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TC RH450 Club

#1,001
Daniel Piper said:
Yeah, resale isn't good - unless you want to buy one. Then resale is great!

I disagree a little on the 'surpassed comment. Certainly in terms of power (forgetting about the APM for a minute), there are many, many class D amps out there that have a LOT more horsepower.

But in terms of tone - there isn't an amp that sounds lkie it. So if that sound is your thing - then it hasn't been surpassed.

BUT

I do believe that the rh450 and rh750 have been surpassed technologically by their own company - TC.

TC have developed one knob pedals that are more flexible (via software) than these amps. Despite being at the cutting edge in 2009 in terms of presets - these amps (whether you love the tone or not) are no longer anywhere near the edge technologically - and that is by TC's own standards.

Yip - in the amp world 3 presets is still pretty cool - but compared to the digital pedal/preamp world - is very limited. These amps are digital.

How many flavours of awesome can I download to the (very cheap and tiny) spectracomp pedal on the fly? Numerous. By comparison - I can only have 3 different versions of the same tubey, compressed rh450 tone on my amp. (I love this tone BTW)

I would love TC to just go crazy integrating the same sort of editing software into their bass amp line. Imagine completely different sounding preamp models, power amp models - all able to be downloaded to the amp and tweaked on the fly (like a regular amp), but then deep and full editing software as well.

Bass amp 3.0
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It would be great if there were some way to incorporate the Tone Print feature in to the RH heads. That would be a best of both worlds situation because I love the tone of my RH450 but having the features that are in my BH550 would be great too! I was briefly excited to see that TC recently came out with a Tone Print Editor software. That excitement faded when I realized it worked only with Tone Print enabled pedals but not the BH series heads? Why TC, Why? It would have been awesome to be able to tweak Tone Prints, save them and upload them to my BH550! I really don't see why TC couldn't make that possible.
 
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#1,002
I feel differently from the last 2 posters. While the Toneprints are cool, the BH heads still lack a little something that the RH brings. And as for other amps bringing more horse power, what amazes me the most is what the RH amps can do with such little horse power. Way more volume, girth, heft, roundness and tone than many other amps with double the horse power. I should know as I have played many and own quite a few as well.

I would think other manufacturers would look at what TC has done with their technology and try to go with the more is less route, but instead they are still locked in the more wattage battle. Not a knock on the other manufacturers just more of thought that I have had for a while. I have said it before, while I like the BH800 I really love the RH450/750. Must be some serious technology in there to do what it does.
 
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#1,003
Yeah, while I think the tone print idea is cool for effects- I couldn't really care less about them.

What I do care about is a fully digital preamp that is essentially locked into one voicing (a great one)

If the amp was new you would say give it time- but it is no longer 2009.

Case in point- look at the number of fully realised preamps zoom, line6, fractal, boss et al can pack into their fully digital pedals.

TC, who do (IMO) digital better than most, are well placed to do the same thing, but in an amplifier
 
#1,004
So I thought I would add to the conversation here since it has been a few days. I have been constantly listening to YouTube videos of the Darkglass Microtubes 900 and have been enamored with the compression and drive on that head. Now I am pretty much run my amps clean with a little drive, and some compression on the TC and Ashdown heads, and I like the sound and punch I get. So I really do not use Tubetone on the RH heads as it already has a very nice tubey tone especially at higher volume.

But I thought about trying something different on my RH750 because I can :thumbsup:. Today I lowered the bass one dot, low mids by about 3 dots, raised the high mids 1 dot and left the treble at +4 dots from 12:00. Then I raised the Spectracomp to 12:00 as well as the Tubetone to 12:00. Normally I run the Spectracomp at about 9:00 with no Tubetone. I have to admit I really liked what I was hearing. Made me rethink how I want my stage sound to be.

My wife came up stairs and noticed I sounded different and told me she liked it :woot:. Normally she doesn't notice that kind of stuff, but this time she did and liked it. I'll be trying it this weekend and see how it sounds with the band, if I don't like it, it's back to memory one which is my usual tone. BTW I could not get an exact match on the TC with the Youtube videos of the Darkglass, but it got pretty close and did it's own thing very well. I'll post back later this week after I see how it sounds with the band. Playing it decently loud though with some Rose Tattoo, UFO and Van Halen sounded pretty good though.
 
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#1,005
As I had promised, I said I would report back if my new settings with the band worked or not. With the amp cranked up to about 11:00 on the gig I noticed two very interesting things:

1 was that the distortion was a little more than I had anticipated which was an easy fix. Although the band loved it and said it had a nice bite to it, it was still a little bit too fuzzy for me. So I lowered that down to about 11:00 and it sounded much better.

2 was that much like the distortion, the compression was also more than I anticipated but in a very good way. Of course the amp reacts much differently at loud volume as compared to at home and while the distortion was a little more than what I wanted, but still sounding pretty good, the compression gave me a very nice pushed Ampeg type of bounce. Not sure that is the right way to phrase it, but it was very cool.

So basically as of now I will be using Memory 1 as my almost flat setting (Treble boosted 4 clicks and SpectraComp at 9:00) for that hard hitting full tone and Memory 2 for that distorted, compressed pushed Ampeg tone.

