TC Electronic BG250 Club

[soulman969]

Originally Posted by Troph

I'd love to A/B them. Unfortunately, even in the Seattle area, I have not seen both of these models in stock at the same store. When I checked two weeks ago, the local GC had an older model MB115 (which isn't the same), but they didn't have this model. Another local music store had this thing, but doesn't carry GK products.

I guess I'm not in a hurry.

I doubt you'll find much if any difference between an MB112-II and the former model as far as what they sounds like. The major change are cosmetic and the addition of that line out to attach it to a powered cab. The power amp section, cab and speaker are still the same.

[soulman969]

Originally Posted by ErnieD

Yeah not so much the weight but a couple TBers stated its a cumbersome haul if you're walking a long distance. I like the idea of the luggage dolly or maybe adding a side handle. Guess I'll see when it arrives just how it feels to lug it.

I do like that when I've installed casters on some of my other cabs, TB153, it made them sit up abit higher. I also have a amp stand but that may make it stand too tall.

TC combo should arrive Friday. I have a med-size club gig this Sat, hope to try out the BG250 using my P5 with Nylon Tapes. BTW, there is/is not attenuator knob for the tweeter in the BG250?

No but based on the way the amp is designed it's not needed. It's an intelligent design. The tweeter is tied into the treble control and the crossover frequency is set fairly high. It remains silent until it gets a signal to reproduce and many passive basses won't trigger that to any great degree.

Because of this quite a few of us have wondered whether it was even working because it's not sitting their hissing at you constantly. It is. Play some recorded music through the aux. in and you'll know.

[ErnieD]

yep, I read alot of BG250 threads before deciding to order one, so I've seen alot of those "tweeter not working" posts.

I usually turn my tweeters down to about 1/4 on all my cabs so should work for me. Can't do that wiht my funky Rumble 100, so it gets nasty alot. Also read how the tweet may react different with active/passive basses. I'll be using both with this cab at times. Hope it arrives this Friday so I can try a few basses thru it to see which one will work in the Motown/Funk/Soul context I will use it this weekend.

Now next week, it will be a spanish-acoustic gig using my new Godin A5 fretless to gig first time. And my Tx blues/rock band has a couple gigs too where I use my P5 or J5. This little amp is gona get put thru its paces with 3 gigs, 3-4 rehearsals all next week. Will def report back after.

[stepswork4me]

Originally Posted by soulman969

Can't disagree with the stunning product part but I'm still curious since those selling around $270 represent a pretty serious discount from their normal street price and I'm finding it hard to believe TC expected their dealers to absorb all of that.

Ah well I may never know and I guess it makes little difference. They are great amps and by my estimate this thread has helped them sell quite a few of them.

I've seen way worse marketing. I'm sure TC isn't losing on the deal. If, and I really do mean if, it is about marketing then TC would be eating the difference. With Chinese manufacturing costs, it's not a far stretch to buy into the thought.

I'm sure this thread has sold a few.

[stepswork4me]

Originally Posted by ErnieD

This little amp is gona get put thru its paces with 3 gigs, 3-4 rehearsals all next week. Will def report back after.

Please do, Man. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[dominic54321]

Actually, I don't think they were ever 'supposed' to sell them for as low as $260. You see, MF had them for the lowest price for $324 about a few weeks before the holidays, on sale. Then, along the line somewhere, one of their 15% off codes actually worked which brought it down to $275. I used that to get zzounds to price match. Then, the price went down AGAIN on MF...Somewhere around dec 20th, a few weeks later, I noticed that there was a 20% off TC promo for the BG250 if it was sitting in your cart, it wasn't advertised ANYWHERE! They left the price at $324 for a few days like that. Im guessing that they were supposed to raise the price back up to $399, and THEN have the 20% promo show up in your cart. So, there were a few days that overlapped and you could place the BG250 in your cart for $324, and then it ALSO took off the 20% tc promo to give you a price of $260. Anyways, I don't think the 20% promo was ever 'supposed' to be implemented in conjunction with the price of $324 to begin with, or in conjunction with the 15% off holiday code at MF. Who knows, it benefited us in the long run.

