VTypeV4

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1364047419' post='2021286'] The thing is, I've heard other players make some mouth wateringly amazing sounds come out of Trace gear, so a lot of it comes down to how well the gear works with your technique. [/quote] And I guess thats what keeps it inetersting. if we all liked the same thing it'd be awful dull. I know you're very proud of your MarkBass setup and glad it works with/and/for what you do however, I just didn't quite 'get' it if you know what I mean. Trace stuff on the other hand has always been a reference point for me, I love to this very day. I'm with you on Peavey stuff and Ashdown cabs though, I borrowed a Peavey Firebass (or such similar?) and it was really good, everything just sat right with it somehow.. And the MAG 210 I owned and hammered for a while was a belter and seemingly indesctructable..

I have used many of their rack mounted signal processors from gates and compressors to the digital EQ and FX units. My experience is that thy all work perfectly well especially given their price point. The FX unit doesn't sound as clever nor is it as flexible as my TC M1 but it costs 6 times less. Out of all the Behringer products, I've never had one fail but I did have to have my TC fixed last year after it went mad.. As a general label, all the companies suffer IMO. Some Peavey stuff is labelled as heavy and not great sounding, Ashdown gets the wooly thing, Trace gets the heavy and clanky badge etc.. Most of it (as we've seen previously discussed) is based on hear-say or 'a mate of mine said' rather than first hand experience.. My Ashton is another case in point. Ashton? Must be cheap rubbish badly designed and poorly executed from the far east? I ate my words when I walked out of the shop with it. To this day, it's been perfectly reliable and is even well made..

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1364007739' post='2020929'] Pretty much their own thing. The 3 knob channel has a Fender type tone stack with a fixed mid, the gain channel has an active mid which is a separate circuit to the bass and treble controls, the 3 stage gain control gives massive scope for colours of gain, and its without noise even with silly distortion. Much more a no expense spared sort of design and build rather than the cheapest end of good enough like Fender. [/quote] Good to know, cheers for that!

I remember trying an EBS rig many years ago at the guitar show in Brum.. It was the best slap noise I'd ever heard at the time..

Roland, I read about your amp on Johns site! Fantastic! Thanks for the S/C info Mr F. Nice Burmans by the way, what are they a modded bassman type design? Real nice compact setup with that Matamp although I bet it still roars!

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1985_zpsfb24e037.jpg[/IMG] Little bottles with the big ones at the back. Note the laminations of the output transformer and the driver tube on the right.. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1984_zps8768c7d1.jpg[/IMG] Big bottles! [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1980_zpscf9c235a.jpg[/IMG] They're all labelled on this photo! [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1979_zps582d54b2.jpg[/IMG] Old-skool GZ34 in the ST20..

Thanks for the offer, I might well take you up on that! Interesting that the chassis is configured different than mine was. Your valves looks to be 'in a row' whereas mine was '3 + 3'.. I'm gonna take some pics and get some more chassis / valve shots this afternoon.

I had a Sound City 120 but it was the 'Energizer 120' which was simply a power amp unit. With it's 6 x EL34 and huge transformers, it was massively powerful and was capable of hurting speakers. A true monster! I'd love to try your amp, doug, looks to be a lovely example.. Stu, shame you had to sell the Laney but that Carlsboro looks a lovely (and no doubt heavy) little monster..

Hiwatt 200! Wicked!

Valve amplifiers only, ie Valve pre-amp and power-amp stages.. Big (or small!) glowing bottles a-plenty please.. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/BeavisClean.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/BeavisChassis.jpg[/IMG] Beavis, my 60w custom built head. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/LaneyHondo.jpg[/IMG] Laney VC30 (4xEL84) 2x10 with lovely Jensen speakers. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1200.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/BV300RVW.jpg[/IMG] Ashton BV300H Stack. 6 x KT88 and Celestion Loaded cabs. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/LinearStackL30.jpg[/IMG] Linear L30 Stack. 2 x EL34 and Goodmans Loaded 12" cabs. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1141.jpg[/IMG] Leak Stereo 20. Really sweet sounding peice of kit.. So bring 'em on, big small or indifferent, from Ampeg and Boogie through to Dr Z and all in between. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/DSCN1200.jpg[/IMG]

I haven't had chance to use under 'full battle conditions' yet however, a quick blast in the house with the master on 5 (and gain approiatly set at 7) it does begin to break up but in that smooth way, not in a 'I'm dying, give me a break' sort of way. Much like like my Trace V4 used to be.. I know it's in the house but it really does seem massively loud, especially given its compact dimensions. It'll give my Ashton stack a run for it's money!

A Crashdown I could get on with.. Very interesting! Even I'll admit that it's a lovely looking amp..

