TC Electronic Sucks

[Larryz]

@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?

 

I know what you mean Winston...I usually scroll down to the one star bad news reviews and work back up to the 5 stars. Thing I like about SW (and others) is the reviews come from all over the country and everything from beginner to pro in the experience levels info helps...some sites like Amazon let you click on the 1 2 3 4 or 5 stars so you don't even need to scroll down. I like to check out products and pedals on the YouTube demos too...

 

ps. I put more stock in what our forum members have to say than I do on the mail order reviews (some of the product reviews are probably solicited, kind of a Yelp sort of thing)!

 

[Winston Psmith]

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.

 

@Dannyalcatraz - I was aware of that, which is why I cited Consumer Reports as the sole example of the kind of review I had in mind.

 

It may be possible for someone to start a YouTube site, with subscribers, for something like we're discussing, but I honestly don't see anyone trying to do it as a print magazine, at this point in the publishing world. Start-up would be expensive, to say the least, and finding subscribers? Maybe if St. Jude is on your side . . .

 

The flip side of this is that there doesn't seem to any sort of reporting from the industry? If a major movie studio is losing money, we hear about it somewhere, in the Business section, in the Entertainment News Nightly segment of whatever news program you watch, or on a fan-driven website. Recalls on some automotive screw-up, you'll hear about it. A high-ranking major Music manufacturer sells out to a budget brand, and QC drops like a stone? I guess that's not newsworthy, somehow.

 

You might hear rumors, if you have friends who work in Music retail, otherwise, you go into your FLMS, pick up a box by a company you've known for a long time, and . . . wait a minute, I thought these were made in Michigan, or Eau Claire, someplace in the mid-West, when did they start coming from China?

 

[Winston Psmith]

@Larryz - the worst, to me, are the Amazon reviews. Many of them are dubious, to begin with, but in some cases, it's clear that the reviewer isn't even talking about the same product I'm looking at?!?!? I don't even know how those get on the site, or why they're not cleared out.

 

We've even had one case of solicited reviews, here in the Forum. There was a fellow some time back, trying to bring a new Guitar cable to market, and was offering them to us free, or at a very nominal cost (I think I paid 75 cents) through Amazon, in return for online reviews. Red Dragon Cables, IIRC? Not bothering to scroll back through a couple of years of threads to find it, but it's right there on Amazon, still. I'll admit, I never posted a review because I felt it was just an okay product, but didn't want to complain about a functional 75-cent Instrument Cable. FWIW, I keep it at home as a spare, would never rely on it for a live show.

[Larryz]

@ Winston, I remember those cables and looked them up on Amazon. They run $20 bucks for 20'. I read the one star reviews and it looks bad for those guys LOL! They got decent reviews for the most part. But as I said, I trust your comments over all the others! I have only written a couple of reviews here and there when asked, but I try not to unless I have used the product for more than a year and even then I'm reluctant to do so. On the TC tuner I would give it 4 stars as my only complaint is the on/off switch is too small IMHO. I have to use my finger nail to work it. I have used it for about a year now and it's still running on the original battery. Big screen and easy to use. It does a lot more than I need so I don't use all the functions. I stay in standard tuning at 440, so I wouldn't be the best person to write a review LOL!

[Caevan O’Shite]

We've even had one case of solicited reviews, here in the Forum. There was a fellow some time back, trying to bring a new Guitar cable to market, and was offering them to us free, or at a very nominal cost (I think I paid 75 cents) through Amazon, in return for online reviews. Red Dragon Cables, IIRC? Not bothering to scroll back through a couple of years of threads to find it, but it's right there on Amazon, still. I'll admit, I never posted a review because I felt it was just an okay product, but didn't want to complain about a functional 75-cent Instrument Cable. FWIW, I keep it at home as a spare, would never rely on it for a live show.

 

@ Winston, I remember those cables and looked them up on Amazon. They run $20 bucks for 20'. I read the one star reviews and it looks bad for those guys LOL! They got decent reviews for the most part. But as I said, I trust your comments over all the others! I have only written a couple of reviews here and there when asked, but I try not to unless I have used the product for more than a year and even then I'm reluctant to do so.

 

I recall those cables, as well. In good will, I paid for shipping. I got an inexcusably BAD cable, totally unusable, so bad that it would have been better if it simply hadn't worked at all. I compared it to several other cables, plugged into several different devices, and it was so bad as to be insulting that it had been sent to me- especially as I'd even paid for "shipping & handling".

