JGSpector Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) Overview. Like many bass players out there, I’ve owned, borrowed and tried out dozens of amps from a plethora of manufacturers over the 26 or so years that I’ve been playing. Some have been combos but most have been heads. There’s just something I like about a box that you can put in a backpack or gig bag with some cables, take to any venue, plug in and get your sound from. Personally, I reckon a modern class D bass amp of 800 watts or higher is the perfect balance between power and head room, weight and portability, certainly for my requirements anyway. I owned an old Trace Elliot combo back in 2000/2001 for a few months after a crappy little Fender combo I previously had gave up the ghost. I can’t remember what the Trace combo was for the life of me but I do remember that it was extremely heavy and I’m pretty confident it was a 200 or 250 watt 2x10 model. I also enjoyed using a Trace Elliot Elf as a home practice amp for a while more recently and was hugely impressed by it. Needless to say, I had my eye on a TE1200 and took the plunge as soon as I could. So, here are my thoughts on the amp. Disclaimer: I’m just a dude who plays bass in a few projects and bands for fun, I am by no means a pro musician or online reviewer. All views are my own and I have not received any payment or other incentives to produce this review. What’s in the box? - Trace Elliot TE1200 amp. - 4 button footswitch. - 24ft footswitch cable. - IEC power cable. - Rack mounts. - Gig bag. Dimensions, weight and power. Dimensions: 305mm (12.0”) x 305mm (12.0”) x 91.9mm (3.62”). Weight: 5.22 kg (11.5 lbs). Minimum load: 4 ohms. Power: 1100 watts at 4 ohms, 835 watts at 8ohms. Build Quality. Quite simply, this thing is a tank. The metal construction is incredibly solid with nice metal knobs and protective bars on the front panel. The push buttons are of good quality and all of the jacks are good and solid. Similarly, the DI, speak-on sockets, power socket and power switch all feel robust and gig worthy. I’ve read online that some people don’t much like how the amp looks, but I quite like it and certainly like its rugged build. The packaging it comes in is also sturdy and the amp is very well cushioned within it to protect it from harm during shipping. The amp is a bit heavier than similar sized heads in its class but nothing like the weight of old Trace Elliot equipment and it can be easily carried in a gig bag or even mounted in a hard case using the provided rack mounts. It’s also worth mentioning here that the footswitch is equally well made. It’s reasonably weighty, has decent switches that are well spaced to allow room for your foot to hit the one you’re actually aiming for. Its weight and the rubber feet on the underside do a great job of keeping it in place when playing. The amp does come with a gig bag which is basically a giant version of the mini gig bag that comes with the Trace Elliot Elf. It is reasonably well padded and has an internal divider to separate the internal compartment into an area for the amp and an area for the footswitch and cables. Whilst it is great that the amp comes with a gig bag, I must admit, I tried it out and wasn’t that confident that the bag was sturdy enough for heavy gigging etc. I have since purchased a much more robust Gator 12/12 mixer bag to transport the TE1200 in as it is well padded, has good strong zips, a large external compartment for cables etc and has a decent shoulder strap. Features, layout & ease of use. Front Panel: The front panel of this amp is wonderfully straight forward and takes seconds to get your head around. As a blind player, I place great stock in an amp layout being uncluttered and intuitive. The TE1200 easily meets both of these criteria. It consists of a top row and a bottom row. The controls are well spaced out and all elements are tactile. Here’s what the front panel consists of. Top row, from left to right. Input gain dial: Unlike most amps out there, this control does not have an LED that illuminates when clipping. Low band compressor dial: Turning this control clockwise increases the amount of compression applied to the low band. Compressor active push button: This button is located between the low and high band compressor dials and activates the compressor functions for both low and high bands. It illuminates when active. This function is also available on the footswitch. High band compressor dial: Turning this control clockwise increases the amount of compression applied to the high band. Output level dial: This is the master level control for the amp, turning it clockwise increases the output. Mute push button: This button is located to the right of the output level dial. Pressing this button mutes the output to any connected speaker cabinets. The button illuminates when engaged. Mute is also available on the footswitch. Bottom Row, from left to right. Instrument