Last week, I posted my latest signal chain for recording my Tweed Deluxe amp. Buried in there, I mentioned that I’ve also tested it by using other amps too.
I want to share those results with you.
tl;dr
In this blog post, I’m using a bunch of affordable amp heads to help me stress-test my 2026 Tweed Deluxe reference tone signal chain.
None of these amps are tweedy, so I’m using them as clean pedal platform amps. I’ve chosen the Origin Effects M-EQ Driver into the Mad Processor Little Tweedy Drive to give me a convincing 5e3 Tweed Deluxe tone.
- Two of the amps – the Blackstar TV-10A and Marshall Origin 20H – were able to produce tweed tones through my reference tone signal chain, using the two pedals.
- The Blackstar Debut 100RH also produced a usable tweed tone using those pedals, but I achieved that by using the amp’s effects loop send (and so bypassing part of the reference tone signal chain).
- And two of the amps – the Marshall DSL 20HR and Marshall JTM Studio – worked, but didn’t pull off convincing tweed tones this time around.
A full write-up – and audio clips – are below.
Table of Contents
- tl;dr
- What Are You Doing Today?
- My Rig Today
- Reference Recordings
- The Three Marshall Amps
- The Blackstar Pedal Platform Amps
- Final Thoughts
What Are You Doing Today?
I’ve recently published my latest in a long line of attempts at a Tweed Deluxe reference tone signal chain. You’ll need to read that blog post first, otherwise this blog post isn’t going to make much sense.
I really want this signal chain to stick this time. To help me figure out if there’s any problems that I don’t know about, I’m going try the exact same signal chain with bunch of other amps, and see how that goes.
None of these amps are even remotely tweedy in character. So, to help out, I’ve grabbed a couple of pedals that give me a fairly convincing Tweed Deluxe sound. I’m going to run them through each of the amps, and record the results.
While recording each amp, I’m looking for anything in my signal chain that’s causing problems that I couldn’t hear in last week’s blog post.
I should end up with convincing tweed tones out of the two amps that are marketed as pedal platform amps: the Blackstar Debut 100RH and Blackstar TV-10A. If I don’t, then I think I’ve got a problem with my signal chain.
I’m not sure how the three Marshalls will sound through this signal chain. I’d like to get a usable tweed tone out of them, but that might be asking for too much.
Let’s find out!
My Rig Today
My Signal Chain
Today, I’m playing:
- Jessie, my Fender 52 Reissue Telecaster,
- into the Axe-FX 3 (for the tuner),
- out to my pedalboard,
- into the front of various clean amps,
- speaker out into my Fryette PS-100 Power Station load box,
- line out back into the Axe-FX 3 (for virtual cab, delay and reverb),
- out to my audio interface
- and into my DAW.
This is the exact same signal chain that I used for my Tweed Deluxe reference tone. The only difference is that I’ve swapped out my Tweed Deluxe for a bunch of affordable amps. Everything else is the same.
I’ve picked Jessie because it’s my #1 guitar for enjoying 5e3 Tweed Deluxe tones. It’s an all-stock Fender 52 Reissue Telecaster. These don’t have a tone control. Instead, the tone pot actually acts as a blend control, allowing me to bring in a little bit of the neck pickup too.
On the pedalboard, I’m running the Origin Effects M-EQ Driver into the Mad Professor Little Tweedy Drive. Regular readers are in for a surprise at just how good the Little Tweedy Drive is sounding today. (I’ll do a deep dive into this pedal pairing next time out.)
Taking the role of “clean pedal-platform amp” today are:
- my Marshall Origin 20H
- my Marshall DSL20HR
- my Marshall JTM Studio
- my Blackstar Debut 100RH, and
- my Blackstar TV-10A amp head
No Synergy Amps Today
Regular readers might be wondering why I haven’t included any of my Synergy amp modules in this test.
We’re in the middle of another heat wave atm, and it’s just too hot to run my Synergy SYN-5050 power amp right now. The SYN-5050 itself would probably work fine. Unfortunately, it also has a tiny fan which is absolutely unbearably loud and whiny on hot days like this.
When the weather is cooler, I’ll do a follow-up blog post just using my Synergy modules into this signal chain.
No Orange Amps Today Either
I have ordered an Orange OR15, but it didn’t arrive before the recording session that these audio clips are taken from.
I’m definitely going to test this signal chain with the OR15 once I have it, but I’m not sure if I’ll write up the results. I’m supposed to be working on the Marshall Origin 20H long term review!
Reference Recordings
To start, here’s a couple of reference recordings. Here’s what Jessie sounds like into my real Tweed Deluxe amp:
And here’s how Jessie sounds through the tweed-tone pedals, into my HTB 15 Vintage preset on the Axe-FX 3:
While they don’t sound identical to me, I think they’re more than close enough.
