Tech 21 Liverpool

The Tech 21 Liverpool is an amp-simulation pedal in the SansAmp Character Series from Tech 21. The Character Series pedals take their tones from respected amp sounds, and the Liverpool is the English-voiced entry: Tech 21 tunes it to deliver the growl of English Alnico Bulldog-style speakers, and says it also gets thick with rich, even harmonics as the Character control is pushed harder¹.

Like other speaker-simulation pedals, it is built to go anywhere in a rig: into the front of an amp, into a power amp and speaker cabinet, or straight into a mixing console for recording and live direct-to-desk work².

What it does

The Liverpool is a preamp-style pedal that shapes the whole amp-and-speaker character of your sound rather than adding one effect on top. Tech 21 says the Character and Mid controls, and the speaker emulations, are all engineered to personify the specific amplifier traits and speakers associated with each amplifier type¹. In the Liverpool's case, that target is the English Alnico Bulldog-style speaker sound, the kind associated with classic British combos.

The Level and Drive controls work like a traditional, well-equipped amp: Level sets the output volume and Drive sets how hard the simulated front end is pushed¹. The Character control is the voice-shaping heart of the pedal. On the Liverpool, Tech 21 describes it as moving from clean toward that Bulldog-speaker growl, getting thicker with rich, even harmonics as it is turned up¹.

Because it is a SansAmp, the pedal includes its own speaker emulation, so it can be used as a preamp or stomp box with any amp or combo, with a power amp and speaker cabinet, or direct into any mixing console². That last option is what makes Character Series pedals popular with players who need a full, amp-like tone without carrying an amp.

The Liverpool family

The Liverpool has appeared in several forms over the years.

The Liverpool Deluxe, announced by Tech 21's Private Stock division in 2012, was described by the maker as the live version of the popular Liverpool pedal from the SansAmp Character Series². It features a combination of an all-analog signal path and convenient digital programmability, so settings can be stored and recalled between songs or gigs². Its dual inputs allow two instruments to be on-line and ready to go, and its 1/4 inch and XLR outputs have selectable levels for feeding amps, desks or both².

The Deluxe keeps the same core control set as the standard Liverpool, with the Character control again doing the amp-voice work alongside the Level and Drive controls that Tech 21 says work like a traditional, well-equipped amp⁴¹.

The most recent evolution is the SansAmp Mop Top Liverpool in the Character Plus Series, reviewed by Premier Guitar in 2023. It is a two-channel take on the same British voicing, and MusicRadar noted its burgundy diamond pattern on black paint job when the Character Plus Series was announced⁵.

How the Mop Top Liverpool is controlled

The Mop Top Liverpool expands the single-knob Character formula into a two-channel pedal³.

• Per channel (A and B): drive, volume, and character controls, each channel footswitchable³
• Shared EQ stage: low, mid, and high frequency bands used by both channels³
• Pushbuttons: high shift and mid shift³
• Footswitches: four in total, for channel A, channel B, boost, and buffered bypass³
• Connectivity: mono input and mono output³
• Boost: Tech 21 says the Mop Top Liverpool uniquely offers 2 boosts in one knob⁶

Premier Guitar's reviewer found the character controls provide powerful voice-shaping and supplement the traditional EQ controls effectively³. That is the through-line of the whole Liverpool line: the Character control is not a tone knob in the usual sense but a way of moving between amp voices, with the conventional EQ sitting underneath it for fine trimming.

Where it sits among alternatives

The Liverpool's analog approach to amp and speaker simulation contrasts with the digital cabinet-impulse pedals that followed it, such as the MOOER Radar, the NUX Solid Studio and the Two Notes Torpedo C.A.B.. Where those load impulse responses of specific cabinets, the Liverpool's SansAmp circuit models the amp-and-speaker combination in analog electronics, with no menus or IR loading. Players who want a set-and-forget British voice with a battery inside tend toward the analog side; players who want to swap cabinet models tend toward the digital side.

Budget analog alternatives with a similar British-amp brief include the Joyo British Sound and the ammoon AP-13 American Sound (the American-voiced counterpart), while Tech 21's own Oxford covers another amp family in the same series.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load