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New Trace Elliot 1200 amp !

#81
So I had a chance to use the Trace Elliot TE 1200 at rehearsal. We have an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keys, drum and bass. We also have three singers. Overall the Trace punched through the mix just fine and even with the Pre Shape engaged I was able to cut through when I boosted the low mids and cut a bit of the upper mids. I compared the amp ith my Aguilar AG 700. The Trace is more modern sounding and open. The pre shape is really nice to have when you need / want it. The dual band compressor took some tweaking but worked well. I prefer the compressor post EQ on the Trace (light off). The compressor before the EQ is thicker sounding. The Aguilar does one thing that the Trace will not. The Aguilar has an inherent thickness to the mids giving it a more old school rich tone. I could not get the Trace to do this as well. However, I could not get the Aguilar to be as open sounding either. Two flavors of awesome!

Trace Aggy.jpg
 
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#82
jdwinva said:
So I had a chance to use the Trace Elliot TE 1200 at rehearsal. We have an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keys, drum and bass. We also have three singers. Overall the Trace punched through the mix just fine and even with the Pre Shape engaged I was able to cut through when I boosted the low mids and cut a bit of the upper mids. I compared the amp ith my Aguilar AG 700. The Trace is more modern sounding and open. The pre shape is really nice to have when you need / want it. The dual band compressor took some tweaking but worked well. I prefer the compressor post EQ on the Trace (light off). The compressor before the EQ is thicker sounding. The Aguilar does one thing that the Trace will not. The Aguilar has an inherent thickness to the mids giving it a more old school rich tone. I could not get the Trace to do this as well. However, I could not get the Aguilar to be as open sounding either. Two flavors of awesome!

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The AG700 is currently my main amp, so I appreciate the comparison. Please keep us posted as you get to try the amp more!
 
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#83
@jdwinva thanks for reporting on your experience with the new Trace amp. I played TE amps for years before taking a 15 year “life break”. Now I run a Tone Hammer DI into a Quilter BB800. The contrast you describe hits home with how I hear them as well; both great, but quite different ways to approach your sound.
 
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#86
Since I asked in this thread and in the other about MiniMega reliability and whether the TE-1200 had much in common, guts-wise, with the Minimega, and since @Fred from Peavey answered me pretty thoroughly over there, I thought I'd quote his post here, as well:

Fred from Peavey said:
The Original Minimega did have a couples hick-ups early on when running hot below 4 Ohms, but those issues have been corrected years ago. That being said the Trace TE-1200 and Minimega do share some similarities in the power amp section - they are not the same but both based on the class D from our IPR series of sound reinforcement power amps. This actually separates us from most other companies when it comes to power amps, we are one of the few that actually design their own. That being said they are not the same, nor can I say they are completely different. The Trace power amp is significantly more powerful than the Minimega, almost 20% more power, and the power supply is completely new, and of course everything else about the amp is completely different as well.

Hope that isn't confusing - but the Trace TE-1200 is in no way a rebranded MiniMega, the two couldn't be more different, but to say we don't use the best pieces of all our gear wouldn't be accurate either.

The amp is rated at 4 Ohms - you would have to wire cabinet's to operate within the 4 OHM guideline to have 4 cabinets - we are doing some testing on the 2 Ohm operation - I'll get back to you when I'm comfortable with the results. Right now 2 cabinets and that one amp are seriously loud and if you wanted to run more than one amp there are power amp inputs and preamp outputs to accomplish that as well.

Hope this helps - sorry I'm not here as much as I would like to be. I'm really proud of this new gear and I really love playing through it, I hope you get a chance to check it out!
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#93
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#96
MarkA said:
Great Scott.

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LOL - you made my day! Yeah, it's probably the closest thing to Marty McFly's experience at Doc's house in the opening scene. Nothing tops that though.

Normally my PJB rig isn't next to it, I did that "for fun". But I did play through the entire stack at our last show - quite the pants-flapper.

PeaveyPlayer said:
More power the better !

Ita a fact you need more power to move bass frequencies and the higher rating the easier the “thump”

having super efficient speakers and high power means you can pl

Also is that an old ampeg Pr-810?

I used to to have an old 410 rear ported !
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Yes, a rare cab and for good reason. At over 200 lbs it's a pain to move, even with wheels. So it doesn't get moved much but I have access to lots of help so it's never an issue. Sounds great with the Mesa 400. Here's an old zombie thread about the silly thing.

I had acquired the Mesa and this cab for myself, and my church had the four Hartke cabs and an Ampeg SVT-6pro head. Worked great for years until bad generator power at an outdoor show cooked it. Got the 6pro fixed but it wasn't done right - had no where near the power it once did. My pastor (ex-bass player himself) bought the Mesa/Ampeg fridge rig from me for the church. The Mesa 400 replaced the 6pro, and with minimal storage I had to put the cab somewhere (buhahaha!) so there you have "the rest of the story".

Before the 6pro/Hartke rig I had a TE SMX 12-band 410 combo and that thing was killer. All 160 lbs of it, too! I powered a couple of dual 15's off of that head, never had it past 1.5 on the master volume knob. 280 "Trace" watts as they say.

Perhaps I'll see one of these in person at GC or Sam Ash one day and try it, but unless it knocks my socks off I have enough gear to dampen most of my GAS (notice I said "most" :cool:).

Raz
 
#97
PeaveyPlayer said:
The ag? You couldn’t open up ?

compared to the DB?

interesting!

I ended up buying another probass 50”
But I definitely need a smaller head
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The Trace has lower lows and high highs for what that's worth. The Ag semmed to focus on the more important frequencies that let you punch through a mix. The Ag is much easier to dial in your sound and is simpler to use.
 
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#99
jdwinva said:
I did want to let you all know a spec thing I missed at first. The Aguilar AG 700 only puts out 350 watts into 8 ohms but the Trace Elliot TE 1200 will put out 835 watts into 8 ohms. I sometimes use a single F112 speaker (8 ohm) and the Trace is WAYYY more beefy than the Aggy into 8 ohms.
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Interesting

currently I have a probass 500 and an Aguilar db680
 
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#100
Fred from Peavey said:
Cool Actually I love graphic EQs as well - hmmmmmm
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Hehehe!

I'm actually just a little conflicted about this-- while the graphic EQ is definitely a readily-identifiable Trace feature, I have to say I'm kind of on board with the newer trend of simplified preamp EQ's.

If the frequency centers for the boost\cut controls are chosen well, and can work with the room acoustics of the vast majority of venues, I don't feel any real compulsion to revert back to more complicated EQ controls.

Having said that, my main amp for nearly 20 years has been a LOUD-era 15" Crate combo that uses a switchable parametric shape control, in conjunction with an 8-band graphic-- so if a graphic Trace head DID happen, I'm pretty confident I'd be able to coax what I want out of it.

All that to say-- while I'd certainly be intrigued by a graphic EQ Trace head, if the 4-knob EQ on the current head is well-designed, I don't consider the graphic EQ a 100% "must-have".

The only revision on the current head that I would whole-heartedly suggest is to swap the green LED on either the Gain or Level knob for red! ;)
 
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