Trace Elliot Love

I scooped up this Trace Elliot AH500X about a month ago. It is... Fantastic. It was the top of the Trace line back in the 80s, and it boasts a pair of 250W into 4 ohm power amps, for a bowel-shaking 500W at 2 ohms.
There's talk of "Trace watts" because these seem louder than similarly-rated amps, but perhaps the better description is "honest watts" as from what I've read, they do spec as advertised. Maybe it's just that they require you to use more cabs to get the full power output.
Starting at the beginning: active and passive inputs. Sure. The preamp gain control has three lights: a yellow "OK" light in the center, a green arrow telling you to turn up, and a red arrow warning you of clipping. Really nice touch.
Then it's got a 12-band graphic EQ, which is defeatable. Very nice to have 30 and 40 Hz to cut. It also has an EQ preset, which gives a nice mid scoop sound. Both of these are foot switchable, and while a mid scoop isn't the best idea for a regular tone, I can see it being useful for occasional accents. There's also a defeatable noise gate which I haven't really tested thoroughly but is certainly unintrusive.
Then there's an effects loop, a transformer-isolated DI out, and a master volume. As they mention in the owner's manual, Trace Elliot expects the user to set the preamp for maximum gain and use the master for overall volume level.
In addition to the effects loop, there's an additional (parallel) power amp in and out.

The back panel is where things get nuts.


So two power amps, each has its own volume control. It seems silly, having volume controls after the master, but it's actually very useful.
Each power amp also has a line level effects loop, which can, of course, also be used as line out and line in. The power amps also can be configured for dual mono, stereo, or biamping with a crossover that's adjustable from 250
Hz to 1 kHz.
Which is pretty crazy as far as versatility goes.


Plus there's a freaking blacklight!
It weighs in the ballpark of 60 pounds, apparently 30 of those pounds are 25 years of dust, and I really wish
I could've afforded those 1818X cabs.

I'm still learning how to tweak this thing, but biamping with the highs sent to a guitar cab is fantastic. I've also been researching bass cab design, which is another whole ball of wax, albeit fascinating.
If my winisd skills are any good at all,
I'll be posting about a couple cabs
I'm fitting with mcm drivers, bracing, and
(re)dampening.

I may even have to put the Matange project on hold, in favor of more live gear.
Still flipping the coin on that one.