Bass Gear Review

Reviewer	Askia N'degéOcello
Experience	5
Email	bird@irj.hu
Review date	November 09 2001
Manufacturer	Trace Elliot
Model	GP11
Price	less than150
Item owned for	1-2 years

Dimensions	2racks high, around 20 cm deep
Weight	2maybe 3 kilos
EQ	11 band eq, plus pre-shape
Other	lots of outputs, even bi-amped mode

I bought this preamp at a very low price, I think it worths a at least the double...Though it's quite an old one, it was made before the famous GP12SMX. The look is great: the usual trace green, and if it's turned on, the Trace logo is lighting in the dark, and the eq,and pre-shape knobs are also lighting. Lets start at the beginning. Plugging in the bass you can set the gain at the best level, 3 leds are helping you in that: more gain; ok; overload. after that comes the eq, and the pre-shape button. The pre-shape is a kind of slap-setup, increases the highs and lows, and cuts the mids. As I experienced, it adds nice round lows, and such highs, I can't add with the Eq. There's some kind of trick there. But in music it's not so good, becouse it's not cutting through. Or maybe I need a 8x10 cab to cut through. So for me this option is rather useful in a studio. The Eq has eleven bands, so you set almost any sound you want. From 40 Hz to 15kHz. On the front of the preamp there is a balanced XLR output, with pre or post eq, and noise reduction (cuts the very high freqs) switch. A footswitch out, and a low and a high level jack output. I tried those jack outputs for tuner, but it's only working, if the master output is turned on, so it's not working in "mute" function. Effect send and return. And of course, there's the master Knob. On the backside, there are several outs. Those are for the power amps. There's a full output, a low (below 250 Hz) and a high (above 250Hz) for bi-amped mode. There is also a line in, for, I don't know, for anything. Earth lift is also there. There was only one problem with it, the eq and pre-shape knobs, and the lights under the trace logo were dead, when I bought it, bt they wre easily replaced, for almost no price. So, It's quite a professional preamp, for that price it was very very good bargain. It has no noise, and very solid. My only problem is, that I want tubes! But that is my own problem. I recommend it to averyone, who likes the cleansounding trace, though, it can be dirty too... A good unit

Construction	98%
((teh old konobs had to be replaced))
Clarity	100%
Versatility	98%
(some tubes are missing	0%
Value	100%
Overall	98%