I've had nothing but good times with my TC pedals with guitar and synths. The Hall of Fame 2. sounds great and the build quality is solid. and the more recent series of retro/vintage style pedals sound good. I got the Echobrain A delay, Skysurfer reverb, Afterglow chorus and Iron Curtain noise gate. all a decent value I would say.
I had some frustration with my TC Helicon D1, just trying to get it to operate. The customer service basically wasn't. Fortunately the issue went away. So far my TC Hall of Fame 2 is behaving itself, and it is pretty good too. I wonder whether the online tweaking will still be available when I've picked up the courage to have a go with it. As for software, I recently went to update the settings on a Fender amp and Fender Fuse is no longer available. I'm stuck with the settings that were right years ago. It's hardly a life changing disaster but it's disappointing.
Yes. I think we have a reasonable expectation that working life of our equipment that any software required will be available and useable. We can't expect forward compatibility with future devices or OSs, of course, but the software itself should not vanish or fail to recognise our existing devices.
I run a prophet, afterglow and a sky surfer at the end of my chain..they were pretty cool pedals at first, but I noticed that when activated, I get the slightest bit of feedback from them. It’s very noticeable to me and has caused me to reach for them a lot less. Will most likely switch them out with something a bit better quality, too bad they don’t vibe with the rest of my pedals
I have a Flashback and Hall of Fame and they have the same problem with the effect selector - with very little use at home... TC Electronics support was not helpfull at all. It `s sad.
It's like cars. That's why the analog cars are the collector cars. No one can fix these digital things (even if the problem was not physical damage) without knowing how they were coded and being able to work on printed boards. I like TCs offering like the tuners and loopers, but I tend to stay away from their other stuff. With exception of Neunaber - so easy to use, I basically stay away from anything digital.
I own 3 TC pedals, and I love them, my Ditto, MojoMojo, and Dark Matter. I also don't trash people for sharing their experiences with pedal malfunctions in their own personal collection, because I'm not 13. I love how half the comments on this video are people going, "oh my God, what a drama queen", you knew it was going to be a negative video, WTF are you still watching? How much did TC and Music Tribe pay you to comment on this video? Why are you such a shill for a company who's never done anything for you? Irritating.
hey man, i've been having similar issues with my Flashback as of late - the dials no longer select what they're supposed to, and the effect of the delay is completely out of sync (super intense when it's dialled at like 1-2, any more than this is too drastic to use). Do you think there's any way to fix? Or is this one of those situations when you have to brave it and buy a new pedal? Cheers
Nothing can be done. I've opened it up but the pots/controls are sealed and can't be cleaned like a standard guitar pot. I was not able to source similar looking parts and TC Electronic were of no help with any information re: size or values or sourcing replacement parts.
I noticed that the TC electronics pedals do not really like it when there is no battery connected and the battery connection points of the pedal hit the metal of the casing (short-circuiting the stuff). I never play with batteries so I put a piece of tape over the two battery connectors to avoid this. I agree however, this won't fix any scratchy pots and other malfunctioning stuff.
Interesting! That would be an obvious design issue to address. However, I have never had this problem with any pedal in 30 years, including the TC pedals.
My MojoMojo died in 3 years of light home use. LED became very dim and sounded like a buzzing grinding chainsaw until it just stopped working. How does an analog OD pedal die like that?
My Hall of Fame II is doing fine, but when my Helicon D1 went strange the company was unhelpful. Today my Helix stopped passing signal through when switched off. Not a good success rate.
i bought a new flashback 1 right when v2 came out. it was great for a few days and then stopped working while engaged. sent it for repair, it came back and developed the same bug again shortly after. I also have an alter ego v2 which is holding up much better, so who knows... what annoys me is that these are digital pedals and they're pretty well built. They should be bomb proof. Maybe Boss spoiled us with indestructible pedals for so many years.
Tc electronic is trash. My hall of fame broke and it was my most important pedal. Contacted them to repair it. They couldn’t have cared less. Basically told me , guess you should buy a new one huh? Just like that. If they had at least just seemed like they cared one bit I would’ve continued exploring their products . I have the hall of fame 2 as my main reverb right now but when that goes I will never put a tc pedal on my board again. Buy earthquaker devices. Lifetime warranty and they care about their customers
@@frenchguitarguy1091 I have been using the boss DD3 for many years and is amazing but I wanted a second delay pedal for variation in flavor ... do you recommend me to get the flashback?
1) Not easy. No backup feature, files are hidden. 2) What difference does that make when the pedal is removed from the toneprint platform and you can't use that feature any more?
@@DrKevGuitar If you can hook the device up to a computer via USB, using your Windows file explorer you should be able to access the files on the device as an administrator when you make them visible (unhidden). (I don't use a Mac.) Then you should be able to copy them. We can't stop any manufacturer from changing their website, tools, or downloads.
@@ralphpezda6523 When you buy a pedal because the manufacturer sells it to you as having a certain functionality, having that functionality withdrawn so people will buy the new version is, frankly, a shitty thing to do.
Just now after a couple of years gigging with my helix I connected it to my PC to maybe change to one of my old toneprints and... UPDATE... and now they're all gone. Bummer.
I like the sound of the TC stuff but I’ve had to send back two flashback x4 , a flashback mk1, a flashback mk2 and a plethora because they all shit the bed within months of me buying them from new. I’ll never have another TC Electronic product.
Do you have that problems also with other digital pedals without toneprint or any software based editing? Wonder if the memory isnt built to last for years. Only have the TCE "bricks", but I'm afraid that the NUX ones also won't last 5-10 years...
Cool story. Isnt tc behringer? I wouldnt trust them either man, i nearly bought a hall of famer. Also . Can you recommend a good set of headphones for mixing?
I bought the plethora. I've only had it a few months but no complaints so far. Their latest firmware update fixed most of my chief complaints. Nothing but time will tell if it continues to hold up.
I found this video looking for information on how to fix my Flashback2. Foot switch is not working properly. It's been sitting unused in my family room in its box for like 4 years. The cheese in the switch is past the expiration date. 🙄
I give up on them last year. 2 pedals by them on my board and they would turn on and off by themselves.. they sent me a new pedal and it would make a loud bang and turn off... Disappointed isn't the word..
Thing is I cannot upload new Toneprints on my T2, cause its already a legacy product. On my flashback triple delay too I cannot upload new Toneprint and there is no update firmware for this pedal and its still in production. Good pedals but you get what you pay for.
Yes. Same issue with my Alter Ego. And of course the iPhone app is a buggy crashing disaster and always has been. I would be embarrassed if my company released such a poor product.
I don't have any problems using the toneprint app with my tripple delay. Maybe a bad usb cable. I'm using the toneprint editor on pc, ipad and android phone withaout any problems.
@@wolfgangnickolay5115 The TonePrint app on the iphone is a buggy disaster with frequent crashes. And as many have pointed out, once TC decide a product is no longer supported, the Toneprint app will no longer recognize them. And I'm a scientist and pro musician; do you really think I don't know to check USB cables??
@@DrKevGuitar as I told you - my triple delay works flawlessly with actal toneprint software on my pc, my ipad and my Samsung phone - no crashes everything is fine here. And regarding your question - maybe:)
Well..flashback is not exactly cheap bought new. I still have after 12 years the flashback 1 but i can go to the website and download stuff.. I dont do it cause i prefer my settings but still works great. As a company they have been very reliable based on my experience and even sent new pedals to friends of mine when they faced an issue. (not even warranty)
I bought a hall of fame reverb and it was broken right out of the box. It would turn on and then after a minute or two of playing it would shut off. If you played with the switch it would turn on again but then you couldn't turn it off.. until it turned off on its own again after about a minute or two at which point it wouldn't turn back on at all. My local shop where I got it took it back but it was the only one they had and the other options for a reverb weren't really what I was looking for. I ended up ordering a boss rv-6 but it was a bummer, I really liked the hall of fame for the few minutes it worked.
