Telonics TCA-500 Review with lots of pictures and sounds!

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Here's my Telonics TCA-500 Review with lots of pictures and sounds! Hopefully this will be a good supplement to all the other fine forum posts and web site information that others have contributed. I didn't get time finish all of the 3rd song, Rubicon Blues, but will get that done soon and post here.

Click here to read the Telonics TCA-500C Amp Review

Greg Lambert · From: Illinois, USA

Very nice setup Greg!!!

Bill Miller · From: Gaspe, Quebec, Canada

Very informative review. I own one and although my evaluation hasn't been as analytical or scientific I did come to the same overall conclusion. It is one heck of an amp! The quietness was the first thing I noticed. And I have never heard a setup with better tone. It really has a lot going for it with low weight, awesome power, a multitude of well conceived features and good looks to boot.

James Quackenbush · From: Pomona, New York, USA

Nice review Greg !!.....Your examples really have me wanting one of these amps ...and I have so many amps now .. ( you notice I didn't say TOO many amps now ) ...That amp has some tone !!...Thanks for sharing that in depth review ....Jim

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Thanks for checking it out Greg!

Bill, always nice to hear from other owners. It's so quiet you can't really tell it's on till you crank the foot volume. The patches on the G Major 2 are starting to grow on me as to their reverb clarity and pre-delay. I did develop my own reverb patch for a Hall of Fame stomp box clone set in Church (Hall) mode that negates my need for the Hall of Fame stomp box now. It is of course called GregVerb!

Jim, I'm gonna thin my amp herd now. I'd like to see all of my amp herd put to use by others instead of just grazing out to pasture.

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

I've programmed two presets into my G Major 2 that are real close to the TC Electronics Hall of Fame Hall (Church) and Plate reverbs. They also are very close to the RV-5 reverbs.

It's takes just a few minutes to manually program these in even without the editing software!

Level/Routing (same for both):

PresetOutlv 0 dB
Globl InLv 0 dB
GloblOutlv 0 dB
Rly1 (tip) Open
Rly2 (rng) Open
Routing Serial 2
RoutingLck Off

Reverb Settings, GregHallRVB

Subtype Hall
REV Decay 3.5 s
REV PreDly 13ms
REV Shape Curved
REV Size Large
REV HiCol Real
REV HiFact 0
REV LoCol Round
REV LoFact 9
REV RoomLv -14 dB
REV RevLev -3 dB
REV Diffus 14
REV Mix 100%
REV OutLev 0 dB

Reverb Settings, GregPlateRVB

Subtype Hall
REV Decay 3.7 s
REV PreDly 4ms
REV Shape Round
REV Size Large
REV HiCol Warm
REV HiFact -5
REV LoCol Real
REV LoFact 2
REV RoomLv 0 dB
REV RevLev -3 dB
REV Diffus 25
REV Mix 100%
REV OutLev 0 dB

I should mention that I use my reverbs and about 5 of the ones provided with the unit, some with delay. They are great for live sound.

For recording I would run them a bit lighter and add stereo reverbs and compression as needed to sit well in the mix. I also run my guitar into the pot volume pedal and then into the amp input. I haven't tried putting the volume pedal into the preamp loop. I am missing the low impedance output buffering of the Hall of Fame stomp box so I adjust the amp to recover some of the highs. Perhaps in this situation I might finally break my stubborn ways down and try an active pedal again!

The time domain photos in my review are a nice conversation piece but the frequency domain analysis is much more revealing. Running the audio through an FFT and showing the amplitude and phase response yields a lot more interesting data. Perhaps I'll include some of this in a future update.

Paddy Long · From: Christchurch, New Zealand

Greg the Telonics volume pedal will complete the circle for you Very Happy

They are above and beyond anything else on the market.
_________________
14'Zumsteel Hybrid D10 9+9
08'Zumsteel Hybrid D10 9+9
94' Franklin Stereo D10 9+8
Telonics, Peterson, Steelers Choice, Benado, Lexicon, Red Dirt Cases.

