UPDATE: TC Electronic has confirmed it will be releasing a whole new range of pedals tomorrow (Friday 21 October) morning. Get excited, folks.
Those crazy Danes are at it again: TC Electronic has been awfully busy on its Instagram account teasing not one, but five new pedals - at the very least.
The following messages accompanied the shots: "New stuff a-coming real soon, peeps! Stay tuned ;-)", "Here's two more for you ;-)", "So, it's Wednesday and here's three more!"
What can we draw from their coy photography and infuriatingly cheery messages? Why, a number of things…
- First of all, we're digging those enclosures. Coloured tops, bare metal (aluminium?) on the sides… it's a classy look. It will also likely keep manufacturing costs down, and therefore pedal prices, too
- Let's talk jacks: they're on the top (well, backside, but you know what we mean), as opposed to at the side. Now, every pedalboard's different, but forumites love to big up top jacks for their convenience and space-saving-ness. This move will see TC join the likes of T-Rex, EarthQuaker Devices and Strymon in the top-jack stakes
- And on the jack front, there are only mono-in, mono-out sockets on each pedal - unless TC has sneakily employed TRS jacks, we reckon these stompers aren't modulation, delay or reverb-based
- No USB jack: these ain't TonePrint compatible… unless there's Bluetooth (or similar wireless tech) onboard?
- Colours: it's hard to tell from these heavily filtered pics, but we're looking at red, black, white and yellow to start with
- Knobs. We like the look of them, but there are fewer of 'em. Red has two; yellow has three, one of which is a mix control. We count four on one black pedal, and three on another. What does it all mean?
- Don't read too much into the stated 100mA requirement: the stated draw isn't always indicative of individual pedal mA needs but rather the whole range; so, at least one of these will be a current-hog, and therefore likely digital, but that doesn't necessarily mean they all will
From what we can gather here, we're looking at a whole new pedal line. Judging from the knobbage (technical term) on display, we'd put our money on an overdrive/distortion/fuzz or two, but that 100mA rating points towards some digital architecture somewhere along the way.
Perhaps we can expect a competitor to Boss's Multi-Dimensional Processing drives, as seen in its OD-1X and DS-1X? Or maybe it's an entirely new concept altogether…
Whatever the story, rest assured, we'll let you know as soon as we possibly can.
