TC Electronic Ampworx Combo Deluxe 65 Preamp Pedal Reviews

My intention here was to have a good Fender amp sound without having to lug around an amp. I plug this directly from the "cab sim" jack into my band's PA system, and it sounds great. Fits nicely onto my mini pedal board in between a Tube Screamer and a tremolo and a boost pedal. Its operation is as simple as it could be: dial in a sound on the green channel, then switch to the red channel and dial in another sound. It remembers those settings when you switch back and forth, or you can tweak either as needed without changing the other. And the reverb sounds really great. Well worth the money. My back thanks me every time I use it!

It sounds amazing. I use it on a very tiny pedalboard and the base for my tone. I love that it has a preamp out and a DI out with amp sim. This is something that the 300+ amp sims don't have and I think its a great feature for gigging. For instance if you wanted to run into a power amp and run the mic'd sound to the FOH. The firmware update is great. Adds more clean headroom and gives the sim a warmer quality. I highly recommend this pedal it punches above its price point.

It does recreate the sound of a fender amp! It does recreate the ventures sound, the shadows sound, the stevie ray vaughan sound, the hendrix sound!!
I love it! This may not be for everybody but i'm thrill!! And also takes pedals great!!

I haven't been able to get a decent clean tone with through my DAW - with any of these amp in a box things- until now! It's not an old Princeton or DeLuxe - but it's quiet and delivers the goods. I can lay down guitar tracks w no line isolators .. or anything else.. and get a decent recording. Excellent reverb! Vibrato or trem would make this Aplus..

While I don't have a Twin or Princeton handy to compare it to, this paired with a Boss BD-2 does a killer imitation of The Chats, The Growlers, Mr. Bungle, amongst other Fender amp using bands. The headphone jack is a huge boon too!

I like being able to turn knobs for instant gratification with an interface, and have tried boatloads of direct amp emulators for sessions, and occasionally silent stages and fly dates. My main concern from the demos of this product was that I was not going to be able to tame the treble response. I am happy to report that you can get a warm jazzy sound out of this just like a real deluxe. You also can get a clean platform to plug pedals into and create rigs on the fly. That's possible with other similar amp simulators also but nothing is as fast and intuitive as this. I was so relieved when I plugged it in and said to myself " finally". I have many other amp emulators and multi effects boxes and I like using them all for different things, but this is such an easy and simple solution in a compact form they can sit on a desk or mount on a paddleboard. I am tempted to try out some of the other flavors. I should mention that it does not really matter to me if I make it exact emulation of an amp. I think this delivers very flexible and usable tones and actually feels like an amp to play through. The on board IR does the job for me but can be bypassed if you want to use other options.

I was looking for a way to record guitar into Logic Pro, but didn't like the software guitar sounds. They are fine, but not what I wanted which was a clean blues sound more similar to BB. King, but with slightly more breakup. This pedal hit the nail on the head for that purpose. I also notice it has some nice clean sounds as well. Reverb is pretty descent too. You can see my settings in the picture I'm posting. I also like that it uses power from my pedal board, no dedicated power cable/outlet needed.

I started off looking for something that would let me use headphones for quiet practice; getting some Fender tone would be a bonus for me. This thing exceeded my expectations: fit & finish are excellent, it plays with amps and boards, it has a great reverb, it has a great visual appeal, and the controls are too easy to manipulate in real time.

Tone is subjective, but it provides convincing Fender tone, IMHO.

If you want that Blackface tone with a vintage drip this pedal does it. It also is a great pedal platform. I use this on my board direct to front of house. Only thing I would like different would be an effects loop for delay.

I purchased a used demo model off of Sweetwater's eBay site after seeing the 60-cycle hum video. This is the real deal. I loved my Hall of Fame reverb, but this is so much better. I would've bought it just for the reverb, but the fact that you can use it for DI and as a headphone amp just sweetens the deal.

