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I was going to get the small Flashback delay. Now maybe not.....

 

Save your money. It's part of the TonePrint series, which has the footswitch mounted on the circuit board - if it breaks, it's dead.

I'm a 230lb dude who wears cowboy boots........ Thanks!

 

:taz: Now that's a recipe for disaster to make gremlins drool! :D

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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New here - stumbled on this via Google while admiring my lovely TCE Ditto looper paper weight on my desk.

 

In a nutshell - here's the story:

Bought it summer of 2013 and loved it. Shoulda known better. Several years ago I went through TWO Voicelive units that failed. Anyway, loved this little looping delight ... until i didn't. One day the LED just went red and playback stopped. Still through-putting sound but no longer functioning at all. No LED after a couple secs. Just dead. I tried switching power supplies to no avail. Then i contacted TCE - they took 5 days to reply. They said check the power supply. I replied that I had. They took several more days to say "Check it again". I replied that I had. They took several more days to reply and said "Go out and get a BOSS standard power supply and check it. I didn't. I told them it had worked fine for several months on this supply. They said it was probably the power supply. I said I tried the same power supply on other pedals and it works fine. They waited several days and said "Its probably the power supply". I replied "Just fix the pedal, 'kay?" to which they (several days later) replied "Contact this repair facility at this email". I did. They said "You need to supply the original sales receipt so we know its under our standard one year warranty". I replied "the pedal's not been on the market 8 MONTHS YET SO YEAH, I THINK IT'S UNDER WARRANTY!". They replied "No original sales receipt, no repair." I contacted the original customer service rep I'd been emailing with weeks earlier. He said "We'll do whatever it takes to make it right, just explain that you no longer have the receipt - it'll be fine." So i recontacted the repair people who said "No, not fine at all. no receipt, no repair. We have no way of knowing if its under warranty". Back to original dude, who says "Well they are subcontracted by us so they can't be expected to be familiar with our products"...

 

So now it sits here as a reminder of how easily a once great organization can alienate the very people who allow them to exist at all, their customers (or in my case, a former customer).

 

BTW - I did send an email to their corporate HQ, and never heard a thing from them.

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Wow! They really, REALLY SUCK!!

 

New here - stumbled on this via Google while admiring my lovely TCE Ditto looper paper weight on my desk.

 

In a nutshell - here's the story:

Bought it summer of 2013 and loved it. Shoulda known better. Several years ago I went through TWO Voicelive units that failed. Anyway, loved this little looping delight ... until i didn't. One day the LED just went red and playback stopped. Still through-putting sound but no longer functioning at all. No LED after a couple secs. Just dead. I tried switching power supplies to no avail. Then i contacted TCE - they took 5 days to reply. They said check the power supply. I replied that I had. They took several more days to say "Check it again". I replied that I had. They took several more days to reply and said "Go out and get a BOSS standard power supply and check it. I didn't. I told them it had worked fine for several months on this supply. They said it was probably the power supply. I said I tried the same power supply on other pedals and it works fine. They waited several days and said "Its probably the power supply". I replied "Just fix the pedal, 'kay?" to which they (several days later) replied "Contact this repair facility at this email". I did. They said "You need to supply the original sales receipt so we know its under our standard one year warranty". I replied "the pedal's not been on the market 8 MONTHS YET SO YEAH, I THINK IT'S UNDER WARRANTY!". They replied "No original sales receipt, no repair." I contacted the original customer service rep I'd been emailing with weeks earlier. He said "We'll do whatever it takes to make it right, just explain that you no longer have the receipt - it'll be fine." So i recontacted the repair people who said "No, not fine at all. no receipt, no repair. We have no way of knowing if its under warranty". Back to original dude, who says "Well they are subcontracted by us so they can't be expected to be familiar with our products"...

 

So now it sits here as a reminder of how easily a once great organization can alienate the very people who allow them to exist at all, their customers (or in my case, a former customer).

 

BTW - I did send an email to their corporate HQ, and never heard a thing from them.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Welcome to NCStratDude and bdotson. Sorry to hear they got you guys as well.

