Trace Elliot Speed Twin C50

I have been playing for over 30 years, mostly Strats through tube amps. Tube amps with hardly any features have served me well. This amp has a lot of nice features so I am amazed at how wonderful it sounds.
Unfortunately they are no longer made. The company was bought out by Gibson and the Speed Twins discontinued.
Fifty watts Class A. Two EL-34s and five 12AX7 tubes. Two channels with an extra gain stage switch on the "gain channel". Two master volumes. Everything is footswitchable. I have the 96 model with the lousy reverb. (I think in 1998 they changed to a pretty good Accutronics reverb.) Very usable effects loop with in and out level controls and series/parallel switch. Power amp mute switch to put power amp in standby mode while using only the preamp-out for recording. This extends EL-34 tubelife I guess. External bias test points and adjustment control. Also, a bias switch for changing from EL-34s to 6L6s without rebiasing. A switch comined with two jacks to enable 4/8/16 ohm speaker impedence.
Very nice set of features, well implemented with no glitches I know of.

The TONE of this amp is what I love about it. Both channels sound great. The clean channel is very clean and warm. The gain channel goes from blues to over-the-top distortion without excess noise. Not buzzy raucous Dimebag distortion though. Its the purest most beautiful harmonic distortion I have ever played through.
I A/B'd this amp (playing a single-coil Stratocaster) with my Marshall DSL 400 and my Soldano Astroverb, all through the same 16-ohm speaker cab. I recorded all three amps through a Rode NT-1 condenser mic. They all sound great but the Speed Twin sounds the fullest and has the most touch sensitivity and dynamic response. The DSL 400 clean channel nails the Fender Blackface sound the best. The Soldano distorts real nice but is probably a one-trick pony. I love the way the Speed Twin sounds. It sounds very close to what I hear in my mind when I am playing. It is also the quietest out of these three amps. Very quiet.

Speed Twins were made in Trace Elliot's Custom Shop in England. They are well made. There are a couple of PCBs in there but mostly it is a hand-built amp. The cabinet is sturdy, the chassis is bulletproof and the tube sockets are porcelain for the power tubes and ceramic for the pre-amp tubes, mounted to the chassis and hand wired. I am not expecting reliablity problems here, but tube amps require maintenance and a little extra care.

Customer support is done through Gibson. I had some questions so I called Gibson on their toll-free support line and talked with Shane right away. Ten minutes later, I had schematics in my email. They are very supportive. Gibson is a class-act.

The market value of these amps is WAY too low. Mint condition Speed Twin amps start at $550 on eBay. Buy one before its too late. You won't be sorry.

Brand new amp. Features have already been listed. Frankly, the only thing I could perhaps want is a better footswitch. But it's got plenty of knobs, a few of which push/pull, the effects loop, and so forth... it's a multi-trick pony for sure.

I use several guitars, so I like a versatile amp. I use EL34's in mine (although it can work with 6L6's too), and I want dirty tones from it ranging from a beefy clean tone, through the spectrum up to monster gain. This amp does it. I'm impressed (VERY) with the gain channel: I can run it around 9 or 10 o'clock and that's enough for a lighter distortion... going to high noon is getting a good AC/DC tones... going to 1-2-3 oc'closk jsut variations of more and more 80's rock... anything beyond that and you have pure, hellatious distortion, but GOOD hellatious distortion... It's really something. PLUS: it has a high/low switch (meaning high gain vs. low gain... everything I just described is with the high gain enabled... switch it to low gain and you have a much more controlled distortion, but elss sustain and me gotsta have my sustain... anyway, that button merely brings another tube into the preamp).

My only complaint is the reverb: it's... uh... really quite terrible... BUT this amp is played primariy for distortion and I generally turn the reverb to zero. I have a Carr Slant 6V that is use for 'verb and such...

This amp was ridiculously inexpensive for the amazing tone I'm getting... aside from the rather lame reverb, I know higher end combos make just be a bit "creamier" in the sustain department, but this amp truly impresses.

n/a... sorry, haven't had it long enough to comment... however, I had a 100W Speed Twin head once upon a time, and that never gave me a problem... I don't expect one here, either.

n/a again... never dealt with 'em.

I purchased mine for that price from a dealer who no longer dealt them and was releasing his inventory for DIRT CHEAP... they list at nearly $2000, and sell for $1300 new, so my deal was simply AMAZING.

See above my discussion of the amp's tone and versatility, then consider that I got it so inexpensively... obviously, my rank in VALUE (bang for the buck) is a '10'.

What do I love: the WIIDE and smoothly varying range of gain I can get out of it... simply awesome from crystal clean to monstrously dirty.

What do I hate: the cheapo footswitch and the crappy reverb.