My complaints, The Blood Moon does such a volume boost that it's not feasible for a live rig, unless you couple it with a volume adjustment. The switch on my afterglow fell apart. Fixable, but little bit cheap production. That said, still interested in the Prophet (digi delay) and the Tube Pilot. :D
My TC Flashback X4 has served me well for 10 years. When I first got it I had issues because I was using a crappy power supply. Once I got a good power brick I never had anymore issues. I got it for the ease of foot switching between shorter and longer delays; i.e. it has 3 switches for presets. It takes up a lot of room on my board but it's worth it because I am constantly switching between presets - sometimes in the middle of songs and I love the simplicity of having three preset switches on it that you cannot screw up when you foot switch them. Avg use is once a week between practice and gigs but I never change the settings. If you are using a quality power supply and having issues it may have something to do with programing it; i.e. it could be a flaw in the design that isn't an issue until you start reprogramming it. I have the one button version and hadn't used it for years and added it onto my board about 8 months ago for kicks and giggles. I did have an issue with it recently where it just didn't work. A week later at practice it started working again. But with the right power supply I've never had issues with the X4. If I ever do I'll probably go with the Danelectro pedal because I only use short slap back and longer delay anyway (hey that rhymed).
I agree the durability has not been as good as it should have been. The selector knob on my Flashback failed after about 7 years and my Corona Chorus foot switch became increasingly tough to use over the same time. I bought a Flashback 2 because I enjoyed the original before it developed a fault. I like it and no problems as yet.
The Alter Ego toneprints are still in the Toneprint Editor - they are just stored under Flashback as they are actually the same pedal. If you look for the artist Andy Martin in Flachback he has like 15 Alter Ego Toneprints. Sad you have had problems with your pedals. I have mainly had TC pedals for the last 10-15 years and have never had any problems. And they have mostly been bought second hand. Now I have narrowed down to the Plethora X3 (where I also can used the Alter Ego Tone prints).
You're not understanding me. The toneprint app would no longer recognize the alter ego pedal. If you owned an alter ego v1, you could no longer use the toneprint editor with it and could no loonger send your custom toneprints to the pedal.
Thanks for stealing 8 minuts of my life. What do you even want to tell us? Equipment can break down after 6 years of use and just because it happened to you twice a whole company is bad?
I stole nothing. You gave your time willingly. You could have switched off at any time and watched something better instead. But you chose not to. So thank you!
Yes, many tens if I did thousands of people are no doubt very happy TC electronic customers. As I used to be too. My point is is that now I no longer trust the products and I’m simply giving my opinion in that regard.
Really enjoyed your humour and forthrightness! I have had an EHX Soul Food crap out after just 9 months with minimal use, which was very disconcerting but their B9 pedal has lasted a few years. I’ve had Danelectro pedals and never had a failure, but I’ve seen ratty old Boss pedals which seem indestructible, I guess it’s just a lottery. I have a Headrush Pedalboard best pedal I own.
Hey! I'm actually pretty happy that I've found this video! I bought my TC HoF V1 back in 2015 as my first "real" pedal and I became emotionally attached to it. I haven't been playing live for almost 4 years, only used the pedal outside of my home studio a handful of times and it always worked. Since the start of the pandemic I stopped playing guitar too much because Uni stuff was getting in the way and, by the start of 2021 I put together my pedalboard again and started practicing and then I noticed that my HoF mode selector was not working as it should, but I thought I was tripping and forgot about it. This week I was recording guitars for a project and I turned off my amp's spring reverb and only used the HoF as I wanted a clean Hall setting and the Hall mode on the pedal was doing the Spring mode, as the Spring was the plate, the Plate was the Mod, and Church and Mod kinda did a Church setting, but weirder. I kinda lost hope that I could fix it since I haven't seen this problem be reported anywhere else. Have you found a fix? Something to work around the switching modes problem? I just bought some new pedals as I sold old ones and don't have the money to buy something like a Strymon Flint that probably will be the next step for me. I kinda want to keep using the pedal working around the problems until I have the money to buy a new one...
There is no fix. TC Electronic had me record a video for them showing the problem and all they had no solution. Replacement parts are not available and the internal parts cannot be replaced or repaired. Sorry.
Hi Kevin, greetings from Italy !! I'm looking for a reverb pedal such the hall of fame 2, I think durability is one of the most important things in products nowadays, but unfortunately those are increasingly rare...(computers, phones and almost pedals) if you know some brands that have a "durability philosophy" to suggest me for buying a reverb pedal I would be very grateful !!! Thanks
Federico, there is no way I can answer that. Personally, I will stay away from pedals that require the user to have software or app to use the features fully, because I don't how long that software will be compatible with future devices. Other than that, no company has a durability philosophy, and I don't know enough about the component industry to guess. That said, right now I'm planning on buying the MXR M300 Reverb.
@@DrKevGuitar I hear you. I bought two expanse pedals from Neunaber and an exp controller and the company stopped supporting them and bringing out updates so they had to go. (I was very cross at the time.) Flipped them (at a loss) and bought a Lexicon PCM 80 to go with my other lexicon MPX1. The rack gear killed the pedals - it was night and day. Sold off my Catlinbread Echorec and Keely Dynomyroto too as they couldn't keep up. Pro-line levels, better effects, infinite tweakability and cheaper than a lot of pedals. (Pain in the bum to move and setup with extra mixer though.)
im glad someone made this cause the mode switching thing started happening to my flashback and would randomly switch from long reverse echos to the slapback mid song. and i tried finding an answer online but couldnt find anyone with the same problem. now im happily using the avalanche run and a carbon copy and leave the flashback to gather dust. and its a real shame cause i loved all the options and the tone but i just cant rely on it either on stage or in the studio.
100% in agreeance. Mainstay on my board has been the Alter Ego 2. first one, Mix knob had to be cranked to hear effect at unity. Opened a case with TC; they sent me a refurbished unit in exchange. Worked fine for two years. That one also now has a low delay level with Mix cranked. It also regularly does not hold my selected tone prints. The sound is great but it cannot be heard. I basically use it as a stereo out pedal at this point. TC / Line 6 / etc these digi brands just want you to toss their fails & buy the new thing. Planned obsolescence. Shameful. They seemed to put considerable effort in crafting those sounds. But don't worry-those sounds will be in their newest item for sale.. just keep buying🙄
I started playing guitar a few years ago and the Ditto Looper was my first pedal. It was great for practice until one day when I tried to update the firmware and the pedal completely stopped working. Since it was just out of warranty I would have had to pay for an expensive repair plus shipping so I decided to put that money toward an MXR Clone Looper instead. I'm not an electronics expert, but I have friends who own pedals that are still going strong after decades of use. All gear will eventually require repair or replacement, but for a pedal to simply die after a couple of years because of a basic firmware update is unacceptable and reflects poorly on the reliability of TC Electronic products.
Also - you Can't get in touch with them anymore. The company Used-to Respond to their clientele = No More ??? I felt-it, once they Lost Tor ( and I was right ). You can tell when a Company is going Down ( like with Gibson guitars ) & Mesa now.
Yeah I can’t get the TonePrint function to work on the 3 pedals I have. Worked great for a couple of years. Tried everything. Updates, different devices etc. And they won’t reply to my emails. So, yeah. Done with TCE.
BASS player here, got a Danelectro Black coffee and it's a blast !!!! Buy a pedal for 300 usd and do it over again in 5 to 6 years ??? I've decided to make my own FX boxes...... Thank you for sharing your experience.
PS all my presets are wrong!! Church is a room, Shimmer is a spring...with SHIMMER!! I think TC are over for me. There is no way I can load the presets as Toneprint only loads to my Mash Buttons. So I can't upload the Presets tweak them and share them. None of my students will be recommended TC. And I cant even send a letter as I cant even get registered. "Contact TC" sends me to a "phishing page" where I have to click all my likes and dislikes. I've even had emails spraining more pedals!! 9/10 sound for a 1/10 company as far as IT and Customer Service.
I’ve never said a bad word about Behringer. As I have said frequently here in these comments most of the bad rep they have is more to do with price snobbery and anti-Chinese racism. I have plastic Behringer pedals older than my TC gear that still perform perfectly. And the TC pedals in question here were made pre-Behringer.
I knew when Behringer bought TC Electronic the quality control would be compromised... Have you tried contacting TC and see what they will do? Also have you opened them up?
