Product: Trace Elliot AH250SMX Head
Price Paid: US
Submitted
09/06/2001
at
02:16am
by
Magnus Edlund
Features
:
10
A one-channel solid state bass head with a tube/valve in the preamp. Features include a 12-band graphic EQ and preshape, two-band compressor, an effects loop that is switchable series/parallell. It has all you need to get a great bass sound, and enough power to bring out the sound with headroom to spare.
Sound Quality
:
10
I play blues, rock, ska/reagge, disco and country in various bands. My main bass is a `76 Fender P-bass with a Basslines QP pickup and I also use a fretless 5-string with a Warmoth widespace 34" neck and Carvin humbuckers. My amp is driving home-made 15" and 2x10" speakers. The amp is versatile and I can get all the different sounds I need. It isn't noisy, unless you boost the highest frequenzies with the graphiq (wich I don't). By blending in the preamp valve you can get rid of the high-tech fusion sound. The only slight complaint I can think of is that I cannot get the amp to distorte, even with full gain into the preamp (I think that Trace ment it that way).
Reliability
:
2
My Trace would have been a great amp, if it would have been more reliable. Unfortenately the quality of build is not what I had expected from such an expensive unit. The pricetag is RollsRoyce-style but the quality is like a 1976 SAAB - very bad! I bought my Trace new three years ago and I haven't used it that much. (In our rehearsal room I borrow an amp, and on many gigs we use rented backline). Still it has let me down on two occasions.
3 months after I bought it something came loose between the frontpanel and EQ-sliders and shorted out the amp. And last month at a gig it suddenly just got quiet. The fan was running, the green light was shinig, the fuse was OK - but no sound. I switched it off, turned it on after ca: 15 minutes, it was working a while and then again no sound. Most likely it is the soldering that has been sloppy at the Trace factory. In my opinion I have the right to expect much better from such a high-profile, expensive piece of equipment.
I would never play a gig without a backup amp, I use an old Peavey head for this purpose. The Peavey sounds good and is built like a tank.
Customer Support
:
3
The first time it broke down I went back to the store: Musikshopen (the Music shop) in Vaster?s, Sweden). They fixed it within a week - very good.
The second time I wrote an e-mail to the service-department at Trace Elliot, asking them it my problem was something they had encountered in other amps and if they had any ideas what could be the problem. I have still (`bout 6 weeks later) not heard from them. Not so good.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I've been playnig bass guitar since 1975. I own three bass guitars, an electric and two acoustic guitars. I use an old Trace Elliot valve preamp for recording with Cubase 3.7 in my homestudio.
If my AH 250 SMX amp would be lost I would under no circumstanses buy a similar unit. I'd buy a Peavey!!!
I love the sound - and HATE the poor quality, never being able to relax at gigs, always worrying that it will brake down.
Before I bought it I read reviews and went to several music shops to try out other high-end amps by SWR, Ampeg, Marshall and EBS. Trace was, along with EBS, the best sounding. I went for Trace because EBS was even more expensive.
