Trace Elliot Super Tramp

This is an update to my previous review. The amp is a '96 not an '86.
I have now had the amp for two years.

I have switched my set-up somewhat. I use this in combination with a JC-120 and I have switched to the low input setting on the chorus channel for the JC-120. This way I get a better volume balance with the Supertramp. I still run the rack , but the JMP-1 died so it's just a GX700 and an Ibanez UE-405 (stereo out of the 405 into the two amps.
With this setup I can get any combination of sounds I want. The overdrive and boost on the supertramp are excellent. Everything from AC/DC to ZZ Top. It can also copo a pretty good clean setting for ballads or country.

I used to consider the JC 120 as my #1 amp, but now if I only need one amp at a gig, I will use the Supertramp over the JC-120 and still be able to capture 90% of my rigs volume, tone and effects. The amp is amazing, the best little 1/12 combo I have ever heard. It mic's up very well, but most of the time I don't even have to mic it to cover the rooms we're playing in.

The reverb went out on it, but I have played over 400 four hour gigs in the last 2 years and it has never let me down. I have reverbs in my rack and the JC-120 to compensate.

I have been looking for the twin chorus Supertramp to have as a second amp. It's always good to have a backup. It would even be great to have two of this combo to run stereo. I have also been looking at the goldtones (same circuit designer (except tube class a, not solid state) but I really think I would just be spending more money for the same great tone and less reliability. Trace Elliot really knew his stuff an developed some great amp designs before he was bought out.

this is actually a reiteration of my earlier review.

I tried it again witht the Ibanez recently, and it sounds great. Can get about halfway between an old marshall and a rectifier type distortion, which is ideal for me. The clean sparkles a little less than with the strat, but it is still good. I'm even happier that I bought this amp now.

Bought it new about 4 years ago.

2 channel, solid state 80W amp, single Celestion speaker, channel switch and boost via footswitch (supplied). Spring reverb, overdrive.

Plenty of volume for its size.

I use a strat and a Yamaha SG with it, mainly for rock.

Clean channel is superb - distortion is also excellent although these days we are spoilt with multi-effects units so its just one of many distorion sounds I use.

Warm, and very valve-like in character, sound compresses nicely when cranked a bit and goes decently loud.

Spring reverb does the job quite well.

Not heaviliy gigged but no problems so far.

Never needed any.

I can't really fault this amp - compact, robust, great tone with a lot of good character, loud for its size - even looks cool.

'86 original trace elliot supertramp, 112 celestion 30, 80 watts, solid state, 2 channels (od channel with 2 voices and ft switchable boost/channel switching),effects loop. I use this amp as a crossfill and mono/stereo send off of my rack. I have to run the master at 75% to keep up with my Roland JC-120. My rack is a boss gx-700,Ibanez Ue405, Marshall JMP-1, and an old ART SGE Mach II. I run out of the JMP-1 line outs to the input on the JC -120 and the trace.(Double mono) This was the perfect addition to my setup, because it allows me to ftswitch boost into my lead work with out doing a tapdance on my midi controller, and it gives me a controllable boost for every room, rather than having to tweak presets in my rack to compensate for the room or the acoustics on any given night.

I use strats with emg/s/ceramic pickups. One has an onboard preamp.I play weekends in a classic rock/country cover band. The clean channel is not fender clean but is good. The overdrives are voiced for vintage od and modern(using a mini toggle to perset the type of od)Reverb is great, but I get most of my reverbs from my rack. There is also a presence control, which is helpful if you need just a little more sound to blend with the band. I have also let the other guitarist in the band use the amp and one of my guitars with no rack gear between, so I know what it sounds like "plain". It is a great little combo that can keep up with the entire band. Switching is very good and the boost feature is excellent. I also like that you can set the switch for boost and then activate it by switching channels, when you want to go from clean to od solos. This is not a rectifier type of od (even in the modern voicing), but you can get "early metal""brown sounds"(Poison,VH,a little Metallica on modern) and great classic stones/black crowes type rythm crunch(on vintage).Also great voicing for "blues". I did A-B this in the store with a Boogie Dc-3 and it won that comparison hands down. I also tried a Trace Bonneville (the all tube version of this amp at 3X the price) and all the sounds that it had were in this amp as well. With the emgs, I can get controllable feedback swells and dive bomb techniques. Eq's are passive and you can't run anything all the way up(I don't know who would want to anyway.) There is a manual on -line for the supertramp tube. It is not the same amp but it does have some good settings noted in it to start from.

