The Two Notes Le Clean was not exactly new even when I first tried it.
But it was new to me.
And more importantly, it answered a question I had been thinking about for a while:
Can I build a pedalboard-based rig that actually feels good enough to use without bringing an amp?
Not just convenient.
Not just “good enough because I am too lazy to carry things.”
But actually good.
Because that is the thing with ampless guitar setups. They can be very practical, but they can also feel like a compromise. You get the convenience, but you lose the feel. Or you get decent sounds, but playing through the setup does not make you want to keep playing.
With the Two Notes Le Clean and the Torpedo Cab M, I finally felt like I was getting closer to the version of an ampless setup I actually wanted.
Why I Wanted to Try the Two Notes Le Clean
The reason I was interested in the Two Notes Le Clean was pretty simple.
Rehearsals.
The place where I rehearse is located in a way that makes carrying gear annoying. I usually have to park fairly far away from the rehearsal space, and I do not store gear there because the space is used by other people as well.
So every time I go there, I need to take everything with me.
A guitar.
A pedalboard.
Possibly an amp.
Possibly a cabinet.
Maybe some recording gear if I want to capture the rehearsal.
That is a lot of hassle.
And yes, I am getting older and lazier.
So the idea of taking just a guitar and a pedalboard, plugging in, and getting a great sound is extremely appealing.
I would probably still take an amp for some gigs. But for rehearsals, church gigs, and smaller situations, a good pedalboard-based rig could make life much easier.
That is where the Le Clean started to make sense.
What Is the Two Notes Le Clean?
The Two Notes Le Clean is a two-channel tube preamp pedal.
It is part of the old Two Notes Le Preamp series, which also included models like Le Crunch, Le Lead and Le Bass. As the name suggests, Le Clean is the cleaner one of the bunch.
This is not really a metal preamp.
It is not trying to be.
The Le Clean is more about clean tones, edge-of-breakup sounds, light overdrive, and acting as the foundation of a pedalboard rig.
And that is exactly what I wanted from it.
The pedal has two channels. Channel A is the cleaner side. Channel B gives you more grit and overdrive. You can also blend the channels together using the Fusion modes, which is one of the more interesting parts of the pedal.
There is also an FX loop, MIDI, DI output, headphone output, ground lift, and a built-in analog speaker simulation.
So this is not just a normal overdrive pedal with too many knobs.
It is more like the amp section of a pedalboard rig.
The Setup I Used
For this review, I used the Le Clean with my self-made humbucker double-cut guitar.
The signal chain was built around the idea of a pedalboard amp replacement.
I had drives like the ENGL Alpha Drive, Revv G3 and Revv G4 going into the Two Notes Le Clean. From there, I used the Two Notes Torpedo Cab M for power amp simulation and cabinet simulation.
That is the important part.
The Le Clean gives you the preamp.
The Cab M gives you the power amp and cab side of the sound.
Together, they start to behave much more like a complete amp setup than a random pile of pedals going straight into an interface.
All the guitar tracks in the song at the beginning of the video were recorded with that kind of setup.
And honestly, that is where this whole thing became interesting.
Build Quality and Practical Stuff
The Le Clean is not a tiny pedal.
It is not huge either, but it definitely takes up some space on a pedalboard. I would describe the footprint as biggish.
Beautiful word.
It is roughly the size of two and a half Revv G pedals, if that helps.
But considering that this can be the preamp section of your entire amp replacement setup, the size is not unreasonable.
The unit feels very solid. The footswitches feel high quality, the case feels like it can take some abuse, and the whole thing has that typical Two Notes feeling of being properly made.
It also requires 12V DC at 500 mA, so you need to make sure your power supply can handle that. It does come with its own power supply, but if you want to put it on a pedalboard, check your power situation first.
That is not the most exciting part of the review.
But it matters.
Channel A: Clean, But Not Boring
Channel A is the clean channel.
Even though there is a gain control, I would not really think of it like the gain knob on a normal overdrive pedal. It is more of a fattening control.
