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TC Electronic BG250 Club (Part 2)

#1,141
From what I saw when measuring my bg250 :
- The high knob boosts at 6 khz and after. To make it boost below you have to crank it and then I'm not fond of the tone.
An external eq is the best solution I found.
Changing the tweeter or the crossover will not change that.
- There's a natural bump in the 80/100 hz area due to the cabinet and speaker design. As Drpepper said it can be tamed by cutting a bit the Lows.
- Frequency wise the speaker doesn't have other huge bumps or holes and goes up to 4 khz on its own. The tweeter acts after that.
It means that an external eq or preamp gives nice results with it and allows more personal settings.

An interesting fact is that at last gig I played the soundman mic'ed my bg250. It was set flat and I used a vt bass in front of it with only a tiny boost of the highs. I played a P Bass so not the brightest bass ever. The soundguy told me that he had to reduce my trebles and boost my lows because it was too bright.
It means that tonewise the bg250 sends a good amount of highs but depending on how you locate it you hear them well or not, as for every small combo.
Raising it and/or tilting it really helps to hear it for real.
 
#1,142
Thanks fellas.
Since my last post, I tried angling which was a definite help and will put on a 2' stand to also try.
Also seems to have more of a different tone from near to far.
My only other frame of reference is an old Ampeg BT15 (flip top with a 100 watt transistor amp and a GK 200MB (really small, high dollar, alum. case combo with 150 watts).
Neither is loud enough or full enough and are also somewhat boxy.

I do have a TL606 cabinet which I like, but I stupidly made from 3/4" oak plywood in the 90's because we had a sheet left over; weighs a ton.

I have an TE graphic pedal that I will try today.
Is this cab insulated with any sound deadening material and does bracing help much?
 
#1,143
Jim C said:
Thanks fellas.
Since my last post, I tried angling which was a definite help and will put on a 2' stand to also try.
Also seems to have more of a different tone from near to far.
My only other frame of reference is an old Ampeg BT15 (flip top with a 100 watt transistor amp and a GK 200MB (really small, high dollar, alum. case combo with 150 watts).
Neither is loud enough or full enough and are also somewhat boxy.

I do have a TL606 cabinet which I like, but I stupidly made from 3/4" oak plywood in the 90's because we had a sheet left over; weighs a ton.

I have an TE graphic pedal that I will try today.
Is this cab insulated with any sound deadening material and does bracing help much?
Click to expand...

Get it off the floor with a stand or isolation riser. Poof goes the boom.
 
#1,144
Yes. Don't overthink. Many people like their bg250 as they are.
I did some experiments because I love tweaking.
The eq thing is a matter of taste too. And it's the same with every amp: you may want some eq options that aren't already there, this is why there are so many eq and preamp pedals available.
 
#1,145
tico & drpepper,
Having played this thing today I am of the opinion that:
* It sounds like a big, hollow, boomy piece of trash when the EQ is flat
* Setting the bass to -2 ish and rolling off some treble sounds much better; the "Q" on the bass control is not good; in fact the entire EQ system seams honky; just boost the mids a bit for instant car horn
* With the EQ flat, I can pull a ton of 100 Hz and boost 50 Hz on my Trace graphic EQ pedal and it sounds even better
* The tone is not very linear with volume; granted all amps have different EQ when going from soft to loud but this thing is REALLY different; it sound best at a pretty stout mid-volume level

Not sure that I would love this thing at $400 but this is a killer amp on the used market.
It is amazingly light and loud.
I'm going to run this thing for awhile and then try some bracing over the winter

rico, did you just use a piece of something like 1" dowel rod only, or did you add a piece of wood or metal at the sides for a wider contact point?
 
#1,146
Yes the eq doesn't act on a large frequency band this is why for my personal use I like an external eq.
But keep in mind that this combo isn't designed to have a strong baked in tone as many others. It pushes a lot of mids which can sound à bit raw and honky on its own but works well in a band setting.
Also, try to sit it on a chair or à stool. What you'll hear will be nice than when putting it on the floor and standing on your feet just a few feet from it where you hear mostly mids.
With your trace eq you can add some lows if you find they're missing when the combo is raise, but at least you'll hear something which sounds more like what the crowd hears and which is nicer and fuller.
As every amp you have to walk away from it to know how the sound projects.
I agree that it sounds way better and open when the volume is pushed after 4. Don't know why. Maybe the speaker likes to be pushed.

Regarding the dowels, I used 2 1" diameter that I screwed directly through the combo walls, between the 2 sides, and the other between top and bottom.
Another thing I did was to put some very dense foam to partially close the port. I closed between 1/3 and half of it. It reduces the hump in the low low mids.

All these factors really depend on what kind of tone you're after. There's no perfect rule, just personal tastes.
Some people rave about its natural tone while others prefer other brands.

And it also depends on how you want to use it: bedroom playing where too much mids can be annoying, gigs without pa where you'll want decent lows and good mids, monitoring on stage where you'll want mostly to hear you well,...
And what are your tone goals: big scooped modern sound or pure untouched signal.
Then you have to adjust things around that.

On my own I mainly play rock and like to have strong mids while keeping a bassy tone. I'm not looking for some 80's ultra bright tone.
 
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#1,148
Still loving my BG250-115. Works great in small rooms and is also fine for stage volume in larger venues with PA support and the DI works well. What makes it for me is the Tubedrive toneprint, which adds a nice complexity to the midrange, I have it always-on. It lacks top-end but that's not an issue for me. I cut the bass 1 or 2 and boost the mids and highs 2-3 depending on the room.
 