I have only had the amp about 6 weeks. But the amp is already 6 years old and is in very good condition.

Will deal with the music store if I have a problem since they were sold to Gibson.

I have been playing forever and I have owned everything from an Alamo capri, A blackface super reverb, a Marshall Superlead II,to MusicMan to Boogie,to VOX, to Roland. I have played Gibson Gold Tops, Gibson Double necks, Hollow Bodies, and Fender strats and tele's. I have been fortunate to play on good equipment. I have played all styles of music, and still am. I have recorded in Nashville and also with the current digital software. It has taken about 10 years to piece together my current setup. I have been looking for something more compact, but I havn't found any modeling amps that will do what my rig does for me.This latest addition is an excellent piece of gear which does exactly what I felt was lacking from the previous incarnation of my rig.I have designed my rig to cover all the bases, as far as amplifier selection goes. When you play covers, it is much more exciting if you can "nail" the sound, any sound. If it were lost or stolen , I would probably not be able to find another one. Every amp is different, and you have to try them to find the right one. When you do, you will know it. If you don't know it, you just don't have enough experience to recognize it.

80watt solid state with 2 channels, fooswitch, boost, fx loop. It's good feature-wise but I'd have liked foot switchable reverb and seperate reverb on each channel

I absolutely love the clean tones I get from this amp. Whether I use a Squier Strat, Fender Strat or Les Paul, I always get gorgeous clean sounds. There is a large tonal pallette available from the controls, and as I like use up to 8 different cleans depending on what style of music i'm playing, this amp always comes up trumps on the clean channel. I get glorious, rich, warm clean tones and this amp can sound modern or vintage depending on how I set it up. I'm not in love with the distortion at all, it lacks bass and is a little fizzy for my taste. I bought the amp because it was a very affordable step up from my first amp, and the clean sounds are superb, but I find the drive lacks clarity and punch compared with many other solid state amps. It's a little fizzy and mushy. I wrote to Trace asking for some suggested amp settings (I always think companies should give you a few with the amp)and they were okay but nothing great. I wouldn't say it was a good amp for Hard rock/Metal sounds and for some reason my tone is always compromised greatly when I drive this amp. I tend to use a pedal for my distortion rather than the amp's distortion. Also, the amp's own reverb is very nice, it kicks the butt of every single reverb on my floor multi.

This amp has only had one problem - it boomed and echoed when switched off - I fixed that myself. Apart from that I've had it for 6 years and it's been fantastic.

I've never had to use the warranty but I wrote to the company looking for some amp settings and they replied quickly, kindly sending me a booklet with some suggested settings and a bunch of stickers too!

I've been playing 9 years and I've never owned an amp with such a good clean channel. Like I said, the distortion wasn't much to my liking but maybe some of the oher users could share their secrets of good overdrive with me (!) I have no regrets about buying this amp, I guess I would buy it again because it was a complete bargain. A better drive channel and it would be almost perfect.

2 channels, effects loop, reverb, footswitch for boost and to change channels,

Great clean, very tubey overdrive, loud as hell but sounds great at any volume, reverb is top notch too.

had no problems with it

don't know

i would definetly buy it again.

Volume Boost - Great for solos!!!!!!
2 x output to run 2 quads

Distortion needs a tad more bottom end without whoomphing....
Quiet as a dead mouse....
LOUD!!!!

Works for me....

Hasnt failed yet.....

I've been playing metal/hard rock gigs for four years and this is the BEST amp for the job yet. The VOLUME BOOST for the solos is a feature i could not do without.

I own 2 Super Tramps. 1 x 100w and quad for the stage and a Super Tramp Twin combo for the jam room.

DAMN NICE AMPS!!!!

2 channel solid state amp (I'm using the super tramp head with 2 trace cabs. Built in reverb, volume boost, and two distortion modes. It's got an effects loop. Separate bass, mid, treble, gain, and volume for each channel. A master volume and presence. Footswitch for either changing channels and turning boost on or off (this footswitch came with my amp) or for just turning the reverb on or off (both footswitches can be plugged in at once to control all these options).

I'm using a memphis les paul copy with a seymour duncan '59 pickup at the bridge. I run my guitar directly into the amp and use my digitech rp-12 through the effects loop. This amp rocks. I use the rp-12 only because I can't afford to go out and by all these stomp boxes. The distortion on my amp sounded better then my friends brand new $1000 marshall head (run through the same cab). I run this head through two stock trace elliot cabs (celestion speakers of course). The cleans on this amp are really nice and clear and the distortion is VERY smooth.