input jack (1/4”). Bass EQ dial: This is centred at 70 Hz and is an active EQ control enabling you to cut and boost this frequency. Low Mid EQ dial: This is centred at 600 Hz and is an active EQ control enabling you to cut and boost this frequency. EQ pre/post compressor push button: This button is located between the Low Mid and High Mid EQ dials. The default position of the compressor is before equalisation. When the switch is pressed, the compressor is moved to a point after equalisation and the switch illuminates. High mid EQ dial: This is centred at 2KHz and is an active EQ control enabling you to cut and boost this frequency. Treble EQ dial: This is centred at 5KHz and is an active EQ control enabling you to cut and boost this frequency. Pre-shape push Button: This button is located to the right of the Treble EQ Dial. Pressing this button changes the EQ to the distinctive Trace Elliot “Pre Shape 1” curve giving the traditional Trace Elliot tone. This function is also available on the footswitch. Headphone jack (1/4”): When a jack is inserted, the signal to the power amp is automatically disconnected. Rear Panel: The rear panel on the amp is also very well thought out and intuitive. There are an awful lot of elements on the rear panel but Trace have managed to space them out well. Here’s what’s on the rear panel, running from left to right. MIDI Out Socket (top): When functions are toggled from the front panel or footswitch, the corresponding MIDI information is transmitted from this jack to synchronise the function with a slave TE1200. I know nothing about MIDI and will never use this feature but full details are laid out in the user manual for anybody who does intend using it. Footswitch socket (bottom): Connect the TE1200 4-button footswitch here for parallel control of the front panel switch functions. USB Out: This is provided for connection to a computer or a digital audio workstation for recording. Tuner out 1/4” jack (top): A direct send from the input circuitry for a tuner. It is not processed and is fully buffered. It remains active even when the amp is muted to allow silent tuning. DI Socket: This is a balanced output to send to a mixer console or analog recording device. DI Pre/Post EQ Push Button (top). DI Ground Lift Push Button (bottom). Pre amp out 1/4” jack (top). Power Amp in 1/4” jack (bottom). Effects Level Push Button: This button is located above the FX Send jack. Some effect units are designed for lower input levels. When pressed, this switch lowers levels to prevent distortion. Fx send 1/4” jack: This is located beneath the FX Level push button. Fx return 1/4” jack (bottom). 2x Speak-on output sockets. Fuse: Use only the properly rated fuse for your line voltage. Voltage Selector Switch: Set this to your local mains voltage. An incorrect setting can damage the amplifier. Power Switch. Mains input: Connect an IEC cable with the correct fuse for your location to this socket. Knobs and switches. The knobs on this amp are really nice. They are metal and feel good under the fingertips. Each one has a little notch at the edge so you can feel where it is pointing. This notch is quite small though, so quick adjustments in a gig situation may take a few more seconds. All of the EQ controls have a centre detent which I always like to find on an amp. The input, low compression, high compression and master volume controls do not have a centre detent. The push buttons are of good quality and respond well under the fingertips. However, they are the type that do not stay in or pop out when pressed. This did throw me for a minute to be honest, mainly due to my tactile requirements as a blind player. For amps that have the type of push buttons that stay in or pop out, when pressed it is immediately possible for a blind person to tell if for example, they have the compression button engaged or not. With the type that are on the TE1200 however this is not possible as the buttons simply give a click under the fingertip rather than staying in or popping out. This is absolutely fine for the Mute and Pre Shape buttons as it is immediately obvious whether they are engaged or not. For the Compression Active and Compression Pre/Post buttons it is not as obvious whether they are engaged or not, particularly if you only use light compression. Ultimately LEDs do light when these buttons are engaged, so it is possible to see from those, but if you are a blind player all you can really do is ask a band mate if the associated LED is lit. The FX loop level, DI pre/post and ground lift push buttons are of the type that stay in or pop out so are easy to tell which mode you have it set to if you are blind or are on a dark stage. These are good sized solid buttons with clear feedback under the fingertip when they are pressed. The power switch is a rocker style, is good and solid with a positive clunk under the fingertip when engaged. Sound quality. The first thing I do