NPD: Trace Elliot Transit B

[jmbjandfam]

Mine has serious noise issues but I suspect it is due to a faulty AC adapter. This thing is very high quality throughout but the AC adapter is pretty chintzy so I am going to call Sweetwater to see about a replacement.

What type of noise is it?

I only used mine twice in a live setting and one of those times I got a nasty hum when I plugged in the DI. On that day, I quickly switched to the 1/4 inch out into a separate DI to avoid the hum because I didn't have the time to investigate what the root of it was and that avoided the issue. The other time I used it live, I didn't experience this issue.... however.....

Mine is currently back at Trace headquarters for warranty as I was experiencing significant volume and low end content drop / loss when engaging the compressor (even with the knobs fully counter clockwise / off) as well as low end loss when engaging the drive section....

They've had it a couple weeks and I haven't heard anything.... I've sent them an email and left multiple phone messages but they haven't replied. I just keep getting their voice mail....

 

[kirkm24]

What type of noise is it?

I only used mine twice in a live setting and one of those times I got a nasty hum when I plugged in the DI. On that day, I quickly switched to the 1/4 inch out into a separate DI to avoid the hum because I didn't have the time to investigate what the root of it was and that avoided the issue. The other time I used it live, I didn't experience this issue.... however.....

Mine is currently back at Trace headquarters for warranty as I was experiencing significant volume and low end content drop / loss when engaging the compressor (even with the knobs fully counter clockwise / off) as well as low end loss when engaging the drive section....

They've had it a couple weeks and I haven't heard anything.... I've sent them an email and left multiple phone messages but they haven't replied. I just keep getting their voice mail....

Mine is like severe ground loop him. I would think it would be my bass but all my basses do it and I do not have that issue with anything else. I think I’m going to just return it. My Ampeg DI gives me no issues. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like this unit. The Trace tone is nice.

 

[jmbjandfam]

Mine is like severe ground loop him. I would think it would be my bass but all my basses do it and I do not have that issue with anything else. I think I’m going to just return it. My Ampeg DI gives me no issues. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like this unit. The Trace tone is nice.

That's interesting. Mine was the same type hum... in fact afterwards, I had the thought that I should have tried the ground lift but in the heat of the moment, I didn't think about it.

On another note, I heard back from Trace today.... They say my unit is working as it should and they are sending it back to me.... I'll give it another try but this unit just might not be for me.... I was really hoping for an all in one solution....

 

[BaltBass5]

I just received mine this morning and after about an hour my initial impressions:

Build: Sturdy and definitely feels robust enough to go the distance. Only time will tell.

Tuner: it works. Easy to use and seems pretty accurate. Not much else to say.

Pre Shape: Don’t really find it very useful for my purposes but some may find it useful I suppose.

Drive: works great from just adding some grit to full on snarl. Definitely requires some balance between blend and drive to keep close to unity volume. I’m using it more as an always on tubey vibe so no complaints.

EQ: Works great for setting up an alternate tone. I’m using it pretty flat with boosts on the mid High and treble for more of a solo’d option.

Comp: works great for me but I’m not slapping. Using the low band around 10 and the high band around 9. Nice and punchy with a warm kick. No complaints!

All in all this is a really simple and effective tool. Bonus is the DI in the event of amp failure or direct mixing option. Love it so far! Gigging our with it all weekend so I’ll do another summary next week!

 

[tjswope]

I received my Transit B last week and have been working on dialing it in. I'll be using it direct at church (no amp) with in ears. Tomorrow will be it's debut...

So far, I really like the Pre Shape but I do use the EQ section to adjust a little bit. I am using the Drive section as always on with just the smallest bit of grit. Beyond the tiniest amount of grit, I don't have any real use for it.

