Trace Elliot Bass Speakers

[DanJ]

Hello all,

I'm looking for some opinions on bass cabinet speakers. I have a Trace Elliot 4x10 bass cabinet with two bad speakers. The factory speakers are celestion made for TE. Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for replacements.

The owner plays in a Rock cover band and was happy with the cab, but is willing to try something different if original replacements cannot be found.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

DanJ

[Steve Conner]

Hi Dan

Those speakers are probably not too different from the regular 10" drivers that Celestion make for bass. I have one of the Trace green carpet cabs, and the 10s in it have strange looking cones with no ribs, a small dustcap and a fabric surround. I read into that that Trace got the cone and surround assembly changed to get a livelier sounding midrange, but the Thiele-Small parameters probably aren't a million miles away from the standard model.

You could always try contacting Celestion to ask them. If they say it is similar to the stock model, then you could get some of those, or pick some Eminence drivers or whatever that have similar T-S parameters. It's not rocket science though, I wouldn't sweat it too much. JM2C.

[DanJ]

Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I have found similar replacements from Celestion. I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a different replacement. Maybe there is something better sounding available. Not a big deal really as I'm sure, like you mentioned, the similar Celestions will sound fine.

There are always many options for speakers, and of course everyone has their own opinion on what sounds better. I was just fishing for some opinions on what people like/dislike when it comes to bass speakers.

Thanks again,

DanJ

[Steve Conner]

Other speakers may sound better, but you might need to be careful when changing speakers in bass cabinets with ports. The size of the cabinet and the length of the port tubes is tuned to the particular make and model of driver installed at the factory.

If you choose replacements that have greatly different T-S parameters, the sound and feel of the bottom end could change greatly, and the power handling could be compromised. You might need to change the length of the port tubes again to match.

Having said that, I think most 10" paper coned bass drivers are surely pretty similar from a T-S point of view.

[David Schwab]

The 10" Celestion in my Trace looks pretty normal. Like Steve said, any speaker would probably do fine. You can also try and get some new speakers from Trace, now that they are back in business. I'd guess they are using different speakers now, but who knows.

[DanJ]

David/Steve,

Thanks again for your input.

I was at the TE website and on the contact page they had an e-mail for sales at Peavey dot com. So apperently they are run by Peavey now. I dropped them a line, considering it's Peavey, I'm sure I'll get a prompt response, they are pretty good with the customer service thing.

Thanks again,

DanJ