Distorting Trace Elliot 1210 Series 6 4x10" combo

[Guest mytilini]

[font="Arial"][font="Arial"]Hi. I'm looking for help with my 1989-built Trace Elliot 1210 GP12 pre-amp Series 6 200W.

4x10" bass combo please. I'm getting intermittent distortion purely from the amp itself.

This occurs irrespective of how long (i.e. hot) the amp has been running and across all

combinations of input gain & master output volume settings. I've tested all the obvious

things (tried different leads & basses - both active & passive, driven the built-in

speakers with a different external amp, used the internal amp to drive external speakers -

both including & excluding the internal 10", etc...) and isolated the problem purely to

the amp.

I removed the amp, vacuumed it clean (though it didn't have much dust gathered in it,

probably due to it not being fitted with a cooling fan internally) and sprayed Servisol

cleaner on the jack sockets, pots, I/Cs, etc. but this has made absolutely no difference.

I also re-tightened the loosened locking nut on the input gain potentiometer, but all to

no avail.

At any time, the amp will go from a perfect sound to a c.20%-lower sound level with

varying amounts of overdrive/distortion. If I didn't know beter, it sounds almost exactly

as a valve amp would when one of its valves is breaking up...! Are there any other

self-maintenance things I could check before handing it over to a repair specialist? And

does anyone know a good bass amp repair guy in the

Hertfordshire/Buckinghamshire/Bedfordshire area of England please?

Thanks for any help you could give...

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[Guest mytilini]

Hi John,

Many thanks for the advice; I'll try the Send/Return sockets - you're saying link the two jack sockets with a standard instrument cable between them, right? I suspect as it's an 18-year old amp that HAS been stored in a garage for most of it's liife, it's more likely to be the latter problem though. Cheers.

Mark.