Tech 21 SansAmp GT2 Tube Amp Emulator Pedal Reviews

Nice overdriven tones and super usefull clean

I bought my first GT2 in 1995 for $150. Used it for many years. Very versatile and convincing.

I used a Sans Amp gt2 in my memphis, tn studio when a client showed up with a guitar & a small bag of gizmos he was all into. I don't remember the others, but the S A caught my attention. It was not pretty, but, rather utilitarian in appearance. He wanted to use it as the front end of a peavey classic 4x 10 tube amp, with e-fex loop. OK, I guess, but, on break, I plugged it DIRECT into the analog line in of my console. At first, I thought the sounds were kind of plain, but if you record it dry & listen back, subtle harmonics & overtones begin to emerge once you understand what was before you: instant & consistent tones & levels. Add effects, you are there. You get a Marshall, fender, & Mesa amps. I've been fortunate enough to have direct personal knowledge of these amps, & these can really work, especially when you need a tone in hurry. The off axis parameter is very handy. This is a very good use of $ & a very essential tool in your arsenal. Get a power supply, you'll leave it on for hours. If you are a song composer, try the geddy lee & standard bass drivers as well. You won't leave home without them. I've gushed on long enough, the sans amp stuff is uncannily useful, & you'll miss it if it is not around. Working on my Studio Tan now, so I'll go for now. We'll be back with next new thing. There is always the next new thing…you decide. jwm

This thing is amazing !!!! I also own the PL 1 Paul Landers Fly rig ....They are both well worth owning ! If you are looking for that hard to find heavy tone that you can play live direct into a PA or record straight into your DAW... This is it , so excellent and affordable !

One of the best purshases I've made, period. Whether you go direct to mixer, daw or to studio monitors you don't have to tweak that much for this thing to sound perfect. Awesome piece of gear.

To start off, the sans amp is extremely useful if you are using your pa , or a non tube amp
The boost your guitar receives by increasing the level and gain control simulates the
Sound you would get if you are using a tube type amplifier , not exactly but close
The sans amp gives you 3 styles of amps tweed, which is close to fender
British close to Marshall, last California your Mesa boogie style
It also has features classic,center,off axis simulates a speaker cabinet being miked
Simple to use on board post eq and other unlimited possibilities

SansAmp has a great reputation for vintage analog tones and the GT2 is no exception. Keeping this very simple to help those concerned about sound quality using a pedal board. The Tweed (Fender), British (Marshall) and California (Mesa/Boogie) amp simulators sound fantastic all by themselves but.. how well does it sound with my other pedals? I normally use a clean Fender HRD tube amp as a platform for my pedal board. The Tweed amp on the GT2 in clean mode sounds just like my Fender amp. Now about the pedals? First, put your wah, compression, clean boost and overdrives BEFORE the SanAmp (like always). Put your delay, reverb and modulation stuff AFTER the SanAmp. The last pedal out would go to house or recording. If your amp has an effects loop, you can test it at home by plugging it into the "power amp in" jack. This will bypass the Power Amp and let you simulate what the SansAmp will sound like going direct to the sound board.

NOW... you'll need to experiment a little. If you have two overdrives that stack... say low gain OD and higher gain, try switching them to see which order sounds better with the SanAmp. I experimented with the other pedals also. I use a Boss GE-7 EQ as a clean boost by simply pushing the level up 10%. When clean boost is placed BEFORE overdrive it saturates the tone more without adding volume. I also found that lower compression settings worked better for my setup. So... here's how I ended up. 1) Compression pedal 2) Low gain overdrive 3) Clean boost 4) Lead overdrive 5) SanAmp 6) Delay. House PA needs to add reverb. The change that made the difference for me was putting the clean boost BETWEEN the 2 overdrives. I am a tone freak and have been playing for over 40 years. The sound in this setup is incredible whether clean, low gain OD, rocking crunch or lead solo. I used to be a classic rocker but have played contemporary worship in large churches the past 25 years. Now I don't have to lug my amp around anymore. Hope this helps you find YOUR best sound.

so, a few years back i used to jam with a dude who played a lot of heavy/doomy/hardcore music and he told me that the secret weapon for any instrument (guitar, bass, etc.) was the sansamp gt2. not sure why i totally forgot about that until recently but in my never-ending search for a decent overdrive tone, i decided to hit my boy mike up at sweetwater and have him send one my way!

before i rave about how amazing this thing is, i will say this; i've tried everything under the sun when it comes to overdrives! i've tried klon-type circuits, tubescreamers (which i absolutely hate), blues drivers, ocds, and pretty much everything else and i can't seem to keep them on my board for more than a few months. and, to be honest, i'm so tired of the buy/sell/trade market so i figured it was time to take a risk.

