Having been an old Trace devotee and a former endorser, here's my somewhat biased/bitter take on the whole thing, edited for brevity:
Trace started out making custom bass gear for John Entwistle, Mark King and the like. They gradually developed into a big company, making guitar amps, acoustic instrument stuff, and PA (I have one - sounds amazing, esp for bass). Their original stuff was the best on the market at that time - SWR & Eden were distant also-rans. Compare the Trace 2x10 combo with the Eden or SWR counterpart; soundwise, build quality, volume... in a league of their own; I rest my case. I had a big Electric Bass rig (2x10 combo plus 15" extension), acoustic bass amp for my Taylor AB1, and the Trace Acoustic PA as part of the endorsement deal. Used it for many years and had the best electric bass sound in town. Have recently moved on - kept the PA - it's amazing.
The Kaman corporation bought them out in the mid 90's, fired a lot of the old staff, started cheaping the stuff out till it sounded like junk. Lots of quality control problems, breakdowns, and it now sounded like ****.
They flipped it to Gibson about 3 years later, who bassically shut it down. Acoustics amps were still available by special order only - I don't think anybody was stocking it anymore.
Gibson flipped it two or three years ago to Peavey, who are reintroducing it. I tried the stuff at NAMM 06, and was not impressed; looked like Trace, sounded like Peavey. Other peoples opinions may differ, and the new stuff may be better; who knows. I do know I played the amps for about 30 seconds - sounded like 1982 all over again - the Pre-Trace days.
Ashdown was started about 10 years ago by Mr. Mark Gooday and a bunch of other really good blokes from the original Trace Elliot staff. Have taken the initial Trace designs and updated them. Their speakers are different now - darker, bassier, a bit boxier - amps are similar to the old Trace stuff in sound/power. Their new Mark King signature model amp was virtually identical to the amp in my Trace 1225V combo - interestingly enough originally designed for Mark King also - he used a WALL of them back in the day. Originally it had 2x10's and 2x5", later changed to 2x10 + the best tweeter ever in a bass amp, and second only now to the stuff Jim Bergantino uses.
Trace and Gooday were ALWAYS at the forefront of bass amplification, very innovative stuff; I think the Ashdown stuff more reflects the current fascination with retro crap, and eventually when this 'pre-bass with a pick and flatwounds around my knees through an SVT' fad dies a much-deserved death, they might get back to making some good high-end 'hi-fi' bass stuff like they used to. In the meantime, they are building very good 'retro' stuff, and making lots of money, and deservedly so. They raised the game on bass gear in the 80's and 90's, taking it to new heights; they deserve all the success they receive, IMHO.
Gibson, on the other hand... Trace, Tobias, Steinberger, Oberheim to mention but a few... they take great stuff and turn it into a pile of junk out of pure greed. Couldn't care less about music, instruments, or musicians. They'd be just as happy making Endoscopes out of barbed wire if they could make money at it - they'd bribe a bunch of quack doctors to tell you how good it was for you. Dreadful. I personally won't buy so much as a guitar pick from them - EVER.
The history of the Kaman corporation is NOT much better, I'm afraid, and they bought Genz-Benz... which is why I won't be buying one of those anytime soon.
I hope Peavey does a good job with Trace - they have the old factory; unfortunately, they DON'T have the old brains; Mark Gooday and Company.
Just my 2 cents, and IMHO. You're free to love Gibson, Kaman, and Peavey if you like; see 'Stockholm Syndrome'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
Cameron
