Trace Elliot Amp. Is this Series 1? Help!

[basslondon]

Just bought this Amp for a complete song. ( Dont ask the final price, you will be appalled …..I gave the guy more than the final eBay listing settled on cos of my remorse for the eBay victory) 

 

I’m thinking this looks very early (1980-1981?) it has just been serviced & PATested and sounds utterly wonderful.

 

Any ideas of vintage?

 

model : AH250G

serial : 2225

 

model : GP11 Preamp

Serial : 1069

 

The GP11 preamp is a stand alone unit with its own serial number distinct from the serial number of the AH250G power amp.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

Edited 21 hours ago by basslondon

[Downunderwonder]

Rescued from a time capsule? My 250SMX has lead an easy life and compared to your looks like it went along with the Omaha beach landing.

[basslondon]

Dunno. I am a broadcast engineer so of course the first thing I did was open it up to see if anything needed recapping etc and from a peek inside with my trusty LED torch I cannot see anything that has been changed/ fixed / updated or even switched on over the years there’s not dust on the mosfet fins behind the fan, nothing. it’s truly in stellar condition. The only indicator of anything is the snapped off  GEQ controls on the front but that could even be because the plastic has become brittle over the last 45  odd years. I haven’t got the preamp or the power section fully on my bench yet and am a bit trepidant to do so but I may have to in the interests of science! Also I’m gonna try to find replacement faders for the graphic section as that is the ONLY  thing less than optimal at the moment.

 

Curious and courioiser…..

 

Edited 10 hours ago by basslondon

[basslondon]

.

[Downunderwonder]

The sum total of your mojo is some snapped off brittle plastic slider caps.

 

As it sounds great my advice is leave it alone and play through it daily.

[itu]

If you open the case, you can check date codes from the opamps and other semiconductors. 

[basslondon]

1 hour ago, Downunderwonder said:

The sum total of your mojo is some snapped off brittle plastic slider caps.

 

As it sounds great my advice is leave it alone and play through it daily.

I will the usage graph of the lifecycle of this amplifier will be a ruler flat line of inactivity  til this week from its birth ,….to a sudden exponential curve of use and enjoyment I can asssure you!

 

Through the Di out the GP11 pre sounds very similar through my mixing desk to my old 1008  (8x10 ) combo DI out from 1983. I think it’s wonderful…..

 

Thanks for your lovely comments.

[VTypeV4]

Looks like it could be a MK1 GP11 although I'm not so sure the case is original.. With the first couple of generations of Trace Elliot gear, I believe all woodwork was painted black before the change to the grey 'pimple' type that lasted until the mid / late '90s ie, the early SM and SMX ranges..

 

Hope you have fun with it..

[basslondon]

4 hours ago, VTypeV4 said:

Looks like it could be a MK1 GP11 although I'm not so sure the case is original.. With the first couple of generations of Trace Elliot gear, I believe all woodwork was painted black before the change to the grey 'pimple' type that lasted until the mid / late '90s ie, the early SM and SMX ranges..

 

Hope you have fun with it..

Yeah the case is a definite doozy. its seems  customised completely for this rig.... everything fits perfectly and it looks as though it was made for it.

 

Truly an enigma. Wrapped in a conundrum.

 

Ive been enjoying it immensely this afternoon...glorious. 

 

I would venture it sounds better than my SMX 300 era head and certainly is up with my Series 6 AH500X.

 

I'm gonna continue my search for info and thank you for your help so far

Edited 3 hours ago by basslondon

[agedhorse]

Leave the caps alone, age does not mean that there are problems, or that there will be problems. The whole notion of “must recap” is an absurd extrapolation from a little bit of truth. 

[basslondon]

1 hour ago, agedhorse said:

Leave the caps alone, age does not mean that there are problems, or that there will be problems. The whole notion of “must recap” is an absurd extrapolation from a little bit of truth. 

 

Yeah in this case i concur that its not necessary but a peek at them to evaluate the state of them would not be completely unwise ( what with it being over 40 years old and of unknown background).

 

In my day job in Broadcast Engineering we are often replacing CAPS on PSU's in ageing broadcast kit in the transmission that remains on for 24/7 ( SDI routers / vision mixers /Camera channels etc and the like) so it would be a formality to check and replace any problematic ones. We have old kit that hasnt been switched off for 10 years that works fine, but wed be very afraid if it powercycled...