TC Electronic RH450, RS210, RS212 Review Thread

[petersland]

Actually, there are a huge number of us who have moved to smaller, more powerful micro heads than the RH450 quite a while ago (much less the old, large heavy stuff). Also, the idea of turning a 210 on its side is not a new one, and is easily achieved if you so choose with virtually any 210 and most 212's on the market.

Except for the computer interface, I'm not seeing much to get excited about here myself, given the competition in the micro category. I'm actually most excited at this point about the number of small, high power handling 4ohm 212's out there now. A single 4ohm 212, with that 600-800 watt power handling rating (I know power handling is not the best indication of cab performance) and nice 500-800 watt micro head is really something regarding portability, stage monitoring, and the ability of a very small rig to handle virtually any gig.

There's no doubt that this rig would be impressive if it's the first small lightweight rig you've experienced. However, there are some amazing, super powerful small heads and extremely lightweight cabs out there now that, at least on paper, have MUCH more impressive power and weight specs than this rig.

Just addding a little perspective here!

Hi Ken,
I always look forward and value your opinions as you seem to know your stuff, but I think horses for courses.
I thought I had the ultimate portable rig (on paper) the PJB Suitcase and 4B ext cab. I won't comment on this appart from selling it within 2 weeks.
I then decided on a LMII with a single 4ohm cab option UL212 S2. Once again after replacing both drivers (faulty) the cab still didn't cut it. Boom, boom, boom.
Then decided I needed to move some air with 2 x NM-410's. Nice - but oh my back.
I've now decided on the TC rig. Amp, 210 and 212. Apart from this rig being designed for vertical stacking (tweeter in the top driver) the amp suites my needs.
You see I'm not an effects kind a Guy. Just need a tuner, good compressor and some sort of preset option.
Vioala - the RH450 with footswitch.
And regarding power, IMHO I've never driven my LMII past 1 oclock on the gain and 11 oçlock on the master. Just idling.
So in my situation 450W @ 4 ohm is ample for me. A nice, easy to setup/dismantle, tidy rig.
For now anyway.

Cheers, Pete

 

[KJung]

Hi Ken,
I always look forward and value your opinions as you seem to know your stuff, but I think horses for courses.
I thought I had the ultimate portable rig (on paper) the PJB Suitcase and 4B ext cab. I won't comment on this appart from selling it within 2 weeks.
I then decided on a LMII with a single 4ohm cab option UL212 S2. Once again after replacing both drivers (faulty) the cab still didn't cut it. Boom, boom, boom.
Then decided I needed to move some air with 2 x NM-410's. Nice - but oh my back.
I've now decided on the TC rig. Amp, 210 and 212. Apart from this rig being designed for vertical stacking (tweeter in the top driver) the amp suites my needs.
You see I'm not an effects kind a Guy. Just need a tuner, good compressor and some sort of preset option.
Vioala - the RH450 with footswitch.
And regarding power, IMHO I've never driven my LMII past 1 oclock on the gain and 11 oçlock on the master. Just idling.
So in my situation 450W @ 4 ohm is ample for me. A nice, easy to setup/dismantle, tidy rig.
For now anyway.

Cheers, Pete

I remember that bad luck you had with the 212UL. That's a big 212 also, and not really representative of the new stuff coming out.

+1000 on the Phil Jones stuff also. Looks good on paper, that's about it IMO and IME.

I do like the coax design of these cabs, although tweeter placement is a pretty minor thing (at least with bass guitar backline), since there is a crossover involved. I think if these guys would beef up their 212 cab and offer it in 4ohms, that and their head might be a pretty cool 'easy one trip rig'. I've never been a big fan of mixing and matching different driver sizes, but it seems to work well with this stuff. I'm actually surprised more aren't checking out the 2 x 212 stacks, since the 212's seem to be about the same size as the 210. That would probably widen out the low end a bit, and result in a more 'true' vertical array with constant driver type.

Regarding tuners, I've been ruined by the Sonic Turbo Tuner. Once you have experienced that true strobe accuracy and the literally immediate tracking (even of the open B string), and a true bypass with mute switch built in, it's pretty hard to use anything else IMO!

Lot's of cool stuff out there right now! With the new Eminence Neo's that continue to show up, it's now finally possible to have a '210 size' 212 cab that can handle a bunch of watts and no break up when pushed (giving you 'almost' 410 performance in a much smaller box)!

