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TC Electronics BG250 reliability

roller

roller

Supporting Member
Mar 30, 2014
4,131
15,422
#1
hi, folks!

i'm currently shopping for a new 1x12 combo and have narrowed my sights to the TC Electronics BG250-112. i've played one in person and was impressed.

however, i've read enough postings here regarding the amp's reliability that make me a tinge apprehensive.

what are your thoughts on the reliability of the BG250 combos? i'm curious as to what the latest experiences are from you folks, especially seeing that i'll probably be buying a new one (versus one made a while ago).

instead of burying this post in the existing BG250 thread, i chose to start a new one. please don't flame me for doing this -- we all know i'm not hurting anything by opening a new thread.

thanks so much for your feedback!
 
#2
They sell thousands, possibly 10s of thousands of the family. I bet the percentage is similar to any other class D amps. I haven't had any issues with mine.. original 115 model. Unless you know how many are being sold, looking for numbers on TalkBass isnt really going to help you..

Company A sells 1000 units and there is 1 complaint of a failure on TB
Company B sells 100,000 and there are 10 complaints on TB

which looks worse on TB? Probably company B... they have way more complaints..

.. but knowing the number of amps sold, company A has far worse reliability percentage wise.. But just looking at reported failures doesnt give you the whole picture. I say buy what you like best. You will probably get a good one... you may get a bad one.. ( that goes for any company, not just TC ).
 
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#4
Used my BG250 115 for bedroom practice and recording only. It lasted for 7 months then turned it on one day, saw a flash and pretty sure the tweeter exploded as it's just farty noise coming from it now. Wouldn't buy TC again.
 
#6
This kind of reminds my of people that say they will never drink alcohol X because they threw up once because of it. Then will drink fewer and fewer things over time.

Amps are reliable. Not perfect. If you really loved a particular amp and it failed, unless they are known for crappy reliability, ( and I don't think TCE is) then why not replace it with the same amp. You know you liked it. If you didn't like it, that's a different story. Nobody makes a model with zero problems. It just doesn't happen. At least not in the cheap and relatively powerful range.

If you like the sound, weight and price of the TC, get it. I'd be surprised if you had any issues.
 
#7
My church bought a BG250 for me to use there and I love it. I am seriously considering buying one for myself at home since they are fairly cheap price wise. I find very easy to get a useful tone at my church, and it has decent volume. My old Markbass was louder, but I love the built in tuner on the BG250, and I think it serves up useable tones more easily.
 
#8
TC has a 1 year warranty, compare that to Fender which has a 5 year transferable warranty.
I have found in all cases of my purchases that a longer warranty goes hand in hand with build quality and reliability. Gear with longer warranties will fail less than gear with shorter warranties.

TC itself has a 5 year warranty on it's Broadcast products. That industry demands the longer warranty. TC should expand that to their Bass lines.
 
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#10
I've post about this in earlier threads and actually, my opinion has changed somewhat....

A LOT of BG250s have been sold around here, and everyone loves the amp and no one has had any problems with theirs.

I posted concerns about TC Electronics' ability to service the amp, should it be necessary, in a timely manner. That concern grew out of experiences our production company has had issues getting the Lab Gruppen power amps serviced in a decent amount of time. TC is the USA distributor for Lab Gruppen, which is made in Sweden. It would take one to two weeks to even get an RA to return the amp to TC, then 3-4 weeks to have it serviced and returned. However, out of 22 amps in 14 years, we had to have only 4 serviced.

However, were I in need of an amp that size, I'd certainly consider it now, based on my friends' experiences with them. And they do sound REALLY good.

So my point in responding to this thread wasn't to bash TC (this time, at least) and the BG250 so much as to having changed my mind about TC's bass amps.
 
#11
i picked up my BG250-112 on Monday at Guitar Center. after a bit of haggling, i walked out with a great deal. i love this amp... sounds great, simple operation, lightweight. this is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT sport compared to the 50-watt Ampeg BA-112 i recently sold. the BG250 has more watts, effects and a tweeter... just a huge sound altogether. so far, so good!

the only thing i wish it had was a tilt-back design... but oh well, i can prop it up with something.
 
#12
Yea, I'm late to this party :-) Bought a BG250 1 year and 3 months ago.... I love the weight and they sound great, after I figured out how to get the firmware patch fix for the tone print feature. Worked great for about a year through some heavy practice and a number of gigs. One gig was outside during summer and it seemed to overheat and started to break up a little on stage, but sounded good out front.

Recently, I Turned it on and nothing but static. That one year warranty was just long enough to be worthless.
 
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