Tech 21 is a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

based manufacturer of guitar and bass

effect pedal An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

s, amps, and DI boxes which allow the user to emulate the tone of many popular guitar amps and record those sounds directly into a mixer.

Products

Tech 21's core product, the SansAmp, was designed by Andrew Barta and introduced in 1989. The SansAmp (from , "without an amp") is a analog

effects pedal An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

emulating a variety of different

guitar amplifiers A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which ar ...

and speakers and enables recording direct to a mixing console. The SansAmp got popular in the 1990s. Later, SansAmp became an entire line of products for various instruments and applications. Tech 21 offerings include the Fly Rig Series, artist signature gear for

Geddy Lee Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968, at the re ...

Richie Kotzen Richard Dale Kotzen Jr. (born February 3, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. As a solo artist, Kotzen has back catalogue of more than 20 album releases. He was a member of glam metal band Poison from 1991 to 1993, Mr. Big ...

Paul Landers Paul Landers (born Heiko Paul Hiersche; 9 December 1964) is a German musician, notable as the guitarist for the Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein, and the punk rock band Feeling B. Biography Early life Landers was born in East Berlin, Eas ...

dUg Pinnick Douglas Theodore Pinnick (born September 3, 1950), sometimes stylized as dUg Pinnick or simply dUg, is an American musician best known as the bass guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and songwriter for the hard rock and progressive metal band King's ...

, and Steve Harris. Other products have included

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

pedals as well as a range of amplifiers that use SansAmp technology built in. While being the precursor to digital amp modeling technology, Tech 21 relies on analog technology, rather than

digital signal processing Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are ...

References

External links

Tech 21 website

NAMM Oral History Interview with Andrew Barta, founder
January 14, 2009
NAMM Oral History Interview with Dale Krevens, V.P.
January 25, 2015 Guitar amplifier manufacturers Guitar effects manufacturing companies Manufacturing companies based in New York City Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States {{Musical-instrument-company-stub