Trace Elliot Commando - surprisingly awesome

[project_c]

Played my Fender Jazz DLX through one of these yesterday (not my photo) and much to my surprise, it sounded absolutely amazing. Had the Gain maxed out, Mids up high with Mid Shift engaged, Treble around noon, and it nailed the growly burpy jazz tone beautifully with both pickups on full, really nice tone with an aggressive bite to it, totally jumped out at me and slapped me in the face. I play through a Bassman TV15 usually and love the tone of that thing too, but this combo is a fair bit cheaper in comparison, and has more or less my ideal tone.

These amps are seen as a bit of a compromise by a lot of people, and the green and black thing has always put me off in the past, but I'm going to try to track one down, I loved it a lot. I guess the lesson to be learnt is the same as always - don't let price / other people's opinion / your own snobbery get in the way of trying less expensive gear.

[the low one]

It's a great little combo. I've had mine for about 15 years and gigged, rehearsed and recorded with it loads.
You say that's not your photo but is it the same model? I have the green carpet model as pictured, the original model, and I believe it's better than later models when Trace was taken over.
I use a P bass with all the eq at 12:00 and the mid shift and treble boost on. Can you confirm what your settings are again please. Always good to get more settings to try out.

[jungleheat]

Probably the best cheap but capable combo you can get. I tried one at GC a while ago and loved it, but couldn't really justify it so I had to pass. It didn't stick around for long.

[project_c]

Originally Posted by the low one

It's a great little combo. I've had mine for about 15 years and gigged, rehearsed and recorded with it loads.
You say that's not your photo but is it the same model? I have the green carpet model as pictured, the original model, and I believe it's better than later models when Trace was taken over.
I use a P bass with all the eq at 12:00 and the mid shift and treble boost on. Can you confirm what your settings are again please. Always good to get more settings to try out.

I'm pretty sure it was just like the model above, which I think is the 100W model, not the more powerful 150W US version as far as I know, but I don't really know how to tell them apart. I know newer ones have the number 15 written on them, but I don't know about the green carpet ones, the one I played was here in a rehearsal studio in London. It's given me serious GAS, I might even call the studio and make them an offer on it..

The settings, as far as I remember were:
Input - Passive (the USA DLX Jazz is pretty quiet, even in active mode)
Gain - all the way up
Bass - around 2 o'clock
Deep switch - not engaged. (The difference that switch makes is immense, probably great for a metal tone or slap, but def. not for me).
Mid - up almost all the way
Mid Shift - On
Treble - up pretty high, about 3 o'clock. Didn't find it harsh at all.
Volume was at least 2/3 of the way up, but mostly up pretty high. The thing sounded totally badass, and reacted beautifully to dynamic fingerstyle playing. My Fender Bassman TV15 sounds fantastic, and I love playing through it, but the Trace combo just had something about it, perhaps a bit more mid range punch and clarity than I'm used to with the Fender. Tone is really difficult to quantify but I definitely heard my ideal tone in there.

*edit - forgot to mention, the treble boost was also switched on.

[the low one]

Originally Posted by project_c

I'm pretty sure it was just like the model above, which I think is the 100W model, not the more powerful 150W US version as far as I know, but I don't really know how to tell them apart. I know newer ones have the number 15 written on them, but I don't know about the green carpet ones, the one I played was here in a rehearsal studio in London. It's given me serious GAS, I might even call the studio and make them an offer on it..

The settings, as far as I remember were:
Input - Passive (the USA DLX Jazz is pretty quiet, even in active mode)
Gain - all the way up
Bass - around 2 o'clock
Deep switch - not engaged. (The difference that switch makes is immense, probably great for a metal tone or slap, but def. not for me).
Mid - up almost all the way
Mid Shift - On
Treble - up pretty high, about 3 o'clock. Didn't find it harsh at all.
Volume was at least 2/3 of the way up, but mostly up pretty high. The thing sounded totally badass, and reacted beautifully to dynamic fingerstyle playing. My Fender Bassman TV15 sounds fantastic, and I love playing through it, but the Trace combo just had something about it, perhaps a bit more mid range punch and clarity than I'm used to with the Fender. Tone is really difficult to quantify but I definitely heard my ideal tone in there.

*edit - forgot to mention, the treble boost was also switched on.

Thanks project_c. I'll be gigging with mine at the weekend so will try these settings out in soundcheck and see how it sounds.