Nothing to do with Behringer. I have Berhringer pedals that out lasted these particular pedals, which were made long before Behringer bought TC. Most anti-Behringer sentiment is based on price snobbery and anti-Chinese racism. Dont fall for it. Yes, I have contacted TC. They shrugged and cannot help me source parts. Yes I have opened them up. The parts cannot be cleaned or repaired and I could not source replacement parts.
I would NEVER recommend TC Electronic. You can't contact them. The company you contact NEVER responds! The Toneprint app will not allow you to change the default template settings on the phone & you need to plug & unplug play with the toggle to get it to work on the PC to make a Toneprint. And you are so right it was all lip service with what they were going to do.
Sony stopped offering instruction info on some of their products from just a few years ago. You know how big they are? Maybe too big to care about their, well X customers, like me now. Thanks for the info on TC's junk products and be happy there's a place that allows truth to be told unlike eBAY that won't allow any negative comments on things offered for sale. Keep up your good work.
I think that Tc Elctronic had great products in the past. Many players have used them for years without problems. But maybe there is a problem with quality today. Maybe this toneprint thing has messed things up?!
Tc has had issues with foot switches, I have experienced it and it sucks. This is the first time I have heard of the glitches you are having though. That’s very strange.
No. These are completely sealed pots, cannot be cleaned. Why does every one think that everything looks like the inside of a guitar? Or because they used deoxit once and it worked think that I (whose been this for 30 years) didn't think of it? *roll eyes*
@@DrKevGuitar sorry, never seen a pedal with sealed pots. I run a board with 16+ pedals and I periodically clean the inputs and pots on them… I’ve never had a pedal with sealed pots. Sorry to question your expertise, it was a pretty simple and logical suggestion.
My Flashback x4 and Hall of Fame are both still cranking along without a problem. My issue with TC and the toneprint business is this: there's not *any* way to back them up. I have several artist toneprints I rely on, and when the day comes, and it will, that TC doesn't support them any more, I'm screwed. Also, their customer support (provided via Music Tribe) is terrible. So bad I won't use it. I think they make it awful intentionally. I would replace the Flashback with the Source Audio Nemesis, but Source Audio isn't much better. Their customer service is great, in that you are able to simply email them and they will respond. But here's what happened to me recently. Bought the Source Audio Gemini based on the strength of their Vertigo. I looked for a tutorial in order to learn how to use their editor to create chorus sounds I want to hear. They responded to my query to tell me there isn't any help for me in learning how to use their editor - you must figure it out on your own. Much of it is self explanatory, but the parametric EQ and a few other functions are not obvious. If someone takes the ideas of TC and Source Audio and offers a means to save your work, and not be strictly dependent on an internet connection to work with these devices, they could potentially crush TC and Source Audio out of the game altogether. TC should be embarrassed by their customer service.
Boss/ Roland pedals...products are equally of outstanding durabillity..I have several boss pedals for some 30 years and all the other boss pedals I have are still working. I hope they continue making such stuff..
I recently bought a TC Dark Matter pedal and it absolutely sucks. There's no punch at all. No high end. It sounds like there's a wet blanket over your speaker cab when you engage it. I can't think of one song I could use it on.
Not the same problem. You don't like that particular pedal. Many others do. That's personal preference and that's OK. I loved my TC Pedals until they stopped working and the TonePrint editor wouldn't work for me.
I had the Dark Matter too and with my ENGL E530 sounded really good, but then I change my rig and went for a BlackStar HT20 and the Dark Matter sounded horrible. Same speaker cabinet, same cable. Just different amp. So I can understand what you say and also who love the sound, it simply doesn't work with every amp circuit out there.
I bought the alter ego x4 and I found the delay emulations to be very unusable. They sounded great in demo videos but there was no way to adjust modulation rate or depth. You had dry signal and then the first wacky delay sound would come in awkwardly. The tone print stuff is a great idea, but I'd have to say it is very gimmicky the way it is set up. Just stick with Boss and all will be well.
Food series eh? Favourit fuzz: dano french toast. 20€ back then. Love my tc trinity t2 . Just a little computer running a tc plugin those toneprint pedals. Maybe go with a more classic design.. Good luck for your next delay!
Thanks! I went with an Alexander Pedals History Lesson V3. Great delay with tap tempo and 8 modes, midi and expression pedal capable. See my video on my rig rundown but I’ll do a more in depth video soon.
sounds like you're talking about a son who has shamed the family name and stripped of his inheritance. I've had zero issues with mine..whole pedal board full
USUALLY I can cheap out on tc overdrive and boost pedals and get away with it. But I can't see myself owning their more complex circuits. I had their dark matter and spark booster, they lasted a long time and I could get great reliable sounds with them. But my brainwaves and flashback stompers sounded like complete trash next to the DD-6 OR PS-5 by boss. Ironically the boss pedals were cheaper on the used market and will last ten times longer
If anything I think the TC boost/OD/distortion pedals are underrated, at least from the point of view of sound. They deserved more love but were eclipsed by TonePrint pedals.
Sometimes I just feel, that there's nothing better than good "old" companies like BOSS, Maxon, Ibanez, Dunlop/MXR, etc. Nothing fancy, but actually WORKS. And this is coming from me, who have 3 TC pedals and have no problems with 'em (...so far, lmao...).
I think we're in a sort of "golden age" of pedals right now, in that there are so many excellent pedals at all price ranges. How reliable any will be long term is anyone's guess but the change from "repair" to "replace" in most industries in the last 40 years has me a little concerned.
I have had several TC pedals for many years and have never had any problems. They are all from before TC was sold to Behringer though. Do not now the quality of the newer and cheaper pedals
As I have said in numerous comments already, I have Behringer pedals that have out lasted my TC pedals. I really hate the anti-Behringer sentiment, most of which was originally based on anti-Chinese bull shit and racism.
@@DrKevGuitar Behringer is German and TC used to be Danish. Behringer is cheaper so no problems for me if quality should be a bit lower too. Usually you get what you pay for. I have had a Behringer mixer for ages 😉
I just got a flashback 2. I don't understand all the hate for the toneprint software. I've found it super helpful in making awesome tape-style delays and honestly couldn't be happier with both the pedal and the software. That said, I'm about to start touring full-time, so if/when i run into any problems, I'll update here.
At the time I made the video, the iOS app would crash more often than it worked. Despite years of asking for it and TC promising, they never gave us a means of backing up our Toneprints. When version four desktop came out the install wiped my toneprints and I lost years of work. When the flashback 2 came out, they removed app support for some pedals and I so couldn’t use my Alter Ego v1 with the app or editor at all. So a very poor experience in my opinion.
I done too. I contact the tc with the "New support" music tribe, and the Said that my alter ego is a legacy and the tone print Will doesn't work. I Will never ever again take a tc pedal.
You're in the UK? Under European law you are covered by a minimum 2 year warranty (I believe that's 6 years in England and Wales, which brexit won't change) that the store you bought from has to take care of at no cost to you.
Man, I had a bunch of Boss, an orig OCD and a TS808 when I started out. All but the Boss NS2 noise gate and OCD died or went to hiss. The OCD was on its own 18v and the NS is not really an "effects" pedal. Moral of the story is anything can die, but if you use a DAISEY CHAIN (like I did) they might die much more quickerly. PS - if this was really just a meandering endorsement of the PBJ, I'm sold!
I bought a lot of TC pedals in the day. My Flashback died and my Hall of Fame doesn’t work with a battery. The Spark, Ditto, Helix, and Quintessence still work but are not on my 2 boards. When they sold the company, Tore was gone, and they came out with the Plethora I knew they were done.
I'm an authorised service agent in the UK and repair pretty much all makes of musical equipment to component level.... One make I refuse to repair and warn my customers of ever buying is anything made by TC or Behringer. Service support is rubbish, parts if you can get them are a rip-off, you can't get any diagrams out of them and I don't think even they understand their own equipment / firmware.... If you are happy to toss your equipment into Landfill when the warranty period is up, (should it even live long enough), then ideal....Whilst there are some extremely helpful makers out there, why bother with TC.
Yes, of course I have. They have no solution for me and have no idea why these issues are occurring. I received no response when I asked about replacement parts.
