Trace Elliot - Rescue & Restore (and bargain finds)

[Rosie C]

16 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Nah.  I think that's a lovely personal touch.  TE green has always been eye catching.  Green Kwackers too, of course.  Have you checked what they look like under UV?

 

No, my amp doesn't have UV, I believe it's the later model with the electro-fluorescent plate, which we think the previous owner disconnected. When my electronically-minded friend visits at Christmas we'll have a look inside. Hopefully no damage has been done to the drive circuit running for years without the panel connected!

 

[Rosie C]

Having made up my fancy lime green cables, I couldn't fit them without lifting the cabinets & amp which were stacked against a wall. So at the weekend I had a little DIY task...

 

Two layers of 12mm plywood and some PSE:

 

The amp came with a little trolley which wasn't up to much but the castors were worth re-using:

 

Slap on some black paint:

 

Ta da! Now it wheels around easily  

Edited November 24 by Rosie C

[Chienmortbb]

That looks great. Well actually it’s hardly noticeable and that is exactly as it should be? 

[Rosie C]

Indeed it should! Each time I needed to move the amp I had to get my partner to help move the cabinets, and it felt like that children's 'Towers of Hanoi' puzzle, lifting the pieces of the puzzle from one place to another. Except each piece is 37kg! Wheels are definitely the way forward   

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

3 hours ago, Rosie C said:

I had a little DIY task...

 

Nicely done Rosie.

 

That's so much better than having eBait deliver instant gratification.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rosie C]

44 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Nicely done Rosie.

 

That's so much better than having eBait deliver instant gratification.

 

 

Thanks!

[ClusterOne]

This stack looks monstrous - that being said I wonder if this is being played in your soundproofed basement or you are lucky enough to:

- have deaf neighbours 

or

- live in detached house away from society.

 

😁

[Downunderwonder]

The real Slim Shady.

[Rosie C]

19 hours ago, ClusterOne said:

This stack looks monstrous - that being said I wonder if this is being played in your soundproofed basement or you are lucky enough to:

- have deaf neighbours 

or

- live in detached house away from society.

 

😁

 

Soundproofed basement is nearest the truth - we have a little stone barn with 2' thick walls that we use for practice. But we're moving next year and we're planning some sort of combined lounge-come-practice-room so we'll have to see what sort of house we find.

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, Rosie C said:

Soundproofed basement

 

I love basements!  Can I buy yours when you're moving on please?

[Rosie C]

8 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

I love basements!  Can I buy yours when you're moving on please?

 

Gladly!

 

[Merton]

On 06/11/2025 at 21:19, Rosie C said:

Also the electro fluorescent front panel doesn't work, the seller said he thought it was deliberately disconnected, so that's something to look at. Any suggestions where to start with that?

Anyway thanks for all the advice and opinions, I'm very happy with it!  😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had that model amp 20 years ago, and the Electroluminescent panels were notoriously unreliable. I had mine fixed once, then completely replaced with an NOS panel the repair guy (a former Trace employee) had available. If the panel itself has gone then you may just have to put up with it never working, but it might possibly be the control circuit. Good luck

[Stub Mandrel]

EL panels degrade with use. Byt you may be lucky.

[Rosie C]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

EL panels degrade with use. Byt you may be lucky.

 

🤞

[tauzero]

For you TE hunters, there's a 2x10 and a 1x15 on FB now in Northampton, £90 each. And the 1x15 has got wheels (but possibly not the original driver), and both have had the XLRs replaced by Speakons. UK Music Gear Exchange group.

[PaulWarning]

anybody near Wales fancies this?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/9747906246/user/100008791982931

[Rosie C]

I've finally got to play with my AH300 today. It's awesome, but there's some strange behaviour. The front panel has lamps for pre-shape, valve, compressor, effects loop, etc. and the pedal board has the same set of lamps. I'm assuming the same lights should be lit on both panel and pedal board. But when pressing various panel switches or foot switches it's easy to get them out of step - e.g. valve lamp is lit on the panel, but out on pedal board. I press either switch and it swaps over. 

 

Is this anyone has experienced before? Google AI seems to think it's a common problem, but I can't find any real website with information. 

 

[Merton]

Pretty sure mine did that; are you plugging in the foot switch before or after powering on the amp?

[Rosie C]

7 minutes ago, Merton said:

Pretty sure mine did that; are you plugging in the foot switch before or after powering on the amp?

Before. It seems to power up OK. The pre-shape lamp is the only one lit and that's on both sets if lights.
 