when I play through a new amp is set the EQ flat and make sure no compression or built in effects are turned on and play through it at a loud home practice volume. I have to say the TE1200 sounded very very good when doing this. The bottom end was warm, the note articulation clear and the punch very much defined. I was already quite impressed and then I started playing with the EQ a bit and engaging the compressors. Because the EQ is active, small adjustments go a long way toward sculpting your sound. Something I perhaps hadn’t been expecting from the amp was its brightness. The old Trace combo I had back in the day definitely wasn’t anywhere near as bright. I think that maybe I was half expecting the TE1200 to sound naturally darker than it actually does. This is not a criticism, far from it, I was very pleased with the inherent brightness of the amp. The high and low band compressors are simply awesome, I think so anyway. They manage to give you complete control over the high and low bands independently of each other. Perhaps the best thing for me at least being that the compression is never so extreme that it affects your tone in an unpleasant way. For me the sweet spot was setting the low band around 3/4 on and the high band around 1/4 on. This gave me a ridiculously tight bottom end and tamed the highs enough to give a nice even response across the fretboard even when really digging in. I have played with the compression pre/post button to try out having the compression before or after the EQ stage but I definitely prefer it before. The pre shape button is fun and really gives that absolutely classic Trace tone that we all know and love and wow does it sound good when using effects like fuzz, overdrive etc. This thing goes very loud indeed. I have used it through both my Barefaced SuperMidget and SuperCompact cabs separately, meaning that the amp is running at 8 ohms, but even at rehearsal with a very loud drummer I never needed to push the amp past 4 on the volume. I imagine running it into both cabs together at a 4 ohm load will be truly epic. What I have particularly enjoyed about playing through the amp is its huge head room, it has handled everything I’ve thrown at it with ease and stayed sounding great the whole time. The DI is very nice and extremely quiet and clean. The headphone out is also extremely nice to play through for neighbour friendly practice and manages to portray the actual sound of the amp rather than the weak tinny sound that some amps deliver through their headphone out. The effects loop again is very nice and silent as far as I can tell. A word of warning though, you will need to connect the footswitch to turn on the effects loop as it is off by default and the only way you can turn it on is by connecting the footswitch. I actually thought I had a faulty unit and was pretty much ready to send it back until I read through the manual for about the 4th or 5th time and noticed a single sentence that stated that the effects loop could be turned on and off using the footswitch. Within 5 minutes the loop was on and I was getting sweet sweet sound through it. Summary. I was very excited about getting this amp and I must admit I really really like it. It’s robust, easily portable, looks smart and most important of all, it sounds fantastic. I particularly like the simplicity of the front panel and its intuitive layout. It sounds great at low, medium or offensive volumes and it is very easy to dial in whatever tone you want. The only thing I don’t like is the supplied gig bag. If it had a zip or even a couple of plastic clips the amp would feel much more secure and I would use it. But given the amp’s weight I would much rather use an alternative gig bag. From a blind player’s perspective the amp is incredibly easy to use with regards to its controls and layout. The only slight issue is the push buttons as described earlier. If the push buttons don’t bother you then this amp is easily near the top of the list for best bass amp for the blind from a usability perspective. Sound is of course completely subjective but I would be very surprised if you didn’t like the sound of this amp straight out of the box and it can certainly handle clean tone and any effects you could possibly want to run through it. I ran fuzz, overdrive, Wah, flanger and octave through the front of the amp along with chorus and delay through the effects loop and it sounded awesome with all of them. To find out more about the TE1200, visit the Trace Elliot website at: https://www.traceelliot.com/ #BlindMusician #BlindBassPlayer #Blindness #PlayingMusicBlind #TraceElliot #TraceElliotTE1200Review #TE1200 #MusiciansWithDisabilities #ExperiencesOfTheBlind #BestBassAmpForTheBlind Edited April 12 by JGSpector Corrected a detail I had got incorrect 8 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chienmortbb Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Thanks for this review., I was interested in this amp and wondered whether anyone has also looked at/compared the current MiniMAX Mk2 to see how similar or different they are. