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The new tc electronic BG500.

#181
I brought mine home last weekend and added some casters so at least it rolls across floors easily. Again, mine stays in the band trailer which gets loaded in/out by five of us along with all the other heavy gear, so the “lite” thing isn’t that advantageous to me.

I’ve done six gigs so far with it (full PA support), the loudest of which were outside under open tent, no boundaries, and it did the job effortlessly with plenty to spare.

Just for curiosity I poked at the little buttons, but they seemed solid...





but in the outdoor light my buddy noticed that the center cone on the driver has a dent in it… I have to assume that it was put together that way.

It sound fine, but I’m wondering if there’s something I should do about that. Any advice?

.
 
#183
well I had my first rehearsal with the BG500 tonight. It did a fantastic job. Cut thru the mix good, I had a pretty good tone, and everyone said it sounded great. I still need to work on my basic tone a little, im not quite happy with the mids at the moment. I tried to work on it there but the band I was auditioning for was so terrible that I was just trying to get thru the night and go home as soon as possible.

But the amp did great.
 
#184
Gigged on upright with the BG500, backyard party. It did a fine job, did take the DI to the PA for ease of mixing, so I never took the master over 4.

Only weirdness I've found with amp is that sometimes when I fire it up, it's oddly quiet, if I go to a preset or turn the input all the way down and then back up, it behaves as it should. I suspect this is a bug in to do with the knobs being digital controls rather than analog, I can live with this.
 
#185
Just picked up a BG500 single 15" combo at the Sacramento GC yesterday. I had some old gear collecting dust around the house so I took it in to unload it. Between that gear's worth, a 10% off coupon I got via email, and buying the 2 year warranty I spent a whopping $200 dollars to take this combo home. I'm loving it so far.

The 15 and the 210 were both on the floor so I brought a couple of my basses and auditioned them A/B style. The 210 sounded GREAT! It had a bit more midrange/modern sound to it than the 115 did. Though that didn't surprise me. I like them both quite a bit. But I went with the 115 because they actually had 1 BNIB in the back of the store and the 210 was down to just the floor model that was already missing 2-3 buttons. :( For $200 I'm not about to complain!

I've only had a few hours with it. But I've tried out a nice variety of basses to see how it handles everything. A Peavey Cirrus 5, Warwick Corvette fretless, and my Gretsch hollowbody. All of them sound good. It does a nice job at handling the low B of the Cirrus. I'm really liking the compression and the TubeTone. And I'm finding some great fretless tones with the TweeterTone and EQ. Just wanted to share my excitement.
 
#187
swspiers said:
I'm gigging with a 15" BG500 tonight, and just got through a practice with it. I am totally blown away by this combo, and it's making me rethink my whole concept of a combo. I've never gotten that much balls-to-the-wall growl out of my Carvin SB4000 before.

Tonight could be interesting...
Click to expand...

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on it after the gig. Please post back in here and let us know. How big is the band and what is the venue like? What kind style of music?
 
#188
Bought this amp (after reading this thread, so many thanks to a few guys who reviewed it) a few months back and since then have been delighted. It was my first bass amp and for the price it definably seemed like the best option. 2x10 btw.

Anyway, I have a live clip of the amp (D.I) albeit not the best sound due to a bad sound engineer and camera not picking up much low end frequency.

Live Performance

If you wanna hear how it sounds in the studio click this link

Studio Recording

I would recommend this amp very quickly, dont think you will find a more versitile amp for the price. 3 presets are very handy along with the tuner.
As for the weight, I was expecting something very heavy with some of the comments I read. Now I'm not strong at all but this amp is very manageable to move around.
 
#189
Boostedrex said:
I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on it after the gig. Please post back in here and let us know. How big is the band and what is the venue like? What kind style of music?
Click to expand...

sorry it took so long, but I was visiting my old hometown in Ohio, and I haven't had time to write.

