Trace Elliot 1153 Cabinet

My cab was produced in 1994 so it is a pre-gibson one it also pre dates the rat fur green coverings. It has a 1/4" input and link as well as an XLR which does the same thing. The cab has two flip handles on the side and plenty of feet and stacking feed.

I play mostly jazz/blues and funk, the cab brings out the lows but also the highs, to produce a beautiful bass tone. The speaker can get a little boomy but you just have to cut the bass on your EQ and it is fine. Beautiful cab with lots of balls if you need it.

Brilliant cabs, they go for next to nothing now and they sound amazing. Grab them while they are avaliable.

My 1153 is a mid /late 1990's cabinet and has either 1/4" or XLR i9ns and outs (for extension cabs). 1x15" driver sits squarely in the middle of the front with two bass response ports for extra air movement. Quite a versatile cabinet considering the single driver (no high frequency horn) but is more than useable for the vast majority of musical styles. I've had this cabinet from new (about 15 years) and it has never let me down. I've used this with a variety of bas, heads and even analogue synths and it always delivers a clean, warm tone. Even slap bass sounds snappy enough to cut through on stage with a singer, drummer, guitarist and brass.

Still sounds amazing even after all these years. It gets a little 'pumpy' at top volumes, but that rarely happens. This cabinet is obviously less snappy than a pair of 10" drivers, but it's still very effective when playing slap bass/harmonics lines etc...

I've had this since forever and it has never let me down. I'm on my third bass head since I started playing in 1992 and this is the only piece of gear I haven't sold on/PXed for other kit. I never take a backup to gigs as it's a real workhorse. Can't recommend TE cabinets highly enough.

Never had to deal with them - surely the best kind of customer support.

If this were stolen I wouldn't even think twice about buying another, I'd buy one the same day. I have never had a piece of gear that is this reliable. In fact I'm thinking of tracing (no pun intended) an early TE head - they're built like tanks too.

I bought this second hand about 10 years ago and it was only about a year old then. Single 15" Custom Celestion speaker specially made for Trace Elliot rated 200w at 8ohms. jack, xlr and link connections on the back. Changed out the original celestion for a 300w celestion to give me more headroom as the original speaker tended to distort but I am a pretty loud player. Takes everything I can throw at it. It is not powerful enough to use for a pub gig on its own but I only use it as my backline as I have another cabinet for 'no pa' gigs.

Over the past 10 years I have used a lot of different basses through this (Fender, Musicman, Spector, Trace Elliot T-bass, Hohner, Gibson, Rickenbacker, etc) and it always gives me a great sound. I play in a variety of different bands covering everything from Frank Sinatra to Black Sabbath, Glen Miller to Robbie Williams. the sound is fantastic - it is one of the earlier ones before they started putting green carpet on them but after they began porting them. i used the port covers twice and then threw them away as it sounded better without them.

I have used it without backup since I bought it. It is completely bombproof (unlike the Behringer cabinet that lasted 3 gigs before all 4 cones tried to leave the cabinet) I have always transported it with the vinyl cover to protect it. I used to have a 1048H which was great but weighed a ton and a guitarist 'friend' of mine kindly dropped it down a flight of stairs and all it did was leave a small mark on one of the corners. I sold that one because of the weight.

I never had to contact Trace because their stuff refuses to break. Everything they ever made was over engineered so that it would not fail. They sounded like a great bunch of guys (having read an artical about them in Guitarist not long after they began) and this work has continued onto Ashdown via Decimax (the digital side of Trace)

Since buying this, I have had my original 7210 trace combo (this cab was an extension cab for this combo), a Gallien Krueger 800RB and am now onto a Hartke HA5500. I am playing 2 Rickenbacker 4003s through this, although obviously not at the same time. For effects I use a Boss Flanger, DOD octave pedal, Owen Bass Gremlon overdrive through a looper. If it were lost or stolen I would probably buy a compact Ashdown cabinet since these are hard to come by in good condition, most of the vinyl ones I have seen on my travels are trashed cosmetically. I have had 3 amps and 18 basses in the time I have owned this so it must say something about how much I like it. the only thing I wish it had was castors but I have just fitted a set so now it is exactly how I want it.