 

bdotson, your customer service experience seems similar to mine. A situation where they took forever to respond to you and kept delaying and delaying in hopes you'd just go away. If what they are saying is correct and it is just a small company, it's possible you and I dealt with the same guy.

 

Amazing they treat their customers this way. They've probably lost thousands of dollars in sales just from the complaints in this post alone. Add that to the many others out there and these guys aren't going to be around for long if they keep it up.

 

Oh well. As long as they continue to treat us this way, we will keep reminding others of how bad they really are.

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I had a Hardwire Digitech Dl4 delay pedal that was bricked after about 4 months. Guess what Digitech did... Gave me a Return Authorization # and setup an exchange over the phone. Didn't even have to provide a receipt or go through the dealer. Just made 1 phone call and talked to 1 person for about 5 minutes. From the time the pedal broke and the new one arrived it took 1 week.

 

I can't imagine TC selling Chinese made pedals with absolutely no customer service/tech support. That decision is going to ruin them.

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DOD in Utah- whether you like their stuff or not was the Pinnacle of support in the 80's. They just fixed stuff.

 

I used their RDS rack mount delays. The last time my rack fell out of moving truck. Broke it good. I just sent the delay in with a note with my contact info and stated that it needed to be repaired ( way out of warranty). They just fixed it no charge. I still have that RDS-900.

 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I was going to get the small Flashback delay. Now maybe not.....

 

Save your money. It's part of the TonePrint series, which has the footswitch mounted on the circuit board - if it breaks, it's dead.

I'm a 230lb dude who wears cowboy boots........ Thanks!

 

:taz: Now that's a recipe for disaster to make gremlins drool! :D

 

Whew!

 

I'm a 260lb guy who wears cowboy boots! I guess I really have (slow-mo Matrix time) do edge a bullet...

Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ

 

My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx

 

http://murphysmusictx.com/

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I had a Hardwire Digitech Dl4 delay pedal that was bricked after about 4 months. Guess what Digitech did... Gave me a Return Authorization # and setup an exchange over the phone. Didn't even have to provide a receipt or go through the dealer. Just made 1 phone call and talked to 1 person for about 5 minutes. From the time the pedal broke and the new one arrived it took 1 week.

 

I can't imagine TC selling Chinese made pedals with absolutely no customer service/tech support. That decision is going to ruin them.

DOD in Utah- whether you like their stuff or not was the Pinnacle of support in the 80's. They just fixed stuff.

 

I used their RDS rack mount delays. The last time my rack fell out of moving truck. Broke it good. I just sent the delay in with a note with my contact info and stated that it needed to be repaired ( way out of warranty). They just fixed it no charge. I still have that RDS-900.

 

Now THAT'S the way to treat your customers! :cool:

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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DOD in Utah- whether you like their stuff or not was the Pinnacle of support in the 80's. They just fixed stuff.

 

I used their RDS rack mount delays. The last time my rack fell out of moving truck. Broke it good. I just sent the delay in with a note with my contact info and stated that it needed to be repaired ( way out of warranty). They just fixed it no charge. I still have that RDS-900.

 

Just bookmarked their website.

Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ

 

My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx

 

http://murphysmusictx.com/

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Now that was around 25 years ago. It may not be the same company today. Somewhere they changed their name to Digitech and started doing different product lines. But the old DOD stuff was made in Utah.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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It's a shame that in today's market most companies are more interested in immediate profit versus long term customer loyalty. Cheaper construction and lack of customer service.

 

The other bad thing about TC is that they make it virtually impossible for even technically proficient people to repair anything themselves. So you HAVE to use their service center and basically are stuck paying whatever they choose to charge you if you want a working unit.

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Now that was around 25 years ago. It may not be the same company today. Somewhere they changed their name to Digitech and started doing different product lines. But the old DOD stuff was made in Utah.