That is a word, I think.
Turning it changes the feel and thickness of the sound, but you are not suddenly turning Channel A into a high-gain monster.
If you push it too far, you are not getting beautiful overdrive.
You are just clipping things.
So Channel A is best understood as your clean foundation.
And as a clean foundation, it works really well.
With the built-in analog speaker simulation, I was actually quite impressed. It sounded much better than I expected. Not like a modern impulse response setup, but definitely usable.
There was dynamics. There was feel. It did not feel like a lifeless DI sound.
That is already a good start.
The Built-In Speaker Simulation
The Le Clean has a built-in analog speaker simulation.
That means it is not loading impulse responses or doing the kind of detailed cabinet modeling you get from something like the Torpedo Cab M.
It is more like frequency compensation.
A simpler way to make the direct sound behave more like a guitar speaker.
And honestly, I thought it was pretty impressive.
Would I choose it over the Cab M for recording?
Probably not.
The Cab M gives you more realism, more control, power amp simulation, cabinet choices, mic options and reverb. It is simply a much more complete cab solution.
But the analog speaker simulation in the Le Clean is not useless.
If you needed a quick direct output, or a backup option, it could absolutely get you through.
That surprised me a bit.
Channel B: Not High Gain, But Useful
Channel B gives you more drive.
But again, this is not a heavy metal preamp.
If you want high-gain sounds from the Two Notes preamp series, Le Crunch or Le Lead would make more sense.
The Le Clean does more of that old Fender-style, blackface-ish clean and light overdrive thing. Channel B lets you add some grit and breakup on top of the clean foundation.
And I like that.
It gives you a little bit of edge without turning the whole sound into a different amp.
For me, that is more useful than trying to make the Le Clean do something it was never designed to do.
It is not a metal amp.
It is a clean preamp that can get a little dirty.
And as a pedal platform, that is a very good thing.
The Fusion Modes Are Actually Interesting
One of the coolest parts of the Le Clean is the Fusion section.
You can run both channels together and blend the clean and drive sounds.
That can give you a sound where the clean channel adds clarity while the drive channel adds grit. I really liked that.
It lets you keep note definition while still getting some hair on the sound.
That is something I often like in guitar tones. Especially if you are using drive pedals or stacking things, it is easy to lose clarity. Blending a cleaner signal back in can help the sound stay more articulate.
The Fusion modes are not just a gimmick.
They are genuinely useful.
Especially if you like edge-of-breakup sounds that do not collapse into mush.
Le Clean with the Torpedo Cab M
This is where the setup really came alive.
The Le Clean by itself with the analog speaker simulation sounded good.
But when I plugged it into the Torpedo Cab M, the whole thing felt bigger and more amp-like.
The Cab M adds power amp simulation, cabinet simulation and room/reverb options. I tried different power amp tube settings and ended up preferring EL34s because the low end felt more controlled to me.
With the Cab M, the Le Clean started to feel less like a pedal going direct and more like a complete amp rig.
That is the point where I started thinking:
Yes, I could actually build a pedalboard around this.
Not just as a backup.
As a real rig.
It Feels More Amp-Like Than I Expected
This is probably the most important part of the whole review.
The Le Clean and Cab M setup felt incredibly amp-like to play.
That is not something I say lightly.
I have tried pedalboard-based setups before. Some of them sounded pretty good. Some of them were very convenient. But the feel was often the problem.
It was practical, but it still felt like a compromise.
With the Le Clean and Cab M, the compromise felt much smaller.
The dynamics were there. The sound reacted well. The drives felt good going into it. I did not feel like I was just tolerating the setup because it was easy to carry.
I actually enjoyed playing through it.
That is a huge difference.
How It Takes Drive Pedals
A good clean preamp needs to take pedals well.
The Le Clean does.
I tried it with the ENGL Alpha Drive, Revv G3 and Revv G4, and it handled them really well.
For whatever reason, I preferred using the drive pedals into Channel B rather than the clean channel. That is also how I recorded the tracks in the beginning.