To help with the comparisons, I’m going to put a copy of that second audio recording alongside each amp recording.
The Three Marshall Amps
Marshall are one of the pioneers of affordable, small wattage amp heads for home hobbyists like me.
I’ve got three of them: the budget Origin 20H and DSL 20HR amps heads, and the (relatively speaking) affordable JTM Studio.
Marshall Origin 20H
Let’s start with the cheapest – and most vintage-sounding – of my Marshalls: the Marshall Origin 20H. To help with the comparison, here’s my reference pedal tone too.
To my ears, that’s a convincing tweed tone. There’s a slight different as to where the mid-range emphasis is. I’m not sure I’d spot it without listening to both demos back-to-back.
My settings on the Marshall Origin 20H were:
- Treble at 6
- Middle at 6
- Bass on max
- Tilt at just before 4
- Gain knob on 5
- Gain boost engaged
- Master on 6
- Presence just below 2
The biggest challenge I had was convincing the Origin 20H to output enough low end. I had to whack the Bass on max and switch on the Gain boost (which also boosts the low end).
Marshall DSL 20HR
Next up, we have the Origin 20H’s sibling, the DSL 20HR.
The DSL 20HR has a party trick: there’s a “Tone Shift” button on the front. I’ve recorded the amp both ways – “Tone Shift” out and then “Tone Shift” in – so that we can hear if there’s any difference.
As you can hopefully hear, while the pedals sound good through the DSL 20RH, I couldn’t get them sounding like my reference guitar tone.
In the room, it sounded a lot closer than it does on playback. While I’m not sure the DSL 20H can do vintage-style tones, I suspect with more time I could get closer than I did.
Marshall JTM Studio
Last but not least, let’s hear these pedals through the Marshall JTM Studio.
This is the very first time I’ve run some pedals through my Marshall JTM Studio for one of these blog posts, and it’s fair to say that I have a lot to learn about dialling it in!
I jumpered the amp for this recording, which perhaps was a mistake.
Plus there’s quite a bit of extra low-end mud that I couldn’t eliminate with the EQ controls alone. I got some of it, but I wonder if the real problem is that the speaker impedance curve I’m running in my Tweed Deluxe preset is a bad fit for this amp.
So – despite the JTM’s tweedy heritage – I’m going to say that the JTM Studio doesn’t really fit into a signal chain built for a Tweed Deluxe amp … for now.
The Blackstar Pedal Platform Amps
The other early player in the affordable amp head market was Blackstar. Their HT series of hard rock / metal oriented amps was how I got started with valve amps at home.
I’ve got their two most recent pedal platform amp heads: the budget solid-state Debut 100RH, and the ultra-affordable TV-10A. If you like to get your dirt from your pedalboard rather than your amp, these two products have you covered.
The Blackstar Debut 100RH
Let’s start off with the more affordable option: Blackstar’s solid state Debut 100RH amp.
That’s not bad at all, eh? I think the mid-range is a little thinner than my reference tone, and the low-mids could be a little more solid in places, but come on … this is a budget-friendly £280 solid-state amp. I think it’s punching well above its price point.
To get this tone, I’ve changed how I wire up the Blackstar Debut 100RH. Instead of running it into the attenuator like I do with all my other amps, I’ve taken the effects loop send and fed that into my signal chain. I think that sounds a lot better than my previous results with this amp.
Expect a blog post on this soon!
The Blackstar TV-10A – Inspiration For This Entire Blog Post
I’ve saved the best until last: Blackstar’s TV-10A pedal platform amp.
To my ears, the pedals sound every bit as good through the Blackstar TV-10A as through my reference Axe-FX 3 pedals. If anything, I might slightly prefer the Blackstar! There’s a sweetness about it in the mid-range (a slight mid-cut, perhaps?) that immediately grabs my attention.
The other point I want to make is just how easy it was to get this tone out of the Blackstar TV-10A. I dropped it into the signal chain, adjusted the Master and Gain to get the right level into my load box, and then tweaked the Tone control for taste.
Final Thoughts
The whole point of this exercise was to further validate my 2026 Tweed Deluxe reference tone signal chain.
The only thing I touched from amp to amp was the EQ controls on the Tube Pre block in the Axe-FX 3, which I think is perfectly reasonable. That’s just the equivalent of tweaking amp or pedal controls to suit a guitar.
In particular, I didn’t have to add anything new, strip anything out, or touch the impulse responses at all.
This gives me additional confidence that my 2026 Tweed Deluxe reference tone signal chain might just hang around long-term.