[quote name='john_oprey' timestamp='1363901095' post='2019291'] This is exactly the situation I'm in!.....I'm currently selling off all my older Trace gear to fund a Barefaced big twin cabinet....just about got the funds together. [i][b]Alex suggested keeping my old TE ah400smx [/b][/i]and newer ah500-12 just to see how they fair with the new cabinet. The tc electronic was the first alternative lightweight option I looked at (the rh450) but I'm now considering gk fusion (500w) valve amp or gk1001rb. Also the mark bass little tube amp gets good reviews.....? Being a trace man myself for the best part of 20years it's all a bit daunting, but, just like Big Rob, I feel the time for a change is fast approaching... Barefaced was ordered 2 weeks ago - so about 6 weeks to wait! JohnO [/quote] Thats really good advice, wish I'd never sold mine..

Sounds fair to me, I haven't any experience with Jensen speakers but they seem to have a good reputation and I'm sure your man knows where he's at. Hope it sounds great! I bought the Celestion in the pic to go [i]in[/i] one of my WEM cabs but it had a bit of a coil rub but I re-aligned magnet and it works well now but it's not currently in a cab. I have an HH Invader thats really sweet sounding in one and an Electrovoice SRO / EVM 15-L in the other but I still have the original Goodmans drivers too, one of which is still in good health.

What speaker are you putting it with? Something like this.. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/Celcoil4_zps3c55f509.jpg[/IMG] Not hugely efficient but certainly distinctive, warm and smooth sounding.. In my WEM 1x15 anyways..

[IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/TV2_zps02353bd0.jpg[/IMG] Slightly Arty shot.. [IMG]http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/VTypeV4/TV1_zpsb76e92fc.jpg[/IMG] And a slightly fuzzy one.. This amp has blown my socks off! A 20 year old single-fifteen combo has no right to sound this good or be this loud. I dialed my usual settings in and it just did it without any further tweaks being required.. I've had many Trace amps over the years and they've all been great but I don't think I've ever plugged into any amp (Trace or otherwise) that has as much punch and imediacy that this does. The 15" speaker is in a very compact enclosure but it doesn't seem to compromise the low end too much although there is a slight upper-bass hump (as expected from a tiny box) but I don't mind this. The upper frequencies are very well catered for with enough 'ping' to keep me happy without requiring an HF component. This combo is head and shoulders above the 712, 715 and V-Type 4808 combos I've owned in the past, it really iss that good! The owner has said I can keep it for a month (he's moving house) so I can get used to it and decide if I want to buy it. I'll have to see if I can find fault with it but other than it's a little bit heavy, it's awesome. He recently installed some PM brand 6550s in it's power stage so valves aren't really a worry although I've got some shuguang KT88-98s if needed.. What a fantastic bit of kit.. Seemingly old-skool Trace Elliot at it's best.

Well.. He dropped it off this evening.. What have I done... It's got 'that thing' going on, serious mojo!

Selmer Tremolo is the best I've ever used.. I had a Constellation 20 (EL84 powered 2x12") combo that was stunning. The wobble was truly magical on that old thing!

I love those old Selmers although the croc-skin ones are my faves.. Baxter, what a lovely job! I'm glad to see another vintage valve amp in tip-top shape.

Glowing valves and Lurpak-laden toast? Just add bikes and girls and we're away! Ha!

I've been offered a really clean example of a classic Trace Elliot Twin Valve combo for good money.. Has anyone owned or borrowed one or have any experience of this model? Was it good? Was it loud enough given it's ~100w? Does the compact enclosure compromise the low end too much? Was there reliability issues with the delicate valves? Etc etc etc... I have plenty of experience with valve and hybrid Trace stuff, I've owned plenty before but never anything as old (or as low powered!) as this model with the old Series 6 seven-band style pre-amp. I'll have the opportunity to try it but not for a few days or weeks or whenever the chappy who owns it is about. I appreciate thats the obvious answer; try the thing! Thoughts and feelings most welcome, cheers, Matt

I'm amazed at the sheer pig-headed arrogance.. As I said earlier, I don't like the products they offer but even if I did, I would NEVER buy one after reading through this.. Many years ago, (much like the Marshall story on the prev page) I had trouble with a BG series Celestion speaker in a Trace Elliot combo but it was seemingly a known weak point and under warranty they installed an upgrade 200w Celestion Q range in it's place without question or quibble..

I think these things really look great, a comprehensive (if not slightly complex) pre-amp and a beefy KT88 output stage? Sounds pretty good to me!

[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1363555411' post='2014124'] The tone will be fine, trust me I know this coz I had the power trannies replaced in mine after my mate [i][b]dropped it heavily and knocked all the heat sinks off [/b][/i]the originals... [/quote] Had this with a 300SM I sold on eBay many years ago, luckily the insurance paid up..

There's three on eBay at the moment.. MK 1 100w 1 x 15 [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Commando-1001-15-Combo-Bass-Amplifier-/261182772121?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item3ccfb4d399"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Commando-1001-15-Combo-Bass-Amplifier-/261182772121?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item3ccfb4d399[/url] MK 1 100w 1 x 12 [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Bass-Combo-/300874098873?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item460d7e68b9"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Bass-Combo-/300874098873?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item460d7e68b9[/url] MK 2 65w 1x10 [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/trace-elliot-bass-guitar-amp-65w-/221201426626?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item3380a1e8c2"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/trace-elliot-bass-guitar-amp-65w-/221201426626?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item3380a1e8c2[/url]