Encoders and digital chips can fail. Analog switches can fail. I don't think that it's a TC thing. I don't care about or buy TC stuff but it's pretty much a given that all things "gear" fail at one point... no matter the price point. Invest in a soldering iron and a bottle of deoxit and you're pretty much set to fix all your gear.
Dude, I've been soldering since I was 7 years old, in the back of my Dad's Schober Theatre Organ. The big issue here is that the controls are completely sealed and cannot be cleaned, I cannot source replacement parts and TC will not help.
The cheaper ones are more reliable. I have like 10 of the $50 ones & they've all held up perfectly for the last 5 or 6 years. I upload a live Hardware improvisation, 4 Mondays a month... October through April. At least one of them is pretty much always featured. No issues. Bear in mind... I use them with Synthesizers & Drum Machines.
We've always had philosophers with instruments, but few were paying attention. Frank Zappa, Robert Fripp, John Coltrane, Woody Guthrie and many others.
My dog pissed on all my pedals (multiple times). I know there not made for that but the only one that died, including my cheap Danelectro delay, was my T.C. Electronics Ditto x2 looper.
I collect Dano's & have a few T.C.'s. This very disappointing to hear. You got my attention & Sub! I was considering buying the Plethora. eh,,, maybe not so much now, since Behringer took over. I can't imagine quality will improve.
It is disappointing. Very disappointing. But don't let the anti-Behringer snobbery get in the way. I have two old Behringer pedals (the ADI-21 and the GDI-21, which I bought sometime around 2005) which served me very well through hundreds of gigs and still perform flawlessly today.
I pre ordered the plethora & I would not suggest it to anyone. I never use it. It's too complicated for me to figure out & every configuration I try it never works the way I want it to. It's basically just a $500 paper weight. I keep seeing these videos on TH-cam of people plugging them in & getting great tones & being able to do all kinds of cool stuff. This is not my experience at all.
I feel you bro. I have a TC Electronic T2 Reverb, I was very happy with it until one day stop working, I try to get repaired but that doesn't solve the problems so now I can't trust this pedals, same as you. I really was into that brand, sorry for them.
Yeah, I won’t even consider TC Electronics. I had a ditto looper that crapped out only after a couple years. Bought it for the simplicity and true bypass. It started intermittently having problems and progressively got worse. I threw it right in the garbage. Got a Boss RC-1 and never looked back. Never again, TC Electronics!!!
What, the video? No, I didn’t ever expect them to. And it doesn’t change anything for me, I decided I was moving on, won’t recommend them to my friends or students, and I have replaced them with pedals I am much happier with.
For me, the thing that's kept me away from TC products has been the foot switches. I play violin, so the toneprint and tap tempo never worked right when I tried the Flashback. I think the Polytune is more accurate than anything else in that range, but the switches are just crap. They are loud, and they go bad quickly. I've had the regular one and the mini, and they all go bad. I still have three of the minis (one on each board), but I have them all in the B of A/B switches. They're too loud and crappy to keep in the chain. I mean, they don't suck tone like the Boss tuner, but you can't reliaby use it as a mute switch. It's a shame because their effects are really great. Just have better build quality, and we'd all be really happy!
Toneprint editor sucks...true that. I don't really much like the company... You have to go in knowing that you'll have no support...you are on your own with bad or non-existant manuals and no way to read out or share any toneprint... If they have what u need and it's cheap well then....but no, I can't recommend them.
Yeah, I noticed that with tc electronics lately. The technology is good but the hardware is cheap. The R&D is there but they implement it poorly. They could do better but they're cutting to many corners trying to be cost effective. Their cheaper line of pedals like the tube pilot, and rusty fuzz, etc are great circuits but made with cheap hardware and internal components. Even their more expensive stuff like their brainwaves and quintessence are are brilliant pedals but lack headroom and run the signal at poor sampling speed and bit rate. And even the new reissue of the old scf gold sounds digitally compressed and lacking definition. The chorus and the flanger just sound muffled and flat. TC electronic has is the movie that starts out great but they gave up halfway through production and the second half of the movie is just trash and leaves you feeling unfulfilled. Thank you for the video and sharing how you felt. I need a stereo pitch shifter and a harmony pedal and a Flanger and I really feel let down.
Damn I had just bought the TC Sentry and am only now seeing this video. I was never attracted to the concept of the toneprint. I know all too well that in a matter of a few years an app can be abandoned in its maintenance and updates and then you’re left with something obsolete. Nevertheless, every review of the sentry seemed to be stellar even without the TonePrint aspect, so I bought it. And now I’m second guessing the purchase.
Nonsense! These pedals were made before TC Electronic was acquired by Behringer (which was 2015). And I have Behringer pedals in bought in 2005 that lasted longer than these TC Electronic pedals! (I have an ADI-21 which I use as EQ and DI for mandolin, played literally hundreds of gigs with that it still works great).
Glad to see I’m not the only one disappointed. I have a spark mini boost that won’t switch on and off when I need it to. It’s really only seen a couple years worth of gigs. I learned that it’s it difficult to replace the switch because of the design and apparently cheaper to just buy another spark mini which I will not do. Fool me once TC.
Bough the looper by them. Opened it. Turned it on once at a gig. Popped signal super loud and sounded like shit. Embarrassing. Returned it the next day. Terrible
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I've had nothing but good times with my TC pedals with guitar and synths. The Hall of Fame 2. sounds great and the build quality is solid. and the more recent series of retro/vintage style pedals sound good. I got the Echobrain A delay, Skysurfer reverb, Afterglow chorus and Iron Curtain noise gate. all a decent value I would say.
Great! Long may it last!
I had some frustration with my TC Helicon D1, just trying to get it to operate. The customer service basically wasn't. Fortunately the issue went away.
So far my TC Hall of Fame 2 is behaving itself, and it is pretty good too. I wonder whether the online tweaking will still be available when I've picked up the courage to have a go with it.
As for software, I recently went to update the settings on a Fender amp and Fender Fuse is no longer available. I'm stuck with the settings that were right years ago. It's hardly a life changing disaster but it's disappointing.
Yes. I think we have a reasonable expectation that working life of our equipment that any software required will be available and useable. We can't expect forward compatibility with future devices or OSs, of course, but the software itself should not vanish or fail to recognise our existing devices.
I run a prophet, afterglow and a sky surfer at the end of my chain..they were pretty cool pedals at first, but I noticed that when activated, I get the slightest bit of feedback from them. It’s very noticeable to me and has caused me to reach for them a lot less. Will most likely switch them out with something a bit better quality, too bad they don’t vibe with the rest of my pedals
Plus the tone suck...
I have a Flashback and Hall of Fame and they have the same problem with the effect selector - with very little use at home... TC Electronics support was not helpfull at all. It `s sad.
It's like cars. That's why the analog cars are the collector cars. No one can fix these digital things (even if the problem was not physical damage) without knowing how they were coded and being able to work on printed boards. I like TCs offering like the tuners and loopers, but I tend to stay away from their other stuff. With exception of Neunaber - so easy to use, I basically stay away from anything digital.
Tc electronic are magic.....
I own 3 TC pedals, and I love them, my Ditto, MojoMojo, and Dark Matter. I also don't trash people for sharing their experiences with pedal malfunctions in their own personal collection, because I'm not 13. I love how half the comments on this video are people going, "oh my God, what a drama queen", you knew it was going to be a negative video, WTF are you still watching? How much did TC and Music Tribe pay you to comment on this video? Why are you such a shill for a company who's never done anything for you? Irritating.
My Drip pedal stopped working. Bought it 2 years ago.
hey man, i've been having similar issues with my Flashback as of late - the dials no longer select what they're supposed to, and the effect of the delay is completely out of sync (super intense when it's dialled at like 1-2, any more than this is too drastic to use). Do you think there's any way to fix? Or is this one of those situations when you have to brave it and buy a new pedal? Cheers
Nothing can be done. I've opened it up but the pots/controls are sealed and can't be cleaned like a standard guitar pot. I was not able to source similar looking parts and TC Electronic were of no help with any information re: size or values or sourcing replacement parts.
I noticed that the TC electronics pedals do not really like it when there is no battery connected and the battery connection points of the pedal hit the metal of the casing (short-circuiting the stuff). I never play with batteries so I put a piece of tape over the two battery connectors to avoid this. I agree however, this won't fix any scratchy pots and other malfunctioning stuff.
