Trace Elliot V8 - The Holy Grail of Tube Heads?

After reading about how great the Trace Elliot V8 all tube head is, recently a friend of mine (thanks again, Steve!) turned me on to the fact that Shane at British Audio Service had a V8 for sale. What I didn't know until after talking to Shane is that this one was a NOS unit that had never been sold (other than to British Audio Service, of course)! The serial number is T0136/74/201. It is our believe that this tells us that it was unit #74, made in February of 2001. It has the square badge and Made in Britain on the back.

Here are some photos Shane sent me:








For a very, very preliminary report, but I just had a chance to briefly play my new V8 over lunch, and I just had to report back. Being aware of the theory that it ain't mine until I post a picture, here are a couple of shots of the V8 with my "Super Wizzy" 2x12's made by Steve Azola:



This shot sort of reminds me of a shot of a friend's V* with the two ACME Low B-2's which taunted me so...

And here is a shot with a flash that shoes some of the details a bit better:



As you can see, one of the Super Wizzy's has its ports "stuffed." This is a means of being able to convert them from a ported to a sealed cab. For now, I think I will leave all the ports open.

Needless to say, this rig sounded good! Dang good! The V8 has certainly lived up to my expectations so far, but much, much more testing is due...

I recently (August 6th, 2005) had a chance to pair it up with my Bergantino NV215 at an outdoor gig. Man, do they sound great together!



But of course, in order to protect my baby, I had to have a nice case made up, right? Well, after much shopping around, I decided to have an Anvil case made for it, much like what The Ox used with his V8's. I am really happy with how it turned out:


The casters are removable.

Here's a shot inside. It fits very nicely, and slides in easily:



I have formed an e-mail "support group" of the proud, the few, the V8 owners. If you own a V8 and would like to be included in our group, send me an e-mail at tombowlus@hotmail.com.

Later, Tom.