IS TRACE ELLIOTT A PEAVEY IN DISGUISE?
 

I am really interested in the Trace gear but don't wanna drop that kind of money for some re badged peavey gear, nothing against peavey, of course. any info would be greatly appreciated. anyone happy with the new trace gear?

Why not go used? Since it's no longer in vogue there are some great deals to be found...

or as an alternative go Ashdown as many view it as the spiritual successor to Trace

I have one of the modern 1210 heads (500w, taken out of a combo that was destroyed). Doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with Peavey other than they own it and maybe it's built in the same factories. Design wise and sound wise, it seems like a continuation of the classic Trace sound and style. I think if you got an AH-500-12 (the actual head version, might be AH-600-12, I forget), you would be VERY happy with it. It's a beast of an amp. Very versatile, lots of features, sounds amazing, lots of headroom. Well built. I would go for it. There's a recent review of the 1210 combo from Bass Gear magazine if you look towards the end of one of the big Trace threads.

Peavey bought Trace. They're not just re-badged Peaveys though I don't any details of production changes, etc. Though, Peavey is having a lot more stuff chinese made than they ever used to.

+1, just snag a UK Trace used on the cheap and call it a day.

All the current Trace stuff is MIA. They say "Designed in Great Britain, Assembled in the USA to Trace Elliot Specifications". Although it's possible some of the components/sub boards are foreign made. But I guess that goes for most things these days. If you buy a bag of resistors to make an "American Made" amp, the resistors themselves were probably made in China.

At any rate, these amps are definitely solid. And I believe they will last a long long time.

Here is a link to that Trace Elliot review.

The Trace Elliot gear is entirely different from the Peavey line of bass amplification products. While Peavey owns Trace (and I for one am damn glad that they do), the Trace Elliot brand is most definitely separate and unique. Peavey brought Paul Stevens back into the fold, which is hella cool, and as a long-time "vintage" Trace Elliot user, believe me when I say that the new stuff is top flight gear that stays true to the Trace Elliot name.

New trace gear is impeccable. I tracked my last record with an AH1200 and it was utterly phenomenal. Best 1000 watter I've played. Classic eq and preamp.

Some people argue that old Trace gear is even better. The GP12 SMX for instance is supposedly the dog's bollocks.

This is nice to hear. I've got to use a few Trace rigs as backline years ago and was always impressed. (the ones with lots of bands of graphic eq and the green light) Never had the pleasure of playing a V6 or 8. Can only imagine how fun that would be.

For the most part, the new Trace amps were already designed before Peavey acquired Trace.


Now that Peavey services older Trace stuff, I get to see a lot of old Trace gear. Two reasons why I think the new stuff is better:

1. The power amplifier modules. Older Trace gear used crude SS power amplifiers that were either unstable or unforgiving because they had virtually no protection circuitry. The newer power amplifiers are WAAAAAAY better from an engineering/reliability standpoint.


2. A lot of the older Trace gear, especially the complex, expensive heads--they just falls apart. There's all these light bezels, bulb sockets, and trim pieces that just disintegrate. It's kind of like an old Jaguar or whatever where nothing works, but it still runs. At one time, the amp probably looked fantastic and operated great, but just wasn't built to last. The new stuff looks cool and is built to last.

Most of my life has been spent in vehicles where "nothing works but it still runs good". These have also been sort of the Peaveys of the automotive world. Won't find me in a Jaguar.:p More recently the better of the Japanese brands. In my earlier years, pretty much anything with a smallblock Chevy in it anyone can fix with a pliers and a screwdriver....and will still fire up when you have to dig a path to the door through the anow with a shovel.

They must have contracted out to Lucas back then. :D

Let me start this by saying I've never liked Trace. I'm not a fan.

Peavey owns them, but they haven't done what Fender did to SWR. I.e. change everything and swear they sound the same and then run them into the ground. Peavey hasn't touched it other than it's being made in the USA Peavey plants. This saves you money because you don't pay import fees and taxes.

The above post is correct. 99.99% of all electronic components like resistors, transistors etc are made in China.

Peavey's intro lines are made in Asia just like pretty much everyone else's. Made in China doesn't always mean it's crap. It all comes down to the quality control of the company. If they maintain the quality controls you get a good end product. The same is true here. For example, when Toyota had the accelerator issues the part in question was made in the USA.

George Lucas?

No, the other Lucas, Lucas Electric, Prince of Darkness.

Ha...thanks for reminding me, I had forgotten about that. I thought (and still do) that it is 100% stupidity to not have the gas pedal mechanically hooked up the the throttlebody (carburator/whatever).
Even though everybody now does.

Computers in cars can do many cool things, but if one fails (or suffers from faulty design/programming/whatever), one should still be able to operate as the machine that it is. You know, they try to idiotproof these things to the point is almost requires an idiot to operate one.:p

I'm also one who thinks nobody should even be allowed to jave one of these machines, which is what they are, if they can't operate a manual transmission, at least have a very basic understanding of what happens when you have spinning engines, spinning gears, spinning wheels, etc., all buttoned up in a 3000-4000lb. package speeding down the road, know how to change a tire, how and why you check and change your oil, etc.

Not that everyone should be their own mechanic, but they meed some basic knowledge of just what the hell is happening other than "I push this I go, I push this I stop and I plug my ipod in here".

We have to remember there are three generations of Trace's unless I missed one. The Trace era, the Gibson era, and now the Peavey era.

I read Trace was given to PV not sold.

The original TE units that I owned were built like brick outhouses inside and out. The quality and reliability was second to none. Unfortunately there is much of nothing made like that anymore. Auto-motives today are made to last a specific distance and then fall apart same with everything else. Planned obsolescence is the term in question, it has become expected in our society today. From around the 40's into the 80's many things were built to last forever. Now cheap and profit are the sole motive. You can find exceptions but you have to look really hard.

Ah...thought he was refering to the look of the '80's/'90's Trace stuff.:D

Couldn't agree more....or as I call it "designed to fail". It's just a matter of when.

I agree fully with Bobby's post. I bought a faulty Trace amp as a project and I could not believe how poorly it's made. No wonder it failed.