Trace Elliot GP12SMX amp head

mouthmw · #1 02-28-2011, 01:38 PM

I can't for the life of me find any useful info on this amp.
A guy is offering this amp to me and supposedly it has 290W on 4 ohms.
I found that there's a preamp of the same name, and a combo!
Nothing on it on Trace Elliot site either.
I guess it's discontinued.
I'm really not familiar with Trace Elliot sound, I heard they have a distinct tone. Not sure how they would fit a hard rock band.
So, anyone have any idea on this amp?
Sound? Volume? Power? How's the tube preamp in it? A good pair with Ampeg 810 ?
Trace Elliot amps sure have a weird EQ and knobs all over them. They scare me, they look alien with all that green stuff and weird switches and whatnot

mouthmw · #2 02-28-2011, 01:49 PM

Elliot.. phone home Elliot!

christopherogut · #3 02-28-2011, 01:53 PM

quick guess (based on the same head in my 1210H combo) is 280W RMS into 4/8 ohms, 580W peak watts... loud as a mofo!

here's a .pdf manual for the SMX series: http://www.21frets.com/catalogs/Smx.pdf

basstones · #4 02-28-2011, 01:55 PM

Here is a PDF from the British Audio Site, It may help you out.

http://www.britishaudioservice.com/inst/SMX.PDF

christopherogut · #5 02-28-2011, 01:59 PM

briefly addressing a few of your other questions:
sound: spectacular. you can tweak the eq to produce some really great tones, and then bypass it completely if necessary. then there's the shape button...
volume: with the preamp input adjusted properly, i practice at home with the output somewhere between 0 and 1 into the 4x10 combo. i could play a decent sized bar or club with the output around 3. at 5, with a trace elliot 2x10 extension cab, it would tear my house apart.
power: the most kick-butt "280W" you'll ever experience. definitely underrated by trace elliot.
tube preamp: sweeping the preamp blend completely to valve produces a wonderful crunchy tone which almost makes my overdrive pedal useless.

mouthmw · #6 02-28-2011, 02:11 PM

Thanks a bunch chirstopherogut!
Now I'm really interested!
Any idea when these SMX 12 band models were being made?

mouthmw · #7 02-28-2011, 02:52 PM

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...bsoneraweb.jpg

seller said it looks like this.
Rack style.
Looks like a preamp to me. I guess no deal then.

Hellbastard · #8 02-28-2011, 03:01 PM

The GP12SMX is indeed a bass Preamp.

mouthmw · #9 02-28-2011, 03:06 PM

I don't understand why the seller keeps insisting it's an amp.
He's about to send me more pics, so stay tuned folks. I'm gonna put them here in a minute.

mouthmw · #10 02-28-2011, 03:12 PM

Ok here goes:

Does the guy use DI to plug it into his cab?
Is it actually usable as an amp?

Hellbastard · #11 02-28-2011, 03:13 PM

It could be a unit taken out of a combo. But unless it has the AH, RAH letters on the model it is not an Amplifier Head.

**nutdog** · #12 02-28-2011, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hellbastard

The GP12SMX is indeed a bass Preamp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mouthmw

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...bsoneraweb.jpg

seller said it looks like this.
Rack style.
Looks like a preamp to me. I guess no deal then.

I think I have that same head, except it's not functioning at the moment. It's a AH300smx. The amp card inside says bipolar bear 295watts, but the back says 280watts. TE was confusing in that they put the preamp model on the front. They hand wrote the model numbers and s/n and it would disappear.

It sounded great for the 12 years I used it. I think a transformer is fried and a rebuilt board will run around $200 from BAS so I didn't think it was worth it to fix it when there are so many new lightweight options available.

I bought mine in 1997. It was British made. It has tube and SS preamp (blendable) and a dual compressor for hi/lo freq.

As I said, it sounds good but unless you're getting a good deal I think you can get just as good of sound out of something 1/4 the weight. Just depends on what you'll pay.

Don't expect Peavey, which owns Trace now, to support it. BAS will as far as I know. There's a big Trace thread here

mouthmw · #13 02-28-2011, 03:26 PM

I dunno, seller sounds dodgy.
He just said "don't worry, it has power" after I confronted him about it being a preamp.
And it says 8 ohms at the back, my Ampeg cab is 4 ohms in mono, doesnt sound like a good combo.

**nutdog** · #14 02-28-2011, 03:29 PM

It has two 1/4 inch speaker output, each marked for 8ohms, so two 8ohm cabs will be 4ohms.

edit: look at writing by fan. Says output power 280 watts rms/560 peak. That's what mine says.

Hellbastard · #15 02-28-2011, 03:30 PM

It is an amplifier, which reference I'm not sure, it could be a AH250SMX or an AH300SMX. It says 8ohm on the back but it has two speaker outputs, which mean the amp can handle 2 8ohm loads or a single 4ohm load.

mouthmw · #16 02-28-2011, 03:31 PM

So I should connect 2 cables to my 810 cab for it be 4 ohm load?

Addison · #17 02-28-2011, 03:31 PM

When taken out of the suitcase-style rack and with rack ears attached, my AH350SMX looks EXACTLY like that.

Here's what it looks like in the rack case it came in:

By removing 4 screws, you can remove the head from the rack case and put rack ears on it... and it will look exactly like the one in the pictures you have.

The preamp alone looks like that too, so it can be confusing... but, judging from the pics he gave you, he is selling you the complete head... preamp and power.