Trace Elliott - when did it become light(er)?

[Alec]

Had The Blockheads in on Saturday. As house engineer, I normally don't move bands' kit around during load-in, but time was tight. Had a mighty surprise at lifting Norman's Trace cabs onto stage when they were just under half the weight I was expecting, based on my old 4x10 combo. (and was about a quarter the weight of the Leslie cab!)

Had never realised Trace had moved onto neo speakers - when did that happen? Mind you, I don't rate their new gear as nice soundwise as the older kit. And there are plenty of other quality contemporary rigs that I'd now rate higher, which also happen to be cheaper.

Didn't stop Norman sounding lovely, as always, mind...

[Merton]

They're still Ceramic magnets, not neo, but they use lighter ply instead of whatever depleted-Uranium lined stuff they used to use. I like the new cabs more than the old cabs but I've not used the new heads.

[Lozz196]

I remember most Trace gear, including the little 115 combos, being incredibly heavy. True rivals for Peavey in that respect.

[thodrik]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1321297399' post='1437510']
I remember most Trace gear, including the little 115 combos, being incredibly heavy. True rivals for Peavey in that respect.
[/quote]

Funny that when Peavey acquired Trace the gear got lighter. Two negatives equals one positive?

I have been playing with the new Trace cabs for a few years. Decent kit, though I don't think that they have the same bomb-proof nature of the older cabs. Poplar ply with a small mixture of MDF (I have the brochure somewhere). I was also pretty shocked at first with how light they were. The 2x10 is almost a one-hander over short distances.
Still, the Celestion speakers do they job with most heads.

To OP, I don't actually think that the cabinets are really that overpriced. They are about in same ballpark as Ashdown, Ampeg Eden etc. The heads though, are really expensive, one of the main reasons I didn't go for one when I bought the cabs

[david_l_perry]

Trace used MDF for a long period of time......hence the vast weight of the older stuff

[Alec]

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1321298552' post='1437532']
To OP, I don't actually think that the cabinets are really that overpriced. They are about in same ballpark as Ashdown, Ampeg Eden etc. The heads though, are really expensive, one of the main reasons I didn't go for one when I bought the cabs
[/quote]

Ah, to be fair, it was the heads and combos which I'd noticed as having the scary prices - £1,530 for a 2 x 10 combo! And still £40kg...

The heads are still "reassuringly heavy". On lifting the head on Sat the whole Trace experience came back to me, only to be shattered on handling the cabs!

[thodrik]

[quote name='Alec' timestamp='1321363380' post='1438203']
Ah, to be fair, it was the heads and combos which I'd noticed as having the scary prices - £1,530 for a 2 x 10 combo! And still £40kg...

The heads are still "reassuringly heavy". On lifting the head on Sat the whole Trace experience came back to me, only to be shattered on handling the cabs!
[/quote]

Yeah, when I discovered that the EBS heads were cheaper than the 12 band Trace Elliots, I just went for one of those. The new heads don't really have many new features compared to any of the SMX/Series 6 amps, which you can pick up for a few hundred quid (which I have also done). I haven't actually tried the new amps though, so I don't want to be overly critical. I'm just not sure how the new stuff could be 'better' than the earlier stuff.