I was thinking of doing some testing today, see whether it's the panel switches or foot switches that cause the problem, and whether all five switches have problems.

 

[Merton]

Good luck! Hopefully an easy solution is nestling somewhere 

[Sparky Mark]

13 hours ago, Rosie C said:

I've finally got to play with my AH300 today. It's awesome, but there's some strange behaviour. The front panel has lamps for pre-shape, valve, compressor, effects loop, etc. and the pedal board has the same set of lamps. I'm assuming the same lights should be lit on both panel and pedal board. But when pressing various panel switches or foot switches it's easy to get them out of step - e.g. valve lamp is lit on the panel, but out on pedal board. I press either switch and it swaps over. 

 

Is this anyone has experienced before? Google AI seems to think it's a common problem, but I can't find any real website with information. 

 

Is the pedal definitely the correct one for the head? (there may be different versions for different generations of head).

I would expect that once the pedal is connected that it takes precedence, and probably best not to use the head's switches.

Are all of the switches on both the head and pedal momentary or latching? (The type of each switch on the pedal should be the same as the one on the head).

If all the lights on the head are on, what happens when you insert the pedal connector? (Do all hot switching tests with master volume at zero).

If certain pedal switches don't work every time they are pressed, it could be they need their contacts cleaning. It could also be worth cleaning the pins and female pin sockets on the head.

Although there are many switch cleaning products available, I'd recommend Deoxit D5.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Sparky Mark

[DGBass]

I owned a later 715 peavey era GP7 amp with the BF-4 foot switch ( there was also a BF-6 for GP12's, both with the DIN multi cable). I seem to recall that the best way to set up was to connect the foot switch before powering up and also ensure all the switches or buttons were in the off/out position on the amp front panel and not to use the front panel buttons at all while things were powered on. Slightly off topic but the same thing applied to Ashdown's remote foot switch for ABM heads, always connect before powering up and leave all front panel buttons in the out position.  

[Rosie C]

Thanks for all the responses. To answer the various questions:

• I don't know if it's the right foot switch for the amp - it came with the amp, but it was an estate sale so there's room for error
• The problem seems limited to the foot switches, it works fine when I just use the front panel switches
• None of the switches seem to be latching, they are just momentary
• Our best guess is that as @Sparky Mark says, the foot switches need some switch cleaner and a bit of use

 

In other news, I had a friend stay over Christmas and she's an electronics engineer, so we took the amp apart to look at the front panel illumination. 

 

Inside the amp:

 

Confirmation of the age:

 

It turns out it didn't need great electronics skill. The front panel is connected to this board, and there is a 2-pin connector on the board (yellow ellipses) which comes directly from the mains transformer (yellow arrow). So the panel AND its drive circuit have been disconnected all this time! I had worried that maybe the panel was disconnected but the driver had still been live and was possibly damaged.

 

 

I re-plugged the connector, and voila!

 

 

Mmmm!

 

 

While we had the case open, I took a photo of the power supply capacitors. There's a bit of 100Hz hum on the speakers and we're suspecting dried out capacitors. There's a bit of work to do to remove them though.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Rosie C

[Sparky Mark]

That's good news re the front panel illumination; I guess it's possible a previous owner preferred the panel unlit?

Is 100Hz hum a known symptom of failing PSU capacitors? Before doing any desoldering or replacement of parts, I'd recommend you get a knowledgeable amp tech to take a look.

Of course, it may be impossible to get that head to be completely silent or hum free simply because of noise on your mains supply or other radio frequency interference. On a gig, additional noise is very often present for various reasons, but isn't a real problem because of other background noise.

 

Edited 53 minutes ago by Sparky Mark

[Rosie C]

48 minutes ago, Sparky Mark said:

Is 100Hz hum a known symptom of failing PSU capacitors? Before doing any desoldering or replacement of parts, I'd recommend you get a knowledgeable amp tech to take a look.

 

 

My friend is a knowledgeable amp tech     

 

She explained it to me (though I've since been to Google to make sure I get it right here)...

The 50Hz AC mains is rectified, converting it into a series of positive DC pulses, and the capacitors smooth the pulses into a steady DC voltage. If the capacitor isn't working properly, the ripples aren't fully smoothed and you can hear a ripple frequency in the speakers. But because it's between the peaks of the rectified wave the frequency has been doubled to 100Hz.

 

I found this drawing which sort of shows the frequency doubling...

 

Edited 56 minutes ago by Rosie C