Trace Elliot 210 Cabinet Restoration

[Dean N]

I picked up a Trace Elliot 2x10 to restore on CL. It's going to need a lot of work, and I'm going to be asking a bunch of questions along the way. Great gray/purple paint scheme, huh? It'll be restored. I'm not sure if I'm going to do carpet or Tolex. It is going to be a budget restoration, so I'm leaning towards the Parts Express black carpet at the moment. I always did like the Trace black/green carpet, but I'm not sure if I can justify the price.



First are the drivers. The guy I bought it from said they were the original Celestions. There's no branding on them anywhere, and the stamp doesn't seem to jive with what I've read about dating Celestion drivers. Can anyone tell me if they actually are Celestions (or even Fanes)? The dust caps of course say TE, but I did expect to see Celestion on the driver somewhere. I've looked at a ton of pics, and these drivers don't look like any of the “made for TE” Celestions I've seen on the interweb...






The spiders are separating from the voice coil formers.





I did check the speakers with a multimeter, and they both read 12.0 Ohms, which I believe is a decent # (i.e., the VC's aren't fried). Pushing on the drivers doesn't create a scraping sound. Since I have nothing to lose, I may as well try to reglue them. I'm thinking heat-stable epoxy is the best bet (thoughts, anyone?). I do want to make sure I use the right adhesive here.

If that fails, I'll likely replace them instead of reconing.

I'm going to look in to dating the cab via serial number. Here's the back panel:



Can anyone tell me what the model and year this is? It doesn't have a horn. The terribly faded handwritten S# indicates that it's pre-Gibson, but I'm going to have to really work to read all the writing. The model # looks like “2102.” There's a dot after the four numbers, and I can't really see if that dot is actually a letter. The only reference to a TE 2102 that I could find is a v-type cab seen here.

I wondered why it's so heavy... it's MDF!


I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a year-long project. I'm really hoping to get some input from everyone here... so please comment!

[My name is Mudd]

Sub'd...I want one of these bad!

[Kelly Lee]

I wouldn't worry about whether they are Celestions or not as long as they are factory drivers which they appear to be. BTW, I don't recall the drivers in my 1524 (pre-Gibson) being marked as Celestion either.

The best I can tell you is to contact Shane at British Audio service and he might be able to identify them. They might be able to recone them for you as well.

[Hellbastard]

I have a 2103X and the speaker are not marked Celestion either. But they have a sticker that reads trace elliot in plain letters and the model number LSP C1020016, which means 10" 200Watts 16ohm. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any information on those speakers or who the manufacturer was.

Your cab is I believe a 2102 Series 6 cab.
The acoustic filling has been added because AFAIK trace didn't use any filling on their cabs, at least the person who modified it did something good

[Dean N]

Thanks for the replies!

Does anyone have any recommendations on glue for the speaker spiders? I'm waiting to hear back from a TB speaker expert, but want as many opinions as I can get.

I'm also trying to figure out if I need to remove the gray (latex! ) paint before recovering.. I'll likely use 3m Super 77. Any thoughts on that stuff bonding to paint? Or will I have to sand the paint... god, I hope not....

Hellbastard - I had ancestors from Bremen!

[Kelly Lee]

Personally, I would remove the paint but that's me. I just wouldn't trust anything to stick to it or to stay stuck to the cab.

[dukeorock]

I have this one...12 band, British...awesome

[Dean N]

After looking into it, the paint is definitely coming off. Stripping MDF is really going to suck though.

[Beauchene Implements]

Gotta love recycling! That looks like a worthy cab for the effort, good luck!

[Dean N]

Today I managed to do a little work on the cab. I took the rusty handles off and found a surprise: The openings look like they were hand routed, and the cut was so sloppy, two screws on each handle had no cab to go into:



When I saw a couple missing screws on the mounted handle, I just thought they were missing, not because the opening was cut like this. I hand sanded a notch (mmmm, MDF dust!) and glued another strip of MDF into it:



This is really just for the cosmetics. I doubt the screws are necessary, but I want this cab to look pretty when I'm done. I never did any work on a cab before, and never even saw one stripped. Is the hardware normally sealed like this?



