TC Electronic BH500 500-Watt Bass Head Reviews
TC Electronic gets bass. A major player in bass amplification, TC Electronic's latest hottie is the BH500, which is imbued by their Bass Amp 2.0 initiative - essentially a collection of everything TC has learned to date about loud, righteous bass tone and what today's bassists want in an amp. The BH500 is loaded with goodies, giving you TC exclusives such as Tube Tone, Tweeter Tone, and Spectra Comp, as well as a user memories, a muting tuner, and front-panel rehearse inputs. This head is versatile (and incidentally, red). Outputting a beefy 500 watts, you can handle everything from clubs to arenas with tone ranging from crisp and snappy to full-on Jaco growl. So check out TC Electronic's BH500 you'll be doing your bass - and your fans - a favor.
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Most Recent Reviews
Love It!
I've only had this head for 4 weeks, playing every Friday Night. It has the poop
I need to run my 4 ten cab. I Love this amp!
Compaired to my 450 watt amp, it kicks Butt. Haven't tried the pre sets yet, still
working with the sounds. All my band mates say it rocks the room.
Has a lot of head room too. Did I say that I'm in love with this amp?
Red really does rock!
Okay, I'll try starting with a little background first. I have owned only two combo amps before this head. I've been playing bass for about 17 years now. I play primarily 5 string bass (switched over last year). I have done quite a bit of research before choosing this head. First and foremost, I love the price vs features ratio. The only other amp I would have picked would be the Hartke LH1000 for the same price. An awesome feature set is what won me over! I LOVE the onboard tuner!! That saves me the trouble of using my Snark here and there. I don't like leaving my Snark on my bass when I play as I think it looks tacky. I really like having four bands of eq verses the low, mid, high routine. More knobs for me means more control over sound! I like having the spectracomp compression, although, this is the first time I have played with compression regularly. I like having the presets the very best!! I like setting my bass up and then changing either tonesets or basses midset. Having those three memory spots is great. Also, if someone else has played your rig, there is a recall feature on the head that will help you get the knobs back (all except mastee volume) to where that preset has them saved. Finally I really like the covered head look rather than a rackmount unit with rubber feet. Red Rocks!!
Great Features, Held back by Class D power section
I've had this head for about half a year now. I play out with it most weekends of any given month, usually twice a weekend. I play in a band that does very modern sounding originals, and also a lot of classic rock in bars.
I bought this head for the features. I'll delve into that a bit.
The built in tuner is convenient and accurate. It provides for a low B if you play a 5 string by the way. I really like it. I don't feel that the head suffers for lack of a tuner output, due to its price range, and its XLR output.
The contour switch is really not a boon. I'm not a big slapper, but the first contour setting really doesn't even sound usable to me, and while the second one seems slappier, I don't think it really offers anything that adjusting you eq doesn't already do more accurately. Maybe that's contour switches in general. Anyway, I use that to save a preset sometimes by just adding it or removing it from the preset I'm already using.
SPECTRACOMP IS THE BEST REASON TO BUY THIS AMP. It's a super cool feature. 4-band compression is a HUGE difference from one band, and the fact that compensation gain, the voicing of the 4 bands, and the compression level are all in a single, savable knob is a very handy tool. I miss having an attack speed setting sometimes, but it does what compression should, evening out and sustaining your notes.
The EQ section of this amp is very responsive. One of the strengths of this amp is an easily attainable tonal variety. I really like that the treble knob responds to separate frequencies whether you're going up or down with it.
Uh... having a separate knob for how much tweeter on the front of my amp is something I can live without. I guess it can be cool to save it to a preset, but I'd just as soon reach around my amp.
Tubetone is an interesting feature I guess. I use it as distortion for songs like "Animals" by Neon Trees. You can use it for outright distortion, or more subtly for a little warmth, but I don't believe this even begins to accurately reproduce a "tube" sound.
Disappointingly, RCA input only works when you're headphones are plugged in.
Presets are very cool. We cover a wide range, so having a couple tones to flip back and forth between is handy, and the way its controlled and implemented on this amp makes a lot of sense. That said, if you're a one great tone all night kind of guy/girl, that's probably not a selling point.
Overall, I think this brings some great features. you can XLR out without having to have a load on the power amp according to the manual. I would like a second speakon output, but that's not a huge blow. THE WORST THING ABOUT THIS AMP IS THE CLASS D POWER SECTION. I'm taking off a whole star on that alone. I assumed going in that for larger gigs, I'd have main support, and it wouldn't be that noticeable anyway. It really is. I notice as high as A1 that my lows are lacking, and my E string is unconvincing to the point of affecting my note choice. Besides all that, at 28 lbs, its not even all that light. That said, you won't find a class B in this price range.
In review, this amp brings great features, but the power section holds it back. You could do a lot worse in the price range.