I chose this over other amps in a box primarily for the headphone function. It's sounds really good through the headphones especially given the price. I usually play through a peavey classic 30. So I don't have a ton of amp experience. But if your in an apartment and need something to plug and play with a head phone jack this is a great option.

Love this pedal! It makes my small venues seem huge. Works well with other pedals.
It does work with IRs. You must come out of the "out" plug not the "out DI" but it does work.
Not sure I will ever need that but it is an option. Hats off to Matt Kreager for all the help!

The Church I play lead guitar for recently purchased this pedal to replace my amp. This is a fantastic pedal for the price! Sounds great in the mix of a live band, and it handles pedals fairly well. I have some heavy ambient Reverbs going into the front of this pedal like the Slotva and the Plethora X3, and it handles them like a champ. The built in reverb is very nice to have as a backdrop, and it drips like an actual spring reverb tank! Don't shy away from this pedal line-up because of the negative reviews. Give these a chance. I much prefer the simple singular IR solution instead of being overloaded with options like the Dream 65 or Iridium. The Combo 65 is an easy plug-and-play solution with very easy tone control!

Very good sounding fender emulation. I have used it for direct input to record a guitar track with a live drummer to good effect. I haven't tried other vendor pedals but for the price it works really good.

If you are looking for that sparkle clean strat tone that quacks, smacks and shimmers, this pedal delivers...and the reverb drips
Only thing that I would add is when plugging headphones in, I wish it was louder. I had JBLs and level dial all the way up and it made some decent noise but nothing approaching loud
Either way, this pedal has me thinking that my days of shlepping 50 lb amps to PA gigs might be over

This is a great, crisp sounding, pedal that I think will be a classic. The price is on the low side, but it is a value.

The down side is there is no vibrato. The reverb is authentic sounding and that is really the element that matters to me.

A perfect present for any guitar player looking for the '65 deluxe sound without the pounds.

Well done TC Electronics. You created a great amp/cab sim pedal that holds its own against competition.

I'm a gigging musician of 30+ years looking for direct-to-PA solutions. I've owned most of the amp/cab sim products that have come out since the pioneering Tech21 days, and this pedal can hold its own against all of them.

Pros: Easy to use. Easy to find a good sound. A great IR choice. Comes closer to the coveted "cab in a room" sound through a PA speaker than other cab/amp sims. Easy 1/4" outputs for signal routing. Two channels. A mid-control is invaluable.

Cons: The treble is significant and there's a fine line (sweet spot) between too much and not enough that is hard to dial-in. The unit I received had a tech glitch (switches wouldn't work shortly after power-up and needed to cycled a few times before working properly) and needed to be returned.

Summary … I liked this better than the Dream 65, and as much as my Iridium for live applications where the punch of a guitar in a room is needed through a PA system (silent stage, etc.)

I'm using it as a no frills pedalboard amp for gigging. On one hand it is relatively large whereas competing products have smaller footprints and more features but at higher cost. I didn't want/need all of those features like my strymon iridium for a small gigging pedal board, so it works perfectly as a pedal platform. I'm also not a digital-pedal or modeler kind of person, so this does the job simply with some analog knobs and little fuss. It doesn't sound as good as my iridium and the cab DI is sufficient but not the best. But again, at the lower price point it does the job and I'm less worried about it getting damaged on the road. I do say that a LOVE that it has a built-in DI which my iridium lacks and drives me crazy. The headphone out and DI are standard for these products in my opinion, which was a huge selling point for me on this simple pedal.

All-in-all, there are better sounding options, but for a cheap no frills modeler with a DI, it is perfect for that application.