I've owned this amp head for over two years already. It works every time i turn it on. The only problem I've ever had with it was that a transistor in the output circuit blew, no problem though, the amp was fixed and it works great. It's very sturdy too... I'm the most clumsy fool on the face of the earth, and I bang it around everywhere when I'm transporting it (I don't have any case for it) and it still never ceases to amaze me. I gig often with it WITHOUT any backups.

i had an amp tech look at the amp when I broke it, he made note of the name (I think he must of been a fan of the band Super Tramp). I never had to deal with the Trace Elliot customer support staff.

I've been playing for 6 years. I bought this amp mostly because of the price (I new the price even before I tried it out). If it were stolen, I would buy another one (maybe two). I love this amp. It's outperformed marshalls, fenders, and a whole bunch of other amps. It's an awesome amp. I am completely satisfied with this amp. If I were to buy another amp any time soon, it would be as a backup for this amp (better safe then sorry).

This amp features standard versatility for a small combo. Effects loop, 2-channels (footswitchable) with gain mode and boost switches, and (2) 3-band equalizers (one for each channel). It would be better with a good chorus, and an extra footswitch option for reverb. This amp can be used for almost anything; it sounds great at low volumes, and holds up incredibly well cranked up. It can (and has) hung with much larger combos and even small stacks. Will play louder than any amp its size/power; clean channel breaks up before it should, though. Overall, can do pretty much anything you throw at it.

Primarily, I use a Fender Lone Star Strat. The Texas Specials on the neck through this amp sound incredible....tone rivals most tube amps. The bridge Seymour Duncan humbucker makes this little amp scream, but it can get a little bright. Gotta keep tabs on the feedback too...this little thing likes to whine. I play blues and rock mostly, but from time to time just about anything. I can, with a little tweaking, almost always get the sound I am looking for. This thing is quiet, like a solid-state amp should be. Basically, if you like fat tone but can't live with the problems of a tube amp, or want an amp that can play blues like SRV or metal like ol' Metallica, this thing will do it all. The distortion is extremely adjustable, from clean to pure fuzz.

Well.......I played this thing for about eight months (bought it new). One day I plug in, start playing, and it starts fading in and out. I thought it was a bad cable or something...turns out to be the amp! Trace ain't supposed to break, right? So I take it in. Amp tech looks at it for like three weeks. Supposedly fixes it. Take it home, plug in, fade away, baby. Same problem. Now the electronics are on their way back to Trace for evaluation!!! Meanwhile I am down one amp. But hey...everybody screws up once. If they fix it the first time, I'll happily buy Trace again just based on their reputation.

Seem to be okay...time will tell. I never actually talked to them...my dealer did that for me.

Been playing about four years...smallest amp I have ever owned, but probably one of my favorites. I had a Vintage Club Crate 2x12 before this, and liked that really well. But it was too crankin' big!!

This amp is your basic amp, 2 channels, clean and distorted and it has a boost on the distorted channel. Each channel has It's own eq along with seperate gain and level controls. The master section has of course master level along with reverb and presence controls. The only thing it doesn't have is a headphone jack or an ext speaker jack but no problem, oh yeah it also has an efects send and return.

Ok here we go, the distortion on this amp is great, I have tried many different amps and let me tell ya this is the best sounding distortion from a solid state I have ever heard.There are 2 modes the 2nd has a little more gain but both are very responsive and have great tube tone for a solid state amp. The clean channel is ok, It's not as sparkly as some fenders I have listened to but you will be suprised by the sounds you can get, I only wish I could have found the twin version but thats ok because this babys got a 12 in. celestion which I think are the best sounding speakers around and thats proberly one reason this amp has so much punch to it. It's not to heavy so you won't have to many problems and believe it or not I kind of like the color of it, it's different.

So far no problems.

I would have to say that for the price it's great. If you are like me I have been playing for about 15 years and wanted something to use when I play out, which is every so often but at the same time could use at home or when I jam with my friends and not have to worry about bringing all kinds of effects and rack stuff with me.I have tried alot of different amps I even have a post for a marshall jcm 600 which also sounded good but had to return twice because of problems and let me tell you I am glad I did because this amps distortion blows it away.The only problem you might have is finding one of these amps, I had to look at alot of different music stores before I found one but I am glad I did, It's small, it's powerful and it even looks great.