Trace Elliot 1210 Series 6 410 Combo

The amp was built in the late 90's, before Gibson bought Trace Elliot. Versatility is a tricky part on this amp. Since it's a combo, i've only used the preamp in combination with the combo's speakers and i've never used an external cabinet. I think the preamp is extremely versatile since it has a 12 band equalizer, the dumb thing is that the speakers can't handle all the equalizer's frequencies.
Besides the 12 band equalizer it has a preshape which gives you a modern sound. At the front side are a jacks for active and passive bass, a gain knob, footswitch, DI, an effectsloop, a line in-out and headphones.
Just the features you need, nothing special. I don't effects belong in a amp.
One thing that truly sucks are the potmeters on the gain and volume, since you have turn them up by steps. For the gain this isn't a real problem, but for the volume it is. If you turn it down, it's silent (duh). The second click is really soft, not nice to play on, your bass notes will feel empty. The third click is pretty loud and not useful if there are more people in the same room.
The amp is solid state and has 200 watt on 8 ohm which is pretty much, enough for medium sized rock gigs.
Don't forget the weight.. This monster weighs over over 60 kilos. Now I understand why there arent many 410 combos.

The features are okay, except for the 12 band eq, which is GREAT! Big minus for the steps in the gain and volume potmeters, it's very annoying.

I use an OLP MM2 (stingray) with Seymour Duncan SMB4A musicman style humbuckers. I play rock and funk, but i also play all kinds of other music.

There is one BIG problem with this amp. I already said it in the features section, the speakers can't produce the eq's frequencies. When you play at moderate levels (volume position=4) frequenties above 2000 hz won't come through, which makes the last 4 slides of the eq useless. Since i like the bite of my bridge humbuckers, this amp sucks for my bass.
I can't really say how this amp handles realy deep sounds, since my bass doesn't produce those deep sounds because of its single bridge humbucker.
Besides all of this, the amp has the true Trace sound which you love or hate. If you want your bass sound true and clear, dont buy this amp. On the other hand, it does give my cheap bass a thick bottom end.

On normal gain level the amp distorts at volume on 5 (12 o' clock) and it sounds really bad. Not really a problem since volume 4 is incredibly loud :P

It gets a 6, because there are people who just like the Trace sound.

When I got it it was 10 years old but it worked perfectly. Now, 2 years later it's still perfect. Okay, you can tell that its old, but it works fine!

Built like a tank and never let me down. It deserves a true 10.

Never had any problems so..

I've been playing for 4 years now and I have only got 1 bass, my OLP MM2 which I love. I used to have a 100w Laney Linebacker with a single 12" speaker and when I got the Trace, it sounded fabulous comparing the Laney. Now, 2 years later, I got sick of the Trace and bought a H&K Bassbase 400 and a SWR Workingman's 410T, which sounds fabulous compared to the Trace.

The Trace cost me 525 euro and I still think its the loudest 525 euro's you can spend. If you want power, buy it. I personally think you should spend the money on a smaller amp, because this baby looks nice and has a lot of power, but sounds like crap.

The 1210 has the 12 band equalizer, but I have to admit I rarely touch it. The mid pre-shape button creates the perfect bass guitar sound even with my crappy bass.
All the versatility you can ask for.

I use a Crappy Jazz Bass copy. Even though the bass guitar isn't much, the 1210 makes it still sound acceptable as a bottom in a three-piece band. It perfectly fills up the space that the single guitar doesn't occupy. The mid-pre shape is really great.

The amp has almost never had his volume over 2 because it's that loud. The power amp has plenty of juice left at all times.
Even when not played for weeks (months) it's just plug in and go.
The cover is really battered after all these years, but the amp still looks and sounds great. No backup necessary.

When I had just bought the amp, I've asked the customer support for the schematic of the amp in case anything should ever go wrong (not very likely to happen...). They sent it after a few days. Very nice people to deal with.

If you want to have a decent bass amp and don't mind lugging around a 4x10 combo, I would really recommend this one. Even though Trace Elliott seems to be a bit out of fashion, I think this is a great amp.