tc electronic BQ500 Bass Head

There’s a lot of different opinions online regarding bass rig set setups on what you should use and what to avoid. I got lost in the noise on many different forums speaking about this, but I decided to purchase this on reviews from people with the same outlook as myself.

I’m a very simple ‘plug in and play’ bassist, and this amp stood out to me because that’s what it allows me to do. With the pedals I use (distortion, chorus and an EQ pedal) it just amps up my tone and keeps things simple. 99% of the gigs I play have a sound guy and use a DI for FOH so it’s more than loud enough with a single cab that I use for monitoring on stage. Very responsive EQ to fine tune your tone! The ‘thrust’ compressor seems to have a minimal impact on the sound but it’s a nice feature to have (it’s still early days so it may be better than I give it credit) A compressor pedal would be more beneficial but for the price of this amp I don’t expect it to be groundbreaking.

Overall, this head is fantastic if you’re on a budget and want to upgrade from a very heavy combo amp (like myself) I can’t wait to get gigging with this thing and break it in!

I bought this just before Christmas intending to use it in the house as a practice amp plugged into my computer. At the same time I was looking to buy a decent DI box but having read the specs and for the price, I thought I might be able to use it live.

One of the things that attracted me to this amp was the line in and headphone socket, something every amp should have but some don`t which is crazy in this day and age when playing through a amp isn`t practical due to noise.

Using as a practice amp, this unit is ideal, small with lots of sound available via the eq and a nice compressor via the Thrust function.

Usually I gig with a Ashdown ABM 500 but on my last gig at the last min, I decided to take along the TC as a back up. As it fits in a laptop bag, I stuck it under the car seat. At the soundcheck, my ABM started to play up, a loud buzzing noise making it unusable. "Have you got a di box?" asked the sound man, I have a spare amp I said. Got the TC out of the cab and plugged it into the Barefaced cab not knowing what to expect.

Well, after a bit of tweaking with the eq, I got a sound I liked and I must say the small TC done good. Even the band mentioned how good the sound was. Good sound out front as well.

So what I have is a small class D amp that saved the day for the the price of a decent effects pedal, a great home practice amp and a 3 year warranty from Thomman.

Will it replace the ABM? I don`t know as I love the kick I get from a old style amp but I would have no hesitation in taking the TC along and gigging it in the future. And even if I use the ABM the TC will be coming along just in case.

Basses used: Fender Nate Mendel P bass, Sandberg California P bass.

I've compared this little amp to many others before deciding to buy. Its really incredible how much power it packs. At the moment it drives 2 GK cabs for 500 watts together and it doesn't feel like its breaking a sweat.

The sound is really natural, it feels like there is little to no digitalization going on which is cool for a class D amp. Personally I like to have a rather sterile sounding amp. You cannot go wrong with this guy for the price. Do not buy this amp if you are looking for a ton of options however since it only has a simple equalizer and some compression which does not seem to do a whole lot.

Finally it looks and feels very nice. Clean finish and solid production.

I bought this specific amp head for one reason rehearsals in our studio,
no one talks how good the di is, its great if u think the price is so low and it gives u an amazing signal to send to your DAW for recording.
The big con for me is that whenever i plugin one of my basses in standard tuning (E) is great sounding cotrollable in the mids, however i play with a bass with really low tuning and there i touch a hair with my finger to get the right tone.
Conclusion, great for the money great di, not too much power to break down a building, but it works fine for small/mid studios.