FIRST PLAY
TC Electronic’s Plethora X3 presents the company’s TonePrint pedals f lexibly arranged in one compact unit
1. The Effect knob selects and assigns pedals to the pedalboard. Rotate to scroll through them, then press to assign to a pedal slot
2. Three Parameter knobs give you instant access to specific parameters for the selected pedal in Edit mode. They can also be assigned as Hot Knobs in Play mode for quick live tweaks
3. The TonePrint encoder scrolls through the TonePrints that you can assign to an effect, but a long press on it (quite possible by foot) will bring up the onboard tuner
The TC Electronic Plethora X5 (reviewed in issue 465) is a flexible multieffects unit that can store 127 presets, known as ‘pedalboards’, each with five individually footswitchable effects taken from TC’s TonePrint pedal range. The unit offers a great opportunity to add a range of effects to your rig, but may be on the large side for incorporation into smaller pedalboards. Now, though, there’s this compact version that, at 176.5mm (7 inches) in width, will be a more practical proposition for many players. The X3 has all the effects of the X5, but you can only use three of them at a time rather than five. The other main differences are that it loses the send and return loop and has no provision for plugging in an expression pedal.
The X3 has 16 effects pedals available to assign to each of the three footswitches in any of the 127 onboard pedalboards. You can assign any pedal to each, so you could have multiple instances, such as three delay pedals, if desired. Each pedal can be loaded with a TonePrint (basically an edited set of parameters) from those stored onboard – there are 75 slots per pedal housing TonePrints and you can load those slots with your own TonePrints created with the software editor as well as the Artist or TC factory options. Beyond a loaded TonePrint, there are instant front-panel editing options available.
The lack of an expression pedal input may be seen as a drawback, but there are plenty of performance options via the pressure-sensitive MASH footswitches. Each footswitch can be held down to change a parameter for its assigned effect, such as maybe turning up the feedback of a delay. You can also set a footswitch up for tap tempo instead of a MASH effect.
Verdict
While the X3 loses some of the X5’s flexibility, the advantage gained is that it is a much smaller pedal that can sit nicely on your pedalboard. As such, it’s a great way to expand a ’board with a whole range of decent-sounding effects – asingle unit with one power input, and effects in any order having the advantage over buying numerous single pedals. This
