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Old vs New Trace Elliot cabs


M-Bass-M
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I currently have some really bad GAS around getting a Trace Elliot stack. I've started wtih a pre-amp, and as old TE power amps are both hard to come by and stupidly heavy, I'll probably go with a Crown power amp. However, while there seem to be plenty of old Trace Elliot cabs up for sale, they're usually located at the other end of the country to me :(

So, the other option is to buy a new TE cab to complete my rig. What I'd like to know is how these cabinets compare to the old pre-Gibson cabinets - any noticeable difference in quality, sound etc?

Thanks

Mark

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Personally of what I've heard (which is limited to the 1518 and 1048H) the new stuff is better. Slightly more lightweight but the sound was fuller and less "middy" to me. THe old cabs were OK for their time but things have moved on. That said, the 1153 is still a great cab today :)

The old 1518 was heavy and a bit dull sounding (IMO - no real low end or high mid) but the new 1518 really sounded good to my ears.
The old 1048H weighed more than the UK and whilst the new one is still heavy it's an improvement. Again, soundwise the old ones just seemed a little less full sounding than the new ones.

The old 2103H was a bit crappy IME, the horn was awful and the drivers crapped out quite early on. Maybe just my style of playing brought that about though ;)

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Hi Mark,

I have owned a new Trace stack 4x10h+1x15 compact and an old stack 4x10h with red stripe and carpet + 4x10 in tolex no red stripe. The tones I got from both stacks were great and saw many gigs and each time held up to all of them and were happy being lugged around in and out of cars/vans. The only reason why I got the new style cabs(although I don't have them anymore) is because the older cabs were really heavy, but the newer 4x10 is still a bit of a beast but about 6kg lighter I believe than the older ones. The 1x15 compact was pretty light. I can't comment on the horns as I always turned them off/had them on lowest I could.

I don't think I have a preference over either but my new style cabs sold really cheaply on ebay, so it's worth having a look on there as there is always Trace stuff on there or the for sale section here.

Hope that helps!

Edited by S9_S12_Bass
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[sup]Thanks for both of the replies. Weight actually is an influencing factor, so it's useful to know that the newer cabinets are somewhat lighter. I used to own a 1153 and 2103h setup, and remember them both being on the heavy side. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough about sound back then to comment on whether they were good speakers![/sup]

[sup]I may look more into the new 1048 then...[/sup]

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Hulk Hogan actually does play bass, I heard that he wanted to play for Metallica before they it Rob!

On topic - I dislike all Trace stuff personally. If it works for you though that's awesome :) never noticed a sound difference between old and new stuff myself, so if it was me I would base my decision on the weight and go for the new stuff

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