What is the attraction to Trace Elliot amplifiers?

[Lesfunk]

I recently went back to playing Trace Elliot gear from the 90's. It's heavy. Weight wise and sound wise. I have played many amps SWR, Eden, EBS, Ashdown, and Markbass and enjoyed them all (except SWR) but the Trace gear was my personal favorite. I love the clarity, punch, and headroom. My TE has the most headroom of all my previously owned amps.

 

[pbassnut]

I've got a Trace Elliot V-Type preamp that is a very good unit and has served me well. Some people call them the "poor man's" Alembic F1-X.

 

[Jazz Ad]

I'm not a fan of the TE tone but it's pretty unique. Amps with a personnality aren't that common.
They really need to bring out new products though. A class D amp seems like an obvious choice for their awesome pre.

 

[DrumsAndBass]

I've been reading about TE's for years, but never had a chance to play one. Now I see that Peavey is building them in the U.S. and that is a favorable sign to me.

What is so special about these amps to TE owners? I'm very intrigued as I'm a fan of Peavey amps. Peavey must have seen a value niche in buying Trace Elliot.

I'm looking for: Tone? Versatility? Unique sound style? Power? Is there any other amp that kind of compares in sound or performance? Thanks guys and gals.

I noticed them in 1985 when I became aware of very good bass gear. First thing I noticed was the color but they sounded great in the store. They are certainly well made. Maybe they put the British bass guitar sound on the map in the 80's and they are still very decent.

 

[Schlyder]

I have an AH250 GP12smx ....... Great amp. 1996 vintage ... pre Gibson

I recently tried one of the new ah600-12 heads .... I was disappointed.

But that is because I was directly comparing it against the GP12smx.

I was disappointed in the build and a few things in the sound.

Too much of a "cheap plastic" feel to EQ slider components and other control knobs and buttons. I felt it would not take much for them to get damaged.

The dual band compressor was too "breathy" not smooth like the vintage one.

The ss/tube blend was not very smooth either. I felt it did not transition and blend as well as the vintage in this regard as well. It seemed too staged and non linear.

I felt overall that there was too much circuit noise when you were running tube blend, shaping, EQ, and compression all at once. Not at all like the old vintage GP12smx It was disappointing.

My recommendation is to look at vintage Trace Elliot.
They are solid and reliable. Tons of headroom. There is good service and supply of parts thru British Audio Service, if you are need support.

 

[Jools4001]

No real attraction here. I own one, GP7-300 IIRC, It has so many items of poor engineering I was highly disappointed!

+1

I still have two of them in one of my sheds. Both from the 90's, both sounded passable for a while, both of them blew their power supplies after a couple of years. No wish to get another.

 

[Bassmec]

Trace Elliot made good solid reliable for the most part, transistor amps
But what was very very good was the Trace Elliot V Series.
The King of the heap was the V8 an almighty 8 x KT88 rig with proper big iron and a tube compressor with a magic eye valve indicator, in fact it's probably one of the most sought after amps for big power all tube loving bass players still.
Only available on the Vintage market I guess.

 

[Bassmec]

I've got a Trace Elliot V-Type preamp that is a very good unit and has served me well. Some people call them the "poor man's" Alembic F1-X.

Great pre amp the V Type stuff is still some of the best tube stuff out there.

 

[chienmort]

IME, Trace amps have a unique, identifiable tone. If you're thinking about acquiring one, you really need to try one out to see if you like the colour.

My first proper amp was a BLX80 combo. Only 80 watts but was very efficiently designed and produced volume and depth of tone that belied it's diminutive dimensions. It's preamp had a couple of neat features, two preshapes (one scooped 'rock' setting, and another more airy 'Classic Trace Elliot' shape). It also had a eq balance control that boosted bass and reduced treble one way, or vice versa the other way - this is a really easy way to quickly adjust tonal balance to suit room acoustics.

At the time I never quite got to grips with the graphic eq, but now, years after I sold the amp, it makes sense. Rather than using it for tone shaping, it's a efficient way to quickly hone in on problem room acoustic issues.

So basically, the amp had it's own voice which you could tweak to suit the room, but not really a transparent amp that you could change the colour of at the flick of a switch. But if you don't like the initial voice, then look elsewhere, as it's tricky to make it sound like anything else.

