Trace Elliot V-4 Mark II Bass Head

Despite actually being two and half years old (4/01) I only had this amp three months ago (9/03) brand new from GM audio. It was amongst the last amps Trace Elliot ever made in the UK. This amp is the most versatile amp Ive ever owned (and the list includes a 600w, 12 band series head) as it has everything I need. I play in an oiginal band which is sort of chilled out, a 10 peice soul band and also do bits of session work here and there and also my own projects. It has the second generation of Traces V-Type pre-amp which has the overdrive channel and also the valve compression circuit too both of which do just kick ass! The compressor and overdrive facility are remotely footswitchable. A series FX loop is also included but dont particularly use it. The amp gets used everywhere, local venues, Working mens clubs, theatres etc and ive never pushed it past around 40% with just either my Trace or Peavey 4x10s. U can see how hard you are working the power stage as it has a voltage indicator valve in it (EM84). The other fantastic thing about it is all the valves inside that you can see, 7 12AX7 pre-amp valves (yes im british) and the EM84 and the four KT88s across the back delivering a rather thundering 200w into 4 or 8 ohm loads. And it looks great too, polished corners, leather handle, enameled badge and a black vinyl finish. I looks just like the V8 amp but obviously says V4 instead.
One other nifty feature is a power amp mute switch which means u can run it without speakers for recording which is great. The other cool thing about this is VOBIC...Visual Output Bias Indication Circuit. Using a green red and blue LED and a trimmer put one can tweak the bias of your amp with LEDs, most useful.

I use it with a range of pick-ups and pre-amps, a Warwick Streamer (general duties) LX5 with active jazz type pickups, a Yamaha RBX765A (general duties)with active humbucker type pickups, a Warwick RockBass Streamer (The best slap sound out of virtually any bass ever) with passive humbucker type pick-ups amd an Aria Legend Jazz bass (Sounds great) with passive jazz type pickups. The amp responds very well to all of my basses, whatever I need to do, grab a bass, nudge the EQ and Rock 'n' Roll. The amplifier is very quiet having a notably low noise floor (especially for a valve amp) even with the overdrive channel switched in. My only particular gripe is the OD channel is too toppy when switching from clean, the treble control has to be attenuated on either the bass or the amp but it sounds sweet when suitably tweaked. The Overdrive character is quite an angry one, I met the guy who designed the amp, Paul Stevens and he told me the character was derived from the overdrive pedals that were most popular sales wise for bass, a lot of tweaking was done in Traces RnD at the time. Like any valve amp, how far do you want to push it? Ive never been in a situation where my 200w are inadeadequate so the natural overdrive has never really been used however it does have a half power switch to reduce the output down to 100w but even that is daft really, this amp is very loud!

Its only let me down once but in its defence, it says in the manual it may do when new. The valves work in pairs for the class A/B operation and there is a fuse per pair and they both died on me but I replaced them next day with no problems. The pre-amp section continued to work, maintaining an output at the DI so I could finish the gig at least. Im dreading the valve bill when the unit requires a re-valve but till then, Im happy. I have absolute faith in it, Ive used Trace stuff for years with virtually no problems so despite the fact its full of valves, no back-up is required.

Trace Elliot have been most helpful in all the time Ive owned Trace stuff, if Ive had problems, Ive recieved circuit digrams or just plain wanted to know more about a particular amp that Ive had, prompt and detailed replies have always ensued.

The warranty on this V4 is two years but doesnt include the valves.

Ive been playing for over 6 years now and il bet on trace every time. The list is too long of what I own but I do have a V-Type combo 4808 (4x8") which is also very good. If it got lost, itd be replaced the very next day with another one exactly the same as this is the best head Ive ever owned. Ive tried EBS, SWR, Eden etc but they just dont have the flexibility of this. Strongly recomended