2B v ElectroPebble

It's not often you'll find a manufacturer reviewing their own products, but as you know we do like to be different. This is not really a review but there's seems to be a bit of confusion worth clearing up on a couple of our power units.

The 2B and the ElectroPebble. Two different boxes. 

Every now and then someone assumes the 2B is just an uprated ElectroPebble. No matter what we write on product descriptions, on in videos they get confused.  "I've got a Pebble, I've just bought a 2B, and it doesn't feel the same." Yes. Correct. You are Completely Right.  The ElectroPebble and the 2B were never the same unit, and they were never meant to be.

The 2B came first

The 2B's design has been zapping people since 2012. It was derived from the original Series 2. That makes it a robust, proven bit of kit. It might not have all the bells and whistles of other newer units, but the design is rock solid. It should be. We back it with a Lifetime Guarantee.

It's the proper grown-up of our range. Dual isolated channels, mains option, digital link, audio line in, upgradeable firmware, internet control options, more programs, more adjustments. It's the box you reach for when you know what you're doing, or when you want to learn.

It's also one of the most powerful boxes we make, especially once you run it from the mains supply. 

The ElectroPebble is a different animal

The ElectroPebble, or 'Pebble' for short,  is also a dual channel unit, but it's newer and built around a different design philosophy. No channel isolation. No mains option. No digital link. No line in. Fewer programs, fewer adjustments.

That's not a list of things it's missing. It's a list of decisions based on how we play.

In truth the ElectroPebble has more in common with the ElectroHelix than it does with the 2B. The 2B is part of a different family entirely. Where the 2B is technically driven, the ElectroPebble and the Helix are built to get you going fast, sometimes quite literally. Their whole design is tuned for the play session, not the setup. Created to be simple to operate, very effective, and for a lot of our own personal play the ElectroPebble is our go-to box. lie back and enjoy the simplicity.

The 2B comes out when we want to play and experiment more. I'm still writing code for the 2B so 1/2 the time I am feeling it, and the other half of the time I am improving it - and it can get quite distracting, and even more confusing when you get them muddled up.

So why the confusion?

Different boxes? Yes. That difference is exactly what we designed in.

These aren't two versions of the same idea. They come from different families. The ElectroPebble is built for fast, simple, effective play. They are both powerful, versatile and effective in their own way. The 2B is the technical box, built for players who want depth and the ability to experiment. Think of them as two instruments in the same orchestra. A cello and a violin both belong, both command an audience, but you'd never expect one to sound like the other. Nobody picks up a cello and complains it isn't a violin.

It takes time to Learn

The 2B sometimes takes more getting used to. There are far more adjustments available, and finding the sweet spot takes time. That's where the trouble starts. People open the pack, plug everything in, and expect the same sensation they already know from a different unit. When it doesn't arrive in the first thirty seconds, they assume something's wrong.

Nothing's wrong. You're holding a different instrument, and it's asking to be played differently.

We've heard the complaints. And let's be honest, every manufacturer has them. People rush home, load everything up at once, turn it all to maximum, and find disappointment instead of pleasure. Then they jump on socials to announce the 2B is no good, and we are all a bunch of frauds.

If that were true, why are we still selling 2Bs and supporting people who've owned theirs for ten years or more and still enjoy them? Thousands of them, all over the world. Are they all paid shills? Are they all lying?

No. They've worked out something simple. To get the best out of any power box, you have to discover what it can do, and not just what it can do, but what it can do for YOU.

Power isn't just a number

This is the bit people miss, and it's worth saying plainly.

We don't publish output figures. Not because we're hiding anything, but because numbers just lead to playground arguments. My dad's bigger than your dad. 40 or even 80mA into 500 ohms sounds technical, and yes it actually means something, but only in a lab with test gear hooked up to it. How does that actually feel when it's you on the other end of the cable? The spec sheet has no answer.

And here's a fair question. Every TENS unit on the planet seems to quote the same figures. So how many of them actually produce those numbers, and how many have just borrowed a standard advertising blurb off the same label? We'd rather not play that game. Our interest is in how it feels, now how much a spec sheet can boast.