All of the other reviews are spot on regarding the tone and playability of this box. I just wish it had one more thing - a switch on the back for the main output (i.e. the NON-DI output) to ALSO be a DI. Why? Because that means you could send the modeled amp signal to one track of your DAW and send the second output dry/unaffected to a second track - which would allow you to then reamp your signal later using a real amp of your choice. This is a great tool for recording, but as it is now you still need a second DI box to record both your modeled and dry unaffected signals (AND you'd have to turn off the reverb etc manually or use a Y cable before the Ampworx).

than the Dream'65. It sounds really good. This will be going on my "duo board" Had it been released 3 weeks earlier, I'd have one on my band board,too, but I put a Dream '65 on 3 weeks before.The Combo is a bare bones version at 1/2 the price of the Dream. My only complaint is the reverb is a little too "boingy" for me.

This is a nice alternative to the UA dream (maybe even the Iridium) if you're short on cash and want bang for buck. I also like how you can use it via Cabsim or in front of an amp like a regular pedal. They also NAILED the spring reverb tone! It's better than the spring setting on my Boss RV-6! Speaking of that it takes pedals quite well too!

The negatives? I wish they would let you add your own IR, but maybe they'll add that later on. Also USB-C is the standard, so why mini USB? It's not 2005 anymore. One last thing: it's a shame they couldn't add a hidden tremolo setting on the Red Channel.

This thing sounds great both through my amps and into my recording set up. The DI is clean and sounds basically like you're playing through an amp. I think the reverb is my favorite part. I had a 74 Super Six Reverb and this sounds a lot like what I remember liking about it.

As noted in the title, the sound that comes from the Combo Deluxe 65 (FYI … the apostrophe should be on the other side of 65), is very, very good. Playing my PRS Silver Sky SE through headphones and through my Electro-Voice Evolve 30M (also purchased at Sweetwater), it's rich, full, attention-getting, smooth, clean, clear … everything I was looking for in this pedal, in lieu of carrying my 1973 Fender Pro Reverb (61.5 pounds) to my solo gigs.
I've never been much of a pedal guy, but I was looking for a way to use my Silver Sky during performances. I'm mostly a fingerstyle acoustic player, and do a lot of Atkins, Travis, Reed, Emmanuel, Kottke, etc. stuff, but there are a few songs that work better with on electric instruments (my other electric is a 1962 Gretsch 6120DC), and this pedal gives me that opportunity. No problems with that.
But … for those who aren't familiar with how to pair one of these pedals with a PA, you won't find much help in the manual. Yes, it suggests to use the DI/Cab Sim jack out to the PA, but … what do I set the PA at? What is too much power from the pedal to the PA? What's the proper procedure for using this product? I don't think it's asking too much to be more specific, given the variety of amps/powered speakers/PAs available to guitarists in today's market.
On my previous PA, a Fishman SA220, as soon as I turned the pedal's gain or volume dials up to 1 or 2, I could no longer get a sound from the PA. I thought I'd damaged the Fishman by running too much power through it (I hadn't), and never figured out how to use the pedal with it). After some trepidation and experimentation yesterday afternoon, I've figured it out, and finally … I have the pedal and the sound I wanted.

Not much clean headroom, as in None. This one just stays dirty. The JIMS 45 is a better emulation to my ears.

Obviously, TC has some kind of deal with Celestion but any actual emulation of a '65 Deluxe should start with JBL chrome-d0me K-series emulations followed by an Eminence 10" and 12" before any kind of Celestion IR model. The tone is just "almost right" but nothing I could do would make it right and I suspect it's mostly because of the wrong speaker model.

I purchased to use in an ampless rig. I assume thats how most will use it. The best way I can describe this is that it sounds thin with any setting. I own a few old Fender amps and have played through a couple of Deluxe Reverbs. I don't expect an amp-in-a-box solution to ever beat the real thing, but this just misses the mark. Even tho the real amps have a mid scoop and the TC Ampworx the added mid control, I can't seem to get the Ampworx to sound like it has enough "body". I suspect that it is the IR. I don't have a way to test the regular out with another IR loader but I would love to hear if anyone else has tried that. Then again buying a decent IR loader gets you close to the cost of a Dream or an Irridium.