Are these new cheap TC pedals actually rubbish?

iheartreverb

So, I need to replace my chorus. It's an effect I use a lot and my EHX Neo Clone has developed a popping noise not to mention being a very noises pedal to begin with.
Anyway. I was considering the TC Electronic Afterglow (purely on price point) and then they release a Boss Dimension C Clone! I'm so excited for that pedal but early reports of the first run of cheap TC stuff were rehaused Behringer stuff. I'm not a snob at all about this stuff but having used Behringer stuff when I was a lot younger, the tone suck rendered their pedals basically unusable.

Does anyone have experience or thoughts on these cheap TC offerings?

John_A

Haven't tried any, but the 2 things about the Behringer pedals I hated were plastic boxes and the buffered bypass was awful, these are metal cases and true bypass.  The 3rd dimension sounds great in the demo

kennedydream1980

I’ve used the Prophet delay and it was excellent.

dindude

I have the Afterglow and really like it. Think more Ryan Adams that sickly sparkly 80’s chorus effect and you won’t be dissapointed.

english_bob

I don't think "re-housed" is a helpful term in this case. 

This is a rehoused pedal. It's all the circuitry from the old pedal in a new box. Nothing has been changed except perhaps some new wires between the offboard components and the PCB:



(in this case it looks like it might have been converted to true bypass too, which isn't strictly a straight re-house)

Using the term "re-housed" to describe a pedal with a brand new PCB containing a circuit copied from elsewhere, but with differences in component values, or with significant parts of the circuit changed (eg. true bypass rather than buffered) basically makes it meaningless- that pedal never had another "house" to be "re-housed" from! By the same logic, nine out of every ten boutique overdrives is a "re-housed" Tubescreamer.

The TC pedals may use the similar circuits to the old Behringer pedals, but they were mostly copied from old BOSS pedals anyway, so it's no less (in)accurate (but much less stigmatizing) to describe them as rehoused BOSS pedals. Given that they've also been modified to some extent from the designs they're based on, it would probably be best just to ignore the Behringer connection altogether and use your ears to decide.



(Incidentally, the picture comes from Analogman's site: http://www.analogman.com/beattube.htm)

TTBZ

Nothing wrong with the sound of the Behringer pedals I've used (tubescreamer and the eq) - my only complaint was the buffered bypass wasn't amazing. 

ThePrettyDamned

TTBZ said:

Nothing wrong with the sound of the Behringer pedals I've used (tubescreamer and the eq) - my only complaint was the buffered bypass wasn't amazing. 

I had a behringer tuner with awful bypass, but I also had a distortion pedal that was fine for bypass - I think it was a rat-a-like.

Possibly poor quality bits? @ICBM may know why that may be the case. It was buffered though. 

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

I had a behringer tuner with awful bypass, but I also had a distortion pedal that was fine for bypass - I think it was a rat-a-like.

Possibly poor quality bits? @ICBM may know why that may be the case. It was buffered though. 

No sure, I've never tried one outside a shop situation just to see if it was working. They aren't really worth repairing so I haven't had much need to open one up - although they don't seem to break very often… unlike TCs.

If chorus is important to you just buy a Boss or some other decent brand and be done with it. They're not expensive.

Gadget

ICBM said:

...If chorus is important to you just buy a Boss or some other decent brand and be done with it. They're not expensive.

Alas, the DC-2 has got pretty expensive.

tampaxboo

i've got half a dozen behringer plastic pedals and i have never had one break. the plastic is ABS so unless you are jumping on it or dropping it a long way onto concrete it is strong stuff.
but aluminium enclosures shatter and crack if dropped on concrete anyway. ABS being flexi (safety hat material) may actually be a better bet in that break scenario.

i've only worked on one (diode switch). board was surface mount compnents so not as easy to work on as joyos (usually thru-hole components), but board held up ok.
it probably wouldn't take an intensive DIY soldering session without risk of a melted-out track, but for small stuff (adding switchs, subbing pots, diode swaps) it's not a big deal.

behringers are a great way to get all those old interesting but discontinued bosses (now hideuosly overpriced) for £15 or something silly. plus at that price they are great modding candidates and won't break your heart if one ever does break.

as for noise and buffers, i never play that clean so if it's there it's lost in the mix long before it reaches my ears. and as mine are mostly modulation, buffers at the end of the chain seem to not be a big deal in my experience.

