, neglected, little piece of equipment sitting in the corner of a friends' basement (he apparently upgraded to a bigger/better amp and the Peavey's been untouched ever since.) I first tried out the amp in its natural state. Before the GT2 was used the overdrive was existent, but not very impressive, and the overall sound was, as you might expect, just kind of blah! The addition if the GT2 breathed new life into this little amp. Of course, it wasn't the quite the same as playing through the other higher quality rigs I was using earlier, but I do have to say that I was pretty impressed with the quality of the sounds coming from that little amp after the GT2 was added.
Last but not least, I cozied up with our PC here in the office studio and began laying down tracks with the GT2. What I found was that the delicious sound of the GT2 translated into perfectly recorded tracks in Cakewalk. The only thing I had to do to keep the sound from having that familiar "direct-in" sound was liven up the reverb and add just a hair of delay. This gave some body to the sound and made it more natural sounding for recording purposes. It's easy to overlook this if you're used to using a SansAmp for live performance because you get the body from the acoustics of the amplification equipment and room dynamics. However, when recording direct just keep in mind that you'll need to tweak the sound oh-so-little to get just the amount of ambience you're looking for.
Bottom Line:
The Bottom Line is this: for less than $200 you get a quality direct-box-in-a-foot-pedal that emulates some of the finest tube amplifiers in the world. It's not fancy and there's not a lot of "junky" effects built in (like some other units in this price range), but this is one solid little box that capitalizes on what it does best - pure, screaming, adrenaline pumping tube sound for live performance or recording. Make no mistake folks, this isn't a multi-effects pedal from a company that rolls them out on the assembly line. This is a finely crafted unit that's tough, durable and has incredible tonal characteristics. So when you're evaluating what type of pedal, amp or processor you need, make sure you give the Tech21 and SansAmp lines a hard look. If you need something with DI capability, but also the flexibility to be used in other environments, this may just be your ticket.
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