This British 30W class AB amp is one of the 3 most iconic amp models of the FMV trinity.
This particular specimen is a panel integrated TB with the copper panel, of which only about 50 have ever been made in a head format and it is a particularily musical sounding unit, which can give any plexi a scare.
Due to the lack of negative feedback, cathode bias and the EL84 power section it has a very unique character. It is cutting, raw, a bit light on bass, while it creates a beautifully compressed, detailed and yet quite smooth overdrive tone when cranked hard. It goes from that signature chimey clean tone up to a hot overdrive tone, which retains more detail and string separation than some of the big bottle amps.
It has a somewhat quirky but quite versatile tone stack, where the ability to cut down the bass response comes in very handy, if you want to really crank the amp into natural overdrive without pedals.
Some of the countless users of the TB30 are: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page), Radiohead, Rory Gallagher, Queen (Brian May), John Schofield, U2 (The Edge), Oasis, Foo Fighters, Ritchie Blackmore, Anna Calvi, Mark Knopfler, Hank Marvin, Muse and many, many more.
We prefer this amp with EH power tubes and NOS mullard preamp tubes.
The DI capture set includes 43 captures of the Briliant and the Normal channel and the following pedals for the lead gain level: BSB, 808, RAT, PAG, MIN and a KLN clone. Included are also 3 IR’s of the vintage 2×12 VX cab featuring original silver Alnico speakers.
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Ouch !
I can't stop playing this one with my P90 SG and my tele, i love the crunch tones, they are a wonderful dynamic mix of clean and compressed crunch, at the touch of the pick ! Cleans and drive are also top class, but the crunches are my ballpark...
More spakle - but better than V1?
I´m using the V1 Versions + the DI Versions with York Audio IR`s a lot and tried a lot to get a U2 The Edge tone, but there was always something missing. The warm settings for Strat sounded a bit muffled and had not enough headroom with boost pedals in front of the tonex. The Version V2 have got the Sparkle in the highs, but sound overall very bright, to bright to my ears with these speakers. It would need a Hig/lowpassfilter in the IR Section of Tonex. I´m waiting for the DI Version to use it with the perfect IR.
Different to V1 - but better?
I bought the V1 Version first, then the D1 and was never really satisfied, the Edge-Captures hat not much headroom, also with good IR´s (York Audio) were highs and sparkle missing. The V2 Versions have got that sparkle, aber also very bright, also in the warm settings. I don´t like the Speakers, I´m waiting for the DI version.
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