I had the BLX 130, and it is the only amp that I regret selling.

It was a great sounding combo and lived up to its BLX designation.

 

[Fuzzbass]

It works!

I ran into several of the 410's around here as backline in the '90's. Saw Tommy Shannon playing the same stuff quite a bit, probably same rental company used locally. Sliding the ports in and out changed the character and "bigness" of the sound. It's one of the things that started getting me interested in how all that stuff worked. I just remember the amps as being clear sounding and seemingly loud for their comparitively low power ratings as the Edens we got around the same time, which were also supplied backline quite a bit back then.

Too cool! Thanks for the response.

 

[BassmanPaul]

both of them blew their power supplies after a couple of years.

Are you sure it's the power supply?? Mine had blown output transistors and that's all that is wrong. Asking to get 150W RMS from a pair of small plastic output transistors is foolish in my book. Even more so when you consider that the PCB has provision for a second pair (Bear PCB).

 

[will33]

Too cool! Thanks for the response.

I didn't know how it worked at the time, but it amounts to adjustable port tuning, which will make the bass response more humped up/increased or more rolled off/decreased......definitely not a gimick. They just didn't settle on one port tuning, rather let you adjust it to your taste.

 

[Jools4001]

Are you sure it's the power supply?? Mine had blown output transistors and that's all that is wrong. Asking to get 150W RMS from a pair of small plastic output transistors is foolish in my book. Even more so when you consider that the PCB has provision for a second pair (Bear PCB).

Well, all fuses are intact but there is no voltage to either the preamp or power amp, according to my multimeter. They're still in the shed so I could get them checked out if I could be bothered, but I moved on years ago.

 

[rtav]

For years I gigged an 80's AH500X. Very heavy, VERY loud and versatile, with two independent power amps. Also it reproduced low frequencies better than anything else I've ever played, even my DB750. It made my Eden sound thin and hollow in comparison.

Weird, but when I turned it on and the fan started blowing, it also smelled really good. Not a smell I could identify but somehow comforting.

I bought smeet's Trace Elliot AH500X head back in Feb of 2011 (great seller, BTW).

He's spot on - I play it for the low end (deep B) - and it effortlessly moves more air than a Black Hawk. I've NEVER had the output over 4 (did that once, just to see). It has knocked shelves off the wall in our neighbor's practice room on multiple occasions, and after they nailed the shelves into the wall, it just knocked stuff of the shelves to the floor - all with the output level around 2. They gave up.

The tone is great (I don't scoop the mids but have dialed in my own thing), it is VERY heavy, looks cool, built like a kardashian, and it just TOTALLY kicks SERIOUS (b)ass.

I've paired it with a TE 1048 and 1528 as you see below. I absolutely love this gear... I'm a TE head now. Oh, and yeah, as smeet noted above, it does give off a very nice scent. BONUS!

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[uOpt]

What is the attraction to Trace Elliot amplifiers?

They are so heavy, it's simple gravity.

 

[TwinBass]

I've heard exactly two TE rigs. I don't know the models or anything, but the first one was a 4x10/1x15 stack and it was flat out unbelievable! It sounded (in my head, at least) like THE perfect bass rig. The second I heard was a 2x10 combo. It weighed a ton (and I'm used to Peavey gear) but I was floored by how big that little thing sounded.

I'm not currently looking for a new amp, but when I decide it's time to start looking Trace Elliot will be on top of my list.

 

[BassmanPaul]

Well, all fuses are intact but there is no voltage to either the preamp or power amp, according to my multimeter. They're still in the shed so I could get them checked out if I could be bothered, but I moved on years ago.

I hadn't realized you're from "back 'ome", I'm from Liverpool.

I have a lot of Trace service manuals if you need them.

 

[brianrost]

The black lights

 

[georgestrings]

I sorta look at them like Ampeg - their SS/hybrids never did much for me, but their all tube amps were kick ass!!!


- georgestrings

 

[DrayMiles]

I thought they were pieces of ****. The sonic equivalent of cardboard. But then again, I hate all british bass amps. They were "available" and little else worth mentioning. The tone had no character IMO...