The section I am struggling with the most is the Compressor. I thought at first I had it figured out but the more I play with it, the more confused I am and the less I've liked it. Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a ton of compressor experience but right now it just seems to suck the life and tone out of the signal. Even with the knobs fully counter clockwise there is a significant volume drop and the tone gets much thinner. If I turn it up until the lights blink, per the manual, the signal is really squashed, especially the top end.

I guess maybe I just don't understand the compressor but right now I've got it shut off as it just kills the tone to me. I sent Trace an email describing the volume drop and thin sound to see if they had any ideas or suggestions but they did not reply....

Can any of you offer any insight on the Compressor?

Jack - I'm in a similar situation - playing at a church direct with in-ears. I love feeling the air that you get from playing through an amp, along with the corresponding tone and sustain. I know I'm a bit late to this conversation, but what's your take on the using the transit B? Does it give you a bit more of the feel that you would get by playing through an amp as apposed to direct?

 

[jmbjandfam]

Jack - I'm in a similar situation - playing at a church direct with in-ears. I love feeling the air that you get from playing through an amp, along with the corresponding tone and sustain. I know I'm a bit late to this conversation, but what's your take on the using the transit B? Does it give you a bit more of the feel that you would get by playing through an amp as apposed to direct?

I actually sold the Transit B. I liked the tone but did not care for the Drive or the Compression.

I just purchased a Noble Preamp DI and am excitedly awaiting it's arrival. I've been following it since 2014 (and bought / sold a bunch of other stuff during that period) always thinking it was just too much money for a DI. I finally gave in after much frustration so we'll see....

 

[Martin Sconduto]

Hi groovers.. I'm a novice player, and thinking about buying one of these. I have a couple questions and hope to get a little insight.. I've viewed the manual and went to the TE website, but I cannot seem to find the information I need.

• Does anyone know if the circuitry is analog? I'm told that analog is superior to digital??
• Is the unit sturdy? Is the casing made of metal?
• Sound quality: Does it measure up with other well known pre-amps (Tech 21 sansamp, Ampeg scrambler DI, etc??)

Thanks guys.. $300 bucks is a lot for me right now, and I just want to make the right choice!

 

[kraigo]

Hi groovers.. I'm a novice player, and thinking about buying one of these. I have a couple questions and hope to get a little insight.. I've viewed the manual and went to the TE website, but I cannot seem to find the information I need.

• Does anyone know if the circuitry is analog? I'm told that analog is superior to digital??
• Is the unit sturdy? Is the casing made of metal?
• Sound quality: Does it measure up with other well known pre-amps (Tech 21 sansamp, Ampeg scrambler DI, etc??)

Thanks guys.. $300 bucks is a lot for me right now, and I just want to make the right choice!

I'm just in time, always. Analog vs. digital, there are advantages to both. Digital opens whole worlds of opportunity for the designer in a compact package. Digital done well is very, very good, small, light and can be less expensive and more trouble free.

Analog is more forgiving of misbehaving users generally and has a certain something. I like both my old tube amps that predate commercial digital equipment and my class D amps. As someone who records, I appreciate recording to tape when possible, but for my own studio the economics and lower maintenance of digital is big and the possibilities of using plug-ins vs. standalone effects is a real boon. Plug-ins have a serious convenience factor. Standalone effects specialize more.

I'm not going to touch on your other questions about the TE unit. I don't own it and haven't played through it. I came here to research it. It's probably nice.

 

[Billy Pirie]

Ok...here goes, not a active reviewer, however; this product floored me.

The Transit B is killer - you all sound like you are putting WAY too much thought into what shaping your opinions & tones. uh oh...just opened the can of worms didn't I.... The EQ/ PreShape and outputs are truly in the flavor of classic Trace SMX (if you're not familiar, you need to try one) You could run 2 DI outs, if you'd care to (one raw / one post everything), AND have 1/4" outs with their own level control (via output knob). The low and high compressor is super musical and some of the reviews say it sucks the high end out of your tone...lol, those frequencies are for other places/ instruments in the band anyway. So smooth it out a bit - you should feel a compressor...not hear it, anyway.

