The Steel Guitar Forum

All things being considered (weight, price, sound, and reliability), which amp have or would you choose, and why?






VS

Since I own both, The Telonics TCA-500 wins on a number of counts...
It always sounds fantastic, regardless of venue, it is more flexible with its EQ'ing - especially with the "Blend" knob which allows you to darken or lighten your overall EQ without actually changing any of your setups - genius.
The amp is quite a bit more powerful 500W against the NV400's 210W..... the Telonics is quite a bit lighter, even with a single rack EFX unit in it - which I find a real plus since I fly my amp quite a bit. Neo Speaker against a standard magnet helps a lot too. While the NV400 is still a great amp, mine doesn't often leave the house these days.
The Telonics amp also has a lot of other useful features, such as a headphone jack, tuner out, Direct out, patching for a CD player, foot switch, power amp in, pre amp out ....and if you use a 24v Telonics volume pedal you can power that off the front of the amp as well. ALso a dry/wet fader/mixer for your efx feed.
There is also a AC power outlet on the back of the amp to power your choice of single space EFX unit. And an outlet for an external speaker cabinet.
If thats not enough to convince you, then this is all backed up by the outstanding, and unsurpassed customer support offered for everything Telonics builds.

I have a Telonics rack system which is the same electronically. I know that Peavey commands a certain reverence, and in fairness I've never tried one, but I can't imagine that it's louder and cleaner, and it doesn't have all those facilities. Peavey might protest that it's not a fair comparison.

Ian Rae wrote:I have a Telonics rack system which is the same electronically. I know that Peavey commands a certain reverence, and in fairness I've never tried one, but I can't imagine that it's louder and cleaner, and it doesn't have all those facilities. Peavey might protest that it's not a fair comparison.

Ian, it's an all things being considered poll. I have both amps, and actually own the Telonics in the photo that Greg Cutshaw once owned.

The Telonics is a fine modern amp, with lots of bells and whistles. I have used it to test guitars I sell to get a true assessment of their tone, etc...

I also have been using a few different Nashville 400's for rehearsal with my band in my old bank barn, basically like an outdoor venue, for over a year.

After playing 2 outdoor gigs with the Telonics this past week, it became apparent to me that the Nashville 400 solid state design has much more volume as opposed to the the class D power amps the Telonics incorporates.

*** I have edited this post to update the comment about the TCA-500C not handling the lower register on the C6th neck. The problem is resolved, the speaker needed to be tightened down, it was fairly loose, I snugged it up, and all is well.***

I realized that I actually prefer the Nashville 400 for outdoor, open space gigs.

The Telonics is light as a feather, and the Nashville 400, well you know...

Sound per dollar on the current market for these two amps, well....

Just my humble opinion.

Mike D

Never owned telonics, but did own peavey 400.
nash 400 is super reliable,super loud,super affordable.
Very road proven amp.
The Telonics sure looks nice and is a modern amp.
I'm sure it's great also or it wouldn't be owned by so many players.

I've long pondered the Telonics amp but Mike's remark regarding the C6th low strings is a bit disturbing.

There's a huge disparity in cost between it and the Peavey.

When you compare sound and cost.
The Nashville 400 comes out on top.
Erv

I owned a Nashville 400. I "tolerated" it until the replacement Nashville 1000 came out.

Considering the Nashville 400 was discontinued in the 90's, I would take the Telonics over the Peavey.

I know this is not about Quilter amps, but the Quilter Travis Toy 12 amp beats both of them (I play a lot of C6th).

I have both amps. My Nashville 400 was given to me by Peavey UK around 1980, because the Session 500 amp that I owned was backwards and forwards to Peavey for constant repair. Totally unreliable, whereas the NV 400 was the opposite. The only downside of the Nashville 400 was the typical Peavey mid honk, which I'm sure is partly to do with the amp circuit and partly to do with the midrange bias of the Black Widow speaker. The only work that has ever needed doing on my NV 400 is a change of the smoothing caps for the transformer.

The Telonics TCA500 is an outstanding amp. I won't add to Paddy Long's list of pros above as he has very much nailed it. Re the 2 bottom strings on C6, my Telonics is absolutely crystal clear on those bass strings. In fact the tone is noticeably bigger on the C6 neck than ever it was on my NV 400. I have 10 steel amps in total. I would put the TCA500 at the top of the pile, with my Webb 614E a fairly close second. I bought my TCA500 without a rackmounted effects unit, and my good friend Mike Johnson uses a TCE G-Force with great effect in his studio racks. I had a spare G-Force knocking around my studio, so I installed it into the 1U rack slot in the TCE. It's a great marriage, and I use a remote channel change box from my steel, which controls banks and preset channels on the G-Force via MIDI.

