Really rare amp for Sale Trace Elliot Velocette Twin £1200 with hum (hum adds to the price)

guitartango

This popped up on Face book this morning until someone else pointed out that they had seen a working one on Reverb for abound £850 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/332894837345644/

https://reverb.com/uk/item/11105553-trace-elliot-velocette-twin-boxed-very-rare-combo-vg

How can it be worth £1200 ?

ICBM

The hum is most likely cooked power valves. They sound good when they work, but are notoriously unreliable - badly designed, poorly made, run far too hot and eat valves, and sometimes transformers.

I wouldn’t pay more than £400 for one in full working and sorted order, let alone two or three times that.

Sassafras

His enthusiastic write-up must be worth something, surely?

ICBM

Sassafras said:

His enthusiastic write-up must be worth something, surely?

A career in political campaigning?

guitartango

ICBM said:

The hum is most likely cooked power valves. They sound good when they work, but are notoriously unreliable - badly designed, poorly made, run far too hot and eat valves, and sometimes transformers.

I wouldn’t pay more than £400 for one in full working and sorted order, let alone two or three times that.

I would have said around £550, based on other rare one's being sold on ebay. Looks like he copied the blurb from Reverb and thought no one would google the prices. 

Parker

They often crop up for 300-400£. The Goldtones fetch more (power of having a Gibson badge eh!?!)

ICBM

Parker said:

They often crop up for 300-400£. The Goldtones fetch more (power of having a Gibson badge eh!?!)

The later black Goldtones are actually quite a bit better made - they fixed some of the faults, although they then doubled the price! Gibson were apparently not happy about the level of warranty returns on them...

The irony is that Gibson are often blamed for buying Trace Elliot and 'ruining' the quality, but the exact opposite is true. Trace had already gone down the pan by then, and if anything Gibson fixed some of the crap models and dropped the ones that couldn't be.

DrJazzTap

@ICBM. Cured me of my trace elliot nostalgia induced affection of them. The £200 Rivera is far better built. If i wanted a small valve amp id go for a laney lc15.

Dominic

The Goldtones are an amazing sounding amp - I have had a number of them ;they have different output transformers although the valve seats were still plastic that melts 
A decent Goldtone twin stereo reverb in good condition will sell for £850 all day long - the Velocettes are much less valuable