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Thanks Paddy! That would look great in my music room. How do you have yours hooked up?

Anyone near NW PA needing a Steel King, 1968 Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue or Peavey Nashville 400, contact me!

Paddy Long · From: Christchurch, New Zealand

Just the normal hookup for me, guitar to vol pedal "in", "out" directly to the input of the amp ...and I use the tuner out on the pedal if I am using my Petersen HD tuner.
The only time that changes is when I am using my Earth Drive which I put between the guitar and the volume pedal input.
Of course you can also choose the "Taper" of your choice as well.
_________________
14'Zumsteel Hybrid D10 9+9
08'Zumsteel Hybrid D10 9+9
94' Franklin Stereo D10 9+8
Telonics, Peterson, Steelers Choice, Benado, Lexicon, Red Dirt Cases.

John A. Russell · From: Norfolk, UK

Greg
I love my Telonics amp and swell pedal.
Telonics Quality is second to none.
The TC electronics effects add to the great Tone.
No need for matching guitar to amp, everything has been thought of.
Preaching to the converted I know!
Kind Regards
JR
_________________
Franklin S10, Telonics X10 pup, Telonics Volume Pedal, Telonics 500 Combo Amp, with Mike Johnson Tone, BJS Bar. Vox AC15C2, Fender Stratocaster, Music Man Albert Lee. Brent Mason Nashville Telecaster. Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Amplifier.Cali76 Studio Compressor, Boss DM3 Delay. Hall & Collens Signature Echo unit.

Roger Crawford · From: Griffin, GA USA

Thanks for posting your settings in the review. Where do you have the mid frequency set?

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

oops! updated the web site to add that.

Input Gain = 6
Bass = +4
Mid Level = -5
Mid Freq = 700
Treble = +1
Blend = 0
Master = 4
Reverb = 7.5
Dry/Wet = -1.5

I have found a range of very useful settings for the EQ and haven't decided on one favorite sound yet. The ones above sound a lot like the Webb 6-14-E with a JBL speaker to my ears. Also my amp is not on the floor but elevated and against a wall. Lots of variables not to mention the pot pedal, 12' of George L's cable for roll off and not using the amp's foot volume loop.

Tom Gorr · From: Three Hills, Alberta

Never tried the amp. .. the pedal is outtathisworld. So are the black bars.

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Just put out Rubicon Blues and patched up a few broken links on the review page. Bass, steel and guitar parts all recorded using the Telonics TCA-500C DI interface. The Leslie rotating speaker sounds at the end used the Line 6 Roto-Machine recorded in stereo: left channel through the Telonics and right channel direct from the Roto-Machine. One nice feature of this pedal is that a hard press on the footswitch will turn the pedal effect on and off but a partial press will switch the the speaker rotation between adjustable fast and slow speeds. I used the "122" setting and placed the pedal after the foot volume. Apologize for the cheesy distortion sounds but all I had was the $25 BEHRINGER SUPER FUZZ SF300 pedal. I gave away my original Univox SuperFuzz pedal and would like to not have done that. Anyone knows of a good clone or clone kit that is parts identical to the SuperFuzz, let me know. So many pedals claim to as good as the SuperFuzz that I got dizzy from reading about all of them. I also liked the tube distortion on the Hot Rod Deluxe but that's gone now too.

Click here to listen to Rubicon Blues.

Rhythm track located here and the tele rhythm was also played through the Telonics amp:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Tab/Tab23.html

Greg Cutshaw · From: Corry, PA, USA

Updated the review to show the setup with 2 speakers. I bought a mono phone to SpeakON adapter to hook one of my Walker Stereo Steel 15" 200 watt JBL re-cone speaker cabinets to the Telonics. It spreads the sound out a bit more. Click on pictures to see larger versions!

See updated review!

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