If lost or stolen and that same (former) dealer were still selling 'em cheap, yeah, I'd do it again. For the $1300 it would cost in more normal circumstances for a new one, I would probably consider dabbling with something else... or maybe saving up for a Bogner or some such... but even at $1300, I'd say it's still a good deal. My '10' rank is based on the price I paid though.

Lets see here... everythings been mentioned above, exept that while this one is a 50w combo, the amp can put out 100w if hooked up to an extension cab

The clean channel sounds very good, and the dirty channel can go from a mild bluesy distortion to some very extreme metal distortion, has a well overall sound, alot better than those crates and other crappy solid-state amps

had it for 3 months... hasn't broke down on me yet (although i should change the tubes soon...)

never dealt with them...

overall a very good, and very versital amp. I play a 2000 Gibson LP classic, and the 2 go very well together. if it were stolen or lost (its quite heavy, don't see it getting lost very easily) i would probably buy another if i could find one (i never heard of Trace Elliot until i was looking around a used store)

this sure is one feature packed valve amplifier. 5x 12AX7 preamp with 2x EL34's in the power amp. parallel or series fx loop, triode/pentode output, output damping, two channels with gain boost, and pull/push treble shift on each channel. nice.
got mine for #500 in a half price sale. i really wish that the gain boost was footswitchable on the standard footswitch and it has no headphone output. the output damping is very cool, you can get a loose funky effect rather like jimi or a tighter sound more for metal.
it has a half power switch but in truth just softens the sound. it has enough gain for me, i play in a newly formed alt/rock/indie band in belfast, it has more than power to compete with our pearl drumkit, fender twin of the other guitarist and a 200w bass amp. for live use however, you would obviously mike it up maybe with an extension cab, makes it sound three times better!

i am using a fender toronado, a yamaha pacifica and a telecaster. it sounds gorgeous clean with lots of headroom, not as sparkly as a fender but very nice with it's own character. the tone shift adds extra zing if needed. it suits my style, sort of faster mogwai/radiohead/ trail of dead. it can be quite noisy at times, especially gain channel, a rocktron hush sorted that out. however our rehearsal room would make anything hum. in terms of variety, it has a couple of good clean tones and anything from a crunch, winding up clean channel volume, to various states of overdrive. it can do a good saturated tube drive, no metal machine though, although who cares? the clean can stay clean right the way up the master volume until the channel vol is pushed you get preamp distortion.
sounded better than any marshall jcm2000 or laney or peavey crap i played, one of the lesser known companies, made in Britain but owned by Gibson.

because of all the horror stories i've heard about valve amps i would never gig it without a backup although i'm sure it would be fine. maybe i'll get a Pod just in case, and a small fan for the back as it gets quite hot in there.

i haven't dealt with trace yet, so i don't know. the warranty i think is 5 years apart from the valves themselves which is understandable.

i have been playing 3 years (wow!) what experience you're thinking, but i have got to an acceptable standard and have played lots of amps belonging to other people and i used to try out all the gear in Belfast's music stores almost every other day after school. so i know a good amp when i hear one, this is a pro amp, anyone who's heard it thinks it's sweet. i couldn't afford to buy another one if it was pinched but if i could i would. it's quite heavy so watch it. i compared this to a DSL401, Fender Stage 100, laney lc50 and carvin Nomad (good but nowhere near AS good) and this thing kicks ass, a friend of my dad's said it puts his Mesa Rocket to shame.
get this amp, if you're looking for more power the speed twin half stack kicks the arse of any marshall, i heard one once live at a local bar, it fuckin smoked! it got the company noticed for me, i heard the 50w combo at my local music store, played around on it for a while but it took about 10 seconds for me to make my mind up, it does retail at twice what i paid for it however, i was just really lucky that day, i was about to buy a carvin nomad but this is worlds apart. worth every penny, used with a vintage rat, you've got all you'll ever need. ace!

I'm not sure of the year, but I do know that there were several versions of this particular model made. This one is covered in black tolex, and has a black and green grill cloth. It is a sinle 12 (Celestian 75 watt) inch combo, but the cabinet is darn near as wide as most 2x12's. This amp is Extremely versital. I play Blues, Classic rock, occaisional country, and it always delivers. This is a two channel amp, but that can be a bit deceiving. It has many switching options. The clean channel has standard Bass, Middle, Treble, and Level controls, with a push/bull bright switch. The dirty channel has Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Level controls as well as a toggle gain mode switch that throws in an extra tube stage for more gain. In addition there are master controls for Volume 1, Volume 2, Presence, and Reverb. In my opinion, the coolest feature of this amp is the two foot switchable level controls that apply to BOTH channels. That's right, you can set up a good clean and a good dirty tone, and then get an adjustable boost that applies to both. Also, the reverb and gain mode can be footswitched via a separate jack if you so desire. Rear panel stuff includes series/parallel switch for the effects loop with send and return level controls, a variable damping control that tightens or loosens the bottom end to taste, a EL34/6L6 bias switch with a bias pot for each, a pentode/triode switch, an external speaker jack to support 4/8/16 ohm total load, power switch, and 2 footswitch jacks. I think that the newer models have a midi switchable option and a slightly smaller cabinet, but other than that are basically the same. Line out and in jacks, and a power amp mute switch too. To be honest, I can't think of a single feature that I would add. I never use the pentode/triode switch, as I really don't care for the sound in triode mode. I use this amp for practice and small to medium club gigging. It has plenty of power for this and sounds good at just about all levels. It is a tube amp with 5 preamp tubes and 2 power tubes. The reverb is solid state driven I believe.