 

[KJung]

And..... the 410 looked cool, until I saw the weight

I guess they are moving neo cab design to the next level also... 'now, Neo cabs that weigh the same as ceramic models'

 

[Fishheadjoe]

Well, I took the dive and bought this set up on ethe weekend! RH450, plus the 2x10 and 2x12 cabinet... unfortunately, I have not had very much time with it... however my wife is a little un-happy as she is now spend to much time, in her opinion, picking things up off the floor! Had an entire closet's shelf, unload it's contents on the floor... must turn down, but don't want to!
Lots of features on this amp. Coming from where I have, SS Sunn amp to this is a definate learning curve, but one I am enjoying.
Fishheadjoe

 

[clarksouter]

That one thing I would like to point out about the TC cabs is that they are the only cabs that I have used in a 2 x 10 or 2 x 12 configuration that sound good set on end. The SWR, Eden, and Aguilar, and Ampegs, I have used in the past you could not stack on end without losing your over all punch and low end. And that advantage of having the bass hit you full in the body from a line array stack set up behind you makes hear and feel you sound SO much better on stage.

 

[Fishheadjoe]

Spent a couple of hours last night with the rig, twisting knobs and such and man, so many available sounds to play with...
Nasty tube sound and a really nice clear boomy sound as well... wish I didn't have to work during the day! LOL
Fishheadjoe

 

[Marcus Willett]

Interesting stuff; I hope to check this rig out sometime. One thing caught my attention about the switchable EQ:

I don't see how you can tie a specific frequency to a control 'dot' seeing how there are only 25 positions on the dial and the frequency ranges vary, and that the center frequencies as defaults really don't make sense when looking at the top 'dot'. For example, the Low-Mid frequency range is 100Hz ~ 1600Hz. If you distribute this range across 25 positions, 400Hz should be near 9 o'clock instead of on top

You need to think in terms of octaves, not numbers. 100Hz to 1.6KHz is a range of 4 octaves (100Hz-200Hz, 200Hz-400Hz, 400Hz-800Hz, 800Hz-1600Hz) and 400Hz is indeed smack dab in the middle, or 12 o'clock.

So given that setup, around 9 o'clock or so should be right around 200Hz and 3 o'clock should be right around 800Hz, and so on. If the are 12 positions on either side of noon (giving us 25 total) that would give each octave 6, thus yielding a reasonably good slice-up of each octave...e.g., the bottom end of range would go from 100Hz, and the next click should be right around 117Hz.

 

[Andy Brown]

Interesting stuff; I hope to check this rig out sometime. One thing caught my attention about the switchable EQ:


You need to think in terms of octaves, not numbers. 100Hz to 1.6KHz is a range of 4 octaves (100Hz-200Hz, 200Hz-400Hz, 400Hz-800Hz, 800Hz-1600Hz) and 400Hz is indeed smack dab in the middle, or 12 o'clock.

So given that setup, around 9 o'clock or so should be right around 200Hz and 3 o'clock should be right around 800Hz, and so on. If the are 12 positions on either side of noon (giving us 25 total) that would give each octave 6, thus yielding a reasonably good slice-up of each octave...e.g., the bottom end of range would go from 100Hz, and the next click should be right around 117Hz.

Thanks Marcus! Make perfect sense.

 

[Stumbo]

'scribed

 

[alexclaber]

And..... the 410 looked cool, until I saw the weight

I guess they are moving neo cab design to the next level also... 'now, Neo cabs that weigh the same as ceramic models'

Having had my arm deep inside these cabs I'm pretty sure they don't have neo magnets, which is logical as Eminence don't make any coax neo models yet.

Alex

 

[TAS]

The changes I would make are:
- The tuner indicators should point up and down, not left and right.
- There should be a different color LED in the SHIFT button so that you can find it easily in a dark room and KNOW that you're hitting the correct button.
- Having the RCA jacks's audio available at the speaker if desired.
- Compressor adjustments other than overall amount (freqs, ratios, GR per band, etc)

TAS

 

[John Wentzien]

The RH450 did a fantastic job this weekend. It was the first gig I played with it outside.
It was a Blues festival and we were set up on a plywood stage that was very "bouncey"

My wife was worried that it would fall over when the harp player and I started jumping around, but it stayed standing with no problem.