[stepswork4me]

Originally Posted by dominic54321

Actually, I don't think they were ever 'supposed' to sell them for as low as $260. You see, MF had them for the lowest price for $324 about a few weeks before the holidays, on sale. Then, along the line somewhere, one of their 15% off codes actually worked which brought it down to $275. I used that to get zzounds to price match. Then, the price went down AGAIN on MF...Somewhere around dec 20th, a few weeks later, I noticed that there was a 20% off TC promo for the BG250 if it was sitting in your cart, it wasn't advertised ANYWHERE! They left the price at $324 for a few days like that. Im guessing that they were supposed to raise the price back up to $399, and THEN have the 20% promo show up in your cart. So, there were a few days that overlapped and you could place the BG250 in your cart for $324, and then it ALSO took off the 20% tc promo to give you a price of $260. Anyways, I don't think the 20% promo was ever 'supposed' to be implemented in conjunction with the price of $324 to begin with, or in conjunction with the 15% off holiday code at MF. Who knows, it benefited us in the long run.

Are you one of those professional couponers?!?!

[puff father]

I can hardly wait for January 21st. That is when my BG250 is supposed to ship. I am one of the ones that lucked into a great deal at MF. $325 then a big surprise at checkout with another 20% off. If it lives up to my expectations it's one of the best deals I've ever gotten. I'll definitely be back with my impressions. Hopefully near the end of this month.

[ErnieD]

Yeah I was surprised when I went to checkout cart with MF and saw they were doing a 20% discount instead of the 15% I thought I was getting. But when I saw it was outta stock, I went shopping elsewhere.

First Zz...and a couple other online stores said they could not price match MF since item was not in stock. I later emailed Zzounds with a good price a TBer said he got from them. I asked if I could get that price, I'd buy it same day. They went even 10 bucks lower in their email reply and I bought it on the spot. Still wish I woulda gotten one of those way under $300 deals I saw last year.

It'll be here this Friday, I'm making 4 small monthly payments, so I'm happy with the deal overall, so far.

[Aeko]

Originally Posted by bozha

apparently, this was the cause of the noise that bothered me...



cheap extension cord switch seems to interfere with something inside of the amp! still gotta lot to learn about these new psu technologies...

@Aeko, mine is going up to 12 o'clock on master volume at average rock rehearsal. above is just too loud.

Hi Bozha,

What kind of noises did you have ?

I'm just comming from a rehearsal and I detected a noise comming from the twitter when I play the bass. Not when I do nothing.

Did you experienced the same issue ?

[funkybass]

I thought I read somewhere that if you use the direct out it bypasses the amps eq. Does anyone know if that's true?

[BassMorpheus]

Originally Posted by funkybass

I thought I read somewhere that if you use the direct out it bypasses the amps eq. Does anyone know if that's true?

Per the manual, page 8, English version;

PRE/POST Switch.
This switch determines whether the balanced line-driver output provides the pre (before EQ) or post (after EQ) processed signal.

Therefore, the choice is up to you!

[BassMorpheus]

TBers,

Today was the first day road testing the BG250 and all I can say is WOW! This is an amazing combo amplifier. I played a Squire Jaguar Modified 4 and the combo had all the balls and flexibility I needed in rehearsal. It is a room which is big enough to seat about 200 folks and the ceiling is accordion-style. For those in New Orleans, it’s the AFM Hall on Esplanade Avenue or the Musician’s Union practice room.

My settings were gain at straight noon, anything more resulted in a hot signal. The bass, mid, and treble controls were at noon. The tube drive not present and the Toneprint loaded with the Spectracomp effect at about ten o’clock. The master volume was at noon. The sound w/o the band was just a tad too loud and forced me to watch my touch on the instrument. I would rather have the headroom located in my fingertips than fiddle with the amp in rehearsal. During rehearsal, the sound was amazing with the band. I could hear myself in ways that I had not been able to before through the in-house amplifier setup (an old Acoustic with a fifteen bottom). I could hear and when I stepped away from the amplifier, feel the notes.

The music we are playing is good ‘ole New Orleans style funk, r&b, and blues with a tinge of rock. I think my band mates were kind of surprised at the upfront sound. Again, I am learning to tweak it out. If anything, I am going to put some tube drive into my mix and cut back on the master a hair next time.