Blending with a band, this is an amazingly easy and awesome sounding box. A couple of twists, keeping things simple will yield a sound/ feel that you and the band will like. (and your soundman too, if you're gigging) Lots of "what's that" and "man, your rig sound amazing". Even my wife, who's a singer, said that's the best sounding box I've heard you play through in a long time.

I have all the Darkglass stuff too, love it. This is toe-to-toe with it or anything else on the market. I've used it with super high power solid out/ digital out and tube out, 210/ 410s/ 212 (I play through 2 ampeg classic 212s) and simply....it's really great.

I'm going to simplify all the bs I've wasted time on and use it all the time with a big fat smile on my face Will fit perfect in my Mono Tick and I'll start selling off the pedalboard stuff..

 

[stingray69]

I just received one of these last night - had been in a love/hate relationship with a couple of Zoom pedals. Loved some of the amp sims and a couple of random effects, but really hated the digital hiss & artifacts that came along with most of my favorite custom created patches. I decided to give the Trace Elliot Transit B a try. Instantly, I knew it was a keeper - for starters, my recordings into my USB recorder were like x1000 more organic & cleaner sounding - before even touching or engaging anything on the Transit B. I mean the immediate difference was strikingly obvious and I actually went about re-recording many "finished" bass tracks as a result of the greatly improved direct, recorded tone(s). It also sounds equally improved into my amp. No more watered down tone and digital "ess" noise - good riddance.

In spite of all the effects available in my previous Zoom pedal(s), I usually found myself gravitating mostly around a couple of meat-n-potatoes amp or EQ type of patches with maybe a mild overdrive and the built in tuner was always handy of course. I was essential using the Zoom stuff as a quick & portable way to set a decent baseline tone, with some EQ and a built in tuner at my disposal. The Transit B gives me everything I want and need to create a great, solid tone, all in a wonderful sounding analog preamp, along with a built in tuner. This thing sounds powerful, clean, & amazing - and I love it! As a bonus, the Drive on the Transit B is actually fantastic sounding and extremely useable as opposed to the dismal sounding ones in my Zoom units. I also love how each particular Compressor/EQ/Drive sections are well organized and the LED indicators are not only very cool visually, they also serve as an easy visual to what is engaged (or not) on the unit.

I've been exploring the unique INs/OUTs offered on the Transit B by sending both a clean DRY and an effected POST to my USB recorder on separate channels and the cool part is that I can bring up the clean (dry) channel on the mixer when I need just an extra bit of clarity on a particular run or certain section in a song when mixing down. Very cool.

The Transit B is a solid winner in my book and I wish I had discovered it sooner.

 

[wvbass]

Ok...here goes, not a active reviewer, however; this product floored me.

The Transit B is killer - you all sound like you are putting WAY too much thought into what shaping your opinions & tones. uh oh...just opened the can of worms didn't I.... The EQ/ PreShape and outputs are truly in the flavor of classic Trace SMX (if you're not familiar, you need to try one) You could run 2 DI outs, if you'd care to (one raw / one post everything), AND have 1/4" outs with their own level control (via output knob). The low and high compressor is super musical and some of the reviews say it sucks the high end out of your tone...lol, those frequencies are for other places/ instruments in the band anyway. So smooth it out a bit - you should feel a compressor...not hear it, anyway.

Blending with a band, this is an amazingly easy and awesome sounding box. A couple of twists, keeping things simple will yield a sound/ feel that you and the band will like. (and your soundman too, if you're gigging) Lots of "what's that" and "man, your rig sound amazing". Even my wife, who's a singer, said that's the best sounding box I've heard you play through in a long time.

I have all the Darkglass stuff too, love it. This is toe-to-toe with it or anything else on the market. I've used it with super high power solid out/ digital out and tube out, 210/ 410s/ 212 (I play through 2 ampeg classic 212s) and simply....it's really great.