 

Digitech is still made in Utah, and their customer service was still top-notch, as of a few years back. I have one of the old RDS 1900 Delays, and couldn't find the manual anywhere. I emailed Digitech, and got a PDF file of the manual within a day or so. At another time, I had a pedal in for a warranty repair, and a live human being called me on the phone, to say my pedal was on its way back to me. FWIW, Digitech is part of the Harman group, which includes Lexicon, and Lexicon also rates very high for customer service.

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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  • 2 months later...

Was browsing for a fix for yet another TC product, and couldn't resist joining the fray into TC misery. BTW--looks like a great site here . . . don't know why it didn't pop up much in other info searches.

 

Anyway . . . have the HOF Reverb Mini. Loved the idea. Only need a Verb sound a few times a night, and having a simple one-knob unit seemed perfect. Found a great Toneprint sound, and figured I had a great Verb solution in a small footprint.

 

First gig, I noticed the dreaded high-pitched whining sound I've become familiar with via other people's complaints. Only solution was to use it with it's own separate power supply. Like I'm gonna run another wall-wart to my board just for the HOF Mini :laugh: . If I'm gonna run another PS to stage front, it's gonna be for something cool and worthwhile (Strymon stuff, Rotosphere, whatever). Anyway . . . like everyone else, I'm stuck with a $100 piece of junk (it can't even be used as a doorstop . . . too light).

 

I was actually thinking about adding a TC Nova Delay to save some space and lighten the weight versus the Timefactor and/or various single delays I use. Actually, I don't know what I was thinking, because all you have to do these days is Google "TC Electronics problems" and you'll get a lifetime's worth of pages to read. I know a huge chunk of these issues deal with the more recent Toneprint stuff, but I just can't trust these guys anymore. Needless to say, I've come to my senses and won't be buying a Nova, that's for sure!

 

I don't know what's up with these TC clowns. The $100 is peanuts, but why make such utter crap that doesn't even work. A rhetorical question, but the same one everyone's asking.

 

BTW--the one recent product I bought from TC that actually worked was the Flashback. Although it did indeed work, it was so "blah" and useless sounding, that I flipped it after one gig.

 

Adios TC . . . nice knowing ya. Won't be inviting you over to dinner anytime soon . . .

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Like I'm gonna run another wall-wart to my board just for the HOF Mini :laugh: . If I'm gonna run another PS to stage front, it's gonna be for something cool and worthwhile (Strymon stuff, Rotosphere, whatever).

 

I have and absolutely :love:LOVE :love: a Strymon El Capistan. And I love the sound of the H&K Rotosphere, like Warren Haynes uses to great effect with Gov't Mule; I just might have to get one someday.

 

I do use a separate PS for my Strymon El Capistan- and also another for the Boss RT-20 Leslie-sim pedal- both of which reside in my amp's effects-loop; I find I get the best sound and the least noise that way. (All other pedals, that go in front of the amp's input, are run off either a Visual Sound 1 Spot PS, or whatever specific PS's are required for given pedals, such as AC, higher voltage, etc.)

 

Anyway . . . like everyone else, I'm stuck with a $100 piece of junk (it can't even be used as a doorstop . . . too light).

 

Sorry to hear that!!

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 years later...

I bought a Hall of Fame Reverb 2 from a neighbor, only to discover the MASH feature did not work, regardless of settings (Yes, it's turned on. At first I was able to use Tone Print editor, now the pedal won't even show up on that, so I can't even get a serial number, much less anything else. Tried to find out about service via Music Tribe- no luck after numerous attempts, the web page never responds after you fill out all the online forms. I called a service place for TC Electronics and they said they can't do anything until I get an RMA- which has proved impossible.

 

No other means of contacting TC, not even in Denmark via web.

 

Piece of crap company. This is my only, and last TC Electronics pedal.

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I have only bought one TC Electronic product and it's the Unitune Clip on tuner...I'm very satisfied with it and prefer it over the Snark (which was also a great little clip on tuner). I would not buy a pedal from TC after reading all of the negative feedback on this thread. :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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I have only bought one TC Electronic product and it's the Unitune Clip on tuner...I'm very satisfied with it and prefer it over the Snark (which was also a great little clip on tuner). I would not buy a pedal from TC after reading all of the negative feedback on this thread. :cool:

 

I had and :love: LOVED :love: one of the last original 1980's TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger ("Plus Pitch Modulator"! :D:thu::cool: ) that I bought brand-new in what, 1988? 1989? That's saying A LOT, as I absolutely detest most chorus pedals and effects.

