Trace Elliot Super Tramp Head

2 channel with a modern vintage switch on dirty channel. The dirty channel also has boost. Effects loop. Reverb.

I don't know how they did it but this amp sounds and feels like a tube amp. Roll off the guitar volume on the dirty channel and it's almost perfectly clean with very little volume loss. Super tight, but with feel.

I bought mine new in the mid 90's. Sold it. Then begged the person to sell it back to me. It's about 7 pounds and 3/4 the size of a regular head. Cool looking green tolex. INDESTRUCTIBLE.

No need.

This is the best head out there for under $300.00

To be perfectly specific, I am writing here about an 80 Watt all-transistor guitar amplifier Supertramp head from Trace Elliot, which according to the date on the circuit board, was assembled in September 1996.

I have the matching slant 4x12 cabinet, which is loaded with made-in-Britain Celestion speakers: G12L-60's.

The other reviews have adequately covered the externaly visible, documented features, so I won't repeat them.

However, what nobody talks about is that the amplifier has some additional undocumented controls inside in the form of trimmer pots mounted on its circuit boards. These are not only useful, but I would say critical.

Initially, in the state that I received it, this amplifier had a dry, tight sound that became harsh with increasing volume. It also had inadequate gain for achieving enough distortion for hard rock and heavy metal styles, with some "vintage output" pickups.

However, I have fixed both problems.

I opened up the head and found some useful trimmer pots inside: two on the preamplifier circuit board, and one on the power amplifier circuit board.

With the preamplifier trimmers, I was able to boost the gain of the amplifier to get a decent amount of distortion when playing my guitar which has a DiMarzio Humbucker From Hell pickup (low output voltage). It won't do ``death metal'', but it's enough. At some point, you have to use hotter pickups to match the style.

The trimmer in the power amplifier turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I suspected initially that it might control bias current. I found it set slightly right of centre, but turning it all the way left or right didn't produce any audible crossover distortion.

What this trimmer pot does is control damping. Turning it left creates a rich, warm sound with a lot more bass. It changes the character of the amplifier so that it is no longer harsh. The sound has all the earmarks of the ``tube vibe''. Single notes appear almost vocal, as if the loudspeaker is trying to articulate a vowel. Even with the gain dimed to 10, when a chord is played, the individual notes are clear. The sound now gets better with increasing volume, rather than worse. The clean channel sounds warm, round and acoustic now. I can play a classical piece using a solidbody electric with a bright pickup and it sounds great.

I was going to get rid of this amplifier head (keeping the 4x12 cab) but after making these trimmer adjustments, I love it!

The amplifier is reliable. The potentiometers are smooth and free of noise, the power switch continues to be reliable after years of use, the input sockets appear to be of good quality.

There are a few minor issues.

1. Channels switching is relay based. There can be a little bit of variability in the internal contact made by the relay which can affect channel tone. Switching from overdrive to clean to overdrive may affect the overdrive tone.

2. There is a slight powerline cycle hum being fed to the speakers from the poorly regulated power supply of this amplifier. This hum does not vary with the master volume at all, nor with the channel gains or levels, nor with the choice of channel. It does not get louder when you crank the amplifier.

3. Temperature sensitivity is a problem with this amplifier, or perhaps part of its character. It appears that in cold ambient temperatures, there is less gain in the amp making it difficult to obtain a smooth, sustained lead tone. At the same time, the tone becomes harsh. Quite simply, if I leave the windows open on a cold winter night, with the heating turned off, the amplifier does not sound good. This behavior could differ between different units; other users of this head might not find this at all. The loudspeakers could also be contributing to the effect, since speakers are also affected by temperature. Also, the amp's power line hum is noticeably louder in a cold ambient temperature.

distortion is the nicest ive heard and the clean is beautiful.

amazing, a+

never one problem.

n/a trace elliot as far as i know stopped making these and i believe gibson bought them out.

If you can find one of these buy it, there are two versions, the pre gibson (with standard trace logo) and then the gibson take which has a curvy new trace logo. the pre gibson is rarer and in my opionion sounds better. I owned a single rectifier and this at the same time and sold the single rec, im serious. If you can find one buy it, they dont make a head like this for the price anymore. Your best bet would be ebay. One pops up every couple months or so.

the best features there is .......every channell sounds awsome
read others for more

this is gotta be the best sounding amp i have ever owned.the clean and the drives(4) diff...all are sweet and smooth..i could
never get this kind of tone quality outa any of the tube amps
i ve had.like marshall, fender,line 6, randall,traynor ........many
diff models of each..............this is my keeper.........its........its
..its..........@#@** in awsome.

so far excell;ent........don t see any prob,.got it used fer 4 years
and its in mint shape and sound

sold all my other amps now .i only need this one ......fuck the
back up....i don t think ill ever need one now.this is a british quality amp and sound and .its the one.