Interesting! That would be an obvious design issue to address. However, I have never had this problem with any pedal in 30 years, including the TC pedals.
Can you send me the broken pedals. I'd love to dissect them and play operation.
Sorry, they're long gone now.
My MojoMojo died in 3 years of light home use. LED became very dim and sounded like a buzzing grinding chainsaw until it just stopped working. How does an analog OD pedal die like that?
Hi sir, is it possible that the faulty is only on the switches? Or is it confirmed that the whole unit/board is faulty?
My Hall of Fame II is doing fine, but when my Helicon D1 went strange the company was unhelpful. Today my Helix stopped passing signal through when switched off. Not a good success rate.
i bought a new flashback 1 right when v2 came out. it was great for a few days and then stopped working while engaged. sent it for repair, it came back and developed the same bug again shortly after. I also have an alter ego v2 which is holding up much better, so who knows... what annoys me is that these are digital pedals and they're pretty well built. They should be bomb proof. Maybe Boss spoiled us with indestructible pedals for so many years.
Probably unlucky.. My one is 12 years older works like brand new
Tc electronic is trash. My hall of fame broke and it was my most important pedal. Contacted them to repair it. They couldn’t have cared less. Basically told me , guess you should buy a new one huh? Just like that. If they had at least just seemed like they cared one bit I would’ve continued exploring their products . I have the hall of fame 2 as my main reverb right now but when that goes I will never put a tc pedal on my board again. Buy earthquaker devices. Lifetime warranty and they care about their customers
I have the feeling Tc just tryna keep ripping people off. Just my 2 cents
The only TC pedal I own is the polytune. I was considering buying a tc delay but now I am not sure.
Maybe another boss pedal would be a better idea.
Idk I've owned a flashback for years and it's honestly the one pedal I'd keep if I had to get rid of everything else.
@@frenchguitarguy1091 I have been using the boss DD3 for many years and is amazing but I wanted a second delay pedal for variation in flavor ... do you recommend me to get the flashback?
Why didn't you back up your settings to another folder, drive, or memory card so you would not lose them?
1) Not easy. No backup feature, files are hidden. 2) What difference does that make when the pedal is removed from the toneprint platform and you can't use that feature any more?
@@DrKevGuitar If you can hook the device up to a computer via USB, using your Windows file explorer you should be able to access the files on the device as an administrator when you make them visible (unhidden). (I don't use a Mac.) Then you should be able to copy them. We can't stop any manufacturer from changing their website, tools, or downloads.
@@ralphpezda6523 When you buy a pedal because the manufacturer sells it to you as having a certain functionality, having that functionality withdrawn so people will buy the new version is, frankly, a shitty thing to do.
They make it all but impossible to do that. I've been trying work this out, which is how I wound up here
I'll look again, but when connected to a PC, TC doesn't show up as a device or drive. Going to double check now.
Just now after a couple of years gigging with my helix I connected it to my PC to maybe change to one of my old toneprints and... UPDATE... and now they're all gone. Bummer.
Sorry to hear that. What a pain in the ass.
I like the sound of the TC stuff but I’ve had to send back two flashback x4 , a flashback mk1, a flashback mk2 and a plethora because they all shit the bed within months of me buying them from new. I’ll never have another TC Electronic product.
Never had any issues with mine.
Do you have that problems also with other digital pedals without toneprint or any software based editing? Wonder if the memory isnt built to last for years.
Only have the TCE "bricks", but I'm afraid that the NUX ones also won't last 5-10 years...
Cool story. Isnt tc behringer? I wouldnt trust them either man, i nearly bought a hall of famer. Also . Can you recommend a good set of headphones for mixing?
These pedals pre-date Behringer’s involvement with TC and my Behringer pedals are more reliable. And no.
Was seriously looking at getting the plethora x5.. now I'm not sure
I bought the plethora. I've only had it a few months but no complaints so far. Their latest firmware update fixed most of my chief complaints. Nothing but time will tell if it continues to hold up.
I found this video looking for information on how to fix my Flashback2. Foot switch is not working properly. It's been sitting unused in my family room in its box for like 4 years. The cheese in the switch is past the expiration date. 🙄
Ditto loopers do not last long. The first one that I bought had to be replaced after three years, now the replacement needs to go.
I give up on them last year. 2 pedals by them on my board and they would turn on and off by themselves.. they sent me a new pedal and it would make a loud bang and turn off... Disappointed isn't the word..
Thing is I cannot upload new Toneprints on my T2, cause its already a legacy product. On my flashback triple delay too I cannot upload new Toneprint and there is no update firmware for this pedal and its still in production. Good pedals but you get what you pay for.
Yes. Same issue with my Alter Ego. And of course the iPhone app is a buggy crashing disaster and always has been. I would be embarrassed if my company released such a poor product.
I don't have any problems using the toneprint app with my tripple delay. Maybe a bad usb cable. I'm using the toneprint editor on pc, ipad and android phone withaout any problems.
@@wolfgangnickolay5115 The TonePrint app on the iphone is a buggy disaster with frequent crashes. And as many have pointed out, once TC decide a product is no longer supported, the Toneprint app will no longer recognize them. And I'm a scientist and pro musician; do you really think I don't know to check USB cables??
@@DrKevGuitar as I told you - my triple delay works flawlessly with actal toneprint software on my pc, my ipad and my Samsung phone - no crashes everything is fine here. And regarding your question - maybe:)
Well..flashback is not exactly cheap bought new.
I still have after 12 years the flashback 1 but i can go to the website and download stuff..
I dont do it cause i prefer my settings but still works great. As a company they have been very reliable based on my experience and even sent new pedals to friends of mine when they faced an issue.
(not even warranty)
I have a version 1 Alter Ego I bought new in 2012....it’s my all time,favorite delay pedal....fortunately,I have had zero problems with it....
I bought a hall of fame reverb and it was broken right out of the box. It would turn on and then after a minute or two of playing it would shut off. If you played with the switch it would turn on again but then you couldn't turn it off.. until it turned off on its own again after about a minute or two at which point it wouldn't turn back on at all. My local shop where I got it took it back but it was the only one they had and the other options for a reverb weren't really what I was looking for. I ended up ordering a boss rv-6 but it was a bummer, I really liked the hall of fame for the few minutes it worked.
I have the v2 alter ego and I love it. I hope it keeps hanging in there. I thought the toneprint was cool at first but I don't care anymore lol.
My complaints, The Blood Moon does such a volume boost that it's not feasible for a live rig, unless you couple it with a volume adjustment.
The switch on my afterglow fell apart. Fixable, but little bit cheap production.
That said, still interested in the Prophet (digi delay) and the Tube Pilot. :D
My TC Flashback X4 has served me well for 10 years. When I first got it I had issues because I was using a crappy power supply. Once I got a good power brick I never had anymore issues. I got it for the ease of foot switching between shorter and longer delays; i.e. it has 3 switches for presets. It takes up a lot of room on my board but it's worth it because I am constantly switching between presets - sometimes in the middle of songs and I love the simplicity of having three preset switches on it that you cannot screw up when you foot switch them. Avg use is once a week between practice and gigs but I never change the settings. If you are using a quality power supply and having issues it may have something to do with programing it; i.e. it could be a flaw in the design that isn't an issue until you start reprogramming it. I have the one button version and hadn't used it for years and added it onto my board about 8 months ago for kicks and giggles. I did have an issue with it recently where it just didn't work. A week later at practice it started working again. But with the right power supply I've never had issues with the X4. If I ever do I'll probably go with the Danelectro pedal because I only use short slap back and longer delay anyway (hey that rhymed).
I agree the durability has not been as good as it should have been. The selector knob on my Flashback failed after about 7 years and my Corona Chorus foot switch became increasingly tough to use over the same time. I bought a Flashback 2 because I enjoyed the original before it developed a fault. I like it and no problems as yet.
Those little Danelectros were fantastic pedals. I always liked the Milkshake Chorus and Hashbrowns Flanger.
The Alter Ego toneprints are still in the Toneprint Editor - they are just stored under Flashback as they are actually the same pedal. If you look for the artist Andy Martin in Flachback he has like 15 Alter Ego Toneprints.
