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TC Electronics RebelHead 450 - Rebel with a Cause

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#601
sixway said:
Given enough pages, all threads seem to mutate into off-thread topics. I may have missed something along the way here, but initially the excitement level for the Rebel was at a fever pitch, and then along came the chance to qualify as a tester for TC. At that time, there was no mention of corporate tactics, favoritism, sexism, or the like from anyone. Everyone had an equal chance to qualify, and seemed excited at the prospect. It's TC's football, as the saying goes, and they can make the rules any way they see fit.

Now that TC has chosen the lucky few, for whatever reasons, there seems to be a lot of sour grapes being mashed here from players who either think they're more deserving, or can't figure out how in hell some of those players made the cut. From there, this thread seems to have deteriorated into thinly veiled name calling, and exercises in industry phrases and semantics.

I'm sure some marketing honcho at TC is reading and watching this thread, grinning from ear to ear, thinking of how no amount of advertising dollars could pay for this kind of intense interest. Whether the Rebel450 is a great, good or bad amp and cab combo, all of this interest is sure to translate into sales, as enough players will be willing to pay to find out. And, in a way they're getting all of our opinions and testing, and we're literally doing all of the R&D for the next generation Rebel for them, at no cost to them.

At this point I would hope this thread can get back on track, and that is get feedback from the testers and buyers writing about the Rebel450 system, and how it is working in the real world gig arena. TC has put the system in enough diverse bass-hands out there that players from jazz to punk, and every style in between will have a much better time deciding to make the plunge and buy one, whether that be new, or used from someone that decided it wasn't for them.

The Classifieds here is a prime example of how this principle works. Sellers are constantly saying how this amp or that cabinet wasn't what they were looking for, and yet they always manage to move them on to someone who thinks it may just be for their style.

It's either time to get back on track in this thread, or start a new one...

Aloha,
Ian
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+1, and good job on the Reader's Digest version of this thread. That pretty much summed it all up.

And thanks to KJung for helping me in my absence to make a very singular and specific point: there's no need for anyone to be upset at anyone else.

And a BIG thanks to TheWolf for his on topic post which included that link to the very thorough Premier Guitar review. That was a helpful review for me, as was the included MP3.

Bass Gear Magazine liked this head and cabs as well.

I'd love to hear from AJ and whomever else has one of these about the transparency of this amp. The Premier Guitar review ends by talking about how nicely the RH450 colors and warms up bass tone compared to "another brand of mini-amp," and you can hear that color in the mp3 sample.

My main rig is a Invalid Link Removed, and I LOVE this amp in large part for how clean and transparent it is, especially with my Accugroove El Whappo.

My attraction to the RH450 up until this point was feature based (presets, 3 band compression, etc.), but maybe it would be good to have a more portable rig with a nicely colored take on my tone as well.

Also though, I REALLY think TC Electronic's implementation on international power is a nice one. How nice would it be to not swap around fuses when traveling.
 
#603
cybersnyder said:
Thanks for the link. Is it me or did the "review" sound more like a rehash of the TC Electronic videos? And they knew is sounded better the "other" mini amp with just one note? But they won't mention the name of the "other"? I realize that most review have been getting more and more watered down to please the advertiser, but this seemed extreme.
Click to expand...
Really? I've seen every TC Electronic video and read through their website more than once and I didn't think this was a warmed over press kit at all.

Also, my take on the "one note" statement is that the reviewer could INSTANTLY tell a difference in the tone of the two amps. Apparently further playing didn't change that perception for him (I'm sure he didn't just play one note and wrap up the review), because he wrote up the RH450 as colored warmly and nicely.

BTW, I can also see why he didn't name the other amp by name... no need to ruffle the feathers of advertisers, is there?

Anyway, what did you think of the sample MP3? I definitely thought the EQ, compression and tube tone added character when comparing line 1 to line 3.
 
#604
My Test Pilot rig arrived today :hiding:

I chose the two RS210's although I had thought after the fact I should have grabbed one RS212.

I stood it up next to my SVT 4pro and 810 and started playing around and A/B-ing them.

