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NAD - Elf Content


King Tut
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Last week I had a Trace Elliott Elf delivered. The plan is to use it as a nice portable spare in case my GK MB500 dies at a gig. I thought I'd give it a run for it's money at our gig last night, which was at a medium sized pub with decent PA support - The Red Lion at Brackley.

I ran it through a Barefaced Big baby 2 (Gen 3) using an AVRI 64 reissue Jazz and a Zoom B3n. The cab was stuck on a chair to bring it closer to head height.

To be fair, because I'm stuck towards the back most of the time, I don't need to be silly loud, but it's a five piece band and we're not quiet. Being radioe'd up I also go walkabout and I was never short of volume.

First impressions are obviously just how small the thing is, but it really has a nice quality feel to it . . . nice and dense and 'together' feeling!

As I feared I'd be short on volume I pushed master up to nearly full and controlled volume with the gain control, but needn't have worried as there was volume in spades, so I pulled the master down a bit and upped the gain. I could hear a bit of (not sure) either compression (from the pre) or limiting (from the power amp) but it sounded OK and never put me off. The EQ has a really musical character that reminded me a bit of my Hartke LH500 in as much as it was pretty easy to get something that sounded decent. It wasn't a scooped tone to my ears and I rolled the mid off a little, but it was really warm - tbh I loved it, much less 'crispy' than the GK.

The gig was quite eventful with one of our guitarists forgetting to bring his pedal board, four boys in blue (actually hi vis yellow) ejecting someone and a lady hueying all over the area next to the playing area, but my little elf didn't bat a slanty eyelid. It had got quite warm by the end of the gig but nothing i thought was excessive. Overall I'm really chuffed with it and I think it'll be getting a bit more use than planned. I'll be interested to experiment a bit more with the gain and master volume to see which end is getting limited / compressed but first impressions are very positive! Happy King Tut!

Elf.jpg

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It’s a great little head isn’t it? I gigged one a couple of weeks back with my BF SC, no PA support, and it just got on with it. There wasn’t really any headroom left but it didn’t sound like it was struggling at all, was really very nice. It has a warmer, more musical limiter than the GK MB200 IMO.

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They are great little amps but I've had mine for a while now and I reckon you probably need the (£370+) pedal board to get it to do everything your vintage TE will do. I'd also like to have a bit more headroom so that it doesn't need to be driven so hard.

If/when TE bring out the 500w model the Elf will be given some more serious respect.

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8 hours ago, TheGreek said:

They are great little amps but I've had mine for a while now and I reckon you probably need the (£370+) pedal board to get it to do everything your vintage TE will do. I'd also like to have a bit more headroom so that it doesn't need to be driven so hard.

If/when TE bring out the 500w model the Elf will be given some more serious respect.

See Mick, this just confirms what I thought all along. You'll be redlining the thing the whole time. That's not a stress free backup as it wouldn't put me at ease.

I picked up on it at the bass bash when we played yours through that Vanderkley 2x10. Tone was fine, but it just didn't have enough juice to be taken seriously as either a back up or standalone amp. Had they done a 500w version I'd imagine my opinion would be different.

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2 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

See Mick, this just confirms what I thought all along. You'll be redlining the thing the whole time. That's not a stress free backup as it wouldn't put me at ease.

I picked up on it at the bass bash when we played yours through that Vanderkley 2x10. Tone was fine, but it just didn't have enough juice to be taken seriously as either a back up or standalone amp. Had they done a 500w version I'd imagine my opinion would be different.

I think it depends how you're using it. I feel quite confident. I have pa backup so it wasn't flat out. Although it got warm, it wasn't ouchy too hot to touch at the end of the gig. If you're using it for massive volume and expecting it to fill the venue without a pa . . . . Well that kind of expectation is unrealistic.

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2 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

See Mick, this just confirms what I thought all along. You'll be redlining the thing the whole time. That's not a stress free backup as it wouldn't put me at ease.

I picked up on it at the bass bash when we played yours through that Vanderkley 2x10. Tone was fine, but it just didn't have enough juice to be taken seriously as either a back up or standalone amp. Had they done a 500w version I'd imagine my opinion would be different.

so presumably a 200 watt Trace Elliot Elf is not the same as old fashioned Trace Elliot watts?

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47 minutes ago, King Tut said:

I think it depends how you're using it. I feel quite confident. I have pa backup so it wasn't flat out. Although it got warm, it wasn't ouchy too hot to touch at the end of the gig. If you're using it for massive volume and expecting it to fill the venue without a pa . . . . Well that kind of expectation is unrealistic.

I'm not expecting total devastating power obviously. I just meant that the lack of headroom I'd find concerning. No way would I ever be taking it as a main amp. By that token I wouldn't use it as a backup either as I'd want something with more juice instead of thrashing the thing the whole time to get a remotely similar volume. That can't be good now can it?

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3 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

I'm not expecting total devastating power obviously. I just meant that the lack of headroom I'd find concerning. No way would I ever be taking it as a main amp. By that token I wouldn't use it as a backup either as I'd want something with more juice instead of thrashing the thing the whole time to get a remotely similar volume. That can't be good now can it?

Well I guess only the design team could answer that. I'd like to think the peeps at Trace/Peavey have done their homework, particularly as they're trying to put the Trace name back in the 'Limelight' (see what I did there!) I guess only time will tell in terms of failure rate. Fingers crossed!

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I got mine for the same reason, 10 second change over if my tecamp goes down. The Elf is loud enough, any louder and it will just be backline with a PA, I don’t play those gigs generally. It doesn’t sound like an 80s Trace but judicious play with the eq will get you close enough if you are playing an active. I like the HA3500 comparison, I played one of those for years. 

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21 hours ago, King Tut said:

I think it depends how you're using it. I feel quite confident. I have pa backup so it wasn't flat out. Although it got warm, it wasn't ouchy too hot to touch at the end of the gig. If you're using it for massive volume and expecting it to fill the venue without a pa . . . . Well that kind of expectation is unrealistic.

I agree. If I had PA backup I wouldn’t have pushed mine so hard. The fact I know I can use it without PA to me is a good thing, though I do think if that were the norm then I’d avoid it!

As a backup it’s perfect for my “loud” gigging situations and for my “less loud” situations I can use it as the main head if I want to :)

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  • 1 month later...

Gigged it again last weekend. This time I set the gain so it was flicking orange as I hit the bass hard and controlled volume via master volume control. This was in a medium sized hotel reception room with about 100 people and PA support. No noticeable compression or limiting this time. Played through a Big Baby 2. I took a pic of the settings but had to turn it down from what's pictured. Bags of volume!

IMG_20180309_205014485.jpg

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