Sad you have had problems with your pedals. I have mainly had TC pedals for the last 10-15 years and have never had any problems. And they have mostly been bought second hand.
Now I have narrowed down to the Plethora X3 (where I also can used the Alter Ego Tone prints).
You're not understanding me. The toneprint app would no longer recognize the alter ego pedal. If you owned an alter ego v1, you could no longer use the toneprint editor with it and could no loonger send your custom toneprints to the pedal.
Thanks for stealing 8 minuts of my life. What do you even want to tell us? Equipment can break down after 6 years of use and just because it happened to you twice a whole company is bad?
I stole nothing. You gave your time willingly. You could have switched off at any time and watched something better instead. But you chose not to. So thank you!
I don't think he stole anything but I can't listen to a wanker like him.
Thank you for the warning.
Video hasn't started yet and I'm getting outta here.
This dude is a serious 🤡
I’ve seen it twice
I have owned and still own many tc electronic pedals. They sound great and have never failed me..🤷🏼♂️
Yes, many tens if I did thousands of people are no doubt very happy TC electronic customers. As I used to be too. My point is is that now I no longer trust the products and I’m simply giving my opinion in that regard.
My ditto looper switch crapped out after 1 year of light usage. Could not be repaired.
Really enjoyed your humour and forthrightness! I have had an EHX Soul Food crap out after just 9 months with minimal use,
which was very disconcerting but their B9 pedal has lasted a few years. I’ve had Danelectro pedals and never had a failure,
but I’ve seen ratty old Boss pedals which seem indestructible, I guess it’s just a lottery. I have a Headrush Pedalboard
best pedal I own.
I´ve had 3 ditto x2 looper , they all broke down
Did you try deoxit?
Yes. But pots are sealed design. It doesn't go in.
Had 2 TC pedals fail, HOF & Polytune, never gigged or mistreated ...welcome to the club !
Hey! I'm actually pretty happy that I've found this video! I bought my TC HoF V1 back in 2015 as my first "real" pedal and I became emotionally attached to it. I haven't been playing live for almost 4 years, only used the pedal outside of my home studio a handful of times and it always worked. Since the start of the pandemic I stopped playing guitar too much because Uni stuff was getting in the way and, by the start of 2021 I put together my pedalboard again and started practicing and then I noticed that my HoF mode selector was not working as it should, but I thought I was tripping and forgot about it. This week I was recording guitars for a project and I turned off my amp's spring reverb and only used the HoF as I wanted a clean Hall setting and the Hall mode on the pedal was doing the Spring mode, as the Spring was the plate, the Plate was the Mod, and Church and Mod kinda did a Church setting, but weirder.
I kinda lost hope that I could fix it since I haven't seen this problem be reported anywhere else. Have you found a fix? Something to work around the switching modes problem? I just bought some new pedals as I sold old ones and don't have the money to buy something like a Strymon Flint that probably will be the next step for me. I kinda want to keep using the pedal working around the problems until I have the money to buy a new one...
There is no fix. TC Electronic had me record a video for them showing the problem and all they had no solution. Replacement parts are not available and the internal parts cannot be replaced or repaired. Sorry.
Hi Kevin, greetings from Italy !!
I'm looking for a reverb pedal such the hall of fame 2, I think durability is one of the most important things in products nowadays, but unfortunately those are increasingly rare...(computers, phones and almost pedals) if you know some brands that have a "durability philosophy" to suggest me for buying a reverb pedal I would be very grateful !!!
Thanks
Federico, there is no way I can answer that. Personally, I will stay away from pedals that require the user to have software or app to use the features fully, because I don't how long that software will be compatible with future devices. Other than that, no company has a durability philosophy, and I don't know enough about the component industry to guess. That said, right now I'm planning on buying the MXR M300 Reverb.
@@DrKevGuitar okay, thank you very much for the advice, I will look for the mxr
@@Cinematic_adventures_ I finally got the MXR Reverb pedal. The spring setting is fantastic!
@@DrKevGuitar fantastic!!
I’ve bought a boss RV-6 , also a good pedal
@@DrKevGuitar I hear you. I bought two expanse pedals from Neunaber and an exp controller and the company stopped supporting them and bringing out updates so they had to go. (I was very cross at the time.)
Flipped them (at a loss) and bought a Lexicon PCM 80 to go with my other lexicon MPX1. The rack gear killed the pedals - it was night and day. Sold off my Catlinbread Echorec and Keely Dynomyroto too as they couldn't keep up.
Pro-line levels, better effects, infinite tweakability and cheaper than a lot of pedals. (Pain in the bum to move and setup with extra mixer though.)
im glad someone made this cause the mode switching thing started happening to my flashback and would randomly switch from long reverse echos to the slapback mid song. and i tried finding an answer online but couldnt find anyone with the same problem. now im happily using the avalanche run and a carbon copy and leave the flashback to gather dust. and its a real shame cause i loved all the options and the tone but i just cant rely on it either on stage or in the studio.
I've tried 2 both lemons my Hall is a modulated room My Church nothing...my spring is like the room...one Mash button is silent. Brand New!
@@harrisfrankou2368 I feel like this is just an issue with the firmware that could be fixed with an update over usb
It doesn't. Many have tried that to no avail
100% in agreeance. Mainstay on my board has been the Alter Ego 2. first one, Mix knob had to be cranked to hear effect at unity. Opened a case with TC; they sent me a refurbished unit in exchange. Worked fine for two years. That one also now has a low delay level with Mix cranked. It also regularly does not hold my selected tone prints. The sound is great but it cannot be heard. I basically use it as a stereo out pedal at this point. TC / Line 6 / etc these digi brands just want you to toss their fails & buy the new thing. Planned obsolescence. Shameful. They seemed to put considerable effort in crafting those sounds. But don't worry-those sounds will be in their newest item for sale.. just keep buying🙄
Title of video starts around 4:00
I started playing guitar a few years ago and the Ditto Looper was my first pedal. It was great for practice until one day when I tried to update the firmware and the pedal completely stopped working. Since it was just out of warranty I would have had to pay for an expensive repair plus shipping so I decided to put that money toward an MXR Clone Looper instead. I'm not an electronics expert, but I have friends who own pedals that are still going strong after decades of use. All gear will eventually require repair or replacement, but for a pedal to simply die after a couple of years because of a basic firmware update is unacceptable and reflects poorly on the reliability of TC Electronic products.
Also - you Can't get in touch with them anymore. The company Used-to Respond to their clientele = No More ??? I felt-it, once they Lost Tor ( and I was right ). You can tell when a Company is going Down ( like with Gibson guitars ) & Mesa now.
True I went for PRS before Gibson in the early 90's, so glad so did. $4 K Gibsons felt like a bad surfboard.
Ive had 2 HOF 2 4X2 in a row both lemons.
Yeah I can’t get the TonePrint function to work on the 3 pedals I have. Worked great for a couple of years. Tried everything. Updates, different devices etc. And they won’t reply to my emails. So, yeah. Done with TCE.
BASS player here, got a Danelectro Black coffee and it's a blast !!!! Buy a pedal for 300 usd and do it over again in 5 to 6 years ??? I've decided to make my own FX boxes...... Thank you for sharing your experience.
PS all my presets are wrong!! Church is a room, Shimmer is a spring...with SHIMMER!!
I think TC are over for me.
There is no way I can load the presets as Toneprint only loads to my Mash Buttons.
So I can't upload the Presets tweak them and share them.
None of my students will be recommended TC.
And I cant even send a letter as I cant even get registered.
"Contact TC" sends me to a "phishing page" where I have to click all my likes and dislikes.
I've even had emails spraining more pedals!!
9/10 sound for a 1/10 company as far as IT and Customer Service.
Have you found a fix for this?? My HoF V1 just started having the same problem...
m.th-cam.com/video/YlGqN3AKOsA/w-d-xo.html
Bruh, things break.. my TCE harmonizer is absolutely great..and Behringer isn't the Harbinger of darkness..
I’ve never said a bad word about Behringer. As I have said frequently here in these comments most of the bad rep they have is more to do with price snobbery and anti-Chinese racism. I have plastic Behringer pedals older than my TC gear that still perform perfectly. And the TC pedals in question here were made pre-Behringer.
