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Tech21 Sansamp Character Plus pedals 50% off ($124.50)

FretRiff

FretRiff

Feb 26, 2025
3,288
4,697
#1
At Amazon and Sweetwater and I don't know where else.

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Pedals are an amp simulation + a matched effect:

(The Fuzzy Brit is not on sale at Amazon.)

Screaming Blonde = Fender-style + Tube Screamer-style
English Muffy = HiWatt-style + Big Muff-style
Fuzzy Brit = Marshall-style + Fuzz Face-style
Mop Top Liverpool = Vox-style + Rangemaster Booster-style
 
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#2
Honestly, these rule, but I'm an admitted Tech 21 fanboy haha.

Just used my English Muffy (Hiwatt style with Big Muff fuzz) at a rehearsal with my band last night in a less than ideal rehearsal room, straight into the board.

My guitar player loved the sound. I thought it was great, but I primarily use a VT Deluxe in this band, so I sounded a little different than I'm used to.
I primarily use the Muffy for recording guitars at home, but know the Leeds pedal it's based on is popular with bass players, and I can see why!

I say all this having spent full price on the pedal and buying it about a year ago. May need to pick up the Fender-style one while they're on sale.

Do we think this means they're getting discontinued?
 
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#3
Hard to say. They were only released three years ago, and Tech21 tends to keep pedals in the pipeline for years. Maybe the original pricing was too dear for the market and they're readjusting?

Line 6 introduced the POD Express series of pedals last spring for $180 but for a month in May, and again right now, they're offering instant rebates everywhere so the price is $130. May be the same type of thing, and I doubt those pedals are being discontinued so soon after release.
 
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#4
My VT DI pedal fried about 6 months ago. I replaced it with a Caline wine cellar, which was not bad for $40.
This looks like a great deal,especially since the Leeds pedal is rare to find nowadays. I can kind of see why maybe these didn’t sell,
as the large size of the pedal vs number of functions it does.
The tech 21 multifx pedals (like the dUg) are about the same size looks like.
Wondering How much difference is there for the fuzzy Brit vs the English muffy? (For bass).
 
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#6
I’m actually more interested in the amp modeling part than the fuzz. I own a tech 21 clean boost/fuzz pedal and love it.
So I guess Hiwatt vs Marshall amp sounds. At this price, I feel like I can’t go wrong.
Also I read up on them some more, the pedal size is much smaller than the fly rigs.
 
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#8
woodyng2 said:
I’m actually more interested in the amp modeling part than the fuzz. I own a tech 21 clean boost/fuzz pedal and love it.
So I guess Hiwatt vs Marshall amp sounds. At this price, I feel like I can’t go wrong.
Also I read up on them some more, the pedal size is much smaller than the fly rigs.
Click to expand...

If you're only interested in the amp modeling, I might personally be looking at the TONEX ONE, where some of its amp models are up there with the Helix and Neural DSP, and you can switch between Hiwatt and Marshall (and others), and the speaker sim isn't baked in. And some models let you choose mic/cab modeling with room choice via cabinet captures if you want to get granular. On the other hand you don't experience the possibility of digital latency with the Tech21.

From what I understand this sells overwhelmingly to guitarists. JHS did a video on the series a couple of years ago, and briefly mentions competitor pedals for the sound, from him and Wampler and ZVEX.

 
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#9
I’ll be sad if these are discontinued, as I think generally their Character line of pedals are some of the most fun and functional pedals around, especially if you don’t love menu diving in the digital stuff.

But if they’re going away, I went ahead and ordered the Blond pedal with the Tube Screamer before they’re all gone. 130 some odd bucks via sweetwater, can’t really complain. Excited to try recording guitar with it.
 
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#10
DaddyFatBass32 said:
I’ll be sad if these are discontinued, as I think generally their Character line of pedals are some of the most fun and functional pedals around, especially if you don’t love menu diving in the digital stuff.

But if they’re going away, I went ahead and ordered the Blond pedal with the Tube Screamer before they’re all gone. 130 some odd bucks via sweetwater, can’t really complain. Excited to try recording guitar with it.
Click to expand...
I was torn between the FuzzyBrit or the English muffy. (Basically Marshall vs Hiwatt modelling).
There’s very little utube content (for bass use) on either one, but the most info I could find was that a lot of bass players Love the Leeds pedal, which is what the muffy is based on. So that’s what I ordered.
 
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#11
woodyng2 said:
I was torn between the FuzzyBrit or the English muffy. (Basically Marshall vs Hiwatt modelling).
There’s very little utube content (for bass use) on either one, but the most info I could find was that a lot of bass players Love the Leeds pedal, which is what the muffy is based on. So that’s what I ordered.
Click to expand...

Nice! You're right about there not being a ton of youtube content on the Muffy with bass, maybe I'll try uploading something, but I think you made a great choice. I've got no complaints about mine.
 
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#12
DaddyFatBass32 said:
I’ll be sad if these are discontinued, as I think generally their Character line of pedals are some of the most fun and functional pedals around, especially if you don’t love menu diving in the digital stuff.

But if they’re going away, I went ahead and ordered the Blond pedal with the Tube Screamer before they’re all gone. 130 some odd bucks via sweetwater, can’t really complain. Excited to try recording guitar with it.
Click to expand...

Long time Leeds user- This series just didnt trip the "gotta have it" trigger on a number of levels, but I've been trying to find a good Leeds replacement for a few years. Have ended up with a Crazy Tube Circtuits Hipower and a Flamma IR loader, which is a great combo, but obvisouly a lot more gear to hook up and trouble shoot as needed. The Character series was ideal in its simplicity
 
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#13
Ender_rpm said:
Long time Leeds user- This series just didnt trip the "gotta have it" trigger on a number of levels, but I've been trying to find a good Leeds replacement for a few years. Have ended up with a Crazy Tube Circtuits Hipower and a Flamma IR loader, which is a great combo, but obvisouly a lot more gear to hook up and trouble shoot as needed. The Character series was ideal in its simplicity
Click to expand...

Ha! I went in reverse order, got the English Muffy first and stumbled upon a used Leeds for a steal, but didn't know it was a steal at the time.

"Gotta have it" didn't kick in for me until I saw they were one sale.
 
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#19
Sid s said:
I got one of these now, the English Muffy. When I insert it at the end of the signal chain going into the amp, it's very loud and also generate an awful lot of white noise. In addition to the sound I think it's supposed to make, that is.

I must be doing it wrong. It's my first pedal.
Click to expand...

I bought the screaming blonde and I have found that the character knob adds gain and contributes to the white noise hiss as you are experiencing. Try the pedal with less character at first and as you increase the character decrease the volume and gain to make the pedal have the same volume bypassed as it does engaged. Hopefully you find some cool tones! Mine gets pretty gnarly very fast.
 
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#20
Finally got to try out my English Muffy today, starting with the 2 recommended preset settings for “entwhistle” and “peter gabriel Genesis”.
(Both sounded obnoxious, frankly). Not completely surprising, the recommended “yes” settings on the VT pedal were also ugly.
Tweaking the knobs, I found some nice lower gain settings that sounded good with my Rick basses.
And The fuzz was pretty good, but my tech 21 boost/fuzz pedal was richer, smoother ,and had more flexibility in the controls.
I’ll have to experiment and tweak more to see if I can get sounds as good as with my Caline wine cellar….really missing my VT DI.
 
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