This may be old news to some of you, but since I usually don't run distortion or that much compression I thought I would throw it out there for others to try if you so choose. I don't think I will try that much compression with my normal settings as it would probably sound a little too thick, but with the TubeTone cranked up to 11:00 the SpectraComp makes a huge difference. :bassist:
 
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#1,006
Just a quick question for rh450/750 owners:
I lost the 5 pin footswitch cable.
Can I use a regular DIN/MIDI cable or do I need a special cable? And if so, where can I buy it?
I have contacted TC Electronic but haven't received an answer.
Thanks all.
 
#1,007
jay loren said:
Just a quick question for rh450/750 owners:
I lost the 5 pin footswitch cable.
Can I use a regular DIN/MIDI cable or do I need a special cable? And if so, where can I buy it?
I have contacted TC Electronic but haven't received an answer.
Thanks all.
Click to expand...
Yes. Standard midi cable. I use a standard midi cable for mine since the provided cable was too long.
 
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#1,009
Looking back at my previous posts here, I thought I would add that I did end up purchasing the Darkglass Microtubes 500 and after gigging it quite a bit for over a month.......... I sent it back. It doesn't hold a candle to the TCE RH heads IMHO. Although I'm pretty sure there are others who will disagree.

Just thought I would throw that out there. It doesn't seem like people like this head as much anymore or visit this thread often either, but I still very much love the RH750 and RH450.
 
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#1,010
Wicked G said:
Looking back at my previous posts here, I thought I would add that I did end up purchasing the Darkglass Microtubes 500 and after gigging it quite a bit for over a month.......... I sent it back. It doesn't hold a candle to the TCE RH heads IMHO. Although I'm pretty sure there are others who will disagree.

Just thought I would throw that out there. It doesn't seem like people like this head as much anymore or visit this thread often either, but I still very much love the RH750 and RH450.
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I love the sound I'm getting with mine. I'm fact every time I play it I get another tone I like. Good thing it has three presets I can store LOL
 
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#1,011
Wicked G said:
Looking back at my previous posts here, I thought I would add that I did end up purchasing the Darkglass Microtubes 500 and after gigging it quite a bit for over a month.......... I sent it back. It doesn't hold a candle to the TCE RH heads IMHO. Although I'm pretty sure there are others who will disagree.

Just thought I would throw that out there. It doesn't seem like people like this head as much anymore or visit this thread often either, but I still very much love the RH750 and RH450.
Click to expand...

Ummm. STILL VERY HAPY WITH MINE!! Even though I'm usually playing silent stage mostly now with IEM's, the head works excellent as a very adjustable DI Box! I also use a VTDI on my little board as well when space IS an issue.
 
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#1,012
I love mine and I get compliments all the time!! I get tired of the old 236 watt BS..... Whatever!! I can carry a medium size room, with no PA assistance, with it a little over 1/4 volume. I have the three presets locked in....one for my Warwick, one for my Moddy Quantum and one for my G&L Jazz. The RH750 sitting atop my two RS212s and BAMM!!!
 
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#1,013
Wicked G said:
Looking back at my previous posts here, I thought I would add that I did end up purchasing the Darkglass Microtubes 500 and after gigging it quite a bit for over a month.......... I sent it back. It doesn't hold a candle to the TCE RH heads IMHO. Although I'm pretty sure there are others who will disagree.

Just thought I would throw that out there. It doesn't seem like people like this head as much anymore or visit this thread often either, but I still very much love the RH750 and RH450.
Click to expand...

I purchased a Mesa D800 as well. Played it for about 3 weeks and sent it back. I like the RH750 way more.
 
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#1,014
gard0300 said:
I purchased a Mesa D800 as well. Played it for about 3 weeks and sent it back. I like the RH750 way more.
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Wow. I also own quite a few amps that I would consider to be very good, but the RH750 is still the top dog in my book. Although I recently received a Genzler Magellan 800 that is also a very sweet amp. I have not had it that long yet, but man does that thing kick a$$. Very good time to be a bass player. :bassist:
 
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#1,018
had an rh450 for a few years now and have always loved it! Almost got an OTB500 but was put off by the lack of control over the mids (therefore shortage of tones available). Was running an rs210 through it but treated myself to an f112 (which is as good as they say btw). I've been pushing the f112 with a Carvin bx1600 but always find myself missing the presets, tuner, spectra comp and tubetone of the rh450 so rather than fork out for all the pedals to do this I'll be using the pre from the rh450 through the power amp of the bx1600 - problem solved
never understood the
dislike some people have for this amp - nothing else I've seen on the market over the past 5 years comes close to the feature set this comes with and you'd need to spend hundreds on pedals to get back everything you lose when moving away from an an rh450/750!
 
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#1,019
OwenWarr said:
had an rh450 for a few years now and have always loved it! Almost got an OTB500 but was put off by the lack of control over the mids (therefore shortage of tones available). Was running an rs210 through it but treated myself to an f112 (which is as good as they say btw). I've been pushing the f112 with a Carvin bx1600 but always find myself missing the presets, tuner, spectra comp and tubetone of the rh450 so rather than fork out for all the pedals to do this I'll be using the pre from the rh450 through the power amp of the bx1600 - problem solved
never understood the
dislike some people have for this amp - nothing else I've seen on the market over the past 5 years comes close to the feature set this comes with and you'd need to spend hundreds on pedals to get back everything you lose when moving away from an an rh450/750!
Click to expand...

Here’s the new Spectra Drive
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