Trace Elliot Velocette 1x10 Combo

Tube pre-amp and amp, solid state rectifier. Very small physically -- approx. 17x17x7.5 inches, and only 22 lbs. Very solid build quality. The amp is positioned in the bottom of the cabinet, which is good and bad. The good is that the tubes are right-side up, so heat dissipates away from the chassis and tubes don't shake loose when you set the amp down. Bad news is you bend over to the base of the back of the amp to plug it in or out and change tone & volume settings.
Features I like include:
3-way switch with off, standby, and on. The standby is a great thing for a class A amp to have.
Class A operation: Excellent transparency, aliveness, and touch sensitivity
Volume, tone, and bright switch. Simple controls, but very effective. Never had a problem dialing in a sound. For a scooped midrange, try turning down the tone and activating the bright switch.
Build quality: Tesla output tubes, good part, Celestion Vintage 10 speaker, which puts those ubiquitous Eminences to shame.
Excellent cabinet quality: Has a solid, classy feel to it.
Aesthetics: A really cool retro look. Very attractive, even in the living room.

The sound of this amp is where I think tube amplification really starts to get good. This thing is a significant cut above the $350 15-watt amps -- Fender Blues Jr., Epiphone Electar 30 (surprisingly good, I might add), Ampeg Jet II R (more touch-sensitive and vintage sounding than the other $350 amps, but not in a league with the Trace for transient attack, midrange liquidity, speed, or transparency), Crate Vintage Club 20.
The Trace Elliot Velocette makes them all sound thick and unresponsive or hashy and full of sonic glare. And if you've been thinking of a Mesa Subway Blues, get this instead. The 10" speaker in the Mesa sounds very thin and bright. The bass response in the Velocette is the best I've heard in a single 10" speaker amp, and better than the bass in many 12" speaker amps, including the Blues Jr.
This amp also serves as a poor man's Vox AC 15, which is no mystery since the tube complement is nearly identical. With volume straight up (50%), you start getting into that chimey, almost percussive Voxy type of overdrive, so well known and loved on early Beatles albums. Dime the volume and you get this sweet, creamy sustained overdrive.
All in all, a remarkable amp for the money. For my own tastes, just a touch on the cold side of neutral, and American output tubes might have cured that.
Two more things about "diming" the amp. One, it was very loud. Louder than a Blues Jr., which is highly regarded for its volume/watt ratio. And as lovely as the distortion is, the Trace plays clean much louder than the Blues Jr.
Two: there was not a single rattle, buzz, shimmy, or other vibration induced sympathetic noise when this little pocket rocket was blasting the entire house from its little 22 lb. box. I have never experienced this when diming any single driver combo amp---until now.

Seems fine to me, and didn't act funky in any way.

Don't know; never used them. Trace just recently broke off from Kaman Music. Don't know if this makes them less organized or more determined to take control of their destiny. Time'll tell.

I rate this highly. I don't give it a 10 because I think that rating is overused. I might rate a Matchless or Top Hat a 10, or a Fender brownface deluxe. Compared to those, the Velocette is a bit sterile, but compared to any of the Fender FAT series, or the 1965 Deluxe Reverb reissue, this is a better sounding amp, period.
It has many commendable traits. I think this amp would be a pit player's dream. It's small enough to tuck under a chair, but loud enough for pit orchestras and small clubs. In fact, if you can find these at the $325 factory closeout price (try Music-Go-Round), but think you need a more powerful amp, get two! The combined price would be $650, would give you a 30 watt twin-10" stereo amp, and would give you tons of flexibility. And it would sound better than any $650 amp I can think of, except perhaps the Top Hat Club Deluxe I scored in lieu of this. Still, 2 Velocettes could do a lot that the Top Hat can't, and sounds almost as good (How 'bout getting a stereo tremolo or chorus pedal and routing the two channels through two of these?)

One input, bright switch, volume, and tone controls. 15w, class-a, 2x-12AX7, 2x-EL84, ss rectifier, and Celestion Vintage 10 speaker. No frills, but plenty of chills. Even the on/off switch doubles as a standby in the middle position. If simple is good (and it is), this amp is great!