TC's are notorious for having crap stomp switches from what i have read on pedal forums.

EricTheWeary

tampaxboo said:

i've got half a dozen behringer plastic pedals and i have never had one break. the plastic is ABS so unless you are jumping on it or dropping it a long way onto concrete it is strong stuff.
but aluminium enclosures shatter and crack if dropped on concrete anyway. ABS being flexi (safety hat material) may actually be a better bet in that break scenario.

i've only worked on one (diode switch). board was surface mount compnents so not as easy to work on as joyos (usually thru-hole components), but board held up ok.
it probably wouldn't take an intensive DIY soldering session without risk of a melted-out track, but for small stuff (adding switchs, subbing pots, diode swaps) it's not a big deal.

behringers are a great way to get all those old interesting but discontinued bosses (now hideuosly overpriced) for £15 or something silly. plus at that price they are great modding candidates and won't break your heart if one ever does break.

as for noise and buffers, i never play that clean so if it's there it's lost in the mix long before it reaches my ears. and as mine are mostly modulation, buffers at the end of the chain seem to not be a big deal in my experience.

TC's are notorious for having crap stomp switches from what i have read on pedal forums.

TC say that crap switches were one batch years ago and it just persists as internet wisdom despite being ancient history. 
Although I remember some of the early TonePrint pedals didn’t work properly either. 

Travisthedog

Afterglow I have is one of the best chorus pedals I’ve owned 

beautifully subtle

Teetonetal

EricTheWeary said:

tampaxboo said:

i've got half a dozen behringer plastic pedals and i have never had one break. the plastic is ABS so unless you are jumping on it or dropping it a long way onto concrete it is strong stuff.
but aluminium enclosures shatter and crack if dropped on concrete anyway. ABS being flexi (safety hat material) may actually be a better bet in that break scenario.

i've only worked on one (diode switch). board was surface mount compnents so not as easy to work on as joyos (usually thru-hole components), but board held up ok.
it probably wouldn't take an intensive DIY soldering session without risk of a melted-out track, but for small stuff (adding switchs, subbing pots, diode swaps) it's not a big deal.

behringers are a great way to get all those old interesting but discontinued bosses (now hideuosly overpriced) for £15 or something silly. plus at that price they are great modding candidates and won't break your heart if one ever does break.

as for noise and buffers, i never play that clean so if it's there it's lost in the mix long before it reaches my ears. and as mine are mostly modulation, buffers at the end of the chain seem to not be a big deal in my experience.

TC's are notorious for having crap stomp switches from what i have read on pedal forums.

TC say that crap switches were one batch years ago and it just persists as internet wisdom despite being ancient history. 
Although I remember some of the early TonePrint pedals didn’t work properly either. 

Yes. They said it in an andertons video. 
2 things... ive had issues with multiple pedals from different years.  Where was the product recall for that faulty batch.. or free exchange for the affected serial number group? I reckon tc switches are crap..just one batch was worse than normal.

Ibanez made a faulty bridge on the SR series of basses. They replace for free if the serial fits.

Telejester

op if you need a chorus for life that sounds amazing, buy a mxr 234 analogue chorus

thecolourbox

tampaxboo said:

i've got half a dozen behringer plastic pedals and i have never had one break. the plastic is ABS so unless you are jumping on it or dropping it a long way onto concrete it is strong stuff.
but aluminium enclosures shatter and crack if dropped on concrete anyway. ABS being flexi (safety hat material) may actually be a better bet in that break scenario.

i've only worked on one (diode switch). board was surface mount compnents so not as easy to work on as joyos (usually thru-hole components), but board held up ok.
it probably wouldn't take an intensive DIY soldering session without risk of a melted-out track, but for small stuff (adding switchs, subbing pots, diode swaps) it's not a big deal.

behringers are a great way to get all those old interesting but discontinued bosses (now hideuosly overpriced) for £15 or something silly. plus at that price they are great modding candidates and won't break your heart if one ever does break.

as for noise and buffers, i never play that clean so if it's there it's lost in the mix long before it reaches my ears. and as mine are mostly modulation, buffers at the end of the chain seem to not be a big deal in my experience.