I knew when Behringer bought TC Electronic the quality control would be compromised...
Have you tried contacting TC and see what they will do?
Also have you opened them up?
Nothing to do with Behringer. I have Berhringer pedals that out lasted these particular pedals, which were made long before Behringer bought TC. Most anti-Behringer sentiment is based on price snobbery and anti-Chinese racism. Dont fall for it.
Yes, I have contacted TC. They shrugged and cannot help me source parts.
Yes I have opened them up. The parts cannot be cleaned or repaired and I could not source replacement parts.
I would NEVER recommend TC Electronic. You can't contact them. The company you contact NEVER responds! The Toneprint app will not allow you to change the default template settings on the phone & you need to plug & unplug play with the toggle to get it to work on the PC to make a Toneprint. And you are so right it was all lip service with what they were going to do.
Sony stopped offering instruction info on some of their products from just a few years ago. You know how big they are? Maybe too big to care about their, well X customers, like me now. Thanks for the info on TC's junk products and be happy there's a place that allows truth to be told unlike eBAY that won't allow any negative comments on things offered for sale. Keep up your good work.
I think that Tc Elctronic had great products in the past. Many players have used them for years without problems. But maybe there is a problem with quality today. Maybe this toneprint thing has messed things up?!
Tc has had issues with foot switches, I have experienced it and it sucks. This is the first time I have heard of the glitches you are having though. That’s very strange.
You can clean your pots and inputs dude… it needs to be done to all pots eventually. Deoxit!
No. These are completely sealed pots, cannot be cleaned. Why does every one think that everything looks like the inside of a guitar? Or because they used deoxit once and it worked think that I (whose been this for 30 years) didn't think of it? *roll eyes*
@@DrKevGuitar sorry, never seen a pedal with sealed pots. I run a board with 16+ pedals and I periodically clean the inputs and pots on them… I’ve never had a pedal with sealed pots. Sorry to question your expertise, it was a pretty simple and logical suggestion.
I think it's more about that you made an assumption/jumped to conclusions. I wouldn't have assumed what you did based on the video content.
Their older soundcards and DACs sound way above their price point. Konnekt 6-24-48, BMC-2, so for audiophiles its a treat :D
My Flashback x4 and Hall of Fame are both still cranking along without a problem. My issue with TC and the toneprint business is this: there's not *any* way to back them up. I have several artist toneprints I rely on, and when the day comes, and it will, that TC doesn't support them any more, I'm screwed.
Also, their customer support (provided via Music Tribe) is terrible. So bad I won't use it. I think they make it awful intentionally.
I would replace the Flashback with the Source Audio Nemesis, but Source Audio isn't much better. Their customer service is great, in that you are able to simply email them and they will respond. But here's what happened to me recently. Bought the Source Audio Gemini based on the strength of their Vertigo. I looked for a tutorial in order to learn how to use their editor to create chorus sounds I want to hear. They responded to my query to tell me there isn't any help for me in learning how to use their editor - you must figure it out on your own. Much of it is self explanatory, but the parametric EQ and a few other functions are not obvious. If someone takes the ideas of TC and Source Audio and offers a means to save your work, and not be strictly dependent on an internet connection to work with these devices, they could potentially crush TC and Source Audio out of the game altogether.
TC should be embarrassed by their customer service.
Boss/ Roland pedals...products are equally of outstanding durabillity..I have several boss pedals for some 30 years and all the other boss pedals I have are still working. I hope they continue making such stuff..
I had a Skysurfer Crap out on its 3rd gig; SKB board. Got a Nano Verb to replace it.
I’ve really enjoyed my hof2 still works
I should hope so!
I recently bought a TC Dark Matter pedal and it absolutely sucks. There's no punch at all. No high end. It sounds like there's a wet blanket over your speaker cab when you engage it. I can't think of one song I could use it on.
Not the same problem. You don't like that particular pedal. Many others do. That's personal preference and that's OK. I loved my TC Pedals until they stopped working and the TonePrint editor wouldn't work for me.
I had the Dark Matter too and with my ENGL E530 sounded really good, but then I change my rig and went for a BlackStar HT20 and the Dark Matter sounded horrible. Same speaker cabinet, same cable. Just different amp. So I can understand what you say and also who love the sound, it simply doesn't work with every amp circuit out there.
I use the dark matter in front of a fender tube Amp. It sounds really great: full but not muddy with a lot of punch.
I bought the alter ego x4 and I found the delay emulations to be very unusable. They sounded great in demo videos but there was no way to adjust modulation rate or depth. You had dry signal and then the first wacky delay sound would come in awkwardly. The tone print stuff is a great idea, but I'd have to say it is very gimmicky the way it is set up.
Just stick with Boss and all will be well.
Food series eh? Favourit fuzz: dano french toast. 20€ back then. Love my tc trinity t2 . Just a little computer running a tc plugin those toneprint pedals. Maybe go with a more classic design.. Good luck for your next delay!
Thanks! I went with an Alexander Pedals History Lesson V3. Great delay with tap tempo and 8 modes, midi and expression pedal capable. See my video on my rig rundown but I’ll do a more in depth video soon.
sounds like you're talking about a son who has shamed the family name and stripped of his inheritance. I've had zero issues with mine..whole pedal board full
Good for you. Enjoy! My fingers are crossed for you.
USUALLY I can cheap out on tc overdrive and boost pedals and get away with it. But I can't see myself owning their more complex circuits.
I had their dark matter and spark booster, they lasted a long time and I could get great reliable sounds with them. But my brainwaves and flashback stompers sounded like complete trash next to the DD-6 OR PS-5 by boss.
Ironically the boss pedals were cheaper on the used market and will last ten times longer
If anything I think the TC boost/OD/distortion pedals are underrated, at least from the point of view of sound. They deserved more love but were eclipsed by TonePrint pedals.
@@DrKevGuitar i absolutely agree they have great OD'S
Sometimes I just feel, that there's nothing better than good "old" companies like BOSS, Maxon, Ibanez, Dunlop/MXR, etc. Nothing fancy, but actually WORKS. And this is coming from me, who have 3 TC pedals and have no problems with 'em (...so far, lmao...).
I think we're in a sort of "golden age" of pedals right now, in that there are so many excellent pedals at all price ranges. How reliable any will be long term is anyone's guess but the change from "repair" to "replace" in most industries in the last 40 years has me a little concerned.
My pedals from the early 80's all work fine (MXR, Ibanez, DOD, Boss). I'm afraid I just ordered a TC Electronics compressor, but I'm optimistic. :)
@@Ndlanding May it give you many years of joy!
I have had several TC pedals for many years and have never had any problems. They are all from before TC was sold to Behringer though. Do not now the quality of the newer and cheaper pedals
As I have said in numerous comments already, I have Behringer pedals that have out lasted my TC pedals. I really hate the anti-Behringer sentiment, most of which was originally based on anti-Chinese bull shit and racism.
@@DrKevGuitar Behringer is German and TC used to be Danish. Behringer is cheaper so no problems for me if quality should be a bit lower too. Usually you get what you pay for. I have had a Behringer mixer for ages 😉
I just got a flashback 2. I don't understand all the hate for the toneprint software. I've found it super helpful in making awesome tape-style delays and honestly couldn't be happier with both the pedal and the software.
That said, I'm about to start touring full-time, so if/when i run into any problems, I'll update here.
At the time I made the video, the iOS app would crash more often than it worked. Despite years of asking for it and TC promising, they never gave us a means of backing up our Toneprints. When version four desktop came out the install wiped my toneprints and I lost years of work. When the flashback 2 came out, they removed app support for some pedals and I so couldn’t use my Alter Ego v1 with the app or editor at all. So a very poor experience in my opinion.
@@DrKevGuitar Thanks for the reply! I totally get that. Definitely gonna go through and screenshot all my settings for the toneprints I've made!
I done too. I contact the tc with the "New support" music tribe, and the Said that my alter ego is a legacy and the tone print Will doesn't work. I Will never ever again take a tc pedal.
Obsolescence will be a problem for consumers of an industry that traditionally has had much longer working lifespans of its products.
my Ditto looper broke around 12 months. They weren't interested. Bought a Boss Looper.
