Ibanez or TC?

[Tripehound]

I'm starting to wonder about dragging my beloved Bassman TV15 to pub gigs. It's still in vgc but a number of spillage/falling over incidents recently have lead me to think that perhaps I've just been lucky. Things get boisterous (not completely out of hand) sometimes and - by and large - that's a good thing.

It does weigh 64lbs and every time I clean lift it into the back of the Punto I can feel the ligaments protesting....

So - I've had a brief look at these small size/low power combos and head/cab setups and have been impressed by the Ibanez Prometheus P3110 and the TC Electronic BG250. Both are affordable at £285 and £299 or thereabouts respectively. I read claims that they could handle a pub gig with full band without PA, will take an extension feature, and weigh less than bugger-all.

Is all this too good to be true? Which is the better and is that mobile phone beaming malarkey the gimmick it seems?

[RandomBass]

I do know from using one that the BG250 is a good bit of kit. I think the one I used had the spectracomp tone print which seemed to work well. The tube drive was ok I guess, but nothing special. Seemed well built and loud enough for the limited time I used it, and the base tone was good to my ears. Lovely weight too - something like 17kg I believe.

TC have just brought out a new extended range of BG combos, and you might find the original BG250 discounted.

However, as far as I know they cannot take an extension cab.

Cheers

Geoff

[jezzaboy]

I have the BG250 and Randombass is correct, there is no ext speaker out as the internal one is rated at 250 watts at 4 ohms, so in theory you are getting all the amps power. I have gigged it several times and it kept up with a 100 watt guitar amp and noisy drummer. It does seem a tad delicate though. The push buttons are a bit wobbly and the pvc covering on the cab doesnt seem very robust.

But it sounds ok, is loud enough for my needs, is very light and I use the headphone and aux in function for all my home practice, which keeps the wife and neighbours happy.