This amp is surely one of a kind. I've never heard of this model before, well not until I bought it at least. This amp has a very versatile tonal range.
The features are simple. 2 channels dual gain on 2nd channel vintage/modern and a boost circuit (which comes in handy in live situations). The T.E.S.T. is an 80w head (which might be a little fooling cuz it's loud as hell) and the matching cab which I'm using is 250w. The one thing that bothers me though is the lack of massive reverb, but then again I'm compairing it to a Line 6 digital amplifier I used to have which has endless amount of reverb. The effects lopp on the amp works very well for me. I have a Line6 pod which I run through the loop to give the amp a little extra colouring.
I read about these amps on the internet and in very old papers I found in the attic that it has a valve pre-amp but I haven't got that one confirmed. Also the year of manufacture is a clue to me. Everything on the back of the head an cab is handwritten (serial, voltage, watts etc.etc.) and these are made in the good ol' UK so it's pure quality on that one. I was told that they used to make the SuperTramp model in the late 70's or early 80's so it's pretty old.

With the amp I can reach country, metal, jazz, alt. & classic rock and much softer rock. I have been sessioning with a good variety of musicians and bands all from po-rock to progressive rock and this amp has been there behind me in the studio all mic'ed up and giving good tones.

My setup isn't complex and full of racks so I'm very much depending on getting a good solid tone out of this amp. I'm using a Gibson Les Paul Studio model loaded with Seymour Duncan Jazz model in the neck and a Seymour Duncan JB model in the bridge and also I'm using a modified Yamaha Pacifica which I wired my self to get the exact tone I wanted out of it. And then the setup of pedals I'm using is:

Vox V847 wahwah
Digitech Whammy 4
Ibanez Tubescreamer
Zvex Fuzz Factory
Boss Flanger
Venson G&B Delay 6
Boss Chromatic Tuner
Vox Volume

For the phsycadelic sounds I tend to play this amps seems to handle 'em all. From reverby whooshes to screaming high and low pitched whammy notes, no matter what it handles it and does it well. The clean channel is very much "hippie" like sounding. The way it cracks at a certain amount of volume is just completely beautiful and gives a very warm feeling to your tone.
Since the amp has such uniqe tone you will be able to find yourself "your own" sound.
The distortion is very fuzzy and torn apart. I have to run the Tubescreamer to get a solid metal distortion. But then again that is not the tone I'm after so that dosen't matter much to me, even though I find myself using the modern gain channel alot. :s

I have never gigged with a backup cuz this thing is ment to last. I tend to "move" a lot during shows so I sometimes get too wild and tend to trip over a chord or fall from a cabinet and most of the time my amp takes the beating for it. :D And guess what, it survived it all!

Haven't dealt with Trace Elliot but at here at the local dealers they are very kind and helpful.

Overall this is a good amp with good tone and flexibility. I've had marshall, Line 6, Leem and Vox and I find them lacking the flexibility I need (even though the Line6 amp has tons of flex it lacks the tone I was looking for.).
I would recommend this amp to guitarists who are in search of their own tone and a flexible amp without being a modelling amp.

I also heard these amps were hard to get so if you see one go and grab it, and you will know what all above is about. :D
And.... these ain't cheap I've been told. I got it for $550 used and went straight to the Trace Elliot dealer to get a value report and they told me I could get my $550 back just from selling the cab itself so the price I paid seems to be way below listing price of this baby used.

Not sure of the year of this one but they don't make them any more & thats a shame as they are a great little amp head 80watts of sheer power combined with a killer tone, sweet cleans & filthy overdrive. I run mine through the trace 4x10 slanted quad box and the low end is awesome. Wish I could pedal between the two dirty settings tho.

I use a tele 1972 custom, a fender p bass (I know but it sounds great & handles it fine) I also stick my Korg o1w through it when I'm bored.
Wide veriety of sounds altho the pots seem to have quite a narrow window of control verses movement (they don't change as much as they move)
The distortion is good but I use a boss ds1 as my prefered distortion sound through the clean channel. I would use it if I lost my pedal & am sure it would still cut through just a slightly diff tone.

Never had a problem & by the sound of the reviews never will!

I'll give trace elliot a 10 here as they do what other amp companies (FENDER, MARSHALL & PEAVEY to name the ones I've had trouble with)should do & that is fix all the problems before they go out the door.

Been playin many years
would replace if lost or stolen as long as the price doesn't go stupid now that they don't make them any more.
I love the green colour
I love the light weight
I love the sound
I love it!

Much better than my old marshall jcm800 head & quadbox (lighter too)
Much Much beter than my old peavey bandit full stack.
Much beter than my old Calsbro piece of $%^%&
I wish it had that great uv light setup that the trace bass systems have, so cool esp in the dark or dry ice Lol

If you see one for sale sell your mother & buy it! they will be worth their weight in gold in a few years.

Trace elliot super tramp mk1 head 110w 2 channel little green monster.
Its a simple head, but with bags of power. two basic channels, one for clean the other for drive sounds. the drive channel also features a boost function ad two gain modes (modern/vintage). Footswitchable channels, boost and reverb.