what you need to know, first and foremost, is that this is *barely* an overdrive pedal in the traditional sense. it's NOT transparent, it's NOT your average overdrive, it's more or less an amp simulation box. this is perfect for my rig because i run a clean amp and usually use a big muff for heavy gain, a chorus, and a reverb. what i've found so incredible and useful about this pedal is that it really works as a "channel two" for your guitar amps. if you run it in a "normal" overdrive order it works wonders on your clean input. put it at the end and it's literally like running your whole rig through a different amp! it's crazy how useful this thing is.

i also put it in front of my recording interface so i can track a more natural guitar sound without having to deal with a bunch of plug ins and whatever. and let me tell you, this is PERFECT for that.

not much else to say! this is a total game changer when it comes to an "out of the box" overdrive/ distortion pedal and really might end your quest for a decent guitar tone!

The tonal options on this are limitless. I run a strat with texas specials in the n/m and a hotrail in the bridge. I can cover everything from smokin roadhouse blues, beautiful worship music at my church, to oldschool and modern metal. Also its perfect for direct recording into a laptop. Unlimited tonal options=unlimited creative potential. Also sweetwater has unparalleled customer service. Ive bought from musicians friend and guitar center over the years and now i will never go anywhere but sweetwater. What place do u know where a real person actually CALLS YOU to make sure everything is good? Thats how its done. The pedal is amazing but the customer service is what im most fired up about. Beyond satisfied

Let me start with how I run this pedal. I run it as one of the last pedals in my signal chain, being fed directly into the front of a mesa Mark V. This pedal brings so much thickness and chunk to my sound, it makes me wonder why many others don't run a preamp pedal as a Clean Boost.
Seriously, if you want a really tight low end, with just the right amount of gain and chug, then don't hesitate in grabbing one of these, as they work perfectly for this.
I've also seen these used as overdrives and distortions to beautiful effect, in other words, what are you waiting for? Get one!

Great company, amazing products.
Thank you Joel Helton.

So I got my dr. z amp with my LP Black Beauty and my ernie ball vol. pedal > comp pedal > tech 21 pedal > TS9 mod > van amp reverb pedal > amp, and all I can say is WOW first off this replaces about 3 pedals in my f/x chain. This pedal is incredible. Yes it creates a lot of noise and hiss however, it seems to blast my proficiency 100 fold. I can play like Hendrix with this pedal. I know it may sound like a crutch but man I've tried literally ever overdrive pedal and I bought this just b/c I felt like it and it beats all my other famous, well known and popular overdrive/distortion pedals. the EQ is perfect I tend to boost the lows and cut the highs - just my cup of tea. I love to push the drive all the way to the extreme keep the levels low as possible (so i don't clip my mic's) and its just amazing. Do not underestimate this pedal. Do NOT do what I did and that is to buy a 100 overdrive/distortion pedals only to be totally dissatisfied, just get this one and you don't need tube screamers, nor blues drivers, nor OCD's, etc. Trust me on this you will not regret it. And with sweetwater's return policy you got 30 days to make up your mind.

I was previously using a Behringer amp sim pedal, which I still really like. But it is obviously a feature-per-feature copy of the Tech 21 SansAmp GT2. So, I knew I'd eventually want to try the real deal. Sure enough, once I side-by-sided them, one characteristic that jumped out at me right away was the depth of dynamics I could achieve with the GT2. I tend to use amp sim pedals to mimic a clean channel, then put distortion in front of that for metal tone. Just pristine, super dynamic clean amp tone, rich in harmonics. The other more "cranked" amp tones are nice too, I just don't use them. Great pedal.

Looked for years for something as versatile and useful as this. So many tones out of such a small unit. And none of them unmusical. From clean sounds to hi-gain, this is the best.

I landed on the GT2 after playing with several other solutions for recording. Over the years I have performed and recorded with a range of tube amps, moving between a Fender Deluxe, Boogie MKII, Ampeg V2 and a JCM 100. I ran the range from squeeky clean to grungy grind with it and have no complaints. This little box absolutely kicks it.

The speaker emulation is always on, great for DI recording but may not suit if you're looking to use this as an in-line effect. As I was looking for an alternative to lugging my rig and dealing with the various mic issues that always occur the GT2 is the ticket.

I originally bought this just to add to my DI recording chain. It works perfectly for that, and now my recording sounds like a mic'd Fender amp. But now it's also become a permanent part of my pedal board as a pre-amp to my ZT Lunchbox amp for practices or for the small gigs when I don't bring the Fender Hotrod. It has some great distortion sounds, but I use it purely to achieve a sweet full clean tone (tweed hot, low gain) in order to sparkle and also receive my other effects pedals.