I could hear everything perfectly, and it was plenty loud outside.
The sound-man really liked the D.I---(all of the sound-guys I've used with this amp have commented on how great the D.I. is.)

I am still amazed with this system. It does everything so well.

 

[hmjuice]

Update time. There have been a few guys asking “Who Actually Bought the Amp" and I’m one of them. I read a lot on this thread before doing so and I also worked with it a Bass Emporium before taking the plunge. Although I did not buy the speakers since I didn’t think they matched up to my Berg AE410 but there’s some new thoughts on that as well. My main gig is with an 8 piece Salsa/Merenge show band that likes to tear it up so I’m almost the drummer in this band with the two percussionist just going to town on most tunes. Oh, and bass has to be super strong on stage for everyone to be happy.

Here we go… I’ve now used my Rebel450 for three weeks or so and it’s hard to beat. In that time I’ve done 8 gigs and three rehearsals. Most of the gigs were local club or restaurant stages except for two that were out door. As for power on all the indoor stuff I never had a problem and I think it’s louder than my old LMII or TA501 that are both rated at 500watts per MarkBass. In my many years of playing and using a ton of different gear I have found that just because the manufacture listed a certain wattage it doesn’t really mean its true real world usable power. Many times it's a test bench scenario. With that being said I think the compression helps this head a ton as well as the EQ. So even though it only has 450watts RMS the low registers sound great and I found myself turning down the bass knob to even for the most part at 165Hz and using more low mid at around 400Hz. At any rate there’s plenty of power with the AE410 I’m using so I don’t think there’d be a problem with the cabs that go with it.

I do like the idea of the two cabs stacked on their sides and the two outdoor shows had some really large stages so that would have come in handy. The only let down was the outdoor shows in that we had a good amount of stage to work with and 6 separate monitor mixes that were super loud blasting vocal and piano so if I went to far from my rig I couldn’t get the wave movement I was used to but this happens on most outdoor shows no matter what you use. The 25mph wind didn’t help either. A positive/negative from that show was that there was a huge BudLight banner that was the backdrop and the wind kept moving it back and forward during our set. I placed my amp what I thought was far enough up on the stage that I wouldn’t have to worry about the banner touching it. Well one big gust and the banner took the little 9lb head with it off the top of the cab. My input cable came out and my sound stopped. Luckily this was during an interlude in the song so I turned around the there was a stage guy heading to my rig and the head was hanging from the speakon cable behind the cab. The tech picked it up and it was still on he just plugged my cable back in and we were back in business. No scratches or dings, now that’s durability if I’ve ever scene it. The sound guys where all impressed after our set and the monitor guy even made a comment on how tight the bass sound was on stage and we were his third band of the day/night.

Now back to compression, this is what I feel makes the amp special. I never used much compression before but now I don’t know how I lived without it. My compression setting is about 10 o’clock and that was a work in progress for the first three gigs before I found where I was comfortable. I don’t play very hard so I didn’t think I needed it but it really made a difference on the higher registers and if I used any effects the sound was HUGE!!

All in all, I have really like what the amp brings to my sound. The EQ has been great and I have two settings that I’m using on a regular basis but that’s been an eye opener for me since I was a pretty straight forward set it and forget it type. Now I have two distinct sounds that work for two scenarios. I would recommend this amp to anyone that’s in the market for a light weight rig. I haven’t picked up the foot switch but I will in the next week.

That's my $0.02

 

[Kelly Lee]

Closed the wrong thread. Now reopened.

 

[Greyvagabond]

I just play one of these last Saturday at a gig at Arlene's Grocery in NYC. Last time we played there, the backline was a Hartke 3500 into a beat up Ampeg 4x10 on a chair. This time, its the stacked 2x12 and 2x10 with the RH450. I did like the amp, though I didn't get much time to mess with it. I initially put too much "tube" emulation into it; playing a tube amp, I thought I needed it to get my usual warm sound. However, the tube emulation is much more a distortion sound, so I backed it off to about 9 O'Clock. The bottom was plenty full, but it did seem a touch scooped; I wound up leaving bass flat, boosting the low and hi mids to about 2 and 1 oclock respectively, and back a touch off the treble. Sounded fastastic for everything from high-tempo pickstyle rock to groovy finger-plucked police-style reggae! I'm impressed, but it does seem quite expensive. Also, it took me about 10 minutes to find the friggan ON switch!!