#1,149
ticol07 said:
P Bass with chromes + braced BG250 with Tube Drive at 7 + a pick => pure hapiness.
Click to expand...

What do you use for your gain settings? I'm using a SB-2 (P-pickup only, tone at around 50%, volume around 70%) with flats and a pick and seem to start clipping if I get over around 4 on the gain. I do like the sound around 4 which is fortunate, just curious what other P-bass/ pick players experience as far as using gain on this amp.
 
#1,150
basslust said:
What do you use for your gain settings? I'm using a SB-2 (P-pickup only, tone at around 50%, volume around 70%) with flats and a pick and seem to start clipping if I get over around 4 on the gain. I do like the sound around 4 which is fortunate, just curious what other P-bass/ pick players experience as far as using gain on this amp.
Click to expand...
I'm a flats with a P and a pick.
I've used this amp a few times and I was always right around 4 on the gain and the master at 3 o'clock.
I enjoyed the amp, to me it had a nice warm tone and with turning up the gain I get some bite out of it.
My tone is at 60% and volume maxed.
But I didn't have pa support which is why I drove it pretty good.
 
#1,151
basslust said:
What do you use for your gain settings? I'm using a SB-2 (P-pickup only, tone at around 50%, volume around 70%) with flats and a pick and seem to start clipping if I get over around 4 on the gain. I do like the sound around 4 which is fortunate, just curious what other P-bass/ pick players experience as far as using gain on this amp.
Click to expand...
I usualy set my gain around 5, but it begins to clip between 6 and 7. And I roll off my tone just 25%.
My master is set around 4 for rehearsal.
 
#1,154
Mmmmh.... my BG250 died yesterday.... same symptoms as in this thread : http://www.talkbass.com/threads/tc-electronics-bg250-fried-anyone-seen-this.1123745/

So no more BG250 for me until I find a solution (if I find one because I'm out of warranty so I'm afraid it would cost me too much to get it fixed).
And as I have no big enough backup I removed the amp and soldered a plug to use it as a cab. I will use a not convenient but working power amp and my preamps.
At least I will know how does the cab sound without the BG250 preamp and amp sections...

Are there others here who tried the BG250 cab with another amp ?
 
#1,156
Well ... I'm coming late to the party. New owner of BG250 210 here - I love the sound of it and lightweight. But concerned with all the reports I'm reading of people having problems with no recourse other than to ship the amp to a service center. Hope mine is one that lasts.

My big question -- apparently there is no toneprint editor for us. So for a simple flange or chorus, no problem - but for some of the overdrive toneprints, the volume jump is so vast that these are unusable without having to stop and turn the master volume way down. So no ability to use the footpedal to switch between clean and dirty while playing - the volume jumps about 10x louder when engaging some of these - like "the beast" for example - If I kick in "the beast" I have to turn the master volume down from 6 to about 2. Is there no way to adjust the toneprint volume to match the clean volume like you would be able to do with any normal effect pedal? Even if you turn the toneprint knob all the way down the volume is still way, way louder than with the toneprint disengaged for this particular toneprint.
 
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#1,158
Hmmm ... well since my previous post, I loaded up "the beast" toneprint again and while testing that it was, indeed, super loud even with the toneprint knob turned all the way down --- I jiggled it and suddenly it got quiet and I realized my toneprint pot was being intermittent and not registering as turned down - so I swept the knob from 0-10 several times and now it's working more reliably - I'm able to at least turn down the intensity of those overdrive toneprints.

It still would be really nice if I could dial in the amount of grit I wanted and also set the volume of it so it would have just the right amount of volume when it is kicked in. But at least I can now adjust it to the amount of grit I want on those overdrive toneprints.
 
#1,159
ticol07 said:
Mmmmh.... my BG250 died yesterday.... same symptoms as in this thread : http://www.talkbass.com/threads/tc-electronics-bg250-fried-anyone-seen-this.1123745/

So no more BG250 for me until I find a solution (if I find one because I'm out of warranty so I'm afraid it would cost me too much to get it fixed).
And as I have no big enough backup I removed the amp and soldered a plug to use it as a cab. I will use a not convenient but working power amp and my preamps.
At least I will know how does the cab sound without the BG250 preamp and amp sections...

Are there others here who tried the BG250 cab with another amp ?
Click to expand...

Your problem is that your main DSP board has died and needs to be replaced.

There are only three components in this amp - the main board, the controls board, and the power supply.

A replacement main board is about $70 USD - if you can find someone to sell it to you. TC Electronic now says on their website that they will sell parts (they didn't when I had mine fixed, so I paid $95 labor and $20 shipping on top of the $70 part at one of their service centers), but it may be difficult to get someone to sell it to you. Make a lot of calls - if you can't find someone to sell it to you, get on TC's case and make them find it for you. It's all plug and play inside, so you shouldn't have an issue fixing it yourself.
 
#1,160
Just joined the club as I needed to replace my dead Line6 LD150 I used for practice and smaller gigs.

I picked up a BG250-210 on sale this week and tried it out on a bar gig last night. I was concerned if it would be able to hang at band volume in a mid-sized venue without running through the PA. My concerns were unfounded. It was plenty loud and sounded great throughout the room with no PA support. Was running gain at 50% and volume at 50%. Had to dial back the bass tone control a bit, too. Did just as well in that setting as the Ampeg PF500+PF115H rig I've been running the last few years

I tested the 210 against the 115 and 112 and chose the 210. I wanted to like the 112 for the form factor but it just sounded too boxy to my years. The 115 sounded fine but the 210 had just that much more clarity and punch to my ears. I think it's a keeper.
 

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