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Great review. I own a TE-1200 and echo pretty much everything you've said about it. My only personal criticisms are that it has no way to monitor input gain (a clip light in the LED ring around the gain knob would be good for a putative version 2 of the head) and yes, that the included gig bag doesn't have a shoulder strap. It's quite hefty for a Class D head and having a shoulder strap would make transporting it much easier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 Great review! Thoroughly agree about the gig bag, the rubber handle protector on mine has already started falling apart so that’s annoying. I run mine through one or two Barefaced Two10s, and recently like you @JGSpector bought a Super Twin. Took a bit of dialling in as I was used to the Barefaced Tens but now I’m there… my word. Levelling a city block indeed! You mentioned an input level LED but I’m not sure it does have one? My ex-demo one certainly doesn’t… Doesn’t really bother me though, it seems to have oodles of input headroom so it’s not an issue. I’ve found the amp to be a perfect platform for effects - it seems to make everything just sound great, whatever goes in (maybe except my playing haha). I need to play around with the compressor more as I’ve not quite dialled that in yet - will try your suggestions. I’ve found the comp is affected greatly by the input gain (understandably) so just need to get a better handle on the interaction. One for Saturday afternoon 😃 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGSpector Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 Oh, thanks for the heads up about the clip LED not actually existing. I'll edit the post to correct that bit. I play Spector basses which are all pretty high output and I just run the input gain on the amp at around the 12-1 o'clock position and haven't suffered any problems. 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 27 minutes ago, Merton said: Great review! Thoroughly agree about the gig bag, the rubber handle protector on mine has already started falling apart so that’s annoying. I run mine through one or two Barefaced Two10s, and recently like you @JGSpector bought a Super Twin. Took a bit of dialling in as I was used to the Barefaced Tens but now I’m there… my word. Levelling a city block indeed! You mentioned an input level LED but I’m not sure it does have one? My ex-demo one certainly doesn’t… Doesn’t really bother me though, it seems to have oodles of input headroom so it’s not an issue. I’ve found the amp to be a perfect platform for effects - it seems to make everything just sound great, whatever goes in (maybe except my playing haha). I need to play around with the compressor more as I’ve not quite dialled that in yet - will try your suggestions. I’ve found the comp is affected greatly by the input gain (understandably) so just need to get a better handle on the interaction. One for Saturday afternoon 😃 You should try it through a Big Twin... 😮 It's like it never runs out of power, it just keeps getting louder! I've been having to deal with the input gain thing again recently - I recently got two new Maruszczyk basses, and they're wonderful. The only weird thing is, despite having pretty hot pickups and active 18V electronics, the actual output from the jack socket is quite low, so I'm having to deal with the input gain / compressor interaction again. To my ear, it also affects the EQ. It's fiddly but I'm not going to shy away from a challenge! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 (edited) @JGSpector that’s similar to where I run the gain - good to know ref the comp settings! Edited January 11 by Merton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 1 minute ago, Russ said: I've been having to deal with the input gain thing again recently - I recently got two new Maruszczyk basses, and they're wonderful. The only weird thing is, despite having pretty hot pickups and active 18V electronics, the actual output from the jack socket is quite low, so I'm having to deal with the input gain / compressor interaction again. To my ear, it also affects the EQ. It's fiddly but I'm not going to shy away from a challenge! It gives us an excuse to play if nothing else 😎 And I can only imagine how this works with a Big Twin given its affinity with the Super Twin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 What a great review, throughly enjoyed reading that JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Think I might have sussed the compressor. Huzzah! