I hate Trace Elliot gear

[sixdegrees]

Boomy and muddy in the bottom end, thin and brittle in the top end. Virtually no low-mid growl. Back off the low's and lose the low end completely. Back off the high end and lose definition, increase it and just get clank.

The pre-shape dominates the tone. And it's a tone I don't like.

But I like marmite.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Love the look of 'em, but too much fiddling around , getting an average sound at best .
Eden nemesis combo, blows it out of the water. Aguilar also . What I love about the aggy and Eden,
Is that there is minimum fiddling with the tone controls...unlike the trace.
And of course , the weight".....

[EdwardHimself]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1324743101' post='1477525'] Love the look of 'em, but too much fiddling around , getting an average sound at best . Eden nemesis combo, blows it out of the water. Aguilar also . What I love about the aggy and Eden, Is that there is minimum fiddling with the tone controls...unlike the trace. And of course , the weight"..... [/quote]

I think Eden amps are fantastic and lightweight too.

[VTypeV4]

Love 'em.. The only amp I ever bought and kept that wasn't a Trace was the Ashton and thats sort of for sale cuz I bought my V4 back. I did have a Hiwatt for a bit but it wasn't healthy so moved it on a while back. Ampeg stuff works for me as does SWR and EBS but I really have a dislike for Crashdown gear, now I can't cope with that. Their speakers are OK but I find the amps disagreeable.

I think the Trace sound character is distinct and with a bit of a tweak, works very well for me. The V-Type, 7-band and 12-band have all served me well over the years.

With the graphic ranges, people don't take the time to look at or understand how the frequency bands affect their sound, especially on the 12 band series. I've seen people putting big boosts in at 30 hz when using a 2x10 with a four-string.. Pointless.

Long live Trace!

[witterth]

Does anybody else have a dislike of TE stuff or am I just a weirdo?

yes you are a wiredo , but then thats what I think.
and ...btw I think ampeg is SHyte, so what do I Know?
tried it ...rubbish

[Highfox]

I had a TE GP12 series 6, bought it new in the late 80's. It was the new fad at the time and I had to have it! anyone who thought they were a slap funk dude needed one
I used it all the way up till 2004 or so (a real workhorse) The thing I will say is that I obviously liked it, but evertime I used it I always had a fiddle with the EQ, I could NEVER get the exact sound I was looking for.
It sounded great whilst I was having a slap (all 2 or 3 bars) but getting back to playing the ska/reggae/rock type thing I was doing most of that time and I could never get it to sound right. I guess I stuck with it for so long because I'd often get comments from other bass players on how nice the bass sounded, maybe it was the Warwick TE combo that sounded good to their ears.
Anyway nowadays I use a set and forget type setting with my new amp, maybe a slight tweak of the knobs if I'm booming or not cutting through, but it seems much easier to get the sound I'm looking for in modern gear.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Highfox

[witterth]

[quote name='witterth' timestamp='1324771278' post='1477816']
Does anybody else have a dislike of TE stuff or am I just a weirdo?

yes you are a wiredo , but then thats what I think.
and ...btw I think ampeg is SHyte, so what do I Know?
tried it ...rubbish
[/quote]
never tied owt by peavy that was any good too.

[VTypeV4]

[quote name='Highfox' timestamp='1324804168' post='1477873']
I had a TE GP12 series 6, bought it new in the late 80's. It was the new fad at the time and I had to have it! anyone who thought they were a slap funk dude needed one
I used it all the way up till 2004 or so (a real workhorse) The thing I will say is that I obviously liked it, but evertime I used it I always had a fiddle with the EQ, I could NEVER get the exact sound I was looking for.
It sounded great whilst I was having a slap (all 2 or 3 bars) but getting back to playing the ska/reggae/rock type thing I was doing most of that time and I could never get it to sound right. I guess I stuck with it for so long because I'd often get comments from other bass players on how nice the bass sounded, [i][b]maybe it was the Warwick TE combo that sounded good to their ears[/b][/i].
Anyway nowadays I use a set and forget type setting with my new amp, maybe a slight tweak of the knobs if I'm booming or not cutting through, but it seems much easier to get the sound I'm looking for in modern gear.
[/quote]

Works great for me..