 

[Tom7]

Closed the wrong thread. Now reopened.

Okay, I'm confused.

The old thread should have been closed long ago though; all that moaning about being passed over for the program really bogged it down.

 

[Bassflute]

Hope you don't mind me reposting here from the dying thread...

TC Electronic head and cabs

I tried them all at L&M yesterday and loved it. The power thing is deceptive because the master volume pot is truly linear, and you can run this amp pretty much flat out with no appreciable clipping. We are SO used to non-linear pots, with all the power from 7 - 11 o'clock (my old Eden 800, for example - nothing but distortion from 12 on). LOVED the interface, tube distortion was very good, compressor was superb, possibly the best on-board compressor I've tried. LOVE the amp - look forward to a big stereo jobby with FX built in. The EQ interface is simply brilliant, worthy of some kind of award for innovation - intuitive, easy, powerful, accurate, clearly visible on the darkest of stages, and very very cool looking simultaneously. The Mesa V12 sitting next to it looked like something from the stone age, with 200 hard-to-see metal (can you say 'shocking') knobs on it...'not' a good thing. Great amp, the Mesa, and freaking thunderously loud, but all those dark knobs on a dark stage....forget it.

The 2x10" cab was very good, but the 2x12" cab was SUPERB, IMHO. Loved it. And if you think it's 'dark', plug a Little Mark II into it - it AIN'T dark; it's reproducing what it's given. With the LMII it was crispy and bright as hell, bordering on harsh and nasty; the speakers are transparent, doing only what was asked of them. tc has purposely voiced the amp 'dark' (we're bass players, after all) to get an old school kind of sound of out what is some very sophisticated gear, but the EQ is SO flexible you can easily tweak that out and dial in some hi-fi - I would say more it was more 'warm' than dark right out of the box. That 2x12 cabinet is the BEST BUY in the bass business right now, IMHO: it sounds fantastic, WAY better than a single 12" Markbass cab which costs over $100.00 more. An Eden 2x12 is over twice the price, twice the weight, twice the size AT LEAST, and it doesn't sound anywhere NEAR as good as this thing. A 2x12 cab with a tweeter for $650.00 Cdn? The Yorkville 2x10 cost more, and it's not in the same league at all. This is one amazing deal on speakers.

I look forward to future stuff by tc; this is an incredible rig for a first offering. And the price on those superb speakers is astonishing; they're going to kick Markbass' *** once people wise up to how good this stuff is. For $150.00 more than a LMII, you get a a comparable amp, with a tuner, a very good distortion unit, a superb compressor, memory, switching, and in a very very nice looking and very well-made unit, as opposed to a rather, ahem, 'homely' looking orangey-yellow and black thing, with knobs that move way too easily. The tc also had a really nice, well-built 'tactile' high-end-audio feel to it, which it is, and the controls would not move unless you really wanted them to.

Beautiful job, tc electronics. Love it. Wouldn't trade my IP/Summit rig, but certainly one of the best little amps out there.

Cheers,
Cameron

 

[musocat]

I'm thinking about grabbing one of these...

If I do, I'm going to start with the head and one cab, then sell off my "small gig" combo later and get a second cab.

I play rock and blues, and my current big rig is an SVT head into an SVT 4X10.

My little rig is an Ashdown C-110 combo - it's a great little rig with an EVO-II 300 head built into a 1X10 cab.

I'm thinking that the RH-450 with one cab could replace the Ashdown for small gigs, and with two cabs, it could make big noises in places where I don't want to haul the SVT. Some of the crappy bars I play in want it real loud, but the stage is real small The stacked 210s in the TC rig would work very well in those situations.

So, those of you who've been playing this amp, here's your question: If you were to use one cab, would you go for the 210 or the 212?

With 2 cabs, would you go with both of them being the same (either 210s or 212s), or one of each?

Thanks for your input on this!

BTW, I play a Sadowsky Vintage 4, with hipshot and passive tone control, and Markley Nickel Steel 50-110

 

[Tom7]

Hope you don't mind me reposting here from the dying thread...

