Features A-Plenty
Seen on stages across the globe for more than 30 years, Trace Elliot amplifiers are synonymous with quality, professional tone, and well-designed gear. When the name Trace Elliot proudly adorns your amp's facade, you know that you're in for some fat, reliable tone. The front panel contains controls for Input Gain, a Hi/Lo switch for choosing between active and passive bass pickups, a Pre Shape circuit, 1/4-inch Tuner Out, XLR DI Out, 7-Band Graphic Equalizer, a Compressor with Attack and Release values that actually adjust themselves based on your playing, 1/4-inch jacks for the Send and Return of the 715's series effects loop, and a Master Output level. Before we move on, one more note on that electronically balanced DI out--it's usable either pre or post preamp, whatever you desire.

When you get past the super cool green LED lighting up front, you'll next notice the beefy 15-inch Celestion speaker, along with a high frequency tweeter. This speaker and horn combination yields an impressively full range, dynamic, punchy tone when combined with the MOSFET solid state power amp technology.

No stone was left unturned while engineering this beauty, down to the smallest details. Even the cabinet housing and its ever useful bottom port was tuned to resonate at the bass player friendly 42Hz frequency for an always tight, never flabby bottom end. Metal handles and corners ensure your amp will be safe during transport, and the dimpled black covering will ensure that… read more your amp will remain looking classy for years to come.

Easy In, Easy Out
Bass players, you're going to thank us for this one. The days of breaking your back to load in your separate head and multiple cabinets just to have enough sound to be heard over your overcompensating guitarist and dynamically disinclined drummer are long over. Trace was able to shove 200 watts into the 715, which is enough volume for most any club gig. And because it's a combo, that means the preamp, power amp, and speaker cabinet are all contained in one portable unit. If you've got a gig bag for your bass, throw it over your shoulder, and with the lightweight Poplar wood construction of the cabinet housing, the whole kit and caboodle weighs in at 62 pounds, making for an easy one-trip load in. Need more juice? Wire up another cabinet with an 8 ohm minimum load, and those pesky guitarists and drummers we mentioned will be begging you for mercy from your 450 watts of stage volume. Need even more juice than that? Well, hire a roadie or two, because you're playing arenas, bub.

Extry, Extry!
The Trace 715 ships with a couple of extras usually relegated to a later, extra purchase. To protect your investment, Trace Elliot includes a durable amp cover, along with the BFC4 foot switch. The BFC4 adds some pretty sweet functionality to your new amp. With this footswitch, you'll be able to punch in and out from your Pre Shape circuit, graphic EQ, compressor, and output mute. That output mute is especially cool, because when you have a tuner plugged into the Tuner Out jack, all outputs except the Tuner will be muted, allowing for silent tuning. read less