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) Very nice review, I had the opportunity to hear @Merton's Trace at the SE Bass Bash. It was very impressive from a sound quality point of view. It's difficult to be categorical about these things when there are so may variables in play, but I would definitely be looking more closely at this amp - if it weren't for the price. As the TE1200 is basically a Peavey in Trace Elliot livery (or am I being unfair?), @Chienmortbb's question is an interesting one, because similar bass amps with a Peavey badge on the front are are available for half the price. Edited January 17 by stevie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 2 hours ago, stevie said: Very nice review, I had the opportunity to hear @Merton's Trace at the SE Bass Bash. It was very impressive from a sound quality point of view. It's difficult to be cetegorical about these things when there are so may variables in play, but I would definitely be looking more closely at this amp - if it weren't for the price. As the TE1200 is basically a Peavey in Trace Elliot livery (or am I being unfair?), @Chienmortbb's question is an interesting one, because similar bass amps with a Peavey badge on the front are are available for half the price. The power section is, as in many Class D heads, an ICEPower module, similar to that in the MiniMega (with a bit more power), but the preamp section is completely different to anything Peavey have done. The TE team at Peavey are all Trace fanboys and were fastidious about maintaining the "Trace tone" - the pre-shape EQ boosts and cuts the exact same frequencies as on the classic amps, the dual-band compressor is basically the same as the one on the old SMX heads, and the gain staging is designed to work pretty much identically to the classic designs. They even enlisted a bunch of Trace fans online to get their opinions on what they were doing (including, if I'm not mistaken, on this very site, as well as on TB). Basically, this is a lot more than a rebadged Peavey head. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 45 minutes ago, Russ said: The power section is, as in many Class D heads, an ICEPower module, similar to that in the MiniMega (with a bit more power), but the preamp section is completely different to anything Peavey have done. The TE team at Peavey are all Trace fanboys and were fastidious about maintaining the "Trace tone" - the pre-shape EQ boosts and cuts the exact same frequencies as on the classic amps, the dual-band compressor is basically the same as the one on the old SMX heads, and the gain staging is designed to work pretty much identically to the classic designs. They even enlisted a bunch of Trace fans online to get their opinions on what they were doing (including, if I'm not mistaken, on this very site, as well as on TB). Basically, this is a lot more than a rebadged Peavey head. The power section isn’t ICE, it’s based on a Peavey IPR power amp I think? Happy to be told I’m wrong but I’m sure that’s what Fred @ Peavey said on Talkbass 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGSpector Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 to be honest, I don't really keep track of who owns who when it comes to gear manufacturers, so I'm not really sure I can add much to the conversation. What I can say though is that a few months before I got my TE1200 there was a bass player in another band rehearsing in the same studio space in one of the other rooms. He and I got talking and the short version is that he let me have a play through his TE1200. I liked it instantly from both a sound quality perspective and a layout perspective. I only found out after I bought my own TE1200 that Trace are now part of Peavey but if I had known beforehand I very much doubt it would have put me off getting one. Ultimately I played through the amp, loved it and then went and bought one. Admittedly I have owned a couple of Trace amps back in the day and had good experiences with them and was intrigued to find out what their new class D 1200W head was all about, so maybe that bit of nostalgia helped but the TE1200 sounding so good and being so solidly built was certainly what tipped the balance in me getting one of my own. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 40 minutes ago, Merton said: The power section isn’t ICE, it’s based on a Peavey IPR power amp I think? Happy to be told I’m wrong but I’m sure that’s what Fred @ Peavey said on Talkbass Possible. I'd heard it was an ICEPower one, but I'm happy to be corrected if it's not! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merton Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 (edited) Found it: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/trace-elliot-design.1521151/page-8#post-26263258 Both the TE and the MiniMega use Peavey proprietary design, based on the IPR series; not ICE. Fred also confirms the TE is in no way a rebadged MiniMega, it is its own design outright (incl power amp and power supply) Edited January 17 by Merton 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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