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Tech 21 XB Driver

Cosmo Valdemar

By Cosmo Valdemar,
in Effects

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dannybuoy Veteran

dannybuoy

Posted
Posted

I’ve bought all my Tech21 stuff from US sellers in the past, and most of them ended up devaluing the package to avoid import fees... I work for a US company now though so would probably just get something sent to a colleague’s house and get it from them next time we meet up!

It is a lot of money for a pedal, but looking at it in a relative way, it’s half the cost of the dUg amp (which is one of these with a power amp) and twice the cost of a regular Sansamp (and it has double the knobs/jacks/etc.

If I can sell my BDDI and DP-3X and get the same tones + more out of this, I may be interested.

Wolverinebass Mentor

Wolverinebass

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

I’ve bought all my Tech21 stuff from US sellers in the past, and most of them ended up devaluing the package to avoid import fees... I work for a US company now though so would probably just get something sent to a colleague’s house and get it from them next time we meet up!

It is a lot of money for a pedal, but looking at it in a relative way, it’s half the cost of the dUg amp (which is one of these with a power amp) and twice the cost of a regular Sansamp (and it has double the knobs/jacks/etc.

If I can sell my BDDI and DP-3X and get the same tones + more out of this, I may be interested.

That's a fair point actually, but I feel it's still way too pricey. If it had dual inputs (which it doesn't) I'd probably agree with you.

 

For a pedal to have an almost 50% markup from US to UK pricing is obscene.

NancyJohnson Grand Master

NancyJohnson

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

That's a fair point actually, but I feel it's still way too pricey. If it had dual inputs (which it doesn't) I'd probably agree with you.

 

For a pedal to have an almost 50% markup from US to UK pricing is obscene.

 

So US/Sweetwiter $500 preorder, Thomann £611 (or $775).  Bonkers.  If I do pull for one of these it'll be though my brother in law on a US trip.

Wolverinebass Mentor

Wolverinebass

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

So US/Sweetwiter $500 preorder, Thomann £611 (or $775).  Bonkers.  If I do pull for one of these it'll be though my brother in law on a US trip.

Tell him to take a slightly bigger suitcase as he'll probably end up being "the mule." Ha!

Killerfridge Mentor

Killerfridge

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

So US/Sweetwiter $500 preorder, Thomann £611 (or $775).  Bonkers.  If I do pull for one of these it'll be though my brother in law on a US trip.

Just to check though (as I know US sites can sometimes be a bit fiddly with their prices) -  is that $500 including sales tax?

 

*EDIT* I just checked sales tax rates, and most states aren't above 7%, so post tax it would be arount $535, so not hugely different

Edited by Killerfridge
  • 8 months later...
Wolverinebass Mentor

Wolverinebass

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

Currently £589 at GuitarGuitar.... 

Yeah, and they can do one for that price too. I posted on Tech 21's Faceook page and asked how many they would sell if the price in the US was the same as here which was at the time $712. They replied with a care emoji. Really?!! Really?!!!!

 

It costs more than an HX Stomp which guess what, you can do everything this does and a whole lot more, plus it has presets and midi control as well as 2 inputs so you can run a bass in stereo which is in stereo like an Alembic. Unlike this which is just parallel from a mono signal.

 

Their stance is totally wrong to me. Summarised, it's "but it's not us! We have no control of the price gouging idiots at Rocky Road!" 

 

Now, either they really have no control and Rocky Road is price gouging us, or they're doing what Ernie Ball did which is keep the US price artificially low by deliberately making everywhere else more expensive by charging the importer full US list price. 

 

I think it comes over that they don't care about you at all if you're outside continental US. Which makes it doubly ironic they replied with a care emoji to me.

  • Like 2
NancyJohnson Grand Master

NancyJohnson

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

Yeah, and they can do one for that price too. I posted on Tech 21's Faceook page and asked how many they would sell if the price in the US was the same as here which was at the time $712. They replied with a care emoji. Really?!! Really?!!!!

 

It costs more than an HX Stomp which guess what, you can do everything this does and a whole lot more, plus it has presets and midi control as well as 2 inputs so you can run a bass in stereo which is in stereo like an Alembic. Unlike this which is just parallel from a mono signal.

 

Their stance is totally wrong to me. Summarised, it's "but it's not us! We have no control of the price gouging idiots at Rocky Road!" 

 

Now, either they really have no control and Rocky Road is price gouging us, or they're doing what Ernie Ball did which is keep the US price artificially low by deliberately making everywhere else more expensive by charging the importer full US list price. 

 

I think it comes over that they don't care about you at all if you're outside continental US. Which makes it doubly ironic they replied with a care emoji to me.

 

We talked about trying to get Tech21 to drop Rocky Road, go with us and go the direct sale route.  Remember that?

fretmeister Grand Master

fretmeister

Posted
Posted
28 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

We talked about trying to get Tech21 to drop Rocky Road, go with us and go the direct sale route.  Remember that?


Mesa dumped Westside Distribution and then put the prices up anyway.

  • 2 months later...
NancyJohnson Grand Master

NancyJohnson

Posted
Posted

Thread resurrection.

 

Brother-in-law working in Houston for the next ten days.  I've ordered one through Sweetwater.  $499.00.  I should be able to cover the fee by offloading my BDDI and DI-2112. 

 

 

  • Like 2
Wolverinebass Mentor

Wolverinebass

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Thread resurrection.

 

Brother-in-law working in Houston for the next ten days.  I've ordered one through Sweetwater.  $499.00.  I should be able to cover the fee by offloading my BDDI and DI-2112. 

 

 

My dear boy, you should have taken orders! I would have had one!

NancyJohnson Grand Master

NancyJohnson

Posted
Posted

Excitement mounts.

 

Sweetwater were great, easy transaction.  Shipping (UPS) should have been three days (Fort Wayne, Indiana to Houston), but it took double that, so there was a logistics concern if the package hadn't dropped before today.

 

Brother in law flies back to 'blighty tomorrow, should have it in a couple of days.

 

IMG-20250506-WA0000.thumb.jpg.00992d2aae1268d6f78a61458de317fe.jpg

NancyJohnson Grand Master

NancyJohnson

Posted
Posted

So. I had about 45 minutes of noodling before having to pop out.  (I'm at my mother-in-law's at the moment.). I used my passive Aria Precision and my active Spector 4X.

 

First impressions (after manscanning to instruction booklet), it seems fairly easy to dial in something useful within a minute or two.  By way of a caveat, that due to time restrictions, I haven't really noodled too much with the mid boost/cut or the high/low pass filters at this point (see below).  It's very nicely made, robust.

 

The clean side of the unit is just delicious tonally, I would say it's very close to a BDDI in some respects.  It's not wholly clean, but it's very phat and burpy.  The compressor adds nice fullness to things.  It like it shares the BDDI DNA with just a little bit of drive.

 

The drive side is likely to be the thing needing controlling; in isolation it's exceedingly gnarly and you're actually asking yourself what it's contributing.  I dialed in something that seemed acceptable, then hit the mix footswitch (so running the clean and dirty together) and frankly it was just so nasty I was asking myself whether I'd made an awful decision buying this!

 

Finally, I hit the bi-amp emulator and the thing just came alive.  The sweepable High/Low pass filters become active and it is epic.  Each filter just directs lows to the clean, highs to the dirt with a level of crossover betwixt the two.

 

Other stuff?  There's a 10db +/- input cut/boost an a 10db +/- output cut/boost.  The pre/post button controls the mids and puts the mids before or after the amp emulation.

 

I did dial up one of the sample setting for the dUg and it was great.

 

I'll give it a longer test this evening.

 

 

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