Hey! 
Hope all of you are doing just fine. Sorry for not posting earlier, I’ve been out for a long tour in Japan right now so I haven’t got that much time to give my toughts about it.
But here they are,
LIVE REVIEW:
Since we could not bring the cabs to Japan I only bringed the head, though in the special made bag for it. I know it’s just a bag but however I was stunned about it.
Pockets for cables, strings, footswitch etc. And the strap for the bag was very comfortable.
I brought that amp on my shoulders almost 20 days in a row, even though I didn’t think of it as pain at all.
When I came for a practice at a Live House in Tokyo, they had a SVT-3Pro + SVT-810E.
I tried that out of course, played a set and changed the head for my TC-RH450.
My impression was that the sound was more bumbled and not focused compared to RH-450. Our drummer is a hard smacking one so I couldn’t really get some good tone of it, and out of the lined signal that I had in my monitor. When I used the RH-450 the tone was more clean and focused, I was able to actually here what am I playing!
To the live show:
Often 4 or 5 other bands where playing at same evening, so the time table is really tight and it’s important to follow the exact time. Though I tell you, almost EVERY band I watched for 20 days (5bandsx20nights=100bands)…had a lot of equipment for the bass, like distortion, tuner, eq, compressor, linebox etc..the time table was always delayed..before I came with my TC-RH450. Since it has built in DI I did not need any linebox, just put the XLR in, put in the cable for the footswitch and my instrument cable and I was rigged. I was rigged under 30 seconds, with my own amp.
On the first shows I used the Ampeg cabinet but sometimes the singers was not able to hear the pitch because of to much bass on stage (since the stage was pretty small)..so I tried to not use the cabinet. After that, the sound on stage was much better…I used a lot of bass in my monitor and the singers used a little bit less and that worked out much better.
I know that you are now wondering, but didn’t the sound get worse when you don’t use the cabinet?
The answer is NO! The sound (according to the soundengineer) was easier to control because of that you save a lot of energy in the lows..it means it will be easier to get a good sound even on the kickdrum.
But maybe I will not trust that in every situation, I believe it’s a good way of solving a problem if it’s to loud on stage. But I’m still learning so I will be critical to every situation and I will try both ways and see which is the best!
To the playing.. I use distortion on some songs and different eq to some intros (telephone eq). Since I can use 3 presets I use 1 ordinary sound that I use as main sound, the second preset is a fat and warm distorted sound for heavy parts, and my third preset was the distorted telehone sound for intros.
I have got my tuner built in the footswitch, (that I have compared to other like boss, line 6 etc) but this is much better and defined. The LCD is really nice, was so easy to see. And I could just press the mute botton on the footswitch between the songs and when I want to tune. All built in. I start to really like this thing!
The sound…was really good. My bass sounds really good but other amplifiers usually don’t give my bass justice. This one does, it doesn’t change or modifiy the sound of the bass..it just like translate the sound from my bass. That is the sound I want, a representative sound.
But what I like most with the amp is the flexibility, everything are so light and fast.
Even the crew and famous sound engineers in Tokyo from the clubs gave me compliments for my good sound and flexibility.
I usually don’t give amps good compliments because they are often not flexible and good sounding at the same time so this is the first time for me to give an amp 5 THUMBS UP!
STUDIO REVIEW:
I was about to go for a studio session and record a full length album. First I tried to line into a Universal Audio LA-610, and after that into an old Neve preamp (5000dollars) and after that the TC-RH450. This may sound unbelievable but the best sounding equipment (to this pop/rock/jazz project) was the TC-RH450. I used the analog signal.
REHARSAL/CABINETS: I really like the way of the tower idea, it is good for my monitor and the drummer too. The sound is overall more controlled and not bass bumbling sound.
First I used it and tought well it sounds good and the volume is quite strong. The only thing I missed was that I did not know that I only used one, I forgot to plug in the 2/12.
Now we are talking, the sound was strong, focused and confident!
Visit my www.myspace.com/sivelind and www.myspace.com/inbloomsweden to listen at some audio recordings. And live clips from Tokyo are being posted regular (1 video each week).
In a few days you will be able to see a video clip of my personal settings on RH450 and some jamming too.
You will also be able to see a video clip of a short jam with me and drummer JR (Michael Jacksson, Prince etc), at a club in Tokyo.
If you have some feedback, thoughts or other tips about the amp just message me on myspace or add me on facebook (David Sivelind).
Thanks //David
Tags: Brian McKnight, David Sivelind, In Bloom, Japan Tour, Johan Randén, JR, Michael Jacksson, RH450, Session, SOLO, TC Electronic, test pilot