Tsakalis Audioworks Launches Killer Compact Dual-Voiced Full-Range Marshall-in-a-box - the Room #40 Preamp/Overdrive/Distortion

Readers will know that I’m a huge fan of Marshall-voiced pedals and have quite the number of those in the collection - particularly in compact enclosure editions. I have a real fondness for dual-footswitches and extended feature topologies - and love that this pedal has no less than 8 external controls including 4-Band EQ, alongside a single internal trim-pot to set the Boost Level.

I’m not sure of the exact reasoning behind the Room #40 moniker except for the fact that it is a feature-packed box with multiple Marshall voicings onboard.

The Room #40 covers most of the legendary Marshall Amp Voicings - the Plexi Super Lead (1959/1957), Plexi Super Bass (1992), JMP Series and JCM800 (2203/2203).

Controls are - Master, Variac, Vol II [19] / Body [22], Mode 19/22 : Plexi/JPM & JCM800, Vol I [19 & 22], Presence, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Internal Trim-Pot for Boost Level.

Tsakalis Audioworks emphasized the emulation of proper Marshall compression and sag coming from the power amp section, when those amps are pushed to the edge, while at the same time giving access to two famous mods - mod #39 (Plexi) and mod #34 (JMP & JCM800). Of course the Room #40 owes much to Tsakalis’ love for the late great Eddie Van Halen, who created the so called ’Brown Sound’ using an ohmite variac controller (variable transformer used to lower or raise the voltage going into the amplifier), that Variac control element could not be absented from this endeavour.

The Room #40 is a close emulation of those classic Non-Master-Volume Amps, which had multiple inputs - and where for Mode ’19’ Vol I corresponds to the original’s Treble Input, while Vol II would be the Normal Input. For the ’22’ voicing Vol I is the Preamp Volume, while Vol II becomes ’Body’ - which in turn controls the richness of the lower frequencies.

The 4-Band EQ including the Presence control allows you to fine-tune your own preferred take on those legendary tones and allows you to fully align the pedal’s output to the specifics of your own rig / amp.

This pedal would go into a very heavily contested space for me - and fight for that slot’s supremacy - number #18 that is, which is currently occupied by the Modded Pettyjohn Gold MKII, and was previously occupied by the Friedman Smallbox, and Menatone King of the Britains amongst many others!

I’ve already deemed this a must-have acquisition for me and will be reaching out to Tsakalis to do a first impressions take on one of these. Always good to have great alternative options for the rig, and as I’ve said before - each of my numerous MIAB pedals are all calibrated somewhat differently and have slightly different timbres and textures which lend themselves to different songs and scenarios.

The Room #40 is available right now from the Tsakalis Audioworks Webstore - priced at €240 equivalent.