I play in a punk-pop band so the stuff i do is prodominately distorted power chords with single note and octave lead passages. I find for my style the trace is perfect, its bloody loud (it keeps up with the other guitarists 160w fender) and the tone from this little monster is amazing. The clean sound is kind of half marshall half fender, possessing good bottom end nicely loose mids and a bright treble range. The clean channel hardly colours your guitar sound at all though so with cheap guitars it will sound like a cheap amp. The drive channel is fantastic, not as rawkus as a mesa more like the marshall jcm900/600. The vintage setting is a good bright distortion, that goes all the way from blues through to classic 80's rock but the amp really comes into its own when you click into the modern setting. It has bags of gain that doesnt cause the loss of definition although the mid range is not very pronounced. So owning this head is like owning a fender and a marshall.

This little head has been all over the UK with me and has never given me ay problems at all, i never take a spare head anymore because the trace is bomb proof. its bounced around in the back of the car for well over four years now, its never had a service and i've never had any problems with it. i treat this head with no respect at all really, every weekend its run at extreme volumes in dirty little clubs but no matter what you do to it, the trace just wont break.

ive never had to deal with the manufacturer, because it just wont break down.

I play a usa fender double fat strat hardtail through the trace, its kind of a no nonsense set up and it works a treat, i'm often complimented about my sound and my gear, i'm frequently asked how the hell does that little box make all that noise?!! Its an amp i dearly love, it helped me create "my" sound, before it i'd owned marshalls, peaveys, fenders even an old traynor head, but this little amp is just perfect. I use mine through a marshall vs212 cab, which is one of the smallest 212 cabs you can buy, and the sound is still massive. I loved the head so much that i wet out and bought a second one just incase the original blows up in the next 60 years!!! The only thing i'd like it to have is the optio to footswitch between the modes on the drive channnel, that would make life toooooo easy!! I've tried pretty much every other head thats come out since 1995 and i cant find anything else that creates a sound like this, and for those of us who cannot justify paying #2000 for a mesa single rec its ideal. It looks great, sounds great and its indesructible. buy one!!!

This amp wasn't designed to have too many features. It has two channels with a boost on the dirty channel for solos, a spring reverb and an effects loop. I've used this amp in every venue possible and it had plenty of power for them all. In fact...I've gotten bitched at by sound men all over the U.S. to turn down.

It sounds great with any guitar. My bands style of music is a heavy punk and it sounds killer for that but I can get any tone out of it I need. It's never been noisy. Depending on how hot your pickups are it will get a little distorted on the clean channel at high volumes BUT it has to be REAL LOUD for that to happen.

I play in a band that plays over 250 shows a year. Mine has been dropped, thrown, kicked, been in a car wreck an dcompletely abused in every possible way and it still works great. I've had Marshalls, Fenders, Hughes & Kettners, Ampegs, Peavys, Crates, a VHT and many others I can't remember right now and I've never played through an amp that I wasn't able break with in 3 months until I bought one of these. It won't break no matter how hard I try. I did jump up and down on the foot controler until it broke in to 3 pieces BUT I duck-taped it back together and it still works. If the army was to use a guitar amp.....this would be it.

I've never needed them.

I've been playing for 15 years and in addition to the Super Tramp I currently own a H&K half stack and an Ampeg V4 half stack. I had the H&K modified because the people that design those amps are morons!!! I only have it as a backup so I never use it. I use the V4 and Super Tramp in the studio. If you are looking for an inexpensive amp that sounds good and won't break....get this amp. If you want to hear what this amp sounds like in the studio go to http://www.emilystoybox.com and go to the MP3s page and down load some of the stuff off of our 25/7 CD.

80watts rms 110 watts peak, 2 channel, FX loop, Master Volume

Really nice clean sound. The distortons are kinda like a really good stomp box on steroids. Very loud.

The most reliable amp I've used in 20 years! I own a lot of equipment, and when there was a fire in my apartmet the smoke screwed up all of the pots in most of my stuff a lot of cleaning was needed. Surprisingly the Trace did not! This sucker is built like a brick.

Never needed to use customer support

I love the clean tone ESPECIALLY the way it kinda breaks up in a very tubey way if you go easy on the gain. I must say that dispite the other reviews I've read here I'm not so impressed with the overdrive, yes it sounds like a really good transistor amp (from about ten years ago) but it's still kinda harsh compared to some of the more modern stuff. In a live setting I cant really hear the harshness, and the reliability/small size/loudness of this amp make it a winner on stage, but I don't think I'd record with it unless I was using top notch pedals for the grind. One thing I've noticed also is that the distorted mode seems to get a little more trebly if you use high output pickups. If you use say PAF originals or the like it sounds more midrangey. I also noticed that the treble pot in the distortion channel did not work between 0 and 6 and suddenly come on strong between 6 and 7 sort of like a tone control on an old axe. For the money, it's still a good one though I don't think Trace makes this model any more. I believe they only make tube guitar amps now