TC Electronic doubles down on its runaway successful Ampworx Preamp range with new takes on the Peavey 5150, JCM800 and Dual Rectifier Amps

Even though I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the look of the first 3 releases - they obviously went down a storm - where I feel the $150 price tag was a big part of their success. While people obviously and very evidently seem to really like them. Which has encouraged TC Electronic to rush-release 3 more.

This time around tackling 3 Heavy Metal Classic amp inspirations - the Peavey 5150, Marshall JCM800, and MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier - all 3 which featured in my Iconic Amps Roundup post a while back.

These are the most obvious 3 to go for, while I’ve always had a soft spot for the Diezel VH4 and Herbert Amps, and the Engl Powerball - which don’t seem to get quite so much coverage!

The 3 new ones look a little more refined and together than the opening trio - while they are covering a pretty well-trodden path.

I thought it would be easier than it ended up being - to find comparative amp / preamp coverage all from a single brand - but came away in the end with just the compact preamps from AMT Electronics, and Mooer’s obviously much-loved Micro Preamps. For sake of proper comparisons those typically retail at either side of the Ampworx ones - with the AMT Legend Series 2 at around $170 each, and the Mooer Micro Preamps at around $98 nowadays.

So the Ampworx series is decent value for sure and the level of ’modelling’ has gained TC Electronic quite a few new fans in a fairly new venture for them. I already have a number of equivalents in my own reference collection - and you can see some of those in last years ’Full Metal Racket’ overview.

 I have quite a distinct preference for compact enclosure pedals - unless I’m getting several flavours to justify the larger form factor - the Boss OD-200 will cover each of those 3 pretty adequately with a few more bells and whistles up its sleeve - including presets, but you do pay around $100 more at $250. The OD-200 is pretty brilliant at those higher gain flavours though - and with the dual-channel / versatile boost element you can dial things in very close. There’s also the all-analog BYOC for which I paid around $260 for my assembled version back in the day - that will approximate all 3 of those amps really well.

And there are plenty of individual pedal preamps that can cover each of the featured trio. I think I’m already pretty well covered - we can’t forget the Mooer Preamp Model X X2 - which has you covered for all 3 varieties in the one compact unit - with presets - you can get that for around $150 too!

That said, and however well I am covered, I can still see the appeal of this new trio. The have almost identical topologies - with just the upper Middle knob having an individual parameter - Resonance, Boost, and Tight respectively. All have a further mini Presence knob on the rear, alongside a Pre/Post toggle switch for the boost.

These are very well priced for sure - while I would personally prefer them at a more compact size (I believe it’s easily possible to achieve the same in a smaller enclosure - they don’t hold quite as much appeal for me personally in those BB-sized enclosures.

Here follows the best of the demos :