I use the Velocette with a G&L ASAT, an Ibanez TS-9, and a Vox V-847. The bright switch will throw this combination into serious dogwhistle terrritory, so it stays off. I've never used an amp with such articulation before. This is my first class-a amp, and I am used to getting away with a lot more, technique wise. Any technical flubs are amplified to the point of obviousness. The tone control gets more Fendery when rotated counterclockwise, and more Vox-like when rotated clockwise. The volume gets louder until around 12 o'clock, then gain increases, resulting in creamy compression past 3 o'clock. I get my best tones with the knobs right about in the middle. This is not a crunch machine, and only a genius or a fool would use it for that. It gets only a 9 because substituting some NOS tubes makes quite a significant difference, tone wise. If it came stock with serious glass, then it would most certainly rate a 10.

This is a grey area, right now. An amp with tubes that run this hot is bound to eat 'em up pretty quickly. This really isn't a reliability problem, but just a fact of life. I have read posts about the inferior quality of the trannies, but I can neither confirm nor deny this, yet. I'm no engineer anyway. Still, I think it would be prudent to wait for the tubes to burn in before rating it here..

I've never had to deal with Trace Elliot for anything before, but the shop I bought this from (C&M Music, in New Orleans) has really first rate customer service, and in my experience, that counts for quite a bit.

I have been curious for some time what the fuss was about concerning class-a amps. Now, I know. I can't adequately explain how stoked I am to have an amp in the Matchless Lightning/ Vox AC15 tonal category, without being in debt for ever. If you are interested in this kind of sound, please check this out before burning the serious green necessary to obtain a Matchless, or repair a Vox. Good stuff!!

1x10 speaker (think its a Celestion Vintage 10 in disguise).Vol, tone, bright switch. The tone behaves like a Vox or Matchless treble control, thin & trebly clockwise and thick & midrangey counterclockwise. Bright switch is very useful, like an on/off presence. 16 ohm external speaker out which disables the 8 ohm stock speaker. Why it switches from 8 to 16 ohms is a mystery to me....not a ton of low end, but not bad either.

Sounds pretty good with the 10 inch stock speaker. I plugged in a 16 ohm Celestion Vintage 30 and this amp came ALIVE! Lots of Vox/Matchless vibe here (it is class A after all). Beautiful, smooth, spongey breakup. Plenty loud for 15 watts, much louder hooked up to the Vintage 30. Here's a tip: Put a DOD FX40B eq pedal in front of it and jack up the 400 hz slider. Instant Vox midrange! Pull the 400 hz back & jack up the 800hz slider and you have Fender.

So far so good. Other reviews say that these things tend to blow transformers, so I wouldn't gig without a backup. Mine was a demo, and I'm pretty sure its transformer blew & was replaced before I got it.

Too soon to tell, but they sent the other guy a new transformer with no warranty, so I am duly impressed.

A hell of an amp for the money. I don't understand why they aren't more popular. Cool vintage look, lots of shiny chrome inside, small, light, loud. Anyone considering a Matchless or Vox should try this amp before buying. I'm not saying it's better, but it's 80% as good for 20% of the price. Mine was a lucky find from a tip from a friend on the internet (thanks Ken!). Generally go for $250-350 used. I'd probably pay that if I had to.

Volume, Tone (combined control: highs and mids), Bright switch. No channel switching, no reverb, no tremolo. Accepts extension speaker. Good for pure blues/rock tone, but you'll need a stomp box.

It throws back to you the sound of whatever guitar you plug in. My Tele sounds very bright, but Teles are meant to be bright! My Les Paul sounds like... a Les Paul. With the amp on 10 and a Tube Screamer or the like (I am using a Real Tube overdrive) you get endless sustain, harmonic feedback and _lots_ of volume.

I've had SERIOUS problems. The output transformer blew up with no apparent reason. I didn't fill the warranty form (a friend of mine bought it in England for me). I contacted Trace Elliot and quickly got a new one. Guess what? A couple of months later it blew again. I contacted them, and they responded quickly "We are aware of the problem", and sent me, free of charge, a bigger transformer (a 50w one). The tubes tend to rattle a bit on some notes. This is due to chassis construction. It's usually no problem in a band situation, but can be annoying at home or recording. I'm about to change them and I expect it to improve. I am gigging without backup and it's getting on my nerves! OTOH I know this is a _very_ strange failure, due problably to problems in the manufacturing of transformers, and it will problably never happen again.

As I stated above, very good!

Anyway, I love it! It's _very_ portable, sounds awesome, looks great... Perfect! I love just plugging in... no EQ, no nothing! Pure tone! If you want to know more, e-mail me!