Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

[Chris of Arabia]

Whilst I've mentioned this amp a number of times, I don't think I've ever showed it off at all. The chances are that most have barely heard of them, as I don't think they had a very long production run. As you can see from the photos below though, it's very well featured. I bought it new here in Riyadh about 12 years ago and it's followed me round ever since, though it's had relatively little use. Frankly, it's way too powerful and loud for home use and mostly gets used for plugging other things through its internal speaker. On the few occasions it has been turned up, it shows of its rather obvious British heritage a treat. Enjoy...

[richard parker]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

Great looking amp. I remember seeing ads/reviews of that amp when it first appeared. I REALLY wanted one but it was out of my price range. Can you get crunch sounds by winding up the clean channel volume ? What does the pre-amp style switch on the dirt channel do ?

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

Seriously, I've never had the opportunity to crank the clean channel up far enough to get to the crunch, but you can get a good lead tone out of it with the AC Booster hitting the front of it. The pre-amp style switch takes it from the kind of thing you'd normally expect from a British lead channel into hi-gain territory - it's marked M and H.

[d1dsj]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

Great amps, I missed the chance to get one at a bargain price when Musical Exchanges were selling them off along with the retro styled Velocette? a fair few years back. I remember some of the shop staff demoing them and they had a real big, thick and warm sound when up loud.

[nedcronin]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

Interesting amp, I have never even seen one over here in the US.

[CrookTele]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

I have a friend that ha one that I have debated on picking up. It's the head version and has a modded foot switch that can switch channels, toggle the built in od channel boost on/off, toggle between the two master volumes, toggle the fx loop in/out of the circuit, and toggle the reverb on/off during performance.
I'm seriously thinking about picking it up!

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

The late 90's/early 2000's Gibson Goldtone amps were manufactured by Trace Elliot, so they share a lot of similarities. I always felt Trace Elliot should have strayed from that neon green look they had with their bass line. If they'd looked more conventional, I think TE amps would have been more popular. They're well made circuit board amps.....basically PC boards done right.

Are they still in business? I haven't even checked, but haven't heard anything about them in years. I'll probably hang onto my Gibson Goldtone GA30RVS. It's like a more Marshally AC-30.

[richard parker]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

I seem to remember people reporting quite a lot of reliability issues with the Speed Twin.

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

I've not had issues with mine, but just out of interest, do you recall what kind of issues they faced?

[richard parker]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

As far as I recall they were heat related issues and problems with transformers but it was a long time ago.

[speed2dirt]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

Are they still in business? I haven't even checked, but haven't heard anything about them in years.

Gibson bought them in 1998. Gibson still produces the Trace Elliot bass amp line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trace_Elliot

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

My Goldtone is a 98, the first year run like Joe Perry used. It's been rock solid with no problems, although it's never been used as a main amp. At first, I was confused about the transformers, thinking they were James Demeter from LA. It turns out there's a transformer co. in the UK called Demeter, and that's what's in Goldtones. I wonder if Trace Elliot used Demeter trannies too?

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: Trace-Elliot 50W Speed-Twin

I'll take a look at mine later; I've never really needed to dig in the back more than to find the footswitch.