[The Dark Lord]

I luuuuurve Trace Elliot gear. Great old skl sound - bit heavy to carry for my liking though

[Nibody]

I had a (I Think..) 7215GP12 SM 250w Combo that I gigged in the 90's. It was an ok amp but I could never get a sound out of it I really felt happy with. When I picked up my Ampeg Combo this year, I just felt like I had come home. I had tried an Ampeg SVT and an old Ampeg Valve head that our guitarist used as a Guitar head and loved the pair of them, but at the time I just couldnt afford one. The Trace was built to withstand a direct strike by a nuclear bomb and compared to the Carlsbro stack I had before it was a Rolls Royce. I'd take the Ampeg over the Trace anyday.

[mep]

[quote name='markorbit' timestamp='1324696157' post='1477186']
As a rule I love the 12 band SMX, it's one of my all-time favourite amps with everything I need in a bass amp and the sound to boot. These days I would stay away from the preshape which scoops too many mids and leaves too much bass and clack. This never bothered me in the 80s! I swapped out the valve for another and with the right EQ and compression the amp did a reasonable job in Ampeg territory. It needn't always sound like 'typical' Trace.
[/quote]

I've owned my 2nd hand Series 6 AH200 head for 16 years now and love it. I too have dabbled with the preshape but in a band situation it is lost (except for some slap). I go for boosting the low mids and it really works and cuts through the mix a treat. I get a lot of positive comments on my sound (ok I also play a Stingray as well). Loads of headroom to boot as well.

[jjay69]

Ha genius topic, i've had plenty of trace gear back in the day, not neccesarily because i liked the sound but more because it was everywhere, it looked good, big n green, i even had a UV light on my AH350x, it had a great modular fit together system of cabs and heads and was the original 4x10 / 1x15 big rig ! But no matter what i did, the damn things always sounded sh*te to me. Hello Mark Bass

[Skezza]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' timestamp='1314467893' post='1353804']
I own, have owned and have played through in no particular order: Trace Elliot, Ashdown, MarkBass, Crate and Ohm, Marshall, Peavey, Ampeg, Behringer and probably several amps. I have never had any trouble getting a good sound as long as I start with everything flat, and then either tweak what needs tweaking or leave it alone. However I have also see people twiddling the same amp and getting a crap sound by not setting input & output volume correctly, pressing pre-shape buttons & adjusting the graphic eq into smiley face.
[/quote]

I agree start with all amp and guitar controls flat.

[Skezza]

I still use trace elliot and swr gear both excellent

skez

[paul_5]

I've had a couple of trace heads through a TE 410 and 115 - the 'classic' TE setup. I thought they sounded great, until I played through a Ampeg. Night and day for me. I've had some good sounds through an Ashdown too, but it was held together with blutac and went back to the shop when buttons started falling off.

[JohnFitzgerald]

I'm a trace user of old and still am.

Whilst they are known for that pre shape sound along with the smiley face, they can certainly do other things. I go for a much more middly sound nowadays as I have become more educated as to what actually works.

You have to remember that before Trace Elliot came along, other than an SVT or an Acoustic, bass amps in general were pretty grim, certainly the ones that were generally available to those of us on an average working bloke's budget.

Then Trace came along with these amps that put the sound right out there.
Anybody who had to wrestle with an old HH / Carlsbro / Ohm / Laney / insert mediocre 70s-80s amp here, will know what I'm talking about.

Yes, we have much more choice nowadays and lots of very capable amps, but other than the Acoustic or SVT, which you just didn't see anywhere for sale., your local music shop was full of garbage until Trace came along.

I'm hesitating to use the phrase 'game changers' here, but....

Regarding weight.
Yeah, I'm with you regarding the cabs, undoubtedly.
Regarding the amp head, sorry but if you can't lift an AH-whatever, you need to see a doctor.
My AH150 weight no more than my bass in its case.

Anyway, as soemone said previously, each to their own.