After playing around with the eq points on the parametric my initial reaction is better than I thought it would be. I was able to dial in a pretty decent tone comparing to the fridge sitting next to it. I didn't like the Spectracomp, but I rarely use compressors in my sound. The Tubetone was a little bit of a letdown for me, but I'll see how it plays out live. I'm playing a medium size club this weekend and that's when all the adjustments get made. I'm keeping up with a hard hitting drummer and a Les Paul/Mesa Rectifier/412.
One thing that popped out was the similarity in the overall sound that I got compared to my Roland Supercube combo that I use on small gigs. It's an old 1x15 combo, 100watts, in a really small cabinet. There's a grindy-ness to it that is similar. Maybe it's the small cabinet?

More later.
 
#605
loend68 said:
... One thing that popped out was the similarity in the overall sound that I got compared to my Roland Supercube combo that I use on small gigs. It's an old 1x15 combo, 100watts, in a really small cabinet. There's a grindy-ness to it that is similar. Maybe it's the small cabinet?
Click to expand...
VERY interesting. I love my Roland Cube, and have brought it to gigs a few times to use it as a preamp and pipe the sound to a bigger amp or PA.

Looking forward to your updates.
 
#607
Yeah, good writing, Sixway. Inaccurate, but it was well written. In accordance with Chef's wishes, I'm not going to dredge everything up again, but if TC was happy with how this all shook out, how come they used to post in this thread and now they don't?

I must admit I'm kind of tickled about the less than stellar reviews on here, though. Not seeing a lot of raves about it. Best I'm seeing is "pretty good," or "OK." Doesn't seem to be causing Marco DeVirgilis or Jeff Genzler any lack of sleep ;)
 
#608
Gosh. The prices (here in Toronto) for various components of tc's new bass rig are nowhere near as onerous as I feared they might be:

T.C.Electronic RH 450 - $1,199.95

T.C.Electronic RS-212 cabinet - $719.99

T.C.Electronic RS-210 cabinet - $599.95

T.C.Electronic RC-4 foot controller - $169.95

This gear is priced to compete.

However, two questions:​

- if something breaks under warranty and has to be replaced, what would the turnaround time be?

- if any of this breaks after the warranty expires, where could one get it repaired?​
 
#609
Did my first gig with the TC Electronic RH450.

First off, here is a list of what I require from a bass rig.

1. Sound

2. Portability

3. Value

4. Durability


This is definately the best sounding amp I have ever used.
Plugged in my jazz-bass, set the level, turned it up about half-way and WOW!
EQ set flat--no comp. or tubetone.
I used this setting most of the night. Set this as pre-set #1.

For preset #2, I dialed in some "tubetone" (9 o'clock) and some "spectracomp" (10 o'clock) and slightly boosted 800hz on the EQ....instant SVT!

For preset #3...Slight boost in the lows, low-mids "flat" slightly cut high-mids and boosted the highs a little bit---add compression (10 o'clock) and it's "Slap-City".

I had the tweeters on both the 2x12 and the 2x10 half-way up.
I'm not a tweeter kind of guy usually, but these are sweet. Since they are "coaxial" with the top speaker of each cab--they are not harsh sounding at all.
(I usually shut the tweeter off, or barely have it on with other cabs)

The footswitch is a nice addition.
the mute switch also mutes the DI for silent tuning (and you don't have to turn your back on the audience)

So--very versitile, GREAT sounding amp.

The DI is super sounding also. The sound-man had me "off" most of the night in the medium sized venue. The RH450 was pleny loud on its own at less than half volumn. I had absolutey no problem hearing with the cabs stacked verticaly...This was going up against a VOX AC30--A Marshall 4x12 and drums (all miced through through P.A.)


Portability--The head goes withoput saying. The heaviest piece is the 2x12, and at under 50 lbs., my wife unloaded and carried it in without breaking a sweat.


Value--To match this amp you would have to purchase a rack tuner, 3 band compressor (pricey),, A TC tube effect, an EQ, a GOOD DI, a rack to put it all in, and cables to hook it all up. As well as buying a class D light-weight amp head.
The Value is there.
The EQ is the best I have used-using the "shift" button you can set the center frequency of any of the EQ knobs wherever you want. This feature does away with all of the "shift" knobs and switches.

Durability--We will have to wait and see on this one.
All of the components are extremely well-made and just look & feel "quality" all around.
I'm really tired of maintaining and lugging around tube amps & heavy speakers!


As you can probably tell, this amp seems like it was made for my personal style and needs in a bass amp.

I love it, and recommend it highly.

If I have time this week, I'll try to get some sound clips of the "Digital-out"
I have a session with a guitar player and drummer, and we are going to record a 3-piece version of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" with no keyboards or over-dubs! Might be a good example.

I will be posting weekly blogs on my myspace (link below) on the RH450.
Please invte me as your myspace freind.
 
#610
Got my test Pilot rig on friday and...... Here is my first critique!
I played a friday gig with the 2-2*10 cabs and the RH450 head. First I will state the obvious about this, which is the portability to power/feature ratio of this rig is hard to beat. Light and loud! Now I normally run a Line 6 Pod pro XT into a Thunderfunk head into a Ampeg classic 4*10 which sounds F'ing awsome and works as my dream sound. And so I did not expect this to compete with that rig but it came within about 70% of how big-fat-and punchy that rig sounds. I think that discrepancy is because of my extremely tweaked and fussed over Pod sounds are so perfect for me. You really need to tweak the gain structure on this amp(RH450) for the best sound. Your initial gain level into the compressor level ....etc. and you can dial in a great sound. And even used for hours this head stayed cool and barely heated up. Now on Saturday I played another long gig and just brought the TC speaker cabs and ran them with my normal Pod/Thunderfunk rack set-up. There and two basic things I will say that sum the difference between these cabs and the variety of other cabs (SWR,EDen, Aguilar,Ampeg) I have used with this Amp setup. The first is that I like a little crisp tweeter sound to round out my attack and for good slap tone when needed. These cabs have the tweeters placed behind the speaker cones of the 10' speaker cones internally, and that cuts some of the higher frequencies that make a tweeter work for me. So this is a small negative for me. The next point is that the vertical stack position seems to lose no bass response like and thought it might, very cool! And it presents you with nice full bass hitting your whole body onstage instead of blowing by your feet like a 4*10 cab would. A big positive for me for seeing how loud my rig is from stage position. And these cabs give low-mid punch like a ampeg or Eden seems to give, also a great thing! Next up is a two week run the Beau Rivage casino with a dance band. So I am going to insert my RH450 in my rack where my Thunderfunk would normally go and see how that compares through a 8*10 Ampeg speaker setup there. Till then! I will let you all know how it goes!

Cheers

Link Removed
 
#612
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Dimensions: W x H x D 664 x 596 x 427mm

Weight: 37 kg / 82 lbs :eek: :eyebrow:

Power handling: 600 Watt :)

Enclosure: 18mm plywood side panels, 18mm rounded carved hardwood corners

Surface treatment: 'Anti-skid' dual component surface

Porting: Dual front porting

Woofer: Eminence custom 10"

Tweeter: Eminence 33mm voicecoil, titanium diaphragm

Tweeter adjustment: L-pad (off - 0dB) :)
 
#615
MIJ-VI said:
+1 on 'amp fashion'.

4X10" = the market's comfort-of-familiarity... :rolleyes:

Players who do their speaker research/homework will choose a line array.
Click to expand...

+1
I thought they had thought it through and got it right, now maybe I think they just got lucky. No, I'm sure it's just 4xMarketing pressure. They will probably sell a lot of these. At least they look good. I expect a 1x15 or 1x18 with a tweeter will be next.
 
#617
Because I had not received my rack hardware to mount my RH450 I had to bring it in one of their gig bags on my flight to my gig in Biloxi, Mississippi. I just had it over one shoulder and my bass in a soft case over the other. How many amps can you do that with?! obviously a major plus for traveling with a sound you love. After I put it in my rack with my Bass Pod pro XT I finally started to tweak the sound of this amp. And what I discovered was that you really need to do is to change the EQ frequencies from the factory settings and adjust them for your sound and you can dial in a great tone.

I will blog again and put up pics next time


Clark
 
#619
I will tell you that as a test pilot for this rig I thought I was going to end up using my normal Thunderfunk Head Ampeg cab combo after a few uses. But 15 gigs later the sound is so dialed in with these easy to move small 2 by 10 cabs and this easy to move head that I am now trying to figure out how to get TC electronic to let me keep this rig! I just use my Bass Pod pro XT with this and it works so well and is so loud when I need it to be.
I highly recommend the RH450. At 6.5 pounds and with the EQ set to the custom frequencies I need (easy to change) I can not see carrying around another amp. Something like an Aguilar will sound better, but not THAT much better for how much I have to cart around my gear to gigs.
 

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#620
Have to agree. I love my SVT/810 stack, and will always take it to the 'big' gigs, but for weekly gigging the RH450 has it hands down.

Let me know if you find a way to get them to let you keep it!!
 
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