I'm going to simplify all the bs I've wasted time on and use it all the time with a big fat smile on my face Will fit perfect in my Mono Tick and I'll start selling off the pedalboard stuff..

I agree with most of this. I don't agree with the part about "those frequencies are for other instruments." Sometimes that is true, but not always. Depending on the band, my EB tone ranges from a modern grind to muted short scale thump. I don't love the Transit-B compressor for my brighter tones.

I just received on of these last night - had been in a love/hate relationship with a couple of Zoom pedals. Loved some of the amp sims and a couple of random effects, but really hated the digital hiss & artifacts that came along with most of my favorite custom created patches. I decided to give the Trace Elliot Transit B a try. Instantly, I knew it was a keeper - for starters, my recordings into my USB recorder were like x1000 more organic & cleaner sounding - before even touching or engaging anything on the Transit B. I mean the immediate difference was strikingly obvious and I actually went about re-recording many "finished" bass tracks as a result of the greatly improved direct, recorded tone(s). It also sounds equally improved into my amp. No more watered down tone and digital "ess" noise - good riddance.

In spite of all the effects available in my previous Zoom pedal(s), I usually found myself gravitating mostly around a couple of meat-n-potatoes amp or EQ type of patches and the tuner was always built in. I was essential using the Zoom stuff as a quick & portable way to set a decent baseline tone, with some EQ and a built in tuner at my fingertips. The Transit B gives me everything I want and need to create a great, solid tone, all in a wonderful sounding analog preamp, along with a built in tuner. This thing sounds powerful, clean, & amazing - and I love it! I love how the particular comp/EQ/Drive sections are well organized and the LED indicators are not only very cool visually, they also serve as an easy visual to what is engaged (or not) on the unit.

I've been exploring the unique INs/OUTs setup by sending both a clean DRY and an effected POST to my USB recorder and the cool part is that I can boost the clean (dry) channel when I need just an extra bit of clarity on a particular run or certain section in a song when mixing down. Very cool.

The Transit B is a solid winner in my book and I wish I had discovered it sooner.

What Zoom pedal(s) are you talking about? I'm using my B3n instead of my Transit B or pedals (Cali76, B3K) into an amp with my rock band. I don't have issues with artifacts, and the only time I have hiss is with a super-overdriven patch that I use for one song. That patch has so much gain that it will feed back if I am not playing, so noise is understandable.

I used my Transit B last weekend with my Gretsch G2202. I ran it straight into a powered monitor and used the XLR out on the monitor as a DI. It sounded great.

The Transit B is definitely a winner in the "amp in a box" category.

 

[stingray69]

I agree with most of this. I don't agree with the part about "those frequencies are for other instruments." Sometimes that is true, but not always. Depending on the band, my EB tone ranges from a modern grind to muted short scale thump. I don't love the Transit-B compressor for my brighter tones.



What Zoom pedal(s) are you talking about? I'm using my B3n instead of my Transit B or pedals (Cali76, B3K) into an amp with my rock band. I don't have issues with artifacts, and the only time I have hiss is with a super-overdriven patch that I use for one song. That patch has so much gain that it will feed back if I am not playing, so noise is understandable.

I used my Transit B last weekend with my Gretsch G2202. I ran it straight into a powered monitor and used the XLR out on the monitor as a DI. It sounded great.

The Transit B is definitely a winner in the "amp in a box" category.

I currently have both the B3 and the MS-60B - I've experienced noise with both of them, but not all the time. A lot depends on minor weird things like sometimes if I engage a particular cabinet sim while using an amp sim, it will introduce noise. Or adding an EQ sometimes, I get this soft, "ess" type of hiss that kind of surrounds my notes when I start to play. It's mostly only noticeable in quite passages - and it easily shows up in a recording environment. Very odd & very frustrating. I'm using a regulated, 1-Spot so I don't know what more to do with the situation - very frustrating. I've read about some TB experiences describing the same thing - while others don't.