 

I should have posted MY review on the Amazon 'site, but let it go.

[Winston Psmith]

I recall those cables, as well. In good will, I paid for shipping. I got an inexcusably BAD cable, totally unusable, so bad that it would have been better if it simply hadn't worked at all. I compared it to several other cables, plugged into several different devices, and it was so bad as to be insulting that it had been sent to me- especially as I'd even paid for "shipping & handling".

 

I should have posted MY review on the Amazon 'site, but let it go.

 

Sorry to bring up a sore subject. I remember you were really displeased with that cable, bad sound, poor wrapping, just wrong, all around. FWIW, I see that their only distribution is through Amazon, not generally a good sign.

 

Back On Topic, I have to wonder what the folks at TC were thinking? They went from being a world-class company to making cheap, all-but-disposable pedals, and lost much of their reputation in the process. While they may be seeing a wider market share for now, if the products aren't good, those aren't going to be repeat customers, much less life-long users.

 

It's not all on Behringer, even though they're sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of Music Manufacturers. They've tried their hand at little bits of everything, with varying degrees of success, depending on the product line, or so it seems.

 

A lot of my friends in the EM world use Behringer Synths, and they've proven to be very nice, affordable RI's, like the Model D, or very cool and innovative products, like the Neutron or the Deepmind series. I've been using one little Behringer Mixer, live and at home, for over 14 years now - bought January '05 - with only the occasional wipe-down to maintain it, no faults, no breakdowns. At just under $70 with tax, that's just under 50 cents a year, for each year of use, and it's still going strong: I'll be taking it out for our show tomorrow.

 

 

Side note: While you may see something that claims to be a more compact RI of the famous T.C. Electronic SCF Stereo Chorus/Flanger/Pitch Modulator, it's just the recent Corona Chorus with slightly different graphics on the chassis. Don't be fooled . . .

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Side note: While you may see something that claims to be a more compact RI of the famous T.C. Electronic SCF Stereo Chorus/Flanger/Pitch Modulator, it's just the recent Corona Chorus with slightly different graphics on the chassis. Don't be fooled . . .

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

Sorry to bring up a sore subject.

Nothing to be sorry about in the slightest!

 

While you may see something that claims to be a more compact RI of the famous T.C. Electronic SCF Stereo Chorus/Flanger/Pitch Modulator, it's just the recent Corona Chorus with slightly different graphics on the chassis. Don't be fooled . . .

Despicable!

[Al A.]

Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum, but have a bad experience with tc as well. Two years ago, I got a Nova Delay. The first problem I experienced was getting it off of the global setting so that I could have all nine presets. The FIRST place that I tried to get some instructions aside from the manual was with TC customer support. I never actually heard from anyone at tc after emailing them. I finally found the instructions in a place that had nothing to do with nothing.

 

So now, two years later, it isn't holding presets. It automatically is on 1536 milliseconds. When I turn on the preset mode, which SHOULD bring up the first preset, it is still 1536 milliseconds. I am not going through what is described in all of these posts. It is coming off of my board.

 

Like many people who were around gigging/playing in the 80s, I too thought of TC Electronic as a sort of boutique brand BEFORE there was such a thing. At the time the Chorus/Flanger was VERY expensive, VERY highly rated/praised among the playing community, and known for reliability.

 

It is a shame that they have taken the direction they have. There is NO way between seeing REALISTIC user experiences along with my personal experience of having an expensive delay pedal die after two yrs., that I will ever use a tc product. I will also never recommend their product. Even though I would live to have an old Chorys/Flanger, there is no way that I would pimp their product by way of having their product on my board period.

[Larryz]

Welcome Aboard Al A! TC definitely burned their bridges with a lot of our forum members so you're in good company!

[Al A.]

The Nova Delay is my first and last TC product. I only wish that I had found this post BEFORE I spent the dough. It truly is garbage.

[DinoMike]

I can't speak for all TC E pedals but I have a Mojomojo, a Thunderstorm Flanger, and 3rd Dimension Chorus pedal and have had them all over 18 months and they perform great. Never a problem with a switch, pots, or input or output. The flanger and chorus never leave my board and perform flawless. I wouldn't hesitate at all to try any of their products.