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Trace Elliott

Quilly

By Quilly,
in Amps and Cabs

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LukeFRC Grand Master

LukeFRC

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, TheGreek said:

A minor glitch - a temporary hiccough - I'm completely recovered now...:crazy::crazy:

I was only considering selling the ACG as I was going to buy back my Status Kingbass from Snoop but realised that that would only have meant that I would firstly, have to buy the ACG back at some stage, and owning the Status would have meant that I would have 5 basses I would never sell....you can't live like that.

Wait... you were considering selling it and didn't tell me? How far down the list am I? :P

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jimbartlett Proficient

jimbartlett

Posted
Posted

It’s take me a while with all the settings and EQ getting my sound but now I’m very happy, sounds huge and only rated at 250w, I can’t believe it!

I do find blending the valve in doesn’t really float my boat and the compressor has to be used sparingly but that might just be my speaker cab I’m using.24CAE897-E9BA-498B-9560-0E687BCD7B62.thumb.jpeg.67ee9b0b584fb8443597141e2744b945.jpeg

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stevie Veteran

stevie

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, RandomBass said:

Aaargh amp overhang OCD alert. Must stay calm, must stay calm....... 😎😎

Overhang normally doesn't bother me. But given the clash of colour schemes, not to mention the sideways logo, and I have some sympathy....

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Quilly Experienced

Quilly

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Posted
2 hours ago, stevie said:

Overhang normally doesn't bother me. But given the clash of colour schemes, not to mention the sideways logo, and I have some sympathy....

Clash of colours ? One is the black, the other is black with a bit of green ? Regarding the sideways logo. Great cab but I'm not being paid to advertise for them 😁

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4000 Veteran

4000

Posted
Posted (edited)

Trace was always “my” tone, back in the day. Years after getting rid of my Trace gear due to back problems, I went through pretty much every amp in The Gallery trying to find something I liked. The last thing I plugged into was a Trace combo and there it was. Sadly my back was even worse by then so I couldn’t buy it. I keep thinking if I come across one of the original 11 band Trace AH150s (like my old one) in decent working order I’ll buy it, as much as I like my Tech 21 VT500. Unfortunately the matching early un-ported painted-wood-only 200w 4x10 - easily the best cab I’ve ever used - is out of the question. They recently had a slightly later centre-ported red stripe version at a local cash converters for £45, but the missus kept reminding me of my back issues and wouldn’t let me buy it.

Edited by 4000
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4000 Veteran

4000

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

Trace head and lightweight cabs :)

Just love the sound of the early Trace 4x10s and have never heard any lightweight cabs (or any other for that matter) that match them. It's a moot point though because I can only use lightweight cabs now.

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jimbartlett Proficient

jimbartlett

Posted
Posted (edited)

I played two gigs yesterday back to back (what a sweat fest!!). Anyway, unpacking quickly for the second gig, I sorted out my input gain level, checked the EQ was off and had a quick check on the level. I was met with an even better tone than I had previously but couldn’t work out why. I had a look and noticed the “EQ Balance” knob (circled yellow in the picture) had been turned nearly all the way to the left, towards “low”. Wow, it was fantastic and my bass sounded superb. I highly recommend tying it out if you have this head. The passive tone on my bass was left full on, no EQ on the head at all apart from the EQ Balance turned left and a small amount of Low Compression. 

Please note, this is an old picture, not of how I was set up (hence the EQ on in this one!)

67B1B941-11C2-4153-BF11-795B03A548F9.jpeg

Edited by jimbartlett
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Bleat Proficient

Bleat

Posted
Posted (edited)

The Trace Ah250smx brings back some jolly memories for me. Was in my early 20's playing in a loud rock band. There were 2 guitars, one playing through a Marshall Superbass 100w to one side and to the other side having to deal with a Hiwatt 100w valve head. Also had a hard hitting drummer at the time also.I can't remember what I was playing through but I stood no chance volume wise. I really needed something more powerful, and  as things were moving forward with bigger and better gigs I just happened to come into some money at the time so off I went to the music shop to investigate the options.

I remember Hartke was just starting to make a name over here at the time but didn't do much for me when I tried it out. They had that awful Warwick stuff also. Did nowt for me. Then I had a look round the corner and saw the new Marshall DBS stuff and I was in love instantly . It sounded absolutely killer, looked amazing, but the problem was the cost... That rig was around 2 grand if I remember correctly! Next to it was the Trace Elliot stuff which I didn't know much about but was within the price range. I plugged into the 250SMX rig  and it blew me away (literally)… Needless to say it was purchased on the spot.

Fast forward to next band practice which at the time took place in a medium sized hall with a big stage. I really wish I had a camera to take a picture of guitarists faces when I bought in my new rig (with a bit of help), and setup up on stage …  a Trace 1x15 , 4 x10,and a Trace 250SMX  It was truly monolithic....  "ok lads when you're ready ….1-2-3-4 …." Needless to say it solved that volume issue forever anyway. :D

 

** EDIT Just noticed it's my 100th post 🤩 … I've only been here since 2007 to be fair though. 😐

Edited by Bleat
100th post celebrations
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jensenmann Explorer

jensenmann

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Posted

In my early days many bassplayers in my area used Trace heads. Whenever I tried one I hated them. They were not made for me and that stuck in my mind longtime. >10 years later I was using a SWR SM400 which died at a gig. I went to a Musicshop to have it checked and had to rent another head for the gig this day. They only had a Trace head available, everything else was already out. I was a bit grumpy because I didn´t like the idea of doing a rock gig with a Trace amp but there was no way out, I had to. Surprisingly I got along very very well with it or lets say I never before heard myself as good on stage. When my SWR was back in business I sold it as fast as possible and bought the Trace. It´s an AH600SMX which I still play 18 years later at gigs and rehearsals - not for recording though. The SMX series is something special and different to my ears than the earlier transistor-only heads. The tube really does the trick for me. It´s always fully on.

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Sparky Mark Veteran

Sparky Mark

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, JapanAxe said:

I’d be more likely to try a TE if they did a conventional solid state head with a 3- or 4-knob EQ. I can’t be arsed with graphics EQs!

If you know which frequencies you'd like those 3 or 4 EQ knobs to be centred at then just ignore the other graphic sliders. Whichever amp you use you should know which frequencies you like to cut or boost and the 12 band TE graphic will inform better than 3 or 4 bands of semi-parametric EQ IMHO. 

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JapanAxe Veteran

JapanAxe

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Sparky Mark said:

If you know which frequencies you'd like those 3 or 4 EQ knobs to be centred at then just ignore the other graphic sliders. Whichever amp you use you should know which frequencies you like to cut or boost and the 12 band TE graphic will inform better than 3 or 4 bands of semi-parametric EQ IMHO. 

If only it were that simple! A typical 3-band EQ has shelving treble and bass controls plus a bandpass mid control, all with very wide bandwidths (low Q factor). A well-configured 3-band control will sound very 'musical' and natural.

Graphic controls work on much narrower bands (high Q factor). To approximate the action of a 3-band control, it would not be sufficient to simply boost or cut the desired centre frequencies; you would also have to apply smaller amounts of boost and cut to some of the neighbouring sliders. I don't normally have time for this on a gig!

I'm not here to bash TE kit, it's just not for me.

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