The Telonics isn't a cheap piece of kit, but I believe it's worth every penny. I love that I can power my Telonics volume pedal via a 24v output on the front of the amp. The nice thing about Telonics for me is that it is owned by a sweetheart of a guy - Dave Beaty - who is a steel player, and knows a thing or two about steel guitar tone. He is also a great believer in customer care, and you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the retail world who can match Dave's philosophy on customer service and care as it is second to none..

Just to reiterate Ken's comments with regard to the lower register on the C6th -- mine is crystal clear all the way down to Boo Wah land ... and I play a lot of C6th !!

I also have the TC-G Major EFX unit in mine, with a midi controller on the leg of the guitar !! Heaven ....

It's a bit like asking if you'd prefer a Mercedes or a Hyundai, the price difference is just too big to compare the two. I'm sure the Telonics is better in most ways (haven't heard it), but for that kind of money it shouldn't be allowed to look so "built in a shed by a blind guy". It is easily the ugliest amp on the market, which is surprising – the Telonics volume pedal looks as good as it performs (I have got one in the polished aluminium finish, and it is worth every penny).

If Telonics fixed the optics, I would be happy to pay the price. As it is, I'd rather go for a Milkman or something like it, or the big modern day Peavey Session 115.

Per Berner wrote:It's a bit like asking if you'd prefer a Mercedes or a Hyundai, the price difference is just too big to compare the two. I'm sure the Telonics is better in most ways (haven't heard it), but for that kind of money it shouldn't be allowed to look so "built in a shed by a blind guy". It is easily the ugliest amp on the market, which is surprising – the Telonics volume pedal looks as good as it performs (I have got one in the polished aluminium finish, and it is worth every penny).

If Telonics fixed the optics, I would be happy to pay the price. As it is, I'd rather go for a Milkman or something like it, or the big modern day Peavey Session 115.

Well Per, that is a very surprising opinion of the TCA500. Okay the cabinet isn't covered in tolex with metal silver corners like most other steel amps, but ugly??? I could never describe any Telonics product as being ugly. In fact, when I first got my Telonics amp, the vast majority of other steelers who saw mine were drooling at its modern looks. The illuminated control panel looks great on a darkened stage, and makes it easy to see and adjust the controls.

One thing that I omitted to add as one of the amp's features is that it has a really good, no great Dobro simulator built in. Used with a Telonics plastic bar it sounds very resonator-like.

Maybe this version of the TCA500 rings your bell Per.

I don't mind the cabinet too much, not a fan of shiny corner protectors. It's the fact that the amp and fx units are not integrated and do not match at all, all the different gaudy colors and the lack of a front grille or fabric that makes it look so unrefined, like an early stage prototype. I'm also not convinced about the ergonomics of the TC fx unit; pressing buttons stepping through menus is never a good idea, it's just way cheaper to manufacture than analog, physical knobs and switches.

I have put my favourite 6 effects together on my TCE G-Force, and can change those pre-sets on the fly instantly from my seat. I have loads of analogue amps if I want to get out of my seat to make any adjustments, or have my effects unit(s) next to me.

Tbh, I prefer having an all singing all dancing effects unit that can have from 1 to 8 effects running simultaneously. But it's horses for courses, so if you prefer to go for a Milkman then fine. You have the choice. In fact, the choice for steel players has never been better concerning amps.

But, the original poster (Mike DiAlesandro) wanted opinions on the TCA500 v the NV400 regardless of price. I think that those people who have both amps are best placed to give an opinion, rather than someone who doesn't like the look of one of them, and even worse has never played through one. I think that he (Mike) can quite capably make his own assessment on the cosmetic appearance of both amps.

Poll question specifies "All things being considered (weight, price, sound, and reliability), which amp have or would you choose, and why?". I interpret this to indicate that price is one of the criteria, thus I would not say "regardless of price". I think the choice depends heavily on how one personally weighs the criteria, and how one evaluates each criterion. I have owned a couple of NV 400s, but have only played the Telonics, never owned one.