The venue seats about 200, so pretty small. Hard to describe the music- all original hard rock: a guitarist with a Marshall half-stack and a drummer that doesn't feel the need to pound the crap out of every beat.

We did have PA support, and running the BG500 post EQ into the PA was simply overkill. I'm pretty sure the sound guy took it out of the mix entirely.

With the tube tone at about 1:00, I had a pretty cool vintage growl that just killed. I had gain at about 11 and both master and tweeter tone at 12. I had my bass on active eq, with most songs favoring the neck pick up.

In 30+ years of playing, I have never been asked to turn down on stage until that night.

I also got to hear another bassist use it later that night, and it had all the punch and authority I heard on stage.

The BG500 has really changed my perspective on combos in general, and put TC Electronic at the top of my short list for future upgrades, edging out Mesa Boogie and Carvin as the front runners. The only thing holding me back from the BG500 is lack of expansion with another cab down the road. That BH750 is looking really good right now...
 
#190
swspiers said:
sorry it took so long, but I was visiting my old hometown in Ohio, and I haven't had time to write.

The venue seats about 200, so pretty small. Hard to describe the music- all original hard rock: a guitarist with a Marshall half-stack and a drummer that doesn't feel the need to pound the crap out of every beat.

We did have PA support, and running the BG500 post EQ into the PA was simply overkill. I'm pretty sure the sound guy took it out of the mix entirely.

With the tube tone at about 1:00, I had a pretty cool vintage growl that just killed. I had gain at about 11 and both master and tweeter tone at 12. I had my bass on active eq, with most songs favoring the neck pick up.

In 30+ years of playing, I have never been asked to turn down on stage until that night.

I also got to hear another bassist use it later that night, and it had all the punch and authority I heard on stage.

The BG500 has really changed my perspective on combos in general, and put TC Electronic at the top of my short list for future upgrades, edging out Mesa Boogie and Carvin as the front runners. The only thing holding me back from the BG500 is lack of expansion with another cab down the road. That BH750 is looking really good right now...
Click to expand...

The sad thing is, that show was in my home town, and that was the BG500 which I took down to that venue, but yet... I missed the gig. :bawl:
 
#192
Boostedrex said:
Way to go Tom! LOL!! What are your thoughts on the BG500 15" combo? I'm guessing you've had a decent amount of time with it since the one Swspiers used was delivered there by you.

Zach
Click to expand...

I like it a lot, and I have gigged with it. The unit I have seems solidly built, and like Scott, I was amazed at how loud it could get for a single 15.
 
#194
Got a BG500 2x10 today at GC, floor demo for $349. Its big, its heavy, it looks cool as hell, and I'm loving the sounds I get from it. The built-in tuner is a great feature, and I like the tube emulator circuit. At the price, you really can't go wrong. I never would've paid the original retail ($699), but its a steal at $349. If you want one, better hurry. The GC salesman tried to find a new-in-the-box one for me, with no luck. All he could find were demo models.
 
#196
tombowlus said:
I like it a lot, and I have gigged with it. The unit I have seems solidly built, and like Scott, I was amazed at how loud it could get for a single 15.
Click to expand...

Good deal. I haven't had a chance to gig with mine yet or see just how much output it has. But I have spent several hours with it and the tones I'm pulling out of it from all of my basses has me VERY pleased. I don't see output being an issue for me either as I don't play with super loud bands.

Mine also seems to be solid. All of the buttons have a nice feel and smooth action to them as well. Maybe we just got the really good ones. I've seen 5 of these in person, both the 210 and the 115, and only 1 out of the 5 had issues with the buttons. Even that one still sounded great, it was simply an issue with construction QC in my opinion.

Zach
 
#197
Jarrett said:
Mine ended up being a gateway drug. I bought a RH750 and BC210 cab this week. I think the BG500 is going back if the RH750 sounds as good.
Click to expand...
I did return mine this weekend. Great combo, but just too heavy, imo. Though hard about doing the head and cab separately but ended up going with an RH750 and a pair of SWR Golight 2x10 cabs.
 

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