All I can say is, for the price, the BG250 is the king of sub-$800 bass combos. I own a G&K rig and am fond of G&K, however, for the price point, the TC BG250 is a true winner in my ears. It has tremendous flexibility and the Toneprint, Tube drive, and tuner features are almost worth the price of admission alone. The icing on the cake is the weight and with a Gator GPA-715 rolling case would be a perfect working bassist setup.

Lastly, I AM GOING TO PURCHASE ANOTHER BG250. The price is too tempting. I could not imagine a gig where I could not cut through the mix with two of these. If I would need anything louder, I would be playing though an Ampeg stack with 8x10s or sonic equivalent provided as a backline in a large venue (i.e. stadium or arena). TC Electronics has really shined with this particular product! I will keep my reviews coming, I hope others keep the reviews coming as well.

Thanks!

Happy BassMorpheus TC BG250 owner

p.s. Yeah, I removed the cheesy BG250 sticker too! LOL!

[soulman969]

Originally Posted by dominic54321

Actually, I don't think they were ever 'supposed' to sell them for as low as $260. You see, MF had them for the lowest price for $324 about a few weeks before the holidays, on sale. Then, along the line somewhere, one of their 15% off codes actually worked which brought it down to $275. I used that to get zzounds to price match. Then, the price went down AGAIN on MF...Somewhere around dec 20th, a few weeks later, I noticed that there was a 20% off TC promo for the BG250 if it was sitting in your cart, it wasn't advertised ANYWHERE! They left the price at $324 for a few days like that. Im guessing that they were supposed to raise the price back up to $399, and THEN have the 20% promo show up in your cart. So, there were a few days that overlapped and you could place the BG250 in your cart for $324, and then it ALSO took off the 20% tc promo to give you a price of $260. Anyways, I don't think the 20% promo was ever 'supposed' to be implemented in conjunction with the price of $324 to begin with, or in conjunction with the 15% off holiday code at MF. Who knows, it benefited us in the long run.

I got a similar impression because for reasons I can't remember exactly (but probably just doing a price check) I left on in my cart at zZounds and when I logged back on it had been discounted to $264 and change.

It would have been nice to get one at that price but I got to match a 20% off when I bought it so I really can't kick. It was a fair price as opposed to a screaming bargain. For $265 every bassist in the world should have grabbed one.

Well maybe quite a few of them did because I see most of the retailers are out of stock for a bit. That seems to indicate they didn't to it just because they were overstocked. Anyway I'm a happy camper and I easily made of the difference and a lot more with a couple of gigs.

[stepswork4me]

Originally Posted by ErnieD

It'll be here this Friday, I'm making 4 small monthly payments, so I'm happy with the deal overall, so far.

Any thoughts, yet?

[puff father]

Mine is scheduled for delivery on Monday. I am excited.

[plankspanker13]

No PA help for me, or the guitarist, just my BG250, and a G&L JB-2 equipped with DiMarzio Model J's. No effects, although I do ramp up the volume pedal, a bit, in this live band karaoke performance. Singerbabe jumps the gun, in the second verse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Vbg...ature=youtu.be

[BassMorpheus]

Originally Posted by plankspanker13

No PA help for me, or the guitarist, just my BG250, and a G&L JB-2 equipped with DiMarzio Model J's. No effects, although I do ramp up the volume pedal, a bit, in this live band karaoke performance. Singerbabe jumps the gun, in the second verse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Vbg...ature=youtu.be

+1 for the band. I can hear you on the weak speaker of an iPad.

[dominic54321]

Originally Posted by plankspanker13

No PA help for me, or the guitarist, just my BG250, and a G&L JB-2 equipped with DiMarzio Model J's. No effects, although I do ramp up the volume pedal, a bit, in this live band karaoke performance. Singerbabe jumps the gun, in the second verse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Vbg...ature=youtu.be

It's amazing you're cutting through the mix so well, especially since the camera is in front of the guitarist. You would think the camera would have picked up more of him than you. Very cool! Goes to show what a little powerhouse of a combo the bg250 is!

[plankspanker13]

Guitarist is playing through a Mesa 2x12 cab, and drummer is a pounder. Furthermore, you can't really see it that well, but my BG250 is on its' side, on a stand, right behind me. It's a carpeted stage; if it were not, then I would have the amp on the floor.