In any case, no more of that non-sense with the Transit B - it's killer and I'm thrilled with it!

 

[wvbass]

I rhave both the B3 and the MS-60B - I've experienced noise with both of them, but not all the time. A lot depends on minor weird things like sometimes if I engage a particular cabinet sim while using an amp sim, it will introduce noise. Or adding an EQ sometimes, I get this "ess" type of hiss that kind of surrounds my notes. Very frustrating. I'm using a regulated, 1-Spot so I don't know what more to do with the situation - very frustrating. I've read about some TB experiences describing the same thing - while others don't.

In any case, no more of any of that non-sense with the Transit B - it's killer and I'm thrilled with it!

I don't use the cab sims on the B3n. They are terrible. Instead I use a low pass filter, and that may be why I don't really have hiss issues.

I still have a place for the Transit B, though. Great little piece of gear.

 

[stingray69]

I don't use the cab sims on the B3n. They are terrible. Instead I use a low pass filter, and that may be why I don't really have hiss issues.

I still have a place for the Transit B, though. Great little piece of gear.

Same here - I've stopped using the cab sims in favor of an HPF/LPF pedal.

No worries - and much appreciation for starting this thread. Very informational and helpful in steering my attention towards the Transit B!

 

[Charlzm]

So... I have a Trace Elliot 1210 combo from about 10 years ago (early on in the Peavey resurrection era). I get such an amazing sound out of this amp, but it weighs nearly 100 pounds and, even with the casters I installed, it is a PITA to cart around.

So... I'm wondering if the Transit B can successfully replicate my amp tone.

The amp:

Tube pre-amp (I drive it at about 75% and blend it at about 20%), pre-shape (which I do not use), 12 channel graphic EQ that I only tweak a little and a dual band compressor (lows set to about 15%, highs to about 50%).

How close can the Transit B get, I wonder?

Anybody have or know of anyone who has an actual Peavey-era Trace amp that has done an A-B?

 

[tombowlus]

So... I have a Trace Elliot 1210 combo from about 10 years ago (early on in the Peavey resurrection era). I get such an amazing sound out of this amp, but it weighs nearly 100 pounds and, even with the casters I installed, it is a PITA to cart around.

So... I'm wondering if the Transit B can successfully replicate my amp tone.

The amp:

Tube pre-amp (I drive it at about 75% and blend it at about 20%), pre-shape (which I do not use), 12 channel graphic EQ that I only tweak a little and a dual band compressor (lows set to about 15%, highs to about 50%).

How close can the Transit B get, I wonder?

Anybody have or know of anyone who has an actual Peavey-era Trace amp that has done an A-B?

The Transit-B will absolutely get you in the ballpark. I really need to do a review review for BGM with the Transit-B up against some of my old Trace amps...

 

[Charlzm]

The Transit-B will absolutely get you in the ballpark. I really need to do a review review for BGM with the Transit-B up against some of my old Trace amps...

I just spent about half an hour with my Line 6 Bass POD xt Live, trying to match the sound of the Trace amp. I think I got really close, so I may wind up just keeping the Line 6 as my backup.

But I would absolutely love to read a comparison review and watch a video.

 

[yussipee]

Just checking, just checking...

Should the headphone input move like it does in this video AND should the top/lid of the box be a bit loose. It also makes a tiny noise when moving. Sounds better than my playing, though.

 

[Wfrance3]

Ok, I’m convinced. This seems like a killer little gizmo. Have read a lot on this. It seems like the tuner could have some struggles with a low B so, a Polytune 3 (with buffer) into a Broughton H+LPF into the Transit B should be an excellent little rig. Should (just) fit onto a Nano+ and a 1 Spot should have enough Ma to run everything. Now, to go see if the money tree is ready for harvest...

 

[4StringsEnough]

Can anyone confirm whether the Transit B has any speaker simulation built in? Thanks