TC's are notorious for having crap stomp switches from what i have read on pedal forums.

When people say they break I don't think they usually mean the plastic, I think they mean they stop working, which every one of theirs I've had apart from the memory man clone did

ICBM

Teetonetal said:

EricTheWeary said:

TC say that crap switches were one batch years ago and it just persists as internet wisdom despite being ancient history. 

Although I remember some of the early TonePrint pedals didn’t work properly either. 

Yes. They said it in an andertons video. 
2 things... ive had issues with multiple pedals from different years.  Where was the product recall for that faulty batch.. or free exchange for the affected serial number group? I reckon tc switches are crap..just one batch was worse than normal.

They may have said it - but they would, wouldn't they…

It's not only the switches that break either - I think I've seen as many, or more, problems that were not switch-related. Random cutting out, weird glitching noises, lights-on-but-nobody-home, etc. Just not reliable pedals.

bbill335

Telejester said:

op if you need a chorus for life that sounds amazing, buy a mxr 234 analogue chorus

If you need a chorus for life, stop living in the 80s!

iheartreverb

Hi guys. I read a few replies and it seems to have rocketed in a day or so. Anyway,
I know the difference between rehaused and modified. I was under the impression that these new TC models were the existing circuits in a new boxes. If this isn't true then fine.

i want the Dimension to be great because of the band stuff I like that have used them. I am open to other ideas such as the MXR as mentioned which I tried recently and loved.

im not on a budget, I just want the TC if it is a straight Dimension clone.

yes, I NEED chorus for my band but we aren't playing 80's covers 

my chorus sound is super clean apart from reverb. My Neo Clone is too noisy for this (apart from issues it's developed) hence the need to move on.

Thanks all!

tampaxboo

Teetonetal said:

EricTheWeary said:

tampaxboo said:

TC's are notorious for having crap stomp switches from what i have read on pedal forums.

TC say that crap switches were one batch years ago and it just persists as internet wisdom despite being ancient history. 
Although I remember some of the early TonePrint pedals didn’t work properly either. 

Yes. They said it in an andertons video. 
2 things... ive had issues with multiple pedals from different years.  Where was the product recall for that faulty batch.. or free exchange for the affected serial number group? I reckon tc switches are crap..just one batch was worse than normal.

thanks for the clarification.

i don't watch andertons videos. those guys literally irritate the shit out of me. so i know 100% it didn't come from there.
it was either diystompboxes or maybe freestompboxes, one of those pedal-tracing/making places. somewhere where i would expect people to know what they are talking about. and the comment came up because owners were looking to replace those switches.

but it may have been only one batch. i don't know. i've never had one. i mentioned it purely as being a known something 'out there on the webs' for the OP to consider/google as a potential point of concern.

Adam_MD

iheartreverb said:

Hi guys. I read a few replies and it seems to have rocketed in a day or so. Anyway,
I know the difference between rehaused and modified. I was under the impression that these new TC models were the existing circuits in a new boxes. If this isn't true then fine.

i want the Dimension to be great because of the band stuff I like that have used them. I am open to other ideas such as the MXR as mentioned which I tried recently and loved.

im not on a budget, I just want the TC if it is a straight Dimension clone.

yes, I NEED chorus for my band but we aren't playing 80's covers 

my chorus sound is super clean apart from reverb. My Neo Clone is too noisy for this (apart from issues it's developed) hence the need to move on.

Thanks all!

If you want a straight up clone of the dc-2 and don’t mind getting your hands dirty Aion has a pcb available to build one.  Some of the builds I’ve seen using this pcb look great

https://aionelectronics.com/project/blueshift-dimension-c-chorus/