Weight - Telonics is obviously lighter, although I had a NV 400 with a neo speaker in it, and it was very acceptable weight-wise to me.

Price - NV 400 wins by a slam dunk on price.

Reliability - I have no real basis to evaluate the reliability of the Telonics, but I have every reason to believe that it is built well and reliable. However I suspect that, circuit-wise, it is significantly more complex and harder to get a local repair. I could be wrong, but I don't like shipping anything off to get repaired. I know that the NV 400 is built like a brick outhouse and relatively straightforward to repair. By my standards, I give a slight nod to Peavey.

Sound - this is totally personal preference. I think they both sound good to me. No doubt Telonics has more options tonally, but the NV 400 has been one of the standard bearers of pedal steel guitar tone for decades now, and I see no real end to that. I really like what chris ivey said about the NV 400 - paraphrasing, he said something like, if you can't get a good sound out of a good pedal steel into a NV 400, the problem is not the amp.

As far as weighting criteria, we're talking about clean pedal steel amps. As long as a candidate amp sounds good to me and has adequate tonal flexibility, I'm usually most interested in reliability, repairability, and cost. Peavey wins for me.

However, I still prefer the Session 400 to the NV 400. And for a super-lightweight, high-power amp, I think it is very hard to beat my $250 Quilter Tone Block 201. I'm sure I would like the Tone Block 202 too. And a Twin Reverb is still king for me tonally.

Per said

It is easily the ugliest amp on the market

Haha!! I don't find mine ugly Per. In fact it looks pretty cool with the illuminated control panel. Mine does have the black and white faceplate and not the more gawdy multi-colored version...not fussy about those. Some find the speaker grill ugly but it's a lot more protective than grill cloth. Beauty is the eye of the beholder I guess.

I'd go with the Telonics without a second thought. Nothing against Peavey but the 500C seems like a really great piece of kit.

No doubt it's feature rich, well designed, lightweight, fantastic sounding and sturdy, but I still agree with Per regarding the visuals. The rack-gear-meets-car-trunk-subwoofer aesthetic is a real downer.

I'd still 100% go with Telonics though. To use Per's illustration, you take the Mercedes over the Hyundi, even if the Merc is a sad-looking GLK.

Well, so far the Telonics is winning, and most of the steelers commenting on it are from across the big pond.

19 more days to go on the poll. So far the results are -

Peavey Nashville 400 - 9 votes
Telonics TCA-500C - 22 votes

Thanks for the input!

Mike DiAlesandro wrote:Well, so far the Telonics is winning, and most of the steelers commenting on it are from across the big pond.

19 more days to go on the poll. So far the results are -

Peavey Nashville 400 - 9 votes
Telonics TCA-500C - 22 votes

Thanks for the input!

Are you using this as guide for a purchase?
If that's the case, have you considered the Half and Half? Low weight, fantastic tone and killer looks.

At the recent Tulsa Oklahoma show the Nashville 112, 400, Telonics and Quilter Steelaire was used by various players. No dogs in the bunch. They all sounded great.

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... highlight=

Mike you are selling yours?

Greg Cutshaw wrote:https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... highlight=

Mike you are selling yours?

Yes, moving and need to clear out what I don't need at the moment.

I own both, and they’re both great tools.the Telonics is on another level with technology, features, customer service and light weight.

I like that I can power my foot pedal from the amp, and the rack with the cool presets, one AC plug, and it’s ready to gig. Onboard reverb and dobro, and the rack effect has a tuner. It really cuts through the mix well, and sound guys love the DI. I can turn it up in the FOH without increasing my onstage volume.

The manual is outstanding. Dave will walk you thru every feature as well. I could go on, but, it’s just not a fair comparison. I’m a simple guy, and all the features I thought I’d never use, I’m using.

It’s expensive.

The appearance is unconventional. I wish it looked more like a tweed pro, and less like battlestar Gallactica.

I’ve blacked out a lot of the busy faceplate, but tbh, nobody sees or cares about the steel players amp, but they hear it. I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the sound, one Nashville heavyweight in particular.

I still own my Nashville 400. Got it for $50. Filthy barn find. I got the KenFox intense mod, and a MOD reverb tank, with Neo speaker. Great amp ! I’ve played a ton of gigs on it If you can play, you could pay your rent with this amp, no problem.

I’m not sure I’m helping any by saying both amps are great at what they do. My preference is the Telonics over the Peavey. It’s like the Jetsons vs the Flintstones.