TC Elec. Alter Ego Delay

[IamWILSON]

http://proguitarshop.com/tc-electronic-alter-ego-delay.html

This might interest some of you guys.  I'd like to hear the opinions of some of the Flashback and Nova Repeater users here.  This seems like something I want to pull the trigger on, but at the same time I wonder if I can't get most of the same tones out of my NovaRepeater if I do enough tweaking (crystal meth of course).  Ha!

[JamVol]

I think i can get most of those tones out of the repeater.  The modulation controll and effect is great to my ears, that will get you that warble that the article talks about.

[Happyorange27]

I would think this would a good pedal to have IN ADDITION to another delay where you tap tempo with your foot.  I miss that a bunch with on my Flashback.  So I'm going to get a Repeater next.  Now this pedal might be good to replace a Flashback with however.

[Poster]

played it today at pro guitar shop with Alex who helped design it, really great pedal. seems like they fixed the bypass issues ala polytune, its a very subtle effect, turn it up too much and things get ugly, but again, set it and forget it at lower settings, it sounds great!

[Heady Jam Fan]

I have the Flashback and I really like that it is a small unit with very nice tone in stereo.

I almost sold it until I got into the Toneprints - I like a dark, washed out, but clean echo - the presets that you would think would match that were too bright and had too much attack / was too percussive and didn't have enough headroom. I almost exclusively use the Matt Beck Toneprint (99% of the time).

The price is right too.

However - it seems to be a common issue that their pedals drop the 2nd side of the stereo signal, the pedal often has to be completely turned off for a few seconds to get it working again. It happens very sporadically. This issue comes up on TGP fairly regularly. I contacted TC about it and it took many emails over a couple weeks before they sent me to their American office after saying it sounds like a rare hardware issue. The American branch responded nearly a work week later just asking for my credit card info, when I asked why I got no response for weeks until they sent a link to a survey about their service.

Fortunately the pedal works most of the time, sounds good and I am too busy since I went back to school to play out (though I have been offered a few gigs recently and I really want to get out again soon). If I had an issue when on stage I would be pretty pissed (I play almost all classic rock in w/d/w cuz I don't like wet effects into the front of a dirty amp, though I could get by for Jam since I keep the amp clean) - when I did the Weber Blue Dog vs. Eminence Swamp Thang comparison, I only had the dry signal audible and after my first take (probably 45 min of recording - and I thought I was done then) I realized it cut out half of my wet signal (that is when I decided I had to get them to fix it). While it is not the priciest pedal, it is still more than I can afford to just replace and I would rather not start digging around inside it with my soldering iron.

So I think it is a great pedal and I have owned other TC gear that I was quite happy with (specifically an old SCF), their service really kinda pissed me off and that means a lot to me. I personally wouldn't buy from them again even though there are only a few options I would consider for replacing it. If you are going mono, then this problem won't effect you.

[Poster]

thats the big problem with most effects these day bud, they are digital pcb, cant be fixed with a good ole soldering station. especially tc products, as they are usually covered with an internal black plastic plate, making them damned near impossible to fuck with! but hey I played the thing today, and its got a new switch, and sounded good to me.

ill ask alex about the stereo issue, hell he helped design the alter ego, so maybe hes heard of the problems.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Good call Poster... when I contacted TC about that stereo issue, they responded as if they had not been aware of it.

I was thinking the same thing about the soldering thing... They certainly build the pedal in a way that makes you feel as though you should not open it.