I use it as a unite prior to the crybaby, the sound that comes out of it reminds the good old days from the 70's, when real music was made.

We recently bought a new sound board and decided to switch to an in-ear monitor sysytem, eliminating all stage monitors and amps. Instead of micing my amp (blackstar HT club 40) from behind the stage, I decided to give the Tech 21 SansAmp amp simulator a try. Most tend to use it for an overdrive, but I needed something to add to the end of my pedal board to warm everything up and to give my tone some tube amp characteristics. I'm happy!

This a great tool every guitar player should have. Record direct with it. Use it like an EQ. Use it like an overdrive or distortion pedal in front of your amp. Use it like an added channel to your amp. Use it as a preamp and run it into a power amp. Use it with other instruments (bass, keyboard or as a preamp/EQ for miked acoustic instruments or vocals). Use it to get just about any analog tone you can imagine. The knobs are very sensitive so take your time tweaking. Your gonna need to take notes of all your settings. Don't let the lack of a mid knob scare you away. You will still be able to scoop or boost your mids with the switches. Like all Tech 21 products Made in NYC USA.

This pedal will give you great tone for recording or even live. It gives a lot of clarity and character to your instrument's tone. I've used it for recording both electric guitar and electric mandolin. The analog signal gives a definite pick-me-up to both, much better than any digital solution.

For the price, they should have included a power supply. I'm afraid of wear and tear taking the battery in and out, since the chip board is also exposed when you take off the battery cover.

Good reliable DI sound..
with all the switches Down.
Classic > Clean > Tweed
all knobs at 2oclock
it is a very nice DI pedal platform
Dynamically is has the headroom and breakup response of my Marshall 2203.
Feels like an amp not a modeler .. no LAG!

I would give it 5 stars but this is 2023.
this is old tech. and the features are low.
No speaker IRs. No Mid control. No XLR line out.

For the money it is a reliable good studio work horse with sonic integrity for my setup.

I run a large pedalboard with an assorted array of hand picked higher end pedals; while I am a fan of Tech21 in general I had to pull this pedal from my board. It just did not like much of anything running into it as it whacked the tone and characteristic of other drives or gains, I tried putting in my loop but not as a return in only, just too much alteration to the signal for me.
While I dearly love my Tech21 PSA 1.1 preamp and find it is utterly transparent to anything before it or in the loop, (the ultimate tubeless preamp).
This puppy did not play well with others for me. If you have a simple rig and maybe a reverb or delay after it, it does well. Does indeed sound like the amps claimed, the clean Fender's and Mesa high gain were exceptional just did not belong on a large fully evolved board.
A stand alone into a lower priced amp or in through the loop return and indeed "crank city".
So a solution in some regards but not workable in more busy high end board.
Might be a solution for some but not for me. I tried to work it into my rig but found I was just better off without it. The notion that it is a "desert island" pedal is probably quite true. Just was not a keeper for me and I dig Tech21's analog tube amp emulator circuit.

Once I got past the video that really does little to represent the pedal (geez, . . . you know, Steve Cropper was a great guitarist too - without all that fret diarrhea)
I di'gress. The pedal is perfect for my situation, where I just need to add flavor to my guitar's sound, going direct into the PA. I have a multi-effects box for anything over and above, but for that core starting point, this pedal is killer. Anything from clean to fuzz and in between and simple to use. I would recommend this to a fellow muscian who might not want to take a bunch of gear to each show, but wants something other than just the sound of their guitar.

This is the best solution I've come across so far (and I've tried a lot of different amp modelers, micro amps, etc) for going direct from my pedalboard (with various drive pedals) into my mixer.

I now have my pedalboard out going into an A/B switch. A goes to my Fender tube amp and B goes to this and then into a Mackie.

Long story short, while not a 1:1 match with a tube amp (nothing like this can be) I find it to be perfectly usable to skip the amp and go into my mixer so I can play quietly and still use my pedalboard. Fuzz doesn't even sound anywhere near as bad as a setup like that typically does, and with the right settings on the SansAmp I don't have to muck with my gain stage on my pedalboard.

Highly recommended if you're trying to solve the age-old "I can't use my pedals direct / with headphones" problem.

Befor you commit to the gt2 check out the joyo r15 a lot more bang for the buck. This has 1/2 the features of the r-15 and not even close when it comes to the connection options. I also would recommend the mooer pre-amp live, but honestly I feel it is way overpriced

Bought this so I could go direct through the PA with my guitar. The sound has too much bass, even with the lows turned all the way down and the highs turned all the way up, making it completely unusable. Then the switch got stuck, so it doesn't work at all now. Can't return it because I didn't keep the original packing material.