Trace Elliot 1153 from the SMX era with no "trace elliot" lettering on the speaker. Can it be original?

[BELA]

Hello,

I have recently bought a Trace Elliot 1153 cabinet from the SMX era. Vynil covered and two ports.

I have seen a lot of pictures of cabs from that era that have "trace elliot" printed on the speakers. Mine does not.

The cab is in very good shape and works fine, but I am wondering if the speaker could be the original or if it has been replaced.

The guy I bought this from says he did not replace the speaker, but he was not the first owner anyways.

Could you help me? 

 

[SteveXFR]

My Trace cabs from that era had Trace Elliot printed in white on the centre dome of each cone but I didn't have an 1153 (is that a 1x18? ). Looking on Google images, none of the 1153's seem have the printed centres.

[BELA]

2 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

My Trace cabs from that era had Trace Elliot printed in white on the centre dome of each cone but I didn't have an 1153 (is that a 1x18? ). Looking on Google images, none of the 1153's seem have the printed centres.

 

[BELA]

This one has it

[BELA]

And I have just noticed that the 15" speakers that have the letters, have a much smaller central dome than the ones that don't have the printed letters. Curious. 

[SteveXFR]

17 minutes ago, BELA said:

 

 

So it does. That's a little later than my 1x15. The earlier ones were covered with carpet. I believe it's also about the same time Gibson bought Trace. 

[BELA]

I think it is the other way around. The earlier ones were the ones with vynil, as far as I know 

[SteveXFR]

This might be of interest 

 

 

[Bassman68]

The original era speakers were made by Celestion & were Kevlar impregnated, with the Trace Elliot branding on the (was rather small?) dust cap..

[Delberthot]

On 18/11/2021 at 19:18, BELA said:

Hello,

I have recently bought a Trace Elliot 1153 cabinet from the SMX era. Vynil covered and two ports.

I have seen a lot of pictures of cabs from that era that have "trace elliot" printed on the speakers. Mine does not.

The cab is in very good shape and works fine, but I am wondering if the speaker could be the original or if it has been replaced.

The guy I bought this from says he did not replace the speaker, but he was not the first owner anyways.

Could you help me? 

 

 

If you can take the grill off and pull the speaker out to check - if it's a 300w speaker instead of the factory fitted 200w one then it possibly used to belong to me. If it is then it will still be a Celestion but I can't remember the model

[VTypeV4]

Chances are, if the centre dome is small as per the picture in the third post, the driver is original. I have a spare original Celestion for my 1153 that doesn't have the lettering.

 

It might be worth trying to take a picture and see if there's a sticker on the magnet? The original driver should be a 'C15H' with 'custom made for trace elliot'. They're a variant of the then current K series drivers and were far from an exceptional spec but were very sweet sounding - I still love mine. 

[Sparky Mark]

My 1153 came from TE with a Celestion BL15 300 with no lettering on the dust cap either.

 

Edited December 8, 2021 by Sparky Mark

[Downunderwonder]

My 1518 is from Kaman SMX years, battleship grey diamond textured tolex, no red stripe, MDF, and Trace branded Celestion. 'Regular' size coil dust cover 3.5'' ?

 

Iirc Gibson started using black tolex and then went back to green rat fur, with red stripes making a comeback somewhere in there.

 

Before Kaman there were some Fane drivers in the mix but I think the 1153 came along with SMX series and Celestion complete with Trace branding.

[Dan Dare]

Originally, Trace fitted mainly Celestion drivers to their cabs. I'm pretty sure they weren't branded on earlier models. The drivers in my old cabs weren't.

[Gray C]

On 20/11/2021 at 08:41, Bassman68 said:

The original era speakers were made by Celestion & were Kevlar impregnated, with the Trace Elliot branding on the (was rather small?) dust cap..

I’m with you on this Bassman, I had a 715 combo from the early 90s, had Celestion on the cone and Kevlar was mentioned in the paperwork too 👍🏼

[Lfalex v1.1]

On 20/11/2021 at 08:41, Bassman68 said:

The original era speakers were made by Celestion & were Kevlar impregnated, with the Trace Elliot branding on the (was rather small?) dust cap..

That's in keeping with my experience of similarly aged Trace items;

122HSMX

1153

1048H

 

All had the lettering on the dust cap.