 

It was later lost due to a house-fire, and then replaced by a then-current-production 'reissue', which was also quite good, but somehow not quite as good- I tried to be very objective, but I'm certain that the '80s iteration that I'd had was a little more sparkling and shimmering sounding.

 

I would not ever, EVER buy ANYTHING new from TC Electronic EVER AGAIN, NEVER, for reasons listed above and elsewhere. Only old, used '70s and '80s specimens.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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I have a TC Electronics Flashback X4, bought it new. At one point it got a bit glitchy with a thrift store power supply (I misplaced the original).

I tried a Boss power supply and zero problems. Played a lot of gigs with it, it did what I needed a delay to do and I added a chorus using Tone Print. No problems there either.

 

Then I got a Boss Katana amp and no longer needed external effects. One cord to a six button footswitch and I have more goodies than I know what to do with. I use 2 of the patches with a delay available on one of them. Currently dialing in a Peavey Vypyr VIP3 for stereo (laugh if you want, it's a great amp if you start from scratch on the presets and understand how Transtube works). Same deal, one cable to the foot controller and I have more toys than I'll ever need.

 

So I am mostly done with pedal boards for now. Got a Boss DD5 recently at Goodwill for $25 but haven't gotten the tap tempo to work yet. That is an important feature, both the Katana and Vypyr have it and it works great. The Flashback has it, also great.

 

I took a random look at 9 pages of disappointment and I hope my pedal keeps working!!! I know how it feels when a company disappoints, do not like!!!! FWIW, overall I've had the best service by far from Discount Tires (OT AF!!!) and everything Boss I've ever owned was bulletproof, even the OD-1 I paid $12 for that looked like somebody dragged it behind their car for 20 miles of rough road.

Used to have a RAT that would not die too, somebody is probably still usingi it.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I have to admit, I was sorely tempted when TC/Behringer brought out their cheap-o version of the Dimension C, the Third Dimension, for around $60US. The original DC-2 was a great pedal, and the Waza Craft RI costs about as much as an original vintage one, but I didn't want to be stuck with a big, light purple doorstop in a few months, so I never even tried a Third Dimension.

 

This brings up a major failing with gear reviews, across the board: nearly everything sounds great, or should, when it's brand-new, out of the box. I've never seen a review of product longevity, except as after-the-fact posts by unhappy users. I've seen a lot of user reviews of bargain pedals and processors that worked anywhere from a few hours to a few months, before dying completely.

 

It may not seem altogether practical, and I honestly don't see how anyone would make money at it, but I'd really love to see a Musician's version of Consumer Reports, where the reviewers buy a piece of gear, use it like we would, then come back and tell us how it did. I wonder how many glowing reviews we'd see in that context?

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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I have only bought one TC Electronic product and it's the Unitune Clip on tuner...I'm very satisfied with it and prefer it over the Snark (which was also a great little clip on tuner). I would not buy a pedal from TC after reading all of the negative feedback on this thread. :cool:

 

I would not ever, EVER buy ANYTHING new from TC Electronic EVER AGAIN, NEVER, for reasons listed above and elsewhere. Only old, used '70s and '80s specimens.

 

+1 Caevan, but I still like the tuner LOL!

 

 

 

It may not seem altogether practical, and I honestly don't see how anyone would make money at it, but I'd really love to see a Musician's version of Consumer Reports, where the reviewers buy a piece of gear, use it like we would, then come back and tell us how it did. I wonder how many glowing reviews we'd see in that context?

 

+1 Winston, for now the closest thing for me that comes close, are the reviews on SW, MF and GC. Here's a 79 review average of 4.5 stars on the tuner by TC at SW...

