Win a TC Electronic BG500

Don’t Miss Out: TC Electronic and No Treble are teaming up for an ultimate gear contest!

One lucky Grand Prize winner will receive a TC Electronic BG500 bass amp.

Four first-prize winners will receive one of two TC Electronic PolyTune tuners, a Nova Delay pedal or a Nova Repeater pedal.

Five runners up prize winners will receive a coveted No Treble t-shirt.

Enter to win, no later than February 13, 2011.

TC Electronic’s BG500: Ready to plug, play and groove

Following the success of TC Electronic’s award winning RH450, the TC Electronic “bass amp 2.0 revolution” continues with the BG500 combo, sporting 500 watts of power in both 1×15 and 2×10 configurations.

The BG500 features TC’s SpectraComp™ compressor, TubeTone™ effect, three presets, built-in bass tuner, TweeterTone (for adjusting the 1″ eminence tweeter) and tone controls.

SpectraComp™: The proof is in your ears

A conventional compressor tends to be dominated by the lower string, but with SpectraComp™, which is taken directly from the original RH450, you virtually get ‘per string’ multi-band compression that evens out the compression across all strings. The result is that your sound gets compressed in a much more musical and useful way than any single-band compressor would be able to deliver.

Sound examples using Spectracomp™

Active J-Type Bass, Slap style:
Clean, SpectraComp 3 (mid comp), SpectraComp 7 (heavy comp)

Passive Fender Jazz, Mute/slap style:
Clean, SpectraComp 3 (mid comp), SpectraComp 7 (heavy comp)

Within each example, there is a single slapped phrase. Note how the dynamic difference between the muted part and the slapped phrase is gradually being levelled out as more SpectraComp is applied.

TubeTone™: TC Electronic delivers true tube tone

The TubeTone™ effect was originally introduced on RH450. Most transistor designs have tried to replicate tube sound using one small preamp tube, but they generally fail as they don’t take the crucial characteristics of a full preamp and power amp into account – both of which are essential to the sound. TubeTone™ emulates all characteristics to deliver the full tube sound.

Sound examples using TubeTone™

Passive Fender Jazz, finger style:
Clean, TubeTone: 1 (very subtle tube grind), TubeTone: 3 (subtle tube grind)

Passive Fender Precision, Pick style:
Clean, TubeTone: 5 (tube grind), TubeTone 8 (tube overdrive)

Active MusicMan Stingray, Pick style:
Clean, TubeTone 5 (tube grind), TubeTone 8 (tube overdrive)

Presets: Get your best tones fast

OK, BG500 will not memorize your chords or riffs, but it will store three of your favorite tones. You may not have used presets before, but that’s only because you’ve never had the chance! For instance, if you use different basses on stage, you know that a few user memories would be welcome. With great sounding bass tones and seamless switching between them, you will be able to focus on the important thing – your playing!

Built-in bass tuner: Always sound your best

Every once in a while, you need to tune up, and whenever that happens, just let the built-in tuner guide you. It’s simple, it lets you tune silently, and it gets you back to playing music in no time.

TweeterTone: Full control of crucial highs

The tweeter control is usually located on the rear side of the cabinet, but on the BG500 you can simply adjust the tweeter level right from the front panel. Further, the sound also gets modified slightly with filters giving you a much more intelligent control over those critical high frequencies.

Sound examples using TweeterTone

Passive Fender Jazz, finger style:
TweeterTone decreased by 50% to get a ’vintage tone’

Passive Fender Jazz, finger style:
Contour 2 plus TweeterTone increased by 100% to get a modern ’Hi-Fi tone’

Tone Controls: Quality controls that really shape sound

EQ is mission critical for bassists, so TC Electronic has equipped the BG500 series with a great sounding, 4-band EQ which is great for shaping your fundamental tone. Further, with two contour filters you can scoop the mid-frequencies a bit. Think of this feature as a kind of instant EQ that can create warm and smooth tones on demand.

Sound examples using the 2 Contour settings

Active Celinder J-Update, finger style:
Clean, Contour 1, Contour 2

Connections: Delivering the flexibility pros must have

Just plug and play! And for rehearsing or jamming along you can connect external devices to AUX IN. If you don’t want to disturb the neighbors, plug in your headphones and the drivers will be muted automatically. Finally, you can send a signal to a sound-engineer via the balanced XLR output – or to an audio interface if you are recording.

Check out our review of the BG500.

Enter to win!