Power is about how it's constructed and how it's delivered. The waveform. The program. The settings. The levels. The position. And obviously the electrode and contact surface you're using.

Then there's the part nobody puts on a box. How much lube you've used. How hydrated you are. How experienced you are. How much you're actually in the mood. All of it changes what you feel, and none of it shows up as a number anywhere.

Sensation isn't a spec

Another comment. "My mate tried it and felt the same." And I think, really, how do they know what you feel to be able to compare it? Just because they say it's nice, or not nice, are they feeling the same thing you are?

We deal in sensation. And we all know what I feel is going to be different from what you feel. Even on the same person, the same session, the same electrodes, the same program, we can feel a difference over time. It just takes a bit of nuance to understand it.

Flat out is shouting

That's the part that gets lost. If you're running any box at full power, you're losing any nuance the box can product. It gets masked by the shouting. MORE POWER, MORE POWER is not the way to go. 

You could go out and buy a new car and drive it everywhere with your foot flat to the floor. But the first corner you hit, you're going to possibly loose control and crash. It flat out misses the entire point of driving. The control, the feel, the enjoyment of it. Literally.

The 2B is the same. Run it wide open and you're missing what it's actually for.

So why two boxes at all?

If all our units were the same, we'd have to ask ourselves why we bother making them. Why build a box that's the first one over again with a few extra gadgets bolted on? A marketing Gimmick?  Some others do that and good luck to them. We dont.

All of the options we offer have earn't their place in our products. And I can say that with a straight face because I use them. We've seen and played with most designs on the market. We'd be silly if we hadn't. And every now and then we come across a function that looks brilliant on the pack and then quietly dies the moment it meets a real session. A feature that exists to sell a box, not to be used in one.

You have to wonder how some of them got there. Did someone find a spare part in a drawer, bolt it on, and hope it would shift units? Maybe. We'll never know. What we do know is that's not how we work.

If it's on one of our boxes, it's there because we tried it, used it, and found it earned its keep. Isolated channels, line in, mains, the digital link, the deeper bank of programs and adjustments. Even the rubber knobs and the switches we use are there for a reason. Not there for the spec sheet. Not there because its the cheapest option. They are there because they let you do more, feel more, and shape a session the way you want it.

Not everything gets used all the time. Some things get reached for more than others. But we always like to offer the choice. That's what the extra adjustments on the 2B really are. Not noise, not box-filler. Choice.

People sometimes call us defensive when we talk like this. Fair enough. But there's a difference between defensive and certain. We didn't just read about these boxes and became overnight e-tim experts. We researched the ideas, we designed them, we built them, and then we played with them. That tends to make you sure of what you're saying.

The 2B keeps changing. the ElectroPebble stays put.

Here's the last difference, and it's a telling one.

We never stop coming up with new ideas. New firmware, new concepts, more choice, more options. And yes, some owners do tell us an update has changed things. But dig into it and the reason is nearly always the same. They'd found their sweet spot, learned exactly where it lived, and then we widened the range of control and the spot moved. Nothing got worse. There's just more box to explore than there was before, and the familiar setting sits in a slightly different place.

So you've got a choice. Carry on exactly as you are with the firmware you know and love. Or load the new version, see what the latest developments do for you, and find out whether they suit you better. Brilliant if they do. And if you miss your old setup? You downgrade straight back to what you had. No drama. As always, the choice is yours.

That's the 2B. The box that grows, on your terms, at your pace.

The ElectroPebble we leave well alone. The design is rock solid and we keep it that way. Most people who reach for a ElectroPebble just want to play, not wrangle firmware before a session. So we don't ask them to. Stable is the feature.

Two boxes, two temperaments. One that keeps growing because some of us love to push it further, one that stays exactly as you left it because that's the whole point of it.

Which one is for you?

If you want simple, effective, grab-it-and-go play, we think the ElectroPebble is brilliant and we use ours constantly. If you want depth, isolation, audio play and room to experiment for years, the 2B is waiting for you.

Two boxes. Two design philosophies. Two different instruments, both still with a place, both still commanding an audience. Built in the UK, covered under a lifetime guarantee, and waiting for you to learn what they can do.

Wayne
Creator of the E-Stim Systems 2B, and the ElectroPebble