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Topic: SOLD!!! Telonics TCA-500A $1750 |
Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 10 Oct 2018 2:19 pm |
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I bought this amp on here earlier this year. I'm not playing steel much lately, never did get very good at it. Also, I got my carpal tunnel fixed, so I can play regular finger guitar again.
No issues with the amp, I just don't need it anymore. The Dr. Z Surgical Steel has taken first chair.
I don't know what the extra input jack on the front is for. It just has a cable with a jack on the end coming out of it. Maybe they wanted to be able to plug a pedal board into the front for easier access? I guess you could plug your foot pedal into it, as well. The man I bought it from (C.D. Richards) didn't have a lot of info on it. I just ran the cables the way the directions say, and everything worked. I don't use that jack for anything.
The back looks purple in the photo, just a trick of the light, it's black.
This thing is in pretty good shape, it has a few minor scratches and scuffs on it.
The effects unit is the Lexicon MPX-1. It has the steel guitar presets in it.
$1750
Last edited by Tim Heidner on 31 Oct 2018 11:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Tony Edwards
From:
Six Mile, South Carolina
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Posted 12 Oct 2018 6:04 am amp
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Tim,
I believe the extra jack in the front is for an extension speaker. What size speaker is in this amp, a 12" or a 15"?
Tony
_________________
CLR Custom SD10 Pedal Steel; Telonics 500-B Combo w/ TT 15"; Hilton Low Profile VP; Telonics X-10 Pup; Frenchy's Steel Mill Strings; George L's Cables; BJS Tone Bar; Hoffmeyer Picks. This combination produces a Heavenly tone! Psalm 33:2 "Praise the Lord with...an instrument of ten strings."
"Listen and silent are spelled with the same letters!" |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 12 Oct 2018 4:17 pm
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Could be, Tony. I believe there are several things you could use it for. I never did use it, though.
It's the 15 inch Telonics speaker. Also comes with a D2F cover. |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 12 Oct 2018 4:53 pm
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I've been looking at it, I don't think it's for an extension speaker, I'm not seeing an extension speaker jack on the back of the amp. I think it's just there to make an easier plug in for the foot pedal or the tuner out, so you don't have to be reaching back behind the amp on a dark stage. That's my theory, anyway.
It doesn't do anything if you don't plug the cable in somewhere.  |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 18 Oct 2018 6:57 am
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George Kimery
From:
Limestone, TN, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2018 12:54 pm Tca 500 A $1700.00
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| A jack for a direct connection to the speaker for connecting an extension cabinet would be the most logical thing. Or, the amp could be used as an extension cabinet.Look in the back and see if there isn't wiring connecting the jack to the speaker. |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 18 Oct 2018 1:17 pm
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It doesn't connect to the speaker. It has a cable with a 1/4" plug on the end coming out of it. I went back through my messages and the man I bought it from said that when he got it, they had it plugged into the foot pedal jack on the back of the amp.
Last edited by Tim Heidner on 22 Oct 2018 1:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Paddy Long
From:
Christchurch, New Zealand
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Posted 22 Oct 2018 11:46 am
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First time I have seen a jack on the front of TCA-500 like that ... the speaker cabinets Telonics sell have a jack on the front, and one on the back to give you the option of plugging !! but can't imagine what that is supposed to be for on the Combo amp ... maybe it's for an extension speaker but it must be a custom feature.
_________________
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. |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 22 Oct 2018 12:56 pm
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I'm thinking one of the previous owners put that on there. Seems to be a sticking point on trying to sell, or maybe nobody wants these amps anymore, I don't know.
It's just an input jack, it doesn't do anything at all if you don't want it to. It's not wired to anything in the amp or the speaker.
I just sent an email to Dave Beaty, see if he knows anything about it. |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 22 Oct 2018 2:47 pm
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From Dave Beaty:
Hi Tim,
This is a relatively old amp, (he says relatively old - it's maybe 5 years old, at this point) however that has nothing to do with the extra jack – which is not factory, and it has nothing to do with external speakers. It is obviously wired for use with low-level audio signals, since it uses coaxial shielded cable, which is unsuitable to speaker wiring.
Your amp has a removable speaker baffle - for people who keep extra baffles with different size or different type speakers mounted on them. (This allows a person to change the type of speaker for a forthcoming gig in 5-10 minutes, some people even kept a spare baffle with grill cloth on it for shows which required that look.) We no longer produce combo amps with removable speaker baffles, as they increase the weight of the units slightly and there is almost no demand for that option.
This tells us that it is one of the earliest combo amps we made, some three model revisions ago. It was likely built in 2013 or 2014. We are currently on our third production run of TCA500C models and your amp is an A model.
Now, specifically regarding the jack – not having the specific serial number:
When your amp was built, it was provided with a 1U rack space so a player could install his or her choice of effects unit. We NEVER installed Lexicon MPX-1 EFX units here at Telonics, so a player did that on their own.
The MPX-1 is a powerful, but large and heavy EFX unit, and a number of special patches have been developed specifically for the steel guitar. It appears that your combo has had such a unit installed.
There are a number of ways a MPX-1 can be configured and wired, but the added jack and a connecting cable with a TS plug on the end suggests to me, that someone decided to experiment by plugging their steel directly into the input of the MPX-1 instead of the input of the TCA500A in your combo.
In this case, they would have plugged their steel into the extra jack on the baffle board and then plugged the cable from the jack into the input of the MPX-1 using the TS plug.
They would have then had to plug the output of the MPX-1 into the TCA500A using any one of several approaches, depending on what they wanted to accomplish.
They could have connect the MPX-1’s output into the AUX input, if the audio drive level was adequate, or,
They could have plugged into the Parallel EFX loop INPUT and turned the Wet/Dry Mix control to full-Wet, or,
They could have turned the output drive level of the MPX-1 down, and then plugged into the PreEQ INSERT, which would have allowed them the full use of the TCA500A’s EQ section, or,
They could have turned the output drive level of the MPX-1 up and connected it to the Power Amplifier INPUT jack of the TCA500A, bypassing the preamp of the TCA500A completely.
So, that answers that. Somebody had a different idea about how to use this thing, and apparently there are any number of ways you can configure it. Who knows why they did all that, the amp sounds perfectly fine just plugging your guitar into the built in factory input.
And yes, this is an older model, it's missing a few bells and whistles of the newer ones, and it doesn't have the most desirable FX unit like the G Major in it - but if it did it would cost considerably more. It's still a very high quality piece of equipment. |
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C.D. Richards
From:
Owasso,OK
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Posted 23 Oct 2018 5:24 am Telonics Amp
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| After reading this post I would like to share what I know about this amp. I bought the amp from a Telonics dealer. I didn't question the extra jack because it had a cord going from the amp input thru one of the mounting screw holes to the back of the Lexicon. By running the cord from your VP to the jack in the baffle board you were ready to go. That's the way I used the amp while I owned it. I took the amp to the Dallas show (about 3 years ago) and Dave had his tech installed the newer reverb and the tilt back to the bottom of the Amp. I talked to a tech at Telonics yesterday and he knew of some amps being hooked up the way this one was. By Tim changing it back to the way the factory manual shows the jack on the baffle board does nothing. Hope this helps its truly the best amp I ever owned. The amp was in no way harmed by being hooked up the way it was when I bought and sold it. |
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Tim Heidner
From:
Groves, TX
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Posted 23 Oct 2018 8:10 am
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| Thanks, Clovis! |
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Jerry Berger
From:
Nampa, Idaho USA
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Posted 31 Oct 2018 9:05 am Telonics TCA-500A
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| PM sent to Tim. |
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