I use both a Fralin equipped strat, and a Ibanez Blazer with a Dimarzio Air Zone in the bridge with it. My primary musical style is classic rock. This amp suits it perfectly. It had 6l6's when I got it and it sounded absolutely wonderful clean, but the gain tones were a bit mushy for my tastes. I installed a new set of EL34's and it was perfect. Good crunch, but still way better than average clean tones, although not quite as sparkly with the 6L6's, but that's to be expected. I don't find it noisy at all. The clean channel will remain clean up to about 3/4 volume, depending on the master setting, and the distortion is extremely versital. It respondes very well to guitar volume settings and pick attack changes. I don't use the higher gain mode settings, as it sounds a bit mushy to me. I leave it set up at a good cunch, and kick it with a Fulldrive II if I want more sustain. The real beauty about this amp is that no matter what I plug into it, I can literally set all of the controls at 12 o'clock for starters and be real close to what I'm after. I'll do a minor tweak or to based on room or instrument, but I bet I've never had to stray more than a notch or two on any control regardless of the situation (except for volume controls of course). It just ALWAYS sounds good no matter what I do. I've run it by itself, and with an ampeg 4x12, and it works great either way. I'd say it's probably not well suited for a serious metal crunch with the amp alone. It's distortion is probably not quite edgy/solid state enough for most metal guys ears, but that's not my bag anyway. It sounds damn fine to me. I haven't heard better for my tastes. Reverb is adequate, but not quite Fender Tube deep.

Seems to be built like a tank (and has the weight to go with it by the way). I'd say it's as reliable as any other tube amp. Has not ever broken on me, but I'm not a heavy gigger. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt based on construction alone.

Support is great. Good email contact. They've sent me manuals for free. A+.

If you can get one used for 5 bills like I did, you can't beat it. It gives any other tube amp, boutique or otherwise, a good run for the money. It retails for around 1800 bucks last time I checked. I'm not sure I'd pay THAT for it, but then again, I wouldn't pay that much for any amp !!! Based on what I paid, it's got to be a 10. I tried it against marshall DSL's and TSL's, and I didn't give the marshalls a second look after hearing it.

Two channel tube guitar combo. A very nice compact package with many very nice features. Pick this amp up used and it was running Telsa El-34's for a nice british crunch. Can be adjusted for 6550's, 6l6's and others by a switch and EXTERNAL bias adjustments (a very nice feature). Clean channel with preamp, three band eq, master. Crunch with preamp, three band, master and a footswitchable gain boost for almost three channels. Master presence and reverb, TWO foot switchable global volumes. One the back there is a series/parelle effects loop with send and return levels and and Output dampening control...easy discription is a way to loosen up the dynamics off the amp and almost a "punch" control for the output. Fifty watts into a single Clestion G12-75. All around a nice sounding amp, and it sounds close to a marshall but is SLIME GREEN!

Gibson SG classic for my angus young moods (can get it dead on) and a Fender Strat for classic rock. Great sounding amp...so far simmilar to a Marshall tube combo...I have yet to try out other tubes in the amp though. Quite (and does so even with both guitar being single coils) and can handle playing with a loud drummer easily. Rather bitting sound but even with the treble wound out its not piercing. This amp can do alot, from Red Hot Chilli Peppers Cean funk to Old Metallica Balls to the wall. I run straight into the amp with no effects and have majorly improved my sound with this thing.

Its heavy, but not overbearing. Feels solidly built. Never had a problem so far in 6 months of heavy use. New tubes are on the way just to experiment. But remember it is a tube amp so you do have to treat is a little nicer

Great, E-mailed the company for an instruction manual. I did e-mail the wrong division but within 24 hours they responded and gave me the correct address. And after that had a downloadable copy of the instructions within 24 hours. All the people seamed polite. Gibson now owns the company and I did get this one used...but everyone helped me just fine

Its not a digital amp so it can't do "everything" but It does its thing with very little effort. Been playing for 5 years and its the best amp i've owned and really allows the guitars to shine through. I don't really belive there are such things as straight tens here, but for the money i payed I love this amp. It will probably be with me for a long time.