NAD: TC BG500 Combo

[JPJ]

I've just picked up this little (well not little, but small compared to my main rig) combo from Basschat member Davy last night.

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1297_zps6ae628a4.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1297_zps6ae628a4.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

First off, I should say that I'm not a fan of the new fangled class D amps and switch mode power supplies etc. as I feel they rob you of the authentic thump of a big old valve or transistor amp with big heavy transformers. This combo tips the scales at 32kgs or 72lbs so its a bit of a stretch to say its lightweight.

I decided to go for this as I need an alternative to the 'big' rig for rehearsals and smaller pub gigs and I was intrigued to try a newer combo, having cut my bass playing teeth using combos such as the Custom Sound Trucker, the Laney G120, and the SWR Black Beauty. Sometime ago, I also discovered that I preferred 10" speakers to the normal 15" used in bass combos and I loved my old SWR Redhead but she was a big old girl for her rated 240w.

The TC is rated at 500w into the internal speakers (no extension speaker option, so I'm guessing the internal speakers are a combined 4 ohms) and its LOUD. At first, I thought it was going to be one of those master volumes where everything happens in the first third of a turn, but this appears to continue to get louder the further to the right you twist the master. I only got to five on the dial before things started rearranging themselves in the man cave and I had to turn down to preserve my hearing.

EQ wise, its a five band setup and again its powerful, requiring only the smallest of tweaks to influence the overall sound. There is a single knob compressor which does a good job of either smoothing things out or compressing the hell out of everything and my early experimentation seems to suggest that this is usable up to about 4 on the dial without your tone suffering too much. There is a separate tweeter tone control that controls the tweeter (no sh1t sherlock) and its nice to have this on the front panel rather than around the back where its inaccessible at most gigs. The control set also includes a Tubetone which does a good range of subtle drives through to 'wasp in a jam jar' distortion, so something to suit most tastes. The control set is topped off with three memory locations for storing everything but the master volume setting, and a built-in tuner with a mute control. You also get aux in on RCA jacks and a headphone out with speaker defeat and a DI with pre/post eq switch.

Plugging in my Overwater Jazz for the first time revealed a good fundamental tone with everything set flat. As I said above, the tone controls are powerful, requiring only small adjustments to radically affect the sound. The spectracomp is ok, not as good as either a fully featured compressor or Phil Jones Bass single knob compressor, and to be honest, I can't tell whether the claimed multi band compression is adding anything new to the mix. The Tubetone will probably live in the off position, as I'm not a fan of this. There is no effects loop (not a problem for me) and the built-in tuner doesn't seem to be as accurate as my trusty Boss TU-2 but its a nice to have for those quick in-house practices. I probably won't make much use of the memory slots either, as I tend to play with one 'signature' sound, but its nice to have them there and they may get used when swapping between active and passive basses as the position of the gain is stored, or between fretted and fretless for coaxing out maximum mwaah.

The one overarching impression of my first days with this combo is its volume. This is a loud beast, and I can't wait to get it into a rehearsal room with the band and give it a good thrashing. Thanks again to Davy for selling this at such a reasonable price.

[Muppet]

Good review, thanks!

TweeterTone is a bit more than just a tweeter control - it's on the RH heads too and does't have to be paired with a tweeter-fitted cab. . I don't have it on my BG250 and I wish I did.

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjw69bz1XUY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjw69bz1XUY[/url]

cheers

Steve

[JPJ]

Cheers Steve,

Yes it does do a bit more than a standard L Pad but the main benefit for me is having it upfront rather than round the back of the cab. I forgot to mention that there are also two preset eq's in there as well (a bit like the old Trace Elliott presets). Quite a lot going on for very little money and putting its full output into the built-in speakers. As I said before, I can't wait to try her in a band situation to see how she fairs.

[JPJ]

So having lived with her for a couple of weeks, I was finding it nigh on impossible to dial in 'my sound'. Every combination of settings seemed to come with an inherent hard edgy midrange sound that try as I might, I couldn't dial out.

Remembering the thread on here about cabinet damping, I decided to have a look behind the speakers to see whether there was any damping fitted as standard. [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]So today, I whipped out the speakers and had a look inside. Surprise surprise, when I got the speakers out, I found myself staring into a big empty mdf box with not a shred of damping material anywhere. Having some left over from an earlier project, I set to with the scissors and staple gun covering the back, sides, top and the top of the shelf port. Having reinstalled the speakers and refitted the sturdy grill, I fired up the combo and WOW what a massive difference. The response of the cab is much deeper sounding and very 'natural' with no harshness or brittleness to the tone whatsoever. The difference is so huge I initially thought I must have dialled up the bass control by accident.[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Then I got to thinking, this combo wasn't cheap when it was originally purchased, yet a respectable brand like TC Electronics hadn't taken the time to fit 50p's worth of acoustic damping in the cabinet. I hope they were a little more careful with their flagship RS cabs? [/font][/color]

[Muppet]

That's shocking. You got me worried so I checked inside my BG250 combo. Happy to report that theres some damping in there. It's the same white 'fluffy' stuff that's also inside my Markbass combo so I assume it's ok. Next step, check the RS cabs......

[JPJ]

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1422097994' post='2668631']
That's shocking. You got me worried so I checked inside my BG250 combo. Happy to report that theres some damping in there. It's the same white 'fluffy' stuff that's also inside my Markbass combo so I assume it's ok. Next step, check the RS cabs......
[/quote]

Pleased to hear that!

[JPJ]

So just to round off this topic, I finally got to use the combo in anger last night at rehearsal. Five piece rock band setup and whilst the two guitarists were using the rehearsal room Marshall combos rather than their own rigs, the TC coped without breaking sweat. I did find it difficult to dial in the pre-gain to stop the peak light from illuminating too much with my J-Retro equipped active five string bass, but once I got there, I didn't need to do a whole lot of tone shaping to get a good solid bass tone. Volume-wise, it was plenty loud enough (didn't get past 5 on the master) and whilst it doesn't shift air like a 4x10 or 6x10, with PA support you could confidently gig this combo.