How can i get a sound like my Trace V-type Combo?

[Delberthot]

I am currently using a 15" Trace V-type combo that I bought from Tinman (previously owned by Merton and Nash)

I absolutely love the sound but for larger gigs, even when using another trace 1518 cab, the speaker travel in the combo is quite a lot and I fear I may end up popping it.

I have the gain set so that when I dig in, it sounds really dirty and really overdriven.


I wouls like to keep the combo for use as a monitor in my wedding band but get something similar in head form to drive the 1518 and possibly another 1518 or 1818 but am unsure what to get.

I've never seen another Trace head that has 2 preamp valves without it being all-valve. I'm not sure that a single valve would give me the drive that i want.

I'm currently using 2 Tesla 12AX7 valves and they seem to drive the preamp more than the Marshall ones that they replaced and it suits my style as i like a really dirty, overdriven tone.


My quandry is whether to go for a valve preamp, with more than one valve, and solid state power amp or just go for it and get an all-valve amp that i can get to go dirty.


As far as preamps are concerned I am only aware of the Ampeg SVP and the long discontinued SWR Interstellar overdrive.

For an all-valve amp, it would have to be something not too powerful so that i can overdrive it easily enough. My current Trace is 250w @ 8ohms. I am unsue whether to get something that would give me 200w of clean power or whether I would have to go lower to get the dirt that i want.

Or should I get something like a good, all valve 5w or something similar combo and output it into a sloid state amp


As far as cash goes, I'd be looking to spend no more than £600 and I've read the Valves v Solid State thread many times already

Edited December 28, 2009 by Delberthot

[Mr. Foxen]

Trace V type preamp is probably most obvious solution. Very good in general. Might be able to extract the preamp from the combo if you get techy.

[Merton]

<ridiculous pedant>Your v-type combo is 250W into 4 ohms<end ridiculous pedant>

Ahem. The v-type preamp + poweramp is indeed the obvious choice but the next one i'd say to look into is a Hartke LH500. I spent a fair while this time last year A/Bing your combo and my lh500 into the combo's speaker and the Big One proto. Not a lot in it tbh, especially if you drive the front end of the lh500 quite hard (as i do) it makes a mighty similar noise :-)

[Delberthot]

Its not a lack of power I have, there's plenty of that. I just don;t want to fry the or pop the speaker in it.

I've tried an LH500 at my local rehearsal studio but I think that if I were to try and overdrive the preamp, I'd have to have the volume higher than I need it.

I have thought about removing the amp from the combo and making a sleeve for it but that would leave me with a redundant cab.

I've never seen a trace V-type preamp for sale before

[Merton]

Sorry, should've read your first post properly! Having pushed that combo pretty bloody hard in the past and having modelled the cab in WinISD i think you'd be hard pushed to blow the speaker. It moves a lot but shouldn't be a danger... Touch wood!