You're in the UK? Under European law you are covered by a minimum 2 year warranty (I believe that's 6 years in England and Wales, which brexit won't change) that the store you bought from has to take care of at no cost to you.
Totally agree, Not only do TC pedals fail constantly , customer service is terrible , can’t be found , absolutely unreachable. Will never buy again
same two duds in a row!! great sound, shit product.
Man, I had a bunch of Boss, an orig OCD and a TS808 when I started out. All but the Boss NS2 noise gate and OCD died or went to hiss. The OCD was on its own 18v and the NS is not really an "effects" pedal. Moral of the story is anything can die, but if you use a DAISEY CHAIN (like I did) they might die much more quickerly.
PS - if this was really just a meandering endorsement of the PBJ, I'm sold!
I bought a lot of TC pedals in the day. My Flashback died and my Hall of Fame doesn’t work with a battery. The Spark, Ditto, Helix, and Quintessence still work but are not on my 2 boards. When they sold the company, Tore was gone, and they came out with the Plethora I knew they were done.
I'm an authorised service agent in the UK and repair pretty much all makes of musical equipment to component level.... One make I refuse to repair and warn my customers of ever buying is anything made by TC or Behringer. Service support is rubbish, parts if you can get them are a rip-off, you can't get any diagrams out of them and I don't think even they understand their own equipment / firmware.... If you are happy to toss your equipment into Landfill when the warranty period is up, (should it even live long enough), then ideal....Whilst there are some extremely helpful makers out there, why bother with TC.
As a technician: What pedals/vendors do you recommend?
Have you contacted the TC Support ? Maybe they have a solution for you..
Yes, of course I have. They have no solution for me and have no idea why these issues are occurring. I received no response when I asked about replacement parts.
Fucking excruciating. Are all this guy's videos like this? 😄
Thanks for the view and interaction. It means I can buy an extra coffee at the of the year.
Oh boy, another comedian...
@@DrKevGuitar Buys coffee and complains about it lol
Encoders and digital chips can fail. Analog switches can fail. I don't think that it's a TC thing. I don't care about or buy TC stuff but it's pretty much a given that all things "gear" fail at one point... no matter the price point. Invest in a soldering iron and a bottle of deoxit and you're pretty much set to fix all your gear.
Dude, I've been soldering since I was 7 years old, in the back of my Dad's Schober Theatre Organ. The big issue here is that the controls are completely sealed and cannot be cleaned, I cannot source replacement parts and TC will not help.
@@DrKevGuitar I have a DV Mark amp which also uses sealed controls which is ridiculous when a pot needs to be cleaned or resoldered.
The cheaper ones are more reliable. I have like 10 of the $50
ones & they've all held up perfectly for the last 5 or 6 years.
I upload a live Hardware improvisation, 4 Mondays a month...
October through April. At least one of them is pretty much
always featured. No issues. Bear in mind... I use them
with Synthesizers & Drum Machines.
In old days we had musicians,now we have philosophers with instruments
😂 We always had philosophers. They just write lyrics better than I do.
We've always had philosophers with instruments, but few were paying attention. Frank Zappa, Robert Fripp, John Coltrane, Woody Guthrie and many others.
Agree more 👍
My dog pissed on all my pedals (multiple times). I know there not made for that but the only one that died, including my cheap Danelectro delay, was my T.C. Electronics Ditto x2 looper.
Oh Man! This was hilarious. I imagine you writing a letter to TC explaining your issue. Lol
I collect Dano's & have a few T.C.'s. This very disappointing to hear. You got my attention & Sub! I was considering buying the Plethora. eh,,, maybe not so much now, since Behringer took over. I can't imagine quality will improve.
It is disappointing. Very disappointing. But don't let the anti-Behringer snobbery get in the way. I have two old Behringer pedals (the ADI-21 and the GDI-21, which I bought sometime around 2005) which served me very well through hundreds of gigs and still perform flawlessly today.
I pre ordered the plethora & I would not suggest it to anyone. I never use it. It's too complicated for me to figure out & every configuration I try it never works the way I want it to. It's basically just a $500 paper weight. I keep seeing these videos on TH-cam of people plugging them in & getting great tones & being able to do all kinds of cool stuff. This is not my experience at all.
The tc x5 is awesome !
X5 is great
@@michaelj.anderson1116 Right. I would always prefer the line6 HX FX. Everything you need is on board, great editor but you don't need it.
I feel you bro. I have a TC Electronic T2 Reverb, I was very happy with it until one day stop working, I try to get repaired but that doesn't solve the problems so now I can't trust this pedals, same as you. I really was into that brand, sorry for them.
Yeah, I won’t even consider TC Electronics. I had a ditto looper that crapped out only after a couple years. Bought it for the simplicity and true bypass. It started intermittently having problems and progressively got worse. I threw it right in the garbage. Got a Boss RC-1 and never looked back. Never again, TC Electronics!!!
Did TC ever respond to that?
What, the video? No, I didn’t ever expect them to. And it doesn’t change anything for me, I decided I was moving on, won’t recommend them to my friends or students, and I have replaced them with pedals I am much happier with.
I just got the ditto. Not to happy. Dull and doesn't loop well.
My first return to Sweetwater. Should have bought the Boss
For me, the thing that's kept me away from TC products has been the foot switches. I play violin, so the toneprint and tap tempo never worked right when I tried the Flashback. I think the Polytune is more accurate than anything else in that range, but the switches are just crap. They are loud, and they go bad quickly. I've had the regular one and the mini, and they all go bad. I still have three of the minis (one on each board), but I have them all in the B of A/B switches. They're too loud and crappy to keep in the chain. I mean, they don't suck tone like the Boss tuner, but you can't reliaby use it as a mute switch. It's a shame because their effects are really great. Just have better build quality, and we'd all be really happy!
Toneprint editor sucks...true that. I don't really much like the company...
You have to go in knowing that you'll have no support...you are on your own with bad or non-existant manuals and no way to read out or share any toneprint... If they have what u need and it's cheap well then....but no, I can't recommend them.
It’s a damn shame what Behringer has done to TCE…..
Nope, this has nothing to do with Behringer. These pedals were made long before that.
Yeah, I noticed that with tc electronics lately. The technology is good but the hardware is cheap. The R&D is there but they implement it poorly. They could do better but they're cutting to many corners trying to be cost effective. Their cheaper line of pedals like the tube pilot, and rusty fuzz, etc are great circuits but made with cheap hardware and internal components. Even their more expensive stuff like their brainwaves and quintessence are are brilliant pedals but lack headroom and run the signal at poor sampling speed and bit rate. And even the new reissue of the old scf gold sounds digitally compressed and lacking definition. The chorus and the flanger just sound muffled and flat. TC electronic has is the movie that starts out great but they gave up halfway through production and the second half of the movie is just trash and leaves you feeling unfulfilled. Thank you for the video and sharing how you felt. I need a stereo pitch shifter and a harmony pedal and a Flanger and I really feel let down.
Damn I had just bought the TC Sentry and am only now seeing this video. I was never attracted to the concept of the toneprint. I know all too well that in a matter of a few years an app can be abandoned in its maintenance and updates and then you’re left with something obsolete. Nevertheless, every review of the sentry seemed to be stellar even without the TonePrint aspect, so I bought it. And now I’m second guessing the purchase.
tc's rack processors and software are superb. Can't speak for their pedals... No company is perfect.
Cause tc is behringer now.....i stop using tc since nova series ends....i wish they back to denmark and leave the behringer
Nonsense! These pedals were made before TC Electronic was acquired by Behringer (which was 2015). And I have Behringer pedals in bought in 2005 that lasted longer than these TC Electronic pedals! (I have an ADI-21 which I use as EQ and DI for mandolin, played literally hundreds of gigs with that it still works great).
I agree.
Glad to see I’m not the only one disappointed. I have a spark mini boost that won’t switch on and off when I need it to. It’s really only seen a couple years worth of gigs. I learned that it’s it difficult to replace the switch because of the design and apparently cheaper to just buy another spark mini which I will not do. Fool me once TC.
Bough the looper by them. Opened it. Turned it on once at a gig. Popped signal super loud and sounded like shit. Embarrassing. Returned it the next day. Terrible