TC Electronic head and cabs

I tried them all at L&M yesterday and loved it. The power thing is deceptive because the master volume pot is truly linear, and you can run this amp pretty much flat out with no appreciable clipping. We are SO used to non-linear pots, with all the power from 7 - 11 o'clock (my old Eden 800, for example - nothing but distortion from 12 on). LOVED the interface, tube distortion was very good, compressor was superb, possibly the best on-board compressor I've tried. LOVE the amp - look forward to a big stereo jobby with FX built in. The EQ interface is simply brilliant, worthy of some kind of award for innovation - intuitive, easy, powerful, accurate, clearly visible on the darkest of stages, and very very cool looking simultaneously. The Mesa V12 sitting next to it looked like something from the stone age, with 200 hard-to-see metal (can you say 'shocking') knobs on it...'not' a good thing. Great amp, the Mesa, and freaking thunderously loud, but all those dark knobs on a dark stage....forget it.

The 2x10" cab was very good, but the 2x12" cab was SUPERB, IMHO. Loved it. And if you think it's 'dark', plug a Little Mark II into it - it AIN'T dark; it's reproducing what it's given. With the LMII it was crispy and bright as hell, bordering on harsh and nasty; the speakers are transparent, doing only what was asked of them. tc has purposely voiced the amp 'dark' (we're bass players, after all) to get an old school kind of sound of out what is some very sophisticated gear, but the EQ is SO flexible you can easily tweak that out and dial in some hi-fi - I would say more it was more 'warm' than dark right out of the box. That 2x12 cabinet is the BEST BUY in the bass business right now, IMHO: it sounds fantastic, WAY better than a single 12" Markbass cab which costs over $100.00 more. An Eden 2x12 is over twice the price, twice the weight, twice the size AT LEAST, and it doesn't sound anywhere NEAR as good as this thing. A 2x12 cab with a tweeter for $650.00 Cdn? The Yorkville 2x10 cost more, and it's not in the same league at all. This is one amazing deal on speakers.

I look forward to future stuff by tc; this is an incredible rig for a first offering. And the price on those superb speakers is astonishing; they're going to kick Markbass' *** once people wise up to how good this stuff is. For $150.00 more than a LMII, you get a a comparable amp, with a tuner, a very good distortion unit, a superb compressor, memory, switching, and in a very very nice looking and very well-made unit, as opposed to a rather, ahem, 'homely' looking orangey-yellow and black thing, with knobs that move way too easily. The tc also had a really nice, well-built 'tactile' high-end-audio feel to it, which it is, and the controls would not move unless you really wanted them to.

Beautiful job, tc electronics. Love it. Wouldn't trade my IP/Summit rig, but certainly one of the best little amps out there.

Cheers,
Cameron

Thanks for reposting this. When I first read it, it reignited my G.A.S. for this rig, and when they closed that thread the first thing I thought of was, "Rats. Will I find this again?"

Thanks again for reposting it.

 

[John Wentzien]

I'm thinking about grabbing one of these...

If I do, I'm going to start with the head and one cab, then sell off my "small gig" combo later and get a second cab.

I play rock and blues, and my current big rig is an SVT head into an SVT 4X10.

My little rig is an Ashdown C-110 combo - it's a great little rig with an EVO-II 300 head built into a 1X10 cab.

I'm thinking that the RH-450 with one cab could replace the Ashdown for small gigs, and with two cabs, it could make big noises in places where I don't want to haul the SVT. Some of the crappy bars I play in want it real loud, but the stage is real small The stacked 210s in the TC rig would work very well in those situations.

So, those of you who've been playing this amp, here's your question: If you were to use one cab, would you go for the 210 or the 212?

With 2 cabs, would you go with both of them being the same (either 210s or 212s), or one of each?

Thanks for your input on this!

BTW, I play a Sadowsky Vintage 4, with hipshot and passive tone control, and Markley Nickel Steel 50-110

I like both cabs a lot.
The 2x12 is about 6 inches deeper in size than the 2x10.
It is also a bit heavier.
Both cabs have great frequency response and could be used alone.
The 2x12 goes a little deeper in the bass response and has 2 ports in the rear of the cab.
The 2x10 has a little bit "sweeter" mid frequecies and 1 port, but not quite as much "booty" in the lows as the 2x12.
I really like the sound of both stacked vertically, as they compliment each other sonically.
I've never heard myself better on stage with any other rig!