 

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UniTuneClip--tc-electronic-unitune-clip-clip-on-chromatic-tuner/reviews

 

:cool: :cool:

 

 

 

Take care, Larryz
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It may not seem altogether practical, and I honestly don't see how anyone would make money at it, but I'd really love to see a Musician's version of Consumer Reports, where the reviewers buy a piece of gear, use it like we would, then come back and tell us how it did. I wonder how many glowing reviews we'd see in that context?

 

I had the idea to do something like that more than a decade and a half ago, but nobody thought it was worth investing in. :idk:

Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ

 

My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx

 

http://murphysmusictx.com/

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@Larryz - For comparison, I looked up the HOF Reverb 2, that Neil Slade posted about. Out of 47 reviews, most offered 5 stars, a handful offered 3 based on tone or other limitations, but there was only a single 1-star review, from a user whose experience mirrored Neil's, where the pedal worked briefly, then not at all. The way the reviews were ranked on the website, without my changing settings or preferences, I had to scroll through the other 46 to get down to the one 1-star review at the bottom. If I'd just looked at the top 5 or 10, I'd have seen nothing but glowing 5-star reviews.

 

Not knocking Sweetwater on this, as these are unsolicited (AFAIK) user reviews, but the overall score didn't seem to reflect real-world user experience?

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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I have to admit, I was sorely tempted when TC/Behringer brought out their cheap-o version of the Dimension C, the Third Dimension, for around $60US. The original DC-2 was a great pedal, and the Waza Craft RI costs about as much as an original vintage one, but I didn't want to be stuck with a big, light purple doorstop in a few months, so I never even tried a Third Dimension.

 

The Dimension C is a truly great pedal. I was lucky to find one before they became unobtainium. I just ran across a pedal which, although intended for a different application, gets into some of the same subtle chorus realm without the obvious & boringly regular up/down sweep of an LFO. https://robertkeeley.com/30ms_Automatic_Double_Tracker . Although intended to sound like tape machine double tracking, it does get to that kind of Dimension C chorus which has more subtlety & depth than a single LFO sweep. Probably about what vintage Dimension C's cost now too. And I'm sure the Keeley will last longer than anything by Behringer.

Scott Fraser
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It may not seem altogether practical, and I honestly don't see how anyone would make money at it, but I'd really love to see a Musician's version of Consumer Reports, where the reviewers buy a piece of gear, use it like we would, then come back and tell us how it did. I wonder how many glowing reviews we'd see in that context?

 

I had the idea to do something like that more than a decade and a half ago, but nobody thought it was worth investing in. :idk:

 

As most print magazines depend heavily on advertising, and advertising is also driving some of the most popular YouTube sites, as well, having a counter-advertising enterprise is unlikely to make money. The reverse is likely to be true.

 

Consider TC/Behringer, in this case. According to info from the makers at JHS Pedals, Behringer seems to have control over the current production of BBD's, the essential element in any Analog Delay, Chorus or Flanger. It doesn't matter who made the pedal, or the enclosure, the BBD's inside almost certainly came from Behringer. I can't imagine getting much industry support, if we're slamming one of Behringer's sub-divisions, when anybody making a BBD-based pedal depends on Behringer's supply chain, and presumably, their goodwill.

 

I don't see a groundswell of support, going further down the supply chain. No small independent retailer is going to chance their relationship with their distributors - who can snatch a popular product line off of your shelf quicker than you can re-string a Floyd Rose - by supporting an independent gear reviewer, who isn't going to kowtow to industry giants when they release junk. "Yes, the new Oblivious XYZ-123 is simply the GREATEST thing since the 1983 Whatchamacallit . . . until it crashes and burns, literally ignites and burns, in about five weeks, taking your practice space with it."

 

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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The thing about Consumer Reports is that their corporate structure addresses that very issue: they get no money from ads. They have no corporate sponsors.

 

Thus, they have no problems badmouthing a product they feel deserves it. They"re beholden to no manufacturers.

 

I was planning on essentially the same business model.

Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ

 

My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx

 

http://murphysmusictx.com/

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