The G3 sounded really good through it.
For some lead parts, I used the Alpha Drive in front of the G3 with the gain almost at zero, just to tighten things up a bit. That kind of stacking worked well with the Le Clean and Cab M setup.
That is another reason this pedal makes sense as the center of a board.
It does not need to do every drive sound itself.
It just needs to be a good foundation for the pedals around it.
And it is.
Is the Two Notes Le Clean Good for High Gain?
Not by itself.
And that is fine.
The Le Clean is not designed to be a high-gain monster. If you want heavy distortion from the preamp itself, this is probably not the right model.
But if you want a clean or slightly gritty foundation that takes high-gain pedals well, it works really nicely.
That is an important distinction.
I would not buy the Le Clean expecting it to replace a metal amp on its own.
But I would absolutely use it as the preamp section of a pedalboard where the heavier sounds come from drive or distortion pedals.
That is exactly the kind of role where it shines.
Where This Setup Makes Sense
For me, the Le Clean makes sense in a few situations.
Rehearsals are the obvious one.
Instead of dragging an amp, cab and pedalboard around, I could bring one pedalboard and a guitar. That already makes life easier.
Church gigs also make sense.
In that context, stage volume is often a problem, and going direct can be very useful. A setup like this gives you a proper guitar rig feel without needing a loud amp on stage.
Home recording is another obvious use.
The Le Clean into the Cab M gives you a direct recording setup that feels much better than just plugging pedals straight into an interface and hoping for the best.
It also makes sense as a backup rig.
Even if you normally use an amp, having a preamp and cab sim setup ready to go is not a bad idea.
What I Like About the Two Notes Le Clean
The biggest thing I like is the feel.
It makes an ampless pedalboard setup feel more like a real amp setup. That matters more than any spec.
I also like how it takes pedals.
The Le Clean does not try to be everything. It gives you a good foundation, then lets your drive pedals do their thing.
The Fusion modes are useful too. Blending clean and driven sounds gives you clarity and grit at the same time, which is a really nice option to have.
The built-in analog speaker simulation is better than I expected.
And the build quality is excellent.
It feels like a serious piece of gear.
What I Do Not Like
The size might be a problem for some pedalboards.
It is not massive, but it is not a compact pedal either. If your board is already packed, you need to plan around it.
The power requirement is also something to keep in mind.
12V DC at 500 mA is not impossible, but it is not the same as powering another normal 9V overdrive.
Also, if you are looking for heavy gain from the preamp itself, this is not the model.
That is not really a flaw, because it is called Le Clean.
But it is worth saying anyway.
Is the Two Notes Le Clean Still Worth It?
As of writing this, the Le Clean is more of a legacy or used-market product than a current new-release pedal.
But the idea still makes a lot of sense.
If you find one used for a good price, and you want a tube preamp pedal to build an ampless rig around, I think it is still very interesting.
Especially if you pair it with something like a Torpedo Cab M or another good cabinet simulation solution.
The Le Clean alone is useful.
The Le Clean with a proper cab and power amp simulation becomes much more exciting.
That was the real lesson for me.
Final Thoughts on This Two Notes Le Clean Review
This Two Notes Le Clean review ended up being more exciting than I expected.
I went into it curious about the idea of a pedalboard-based amp replacement. I came out thinking I could genuinely build a rig around this thing.
The clean sounds are good.
The light drive sounds are useful.
The Fusion modes add something interesting.
The built-in speaker simulation is better than expected.
And with the Torpedo Cab M, the whole setup feels surprisingly amp-like.
That is the main point.
This is not just convenient.
It actually feels good to play.
For rehearsals, church gigs, home recording, and smaller situations where carrying an amp is annoying, the Le Clean makes a lot of sense.
It is not a high-gain preamp.
It is not trying to be.
But as the clean foundation of a pedalboard-based rig, it is really impressive.
And honestly, that is exactly what I was hoping for.
▶▶Two Notes Le Clean on Thomann http://bit.ly/2CoEbUo