It's some kind of simple open-cell weather stripping.

I also started cleaning up the handles with wire brush and Evapo-Rust treatment.





That's all for now.. hopefully I'll have time tonight/tomorrow to do a little more.

[SGD Lutherie]

On my TE the speaker is marked as a Celestion made for TE. The dust cap looks right though.

If you need to replace the speakers, you can get the original Celestions here:

CELESTION TRACE ELLIOT C10H-100 BASS SPEAKER 10'' 100W 8 OHM

[Dean N]

David- Thanks! I'm keeping my eyes on those, as well as the British Audio Service drivers.

I found a link to these Celestion TF1020's as well.. I wonder how they compare. Killer price on those.

I'm still rummaging around the house, looking for something I can use to neatly apply a heat-stable epoxy to the original speakers to try to fix them. There's no VC rub at all, and they seem like they'll be just fine if I can reglue those spiders.

[Hellbastard]

Originally Posted by SGD Lutherie

On my TE the speaker is marked as a Celestion made for TE. The dust cap looks right though.

If you need to replace the speakers, you can get the original Celestions here:

CELESTION TRACE ELLIOT C10H-100 BASS SPEAKER 10'' 100W 8 OHM

This speaker won't work.
You need two 16ohm or 4ohm speakers to get a total 8ohm load.


I don't know if Trace Elliot has always used Celestion speakers, but the OP's cab is at least 20 years old and the speakers of old TE cabs are not marked like that. (At least not mine)

As for the handles, The hardware on a TE cab is not sealed like that.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by Hellbastard

I don't know if Trace Elliot has always used Celestion speakers, but the OP's cab is at least 20 years old and the speakers of old TE cabs are not marked like that. (At least not mine),

I have a Elliot BLX SMC (150W GP7) from 1997. It uses a Celestion speaker, but the dust cap doesn't have writing, and the label on the back is different, from what I remember, but it does say Celestion on it.

[SGD Lutherie]

Originally Posted by Dean N

David- Thanks! I'm keeping my eyes on those, as well as the British Audio Service drivers.

Nice link! They have the Fostex tweeters too.

[RobJ]

My '95 TE 2103H has the dust covers with Trace Elliot printed in that circular fashion as well and they're the original speakers. I'm not sure when they got away from the printed ones.

[Dean N]

I was just surprised that there was no branding on the rear plates. They are completely blank.

Hellbastard is right - a direct replacement would have to be 16 Ohms. That's clearly marked on the baskets.

[Dean N]

Here's a bit of an update on what must be TalkBass's slowest build/restoration thread. I've been busy with other things, and dreading sanding all the paint off of MDF. Finally, I got it done:




There are a lot of holes in this thing that someone filled prior to painting before I got it.

Looks like someone put some kind of plastic box behind the rear plate, likely to isolate the wiring for the polyester batting that was in the cab:




Can someone comment on this? Isn't this completely unnecessary? At least it was a rough color match to Trace green! Of course, the batting, staples, and weird green box are all coming out.

And here's a pic of one of the handles after I stripped it. This is actually a take two; the first repaint job turned out really bad. I still need to get some surface rust off (again ).



Hopefully I'll manage to get it recovered soon. There is still a bit of final sanding to do. And I'm definitely going with Tolex.. and not the standard TE "pimple" Tolex... stay tuned!

[Dean N]

I got the driver spiders reglued. They were pretty loose, but didn't have any voice coil rub. So I tacked them with a couple drops of CA glue, and then went back and glued them all around with a heat-resistant epoxy (JB Weld):



Next up, batting and Tolex.

[StraightSix]

Any more news on this project...?