[mckendrick]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1314456451' post='1353636']
I was reading some posts on a basschat topic today about a Trace rig on ebay and how great they sounded back in the day. Different strokes for different folks I suppose but I've never got on with TE stuff. I can never get (in my opinion) a good sound from the things. When I was getting serious about bass, in the 90's, these were the holy grail of bass amplification but I never got on with them. In the past whenever I turned up at a gig where the backline was TE or a rehearsal studio (where all old TE gear goes to die) and one of these greeted me I knew I'd be spending most of the first hour trying to get a halfway decent sound. Thank goodness for lightweight bass heads because now if the bass amp is a Trace I can just plug my TC head into the cab and get a decent sound right away.[/quote]
Word up. I'm there.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1314456451' post='1353636']
Does anybody else have a dislike of TE stuff.... or am I just a weirdo?[/quote]

1) Yes.

2) Possibly, I don't know you well enough.

[goblin]

I'm a big fan of Trace Gear too (not the newer stuff though). What worries me is that I'm seeing various comments about how they've moved on because it's like lugging an elephant around...I bought mine because I was after something more transportable and easier on the back To be fair, I did previously own an Acoustic 470 and a Paulman Battleship 4x10 (50kg!!)

I get what people are saying about always tweaking though, I find that once I've got a setting I'm happy leaving it there, I let someone use it once and they p*ssed about with it, and I now can't find that setting I had The TE / Warwick combo does seem to work well though...as does the TE / Wal and TE / Howjiwatermercallit combo It's a bit weird just coming out of the blue and saying you hate TE gear and expect everyone to agree with you. I don't like MarkBass, Ashdown and Ampeg...big deal

[winterfire666]

iv never liked any Trace Elliot stuff, it all sucks in my opinion but if i turn up to a gig where an Ashdown rig is supplied i would happily trade for a trace.

additional, anyone up for contributing to a new Ashdown hate topic?
i could get really nasty on that one, far more deserving of my contempt.

Edited December 29, 2011 by winterfire666

[goblin]

We have Ashdown amps at uni, when it came to the uni gig I was quite pleased that they decided to use the Line 6 LD. And I'm not a Line 6 fan either

[Davo-London]

If this thread started: [i]anyone hate Ampeg gear[/i], I'd be there in a flash. Tried loads of Ampeg gear at rehearsals and never liked the sound. Whereas we have a (pre-reincarnation) Trace 715 combo at church. It's taken loads of abuse and it still sounds big and punchy and by dialling everything flat it gives a very good tone on both low-end and hi-end basses. in particular my Jaco fretless sounds pure Jaco through this combo. So I don't understand all the negativity.

Never tried the separate heads and speaker units so I couldn't comment.

Davo

[fender73]

Pal of mine has a PA hire and installation company - he's had the same Trace Combo knocking around for 20+ years that has been beaten, battered and used in every kind of scenario...but keeps coming back for more. It's let him down once (embarrasingly enough when i borrowed it to use for a string of gigs back in the 90's). It's still going strong and gives a consistently punchy sound.

would love to test one of their newer combo's against my old Laney stuff which gives me the tone and flexibiility i need for my gigs

[xgsjx]

I had a 4x10 (tonne) TE combo for a short while @ 4-5 years ago. Crock of toley!
Does punchy mean "it's got plenty of mid, but if you try & add any bass it'll fart on every note"?
Yes, it cuts through the mix, but it doesn't add any depth to the mix. I play bass because I like BASS.

[jensenmann]

I was playing SWR and Ampegs for many years (and still play Ampegs) until the day came when my SM400 went defunct at a rehearsal in the morning with a gig coming up at afternoon. ON my way to the gig I had to pass a local musicstore anyway and picked a Trace AH600SMX for thi gig and was extremely blown away. I never before had such a present sound on stage. Needless to say the SM400 had to leave and I bought exactly this head.
All Trace cabs I played before sounded ugly, all Trace amps beside this one sounded ugly, even the tube models and the combos I tested. I couldn´t believe how good this particular top works with my playing on stage. Though I´d never record the ampsound (in contrast to my SWRs and Ampegs), it´s just on thing that makes my Trace great: cutting through on stage.

[VTypeV4]

I would happily contribute to an anti-Crashdown thread however surely, its our differences and and prefernces that make todays world of bass so diverse? We're only talking about amps here